“I have to go.” Lu Xinyi broke away from her husband, but Shen Yi insisted on holding her hand.

“Wait. I have something to give you.”

“What is it?” Lu Xinyi wished it wasn’t another expensive jewelry that he bought out of a whim. Her eyes narrowed as he reached out a hand to take something from the inner pocket of his jacket.

He revealed a small black box, opened it in front of her, and took a silver chain from it. Shen Yi took her hand and placed the chain on her palm. Lu Xinyi stared at her hand with confused eyes.

“What’s this for?”

“I know you need to remove your wedding ring every time you are in the kitchen. With this, you don’t have to worry where you’ll put it and that it might get lost.” Shen Yi explained. “In case you’re wondering, that doesn’t bother me at all. I know you have to remove it when you’re making meals.”

Lu Xinyi’s smile faltered as she looked down on her hands. They didn’t look anything like any executive’s wife hands at all. Just by looking at them, one would not believe she was the wife of the president of the Shen Group. She had calloused hands and bandaged fingers. Who’d find them attractive?

Her hands didn’t look elegant and delicate at all. Most of the time, she got cuts and would have to bandage them with bandaids or whatever to cover it for the meantime while she worked. Just like her deceased father.

She could vividly picture his hands on her head. She could remember seeing a few scars on them from working in the kitchen for so many years. One huge scar that ran from his arm down to his right hand had been engraved on her mind. Although she could remember his hands were huge, they were gentle enough to not crush delicate herbs and steady enough to plate small items intricately.

“What are you thinking?” Shen Yi noticed the sudden change on her face.

Lu Xinyi closed her hand and held the silver chain tighter.

“My father,” she replied truthfully before proceeding towards the south wing of the stadium. Shen Yi followed her shortly.

“Your father?” Now, this was new. Lu Xinyi had mentioned her mother several times before, but she’d never talk about her father until now. “What was he like?” Asking that question made his wife’s mood brighter.

As they walked, Lu Xinyi tried to remember everything she knew about her father.

“His long, messy hair was always unkempt whenever he was home, and he always had this silly grin plastered on his face.”

“And you remembered him because?”

“My hands.” Lu Xinyi showed him her left hand that was still bandaged from her last injury a week ago. “I wondered if my hands will become like his.”

There were several reasons why she tried not to talk about her father. When Lu Sibai died, Little Xinyi felt like he left a missing piece that turned into blackness. The pain of his sudden death had come and gone, always returning in quiet moments—especially at those times she felt alone.

She wanted to keep his company close so much—to talk and laugh like they once did, but she knew that his absence kept her down. She saw him everywhere she goes—in things they both love: in nature, in music … in silly things. Though he was gone, his aura remains… beautiful and strong, making the pain all the worse, keeping the feelings so raw and unbearable.

Her father was her hero—the one she always looked up to. The one who taught her almost everything she knew about cooking.

“His hands are a tool for his job as a chef. Then, I think about his hands as a father and husband to me and to my mom. He got this pair of huge, strong, and callous hands. Hands that gently caress my cheek whenever I cry or hurt myself. A strong but gentle hand that reaches out to console me when I’m sad.”

Shen Yi let his wife talk without interruption. It wasn’t every day that she talked about his in-laws, and he knew that she was missing them terribly.

“Dad always says he doesn’t deserve my mom. He said she was too patient and understanding although he knew it was hard on her part. Working for long hours had strained their married life. He worked a lot of hours, and those hours always changed at a moment’s notice. Mom always had to change plans often, reschedule dinners, celebrations, and even vacations. She grew worried about him, especially when it’s late at night and expected him to be home.”

Lu Xinyi took a deep breath. She reminisced the time when she had a school event, and her father came running late at the backstage in his stained chef’s coat. Her mother didn’t get mad but laughed at the way he looked instead while helping him wiped the stains from his clothes.

“I wonder if we’ll have to deal with the same issues they had.”

“We will be fine.”

Shen Yi took her hand and inspected it. They stopped abruptly in front of the entrance of the south wing. He wanted to tell her she’d been doing it already. This hand that he was holding—he’d seen it caress Little Yuyan’s cheeks when she was crying last night. He saw her hands play the piano as she sang and danced around the playroom with the twins … saw these same hands prepare delicious meals for their family.

“My hands aren’t beautiful,” Lu Xinyi whispered to him.

“It doesn’t matter. It only means you work hard to reach your dreams. Now go. Show them what these hands are capable of.” Shen Yi said and released her hand. Lu Xinyi nodded and turned around to enter the stadium.

It didn’t matter what’s in front of her as long as she knew who’s behind her.