County guesthouse.

Mu Huaixi gently placed the sleeping little Heping on the bed and covered her with a quilt before she had time to look around.

The guesthouse has not changed much, except that the originally brand new wallpaper has become old, and the heavy curtains have become rough. It seems that time has stopped here, only adding a bit of fussiness.

The sun is shining.

Mu Huaixi stood in front of the window, squinting his eyes and looking out, and saw Xiao Huihui holding two lunch boxes and following Ying Mingcheng, moving his little legs very diligently.

Little Radish Head has grown up and thinks of himself as a little man. Even though he is very sleepy while riding in the car, he still insists on going out with his father to buy food.

Mu Huaixi's gaze was gently locked on the two, one big and one small. The corners of her lips couldn't help but rise, and her heart was soft.

This is her home, but this man and child are also her home.

Ying Mingcheng's steps were not big, but his frequency was not slow. On the one hand, he was worried about his wife and daughter who stayed in the room, and on the other hand, he was afraid that his eldest son could not keep up.

Xiao Huihui tried hard to keep up, and the two of them soon disappeared at the front door of the guesthouse.

Mu Huaixi was about to look away when he suddenly saw an inexplicably familiar figure beside the gate. He was hunched over and pulling a wooden cart full of dung buckets.

She frowned. The person's back looked very familiar, but looking at her shabby clothes and gray hair, she didn't look like her relative in her hometown.

There was a knock on the door. Mu Huaixi was confused for a moment and then hurried to open the door. Xiao Heping had just fallen asleep and couldn't be woken up!

After the commendation meeting, Mu Huaixi and Ying Mingcheng had a vacation. They spent a wonderful time with their grandparents, parents and four generations living together in the capital, and then returned to their hometown with their husband and son.

This time I came back at Ying Mingcheng's suggestion.

"I have said hello to Lao Wei. He will lend me his car tomorrow morning and we will go back to Zhangjiagou." Ying Mingcheng had just gone out and not only bought food, but also said hello to his old friend.

"Old Wei didn't invite you to dinner?" Mu Huaixi thought of Wei Chengbao's enthusiasm a few years ago and couldn't help laughing. "Actually, we should have invited him to dinner."

"Well, I told him to go home and finish his work first, and then get together with him when he comes back." Ying Mingcheng took the half bun that she had been holding in her hand for a long time very naturally, put it in his mouth and chewed it twice.

He raised an eyebrow and explained, "I guess the waiter made a mistake. I didn't order the beans and buns."

Mu Huaixi is not a picky eater, it’s just that he ate too many beans before and now he doesn’t like them anymore.

"Yes, yes, you're not picky about food," Ying Mingcheng teased her softly, then turned around and sternly lectured his eldest son, who was also trying to secretly pass the buns to him, "Xiaohui, being picky about food won't make you tall."

Ying Wuhui looked aggrieved. He took the bean bun back angrily and took a big bite.

Why is it that his mother, who is picky about food, doesn’t grow tall, but he does?

Mu Huaixi blinked at him, as if seeing through his little depression, "Mom won't grow taller just because she's picky about food now. When you're as old as mom, you can eat whatever you want."

"Really?" Ying Wuhui blinked, feeling that he was being fooled by his mother, but he also inexplicably felt that there was some truth in it, and unknowingly finished eating the beans buns that he didn't like.

After dinner, Mu Huaixi took her little daughter to wash up. Thinking of her eldest son’s confused expression, she couldn’t help laughing.

After having a child, she gradually recalled her childhood interactions with her parents, and understood why her parents always coaxed her with a soft and doting tone, how they held her in their laps, amused her with sweet words and smiles, and how they tried their best to provide her with a better life in the poor mountain village.

It was only after she had a child that she understood why children are the continuation of bloodlines. Sometimes she could see a hint of familiarity in Xiaohui's expression, and she also understood that children are a mirror. Sometimes she could see the way her parents and grandparents treated her from the way she treated her children.

Mu Huaixi was rarely sentimental and thought she had concealed it well, but unexpectedly Ying Mingcheng saw through it all.

He had long discovered that his wife was both affectionate and timid about her hometown. After the commendation meeting, she would often be in a daze, cry in her dreams, and call out for her mother, grandfather, and the like.

Although his biological mother and grandfather treated Xiao Xi better than their own children, Ying Mingcheng knew that they were not calling her a member of the Ying family.

He could understand Xiaoxi's complicated feelings about her hometown. Sometimes she would happily mention life in the mountains. That was her carefree girlhood. But having lost her parents at a young age and then her grandfather suddenly, Xiaoxi's happiness was too short-lived.

She rarely mentioned her subsequent life at her uncle's house, but Ying Mingcheng could imagine that it was probably not a happy story.

He suggested taking the children back to their hometown to visit their grandparents' graves. On the one hand, Xiaoxi had been away for a few years, and it was time for her to come back and see her uncle. On the other hand, it was time for him to see how Xiaoxi was growing up outside so that he could rest assured.

"Mom..." Mu Huaixi turned over and murmured softly again.

Ying Mingcheng shook his head, covered her with the quilt, and straightened out the two little ones sleeping in a mess on the bed next to him. Then he turned off the dim night light, lay down beside Mu Huaixi, and held her in his arms.

The next day was also sunny.

After the family had breakfast, Ying Mingcheng went to the Public Security Bureau to pick up the car, while Mu Huaixi held a baby in each hand and walked slowly along the roadside.

"Mom! Someone fainted over there!" Little Wuhui suddenly pointed to the other side of the road. Little Heping also shouted, and his chubby fingers pointed to the opposite side.

Mu Huaixi looked over in the direction of the sound and saw the white-haired woman he had seen yesterday lying on the steps. Perhaps she was still struggling when she fell to the ground. Her thin clothes were torn by the rough ground, revealing her abdomen covered with scars and bruises.

“!”

Mu Huaixi looked around, took Xiaohui and held Xiaoheping, and walked quickly to the woman's side.

She took the man's pulse, frowned, looked under his eyes and behind his ears, turned around and asked Xiao Heping for a candy, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Although the man looked bruised and battered, fortunately he had only fainted due to hypoglycemia.

Little Wu Hui blinked his eyes. He had heard of hypoglycemia. His grandmother had told him before when he didn’t eat well that he should be careful of hypoglycemia or he might faint. If he fainted on the side of the road, he would be taken away by others!

"Mom, I have some candy and sugar cakes here," little Wu Hui took out all the snacks hidden in his pocket. This grandma is too pitiful. She is so old but still can't eat enough.

Mu Huaixi smiled and touched his hair, "You're so good. Let's give it to Auntie when she wakes up, okay?"

The woman lying on the street slowly woke up, but the first thing she saw was a rage. She stood up and grabbed her neck, "Bitch! How dare you come back! If it weren't for you, would I be in such a miserable state?!"

Mu Huaixi was shocked. She subconsciously turned sideways and protected the two children in her arms, but she was unable to avoid the attack of the crazy woman.