"There were only Fengmei and my mother in the Liao family. After I recovered from my illness, I had nowhere to go, so I stayed in the Liao family."

"Learn to speak like the people here, and learn to fish like them."

"Later, with my mother's help, Fengmei and I gradually got together."

Su Qingci listened as Su Changzhi recounted his past as if it were someone else's story, his tone completely flat.

Grandma said that my uncle was only a teenager when he went missing, still a young boy.

In a foreign land, all alone, helpless and seriously ill, the Liao family was his only hope.

No matter who it is in that situation, they will hold on tightly.

So, perhaps her staying with the Liao family later on was partly out of gratitude.

After all, according to his grandmother, his uncle was a very ambitious child, and if he hadn't gotten lost, his achievements would not have been inferior to his father's.

At this time, however, he became the son-in-law of the Liao family in this small fishing village.

Su Qingci spoke in a low voice, "After you went missing, Grandma went crazy, searching the entire capital and even alarming the higher-ups, which forced the army to send people to help look for you."

Su Changzhi's lips trembled as he looked at Su Qingci anxiously, "Is she...is she alright?"

Su Qingci nodded. "She's alright."

Su Changzhi breathed a sigh of relief. So many years have passed, and his mother is not young anymore. She worked so hard when she was young. He was afraid that if he went back too late, he would be separated from his mother forever.

Over the years, he has been trying his best to go home, and he can also feel that his mother on the other side is also waiting for him to come home.

Over the years, he has been having the same dream over and over again.

A woman whose face was obscured stood on the other side of the sea, constantly looking this way.

Although he couldn't see her face clearly, he could see her gradually graying hair and hunched back. She was always looking around, gazing into the distance with anticipation. Later, she started using a cane and her steps became unsteady, but she still persisted in looking around at the alley entrance and lingering in the distance.

Su Changzhi understood very well that if he didn't go back soon, he might never see her again. Calculating the time, she was already in her late sixties, almost seventy.

She suffered so much when she was young; how long can her body wait?

So he worked himself to the bone, taking on the most dangerous and exhausting jobs. He even treated his wife and children poorly, hoping to save money to buy a long-distance ship just to go back and see her one last time.

He ruined his health, overdrawn his lifespan, mistreated his wife and children, and incurred huge debts, yet he still failed and even dragged his family into the abyss.

Unexpectedly, just when he was about to despair of the situation, they came looking for him.

Su Changzhi, who was over fifty years old, suddenly burst into tears like a child.

He couldn't describe his feelings at that moment. He just wanted to cry. Maybe it was because of all the hard work he had put in over the years, maybe it was because he knew that the other side hadn't given up on him, or maybe it was because that person was still there, waiting for him.

Decades of suppressed emotions and surging feelings were released in this moment through a loud, heart-wrenching cry.

"Waaaaah~"

"I'm so sorry, sob sob, you told me not to run around!"

"Waaaaah~ It's my fault for being disobedient and running away secretly~ Waaaaah, I've been trying so hard to go back and see you. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. You worked so hard to raise me~"

Su Changzhi deliberately avoided recalling certain memories from the past.

At that moment, all those precious memories came flooding back.

When he was a little over four years old, his mother went to work, leaving his seven-year-old brother and him at home. Seeing that it was getting late, his brother took him to light a fire to cook, and unfortunately, they set the kitchen on fire.

The mother, who had just returned, threw her brother out in terror and then tried to escape with him in her arms, but they were surrounded by fire. She tightly shielded him with her body, and he could clearly feel her trembling, her pain, and her fear, but she still protected him tightly, comforting him, "Changzhi, don't be afraid, Mom will protect you, it will be alright."

He could never forget that embrace.

Later, my brother went outside to call for help, and the neighbors rescued them. He was unharmed, but my mother's back, hind legs, and the skin around her arms were burned.

When he was seven years old, there was no food left at home, so his mother took them to the reservoir to collect snails. He slipped into a puddle.

His mother couldn't swim, but she jumped in without hesitation. He cried in fear. His mother tried her best to lift him above her head so that his head was above water, but his mother was completely submerged. She was like a tall, unyielding tree, supporting him without moving.

When the people on the shore pulled their mother ashore, she had already stopped breathing, and they all said that she was going to die.

But Mother woke up quickly upon hearing her brother and his cries. She got up, hugged them, and said, "It's alright, Mother's here. How could Mother abandon you? Don't be afraid, Mother's here..."

She always said she was full and left the food for him and her brother. She always had endless work to do and was always full of energy.

She was inherently very proud, but she knelt down to beg the teacher to accept her as a student.

She made herself a new schoolbag and said to him with a smile, "Everyone else has a new schoolbag, so I, Changzhi, must have one too."

He only discovered later that it was a new dress that his mother had always cherished and was reluctant to wear, which had been altered.

My mother said that the sky-blue cheongsam was bought for her by my father. He had seen her take it out and examine it several times, and after looking at it, she would carefully and preciously put it back in the closet.

He was sick, and his mother took care of him night after night. His clothes were all sewn by his mother stitch by stitch, and his food was saved from his mother's own mouth.

His mother worked as a mule pulling a millstone all day on New Year's Eve, her shoulders and feet were chafed and bleeding, all to make dumplings for him and his brother.

She said that Changzhi and Changqing were the most precious treasures God had given her, surpassing everything else in the world. Even though she was suffering so much, she never brought her negative emotions to them.

She was dignified and elegant, but she also acted like a shrew, standing with her hands on her hips in the alley, cursing the bad people who bullied him and his brother.

She is a loving mother, a strict mother, and a mother who shelters them from the storm.

Su Changzhi knew better than anyone how much effort and dedication that woman had put in to raise him and his brother.

But after growing up sucking her blood, he distanced himself from her...

His mother's joking remark, "Changzhi, when you grow up, you can't dislike your mother or abandon her," became a lifelong burden of guilt for him.

No, he really didn't intentionally neglect his mother. He wanted to tell that woman that he cared about her, loved her, and missed her.

In the backyard, Si Gui heard her father's painful cries and suddenly stood up. Liao Fengmei grabbed Si Gui as she was about to enter the house.

"Don't go in..."

Just as Su Qingci was comforting Su Changzhi, two men in uniforms walked in from outside.

"Hello, we are from Changlan Public Security Bureau. We are looking for Liao Sigui."