Don't be afraid, I'm here!

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the three of them packed their luggage and waited for Wu Yi after lunch.

When sending them to the car, Shen's father pulled his daughter aside and took out a letter from his arms. It was a letter he had written to Shen's mother bit by bit since he received the telegram. After more than ten years of separation, everything he wanted to say was turned into words and recorded.

"To your mother, I have waited for her for fifteen years. I hope she can come back, but I also respect her choice. If, if she..." He was afraid, afraid that Shen's mother had no intention of coming back. After all, so many years had passed. If she wanted to go home, the Shen family would not wait so long.

There must be something that prevented Shen's mother from returning home.

Carrying this heavy letter, they boarded the train to Ping'an County at four o'clock in the afternoon. Compared with Zhou Huaiyue's long journey of sixty hours in a hard sleeper, the time he spent traveling with the Shen brothers and sisters was much more pleasant.

He schemingly chose to sleep in the middle bunk, with Shen Tianhua below him and Shen Roujiao opposite him. He could see her as soon as he turned over.

When Shen Roujiao took a nap, Zhou Huaiyue would secretly draw her sleeping face in his sketchbook. Then he would hide the notebook under his pillow, feeling very happy.

The train arrived at Ping An Railway Station at around 2:00 a.m., and just like last time, they first rested in a nearby guesthouse.

Shen Roujiao was alone in a room, while Zhou Huaiyue shared a room with Shen Tianhua. Perhaps it was because he had a particularly explicit dream here last time. Thinking of Shen Roujiao sleeping next door and thinking of that dream, Zhou Huaiyue's body could not help but get excited. When he heard snoring in the room, he rewarded himself with his hardworking hands.

After daybreak, Shen Roujiao insisted on buying a gift for her mother whom she had never met.

In the north, the winter is windy and the temperature is low, and it feels much colder than in Yunnan. Although Shen Roujiao wore a thick cotton jacket, she didn't have a three-piece suit. After going out for a while, her nose was frozen red, and the cold wind penetrated through her collar. She could only walk forward with her neck hunched.

While they and their siblings were helping their mother choose gifts, Zhou Huaiyue was also choosing a gift.

After choosing the things and walking out of the supply and marketing cooperative, Zhou Huaiyue took out the warm ball wrapped in his arms, a full set of woolen scarf, gloves and hat, feeling warm and cozy.

"Come here." He hooked his little hand and pulled her in front of him. He tied the scarf three times at the back and put the hat over her eyebrows. Just as he was about to put gloves on her, he noticed Shen Tianhua's cold eyes and could only put them in her arms. "Put them on yourself."

After being fully armed, it was indeed much warmer. While waiting for the bus at the bus station, several people bought some candies for the children in the village.

The long-distance bus had three seats, Shen Roujiao sat by the window, Shen Tianhua sat in the middle, and Zhou Huaiyue sat by the aisle. But within half an hour of driving, they changed seats because the window was leaking drafts and it was cold.

Shen Roujiao moved to the middle, with Zhou Huaiyue on one side and Shen Tianhua on the other. After five hours of winding mountain roads, she fell asleep leaning on her neighbor Zhou Huaiyue, and while Shen Tiannan was sleepy, he quietly adjusted his posture, trying to make her more comfortable until he fell asleep too.

The first person to wake up from his daze was Shen Tianhua. He rubbed his eyes, and when his eyes swept to the side, his hand got stuck at the end of his eye.

The younger sister leaned on Master Zhou's shoulder, their heads touching, and it looked just right no matter how you looked at it; their hands were overlapped and rested on the educated youth's thighs, although they were not holding each other and there were gloves between them, but that feeling was the sweet atmosphere that could only exist between young lovers.

The scene before him reminded the eldest brother Shen Tianhua of the topic that they and the other brothers had muttered about: Zhou Huaiyue, who had returned, was different from before, and his attitude towards his younger sister was also different.

Can't it be true?

The two of them have a great CP feeling, they look more like a couple than a couple.

The elder brother felt bad, as if his cabbage was stolen by the neighbor. He pulled the younger sister's hand away from the educated youth. Perhaps the force was too strong, Shen Roujiao sat up unsteadily, but she didn't wake up, and her head fell on him again.

Zhou Huaiyue was too tired the night before and slept soundly, so he didn't notice anything wrong.

The bus finally arrived at the entrance of Nanshan Village five hours later.

The weather in the afternoon was not as good as in the morning. It was overcast, and the sky and earth were gray. The cold wind made their faces hurt. The three of them tightened their collars at the same time and walked along the path towards the village.

Walking around the frozen pond, passing the red bean trees without bean pods, through the sun-drying field covered with layers of white frost, up to the hillside where there was a spring, and to the gravel wall deep in the bamboo forest, Shen Tianhua suddenly stopped when he saw the words "Yuji Temple".

As long as he pushed open the vermilion door, he could see his mother whom he hadn't seen for more than ten years. The eldest brother was both ecstatic and terrified.

He was thirteen years old when she left.

In the first few years, Shen Tianhua missed his mother very much and always dreamed of her. Later, he thought about her less and less, and even couldn't dream of her. At one point, he thought that there would be no chance for mother and son to reunite.

So, when the opportunity came again, Shen Tianhua was overjoyed, and everything he saw and heard along the way made him excited and happy; but when he really stood outside the Taoist temple, he suddenly became afraid, afraid that he would not recognize his mother, and afraid that his mother would not recognize him, and afraid that they would become the most familiar strangers.

The gap from expectation to disappointment scared him.

"Brother!" Shen Roujiao called softly, without urging him. She just stood next to him. She could understand Shen Tianhua's mood at the moment.

In her previous life, Shen Roujiao grew up in the countryside with her grandmother, and was considered a half-left-behind child. She was not taken to the city by her mother until she started elementary school.

For a long time, mother was just a name to her, and they were strangers to each other. Although they gradually got along better, the feeling of strangeness still existed.

As a result, her relationship with her mother could not become close until she was in junior high school, and when her mother remarried, their relationship completely froze after her mother gave birth to a child.

As an adult, Shen Roujiao started to engage in clothing wholesale with others shortly after graduating from college. She was quick-witted and quickly mastered the tricks. She started out on her own and her business grew bigger and bigger. She made some money, but she never expected that from then on, she would become her mother's ATM.

For her son's sake, the mother asked her for money again and again. The amount became larger and larger, and the reasons became more and more outrageous. Shen Roujiao found it difficult to understand, but she could not refuse.

Then one day she suddenly understood: it turned out that what she could not refuse was an expensive thing that she was trying to buy with money, and that thing was called maternal love.

She has money, knows how to earn it, and is willing to pay for expensive things, but maternal love has not arrived as expected.

Unfortunately, there are some things in this world that money can't buy.

After a while, Shen Tianhua, who had prepared himself mentally, took a deep breath and said to his younger sister, "Let's go!"

The vermilion door with peeling paint was pushed open with a creaking sound, breaking the silence of the Taoist temple.

"Who is it?" Lingxi nun poked her head out of the house with a hollow voice. When she found that it was Zhou Huaiyue who had returned, she turned around and called out to the inner room, "Master. It's them, them."

The next second, Jingxuan stood at the door. She looked at the three people in the yard, tears instantly fell, and she called their names in a sobbing voice, "Tianhua, Roujiao!"

Even though so many years had passed, she still recognized her eldest son, Shen Tianhua, at first sight. Although he was no longer the reckless boy, the honesty between his eyebrows remained unchanged.

"mother!"

Shen Tianhua cried until his lips trembled. He rushed to his mother's feet and held her hand. The touch was so real, it was not a dream.

The eldest brother cried and sobbed, "Mom, I thought I would never see you again." His voice was filled with longing and fear.

The mother held his hand tightly and cried heartbreakingly, "Tianhua, my son!" The two knelt on the ground and hugged each other and cried. Too much longing, pain, and waiting were melted into the embrace at this moment.

Although time has changed our appearance, it cannot erase the blood-thickness of family ties. The pain of separation over the past decade is like a blunt knife, piercing my heart and bones.

Shen Roujiao stood still the whole time, her eyes red as she watched them cry, but she couldn't walk over. "Mother" and "mother" were words that were unfamiliar to her in her past and present lives, so she could only watch from a distance and not dare to get close.

Suddenly, her cold hand was grabbed by a hot big hand, Zhou Huaiyue held her hand tighter, Shen Roujiao raised her eyes full of tears and looked at him.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here."

I am here!

The simplest two words, without fancy words, contained enormous power, like a solid shield, giving her an endless sense of security; calming Shen Roujiao's trembling heart.

Zhou Huaiyue's eyes were firm and gentle, silently telling her: Don't be afraid, I am always by your side, no matter when and where, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you and share the wind and rain with you.

"Master!" Tears burst out like a dam, and he was choked with sobs and couldn't say more.

"I'll accompany you." He held her hand and slowly opened his legs, his steps were clumsy. It took them a long time to walk just a few meters. Zhou Huaiyue didn't let go of her hand until Shen Roujiao took the last step on her own initiative.

"Roujiao!" The name came out from the mother's trembling lips, filled with deep longing.

"Mom!" She finally cried out and threw herself into Shen's mother's arms. The three of them hugged each other tightly and cried bitterly.

…

Lingxi stood beside Zhou Huaiyue, wiping her tears, and said to him, "Master, I have recovered after taking the medicine you prescribed. I have been waiting for you."

First go to a quiet room, and hear a voice: "Jingxuan! Hurry and bring the third disciple in."

When they pushed open the gate, the master had just fallen asleep. During the New Year, villagers from the village and nearby areas would come to the Taoist temple early to burn incense. The courtyard was filled with smoke and a clear, gentle fragrance that never stopped. They were busy until three in the afternoon.

Hearing the master's call, Shen's mother helped the two children who were crying so hard that they had no strength left, and wiped the tears from their faces with the sleeves of her green Taoist robe, "Don't cry, we should be happy."

"Jingxuan!" The master inside said anxiously.

"I'm here." Jingxuan held the sobbing Shen Roujiao's hand and looked at Zhou Huaiyue. When he nodded, she said to her daughter, "Roujiao, follow your mother in to see the Grand Master."

Zhou Huaiyue had told her about the fact that the Grand Master had decided that Shen Roujiao was the third disciple. Because this matter was somewhat mysterious, he had said it, but Zhou Huaiyue was not sure whether Shen Roujiao believed it or not, and how much she believed it.

After all, he himself was half-believing and half-doubting.

If the master hadn't dreamed that he saved Shen Roujiao, there would probably be no one else in the world who would know about this. He didn't plan to tell her, even if he liked her.

Jingxuan led Shen Roujiao into the master's house, and she stepped out and waited outside with them.

On the kang, the silver-haired old man lay on his side, staring at Shen Roujiao without blinking. After a while, she whispered, "You are Jiaojiao. Are you willing to be my apprentice?"

"Yes, I do."

Shen Roujiao nodded heavily.

! !