Three days passed in the blink of an eye...
In the early hours of the morning, the street lights were still on. Amidst the drifting snowflakes, Zhou Jiao hugged her three sons one by one and watched them salute and leave.
Since she came into this world, she always felt that winter was extremely cold. This year, she realized that there was another kind of coldness, unprecedented, which chilled her deep into her heart.
That early morning, she sent her sons off to war with laughter.
Tears?
Tears are the foundation of sadness.
Even though her nose felt sore and she wanted to scream and vent her anger, she didn't want them to worry about her while they were away, as she thought it was unlucky.
Her son will surely return triumphantly with her blessings!
Zhou Jiao forced herself to devote herself to the end of the year, using busyness to replace her inner anxiety, but when it was late at night and everyone was asleep, what she thought about madly were every little detail of her children's growth.
Zhou Xiaozheng is very busy, and Zhang Guoqing is no less busy than him.
Zhou Jiao could no longer remember how many times she had met them recently. Occasionally, when she returned late at night, they were gone the next day, but there were a lot more notes.
On New Year's Eve this year, the family of seven went their separate ways. Even Miao Lishan was too busy to go home at noon. In Aunt Chen's words, it was a good thing that she was there to accompany Zhou Jiao.
Zhou Jiao didn't know whether her mother had a premonition that the children had gone to the front line, so she didn't tell her and she didn't take out the letter specially prepared for home by the three Ping'an brothers.
During these days when thousands of families were reunited, the compound was filled with silence, and it seemed that even the sound of firecrackers by young children could not dispel the heaviness in the atmosphere.
On the fifth day of the New Year, Zhang Guoqing took her instructions and set off with the troops in the early morning, just like the three Ping An brothers.
The army has issued an order that from the implementation of the first level of combat readiness, no one is allowed to send letters home to prevent the leakage of military secrets.
Now that they were gone, Zhou Jiao, as a military dependent, knew that during the days of waiting, she might only be able to occasionally hear a piece of news from her father.
In this fortified city, except for her parents, all the most important people in the world to her have gone to the front line. She wondered what was the point of her staying here.
Just after the Lantern Festival, a commentary article entitled "This is Tolerable, What is Untolerable" came out, shocking the whole of China.
It was also from 4:30 a.m. on this day that our troops assembled on the border officially launched a self-defense counterattack against the enemy forces that invaded the national territory from the direction of the two southern provinces.
On this day, the outside world was bustling with activity and excitement, but after returning home from work, Miao Lishan could no longer hold on and fainted on the living room floor.
"After I pinched him awake, he went back to his room and wouldn't let me call the hospital. You should go check on him. He didn't say a word and wouldn't even drink his porridge."
"Don't alarm my dad."
Zhou Jiao hurried back and gave the instructions. Without saying anything to Aunt Chen, she pushed open the door. Facing her mother lying on the bed with a wet pillowcase, how should she comfort her?
She wants to cry too!
Zhou Jiao took off her coat and shoes and got on the bed. She hugged her tightly and gently patted her mother who had closed her eyes. The only thing she kept repeating was: "It's okay, it's okay..."
It is not only about comforting the grieving mother, but more about comforting yourself.
Miao Lishan hugged her with her backhand, buried her head in her shoulder and let out bursts of suppressed sobs.
Drops of tears slid down Zhou Jiao's neck, making her eyes red. She couldn't cry! She absolutely couldn't cry! Her lover, her son was still fine!
After crying herself tired, Miao Lishan fell asleep.
Zhou Jiao looked at her furrowed brows and sighed softly.
In fact, on the day Zhang Guoqing left, her mother should have known about it. While she tossed and turned, unable to sleep all night, her parents must have been suffering no less than she was.
The next step is the tough battle, she must hold on!
After recovering from her shock, Zhou Jiao tiptoed out of bed, took her pulse, tucked in the quilt, rubbed her face vigorously, and left the room.
Aunt Chen looked at Zhou Jiao who was lost in thought in the yard, sighed secretly, turned back to the kitchen, and when she came out again, she brought a bowl of porridge and pushed her.
"Hurry up and drink. This family still depends on you to support it. Only by stabilizing the rear can Xiaowu and the others not worry. Don't worry, if others are in trouble, they will be fine."
"Whose children are like ours who can start practicing martial arts at a very young age and go to the army for training at a young age? Others may get a few scratches and injuries, but are they always fine when they come home?"
Aunt Chen carefully raised the bowl with one hand and held her hand with the other, "Look, Mr. Cheng only has one or two moves, and he was able to kill many Japanese soldiers back then. Do you think he is fine?
Look at Mr. Tan again. His eldest son, whom he personally trained and is said to be the heir of some martial arts style, still couldn't last more than five moves against Xiaowu and his son."
Zhou Jiao pulled the corners of her mouth and forced a smile.
Aunt Chen placed the bowl in her hand and continued, "Good deeds will be rewarded. God has seen how many people you have saved over the years. Don't worry, the commander will not let anything happen to them."
In the past, Aunt Chen still knew how many people the Zhou family had sponsored and saved in the past twenty years, but since the second half of last year, people often came to express their gratitude, and she woke up as soon as she thought about it.
After drinking a bowl of rice porridge, Zhou Jiao looked towards the south again and nodded slowly: Life has to go on, and she still has to keep an eye on the rear for them.
When Miao Lishan woke up, she felt a little tired, but after reading the letter left for her by the three Ping'an brothers, she managed to drink a bowl of porridge.
That night, Zhou Xiaozheng still hadn't returned from the Dahongmen.
During the short phone call, the mother and daughter both chose to pretend to be deaf and dumb, not wanting him to be distracted and worry about home again.
Although Zhou Xiaozheng has been busy with official duties recently and has little time to meet them, this is the most important thing recently, and the pressure he bears is no less than theirs.
During this period, Zhang's father and mother, accompanied by Zhang Laoer, called home from their hometown in Northeast China. It was said that the phone number at Zhang Guoqing's workplace was not reachable.
Zhou Jiao, exhausted, didn't pay attention to these details. She no longer had the energy to take care of an elderly couple, so she had no choice but to keep it secret.
Sometimes it is a blessing to be ignorant and not suffer.
This home seems to have not changed, but it is different after all.
In addition to working, Miao Lishan began to spend all her time on several scriptures. Not only did she pray and recite scriptures whenever she had time, she also decided to eat vegetarian food until the children came back.
It is said that this was the advice given to her by Old Lady Cheng.
Zhou Jiao didn't try to stop her.
Although it seems a bit strange that her mother is praying to gods and Buddhas at such a young age, it is better to have something to rely on and not be at a loss than to have random thoughts all day long.
A week later, Zhou Jiao received her accumulated vacation time, emptied most of the inventory in the space, loaded it into the other two sheltered basements in the old house, and then returned home.
Facing Miao Lishan who was returning home from get off work, Zhou Jiao finally said the words she had wanted to say the most in this period of time: "Mom, I'm going to be away for a while."
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