Lingxin took a bus back to the rented apartment. As he stepped off the bus, he lifted his small head and could see his mother standing at the doorway. Normally, he and his brother would run towards their mom. But now, his little legs wouldn’t move. A deep sense of guilt gripped him.

He had returned, but his brother had not come back with him.

His little nose twitched.

The reason he did not cry was that he remembered what Big White Daddy had said: don’t make mom worry.

At this moment, his mother’s expression, focused as she looked at him, naturally held no trace of blame.

Lingxin suddenly recalled a scene often broadcast on TV, where someone waits for you at the door, and that person is usually your mom.

His little legs finally moved; he walked toward her, and when he reached his mother, he lifted his small head and said, "I’m back, mom."

Gu Nuan crouched down, extended her arms, and hugged her eldest son. It was at this moment that a certain weight in her heart finally thudded to the ground. Yet, another part of her heart remained tightly clenched.

"Let’s go home," Gu Nuan said.

Lingxin nodded his little head, took his mom’s hand, and walked into the house.

Afterwards, Gu Nuan helped her eldest son change clothes. Seeing the signed book he brought back, she didn’t ask anything but put the book into his little backpack, and asked, "Do you want something to eat? I’ll make you something."

In fact, dinner time was approaching.

Lingxin said, "Let’s wait for Dad to come back and eat together."

"Your dad—" Gu Nuan thought, her husband probably wouldn’t return for dinner until he found clues about their younger son.

"It’s okay, I’m not hungry." Lingxin said this and noticed a flash of loneliness on his mother’s face, then quickly changed his statement, "If I could have some noodles—"

"Want to eat noodles?" Gu Nuan nodded, "Alright, I’ll go to the kitchen and make you a bowl of noodles, add an egg, and sprinkle some scallions. I’ll have someone fetch some scallions."

After his mother left the room, Lingxin saw a hat belonging to Little Monkey in the room. Of course, this wasn’t the only thing belonging to Little Monkey. He jumped off the bed, took Little Monkey’s hat, and put it on himself, looking into a mirror in the room.

He looked left and right, as if Little Monkey was gazing at him face-to-face in the mirror.

He stopped moving and murmured at the mirror, "Where did you go, Mingli?"

The person in the mirror did not answer him.

He removed the hat and held it in his hands, stroking it as if it still bore Little Monkey’s scent and warmth. In the past, he always found Little Monkey clingy and annoying.

Now, a drop of water fell onto the hat, and he said fiercely, "If you ever leave without saying a word again, you don’t need Dad and Mom to scold you, I’ll spank your bottom!"

When Gu Nuan left her son’s room, she didn’t walk away immediately; she paused at the door for a while. Since learning of her younger son’s disappearance, her heart had been in suspense. It didn’t feel secure and comfortable to be away from her son even for a moment.

Seeing the series of actions her eldest son made in the room, Gu Nuan couldn’t help but smile bitterly: her eldest son’s personality resembled hers, and his attitude toward his younger brother was similar to how she once treated Big White Dog. Now, she could imagine the turmoil her eldest son felt inside.

One has to go through storms to see the sun. Thinking of this line from a book she read, Gu Nuan perked up and went to the kitchen to make noodles for her son.

In the United States, it’s unlike at home where scallions are commonly used; it was difficult to find the scallions her eldest son liked. The person sent to the supermarket to buy scallions spent over an hour before finding suitable scallions and bringing them back.