A young boy from the 1970s, separated from his family, fled famine and led his younger brother into

On a late autumn evening, the sun hung low in the west, casting long shadows of the poplar trees in the courtyard.

Su Nianci squatted next to the medicine cabinet, holding a piece of astragalus root in her left hand and pointing to the second shelf of the cabinet with her right hand.

"Hoshino, smell this."

Three-and-a-half-year-old Lu Xingye tiptoed and brought his nose close to the sniff, taking a deep breath.

"Sweet."

"Yes, astragalus has a faint sweet smell. It's a good thing for replenishing qi. Remember what it looks like."

Su Nianci flipped the astragalus over so that Xingye could see the texture of the cross-section.

"Look at this incision. It's yellowish in color, and the lines are like tree rings. The older the astragalus, the more rings it has, and the stronger its medicinal effect."

Hoshino stared at it for a long time, her little face full of seriousness.

"Mom, how old is this one?"

"About five or six years."

"Older than me."

Su Nianci chuckled and put the astragalus back into the compartment.

Banxia squatted on the paving stones in the middle of the yard, holding a twig in her hand. She drew a large circle on the ground and wrote two crooked characters inside the circle.

Su Nianci peeked out and saw the words "Great Medicine" written on the ground.

"Banxia, ​​what did you draw?"

Banxia raised her head, looking completely matter-of-fact.

"The prescription? I wrote it."

"Who did you give it to?"

Banxia pointed with a twig at the old tabby cat basking in the sun at the base of the wall.

"Give it to him, he sneezed three times today, I think he has a cold."

Su Nianci's lips twitched.

"What medicine did you prescribe?"

Banxia drew another blob of something in the circle that was hard to identify.

"Fish, you'll feel better after eating it."

Hoshino commented from the side.

"Little sister, what you're talking about isn't a prescription, it's a menu."

Banxia pointed at him with a tree branch.

"What do you know? Mom says food and medicine share the same origin!"

Su Nianci was taken aback by those words, thinking to herself that it didn't matter who the girl's mouth was like, as long as it didn't resemble Lu Xingzhou's serious yet nonsensical manner.

Just then.

There was a knock on the gate three times.

Boom, boom, boom.

The intervals are even, the intensity is consistent, and the rhythm is as crisp as a metronome.

Su Nianci paused for a second.

This is not how a neighbor knocks on the door.

When neighbors knock on the door, they either bang or push; no one knocks three times in such a proper manner.

Lu Xingzhou came out of the house, holding a cup of freshly brewed goji berry tea in his hand. He quickened his pace and walked to the courtyard gate, where he unlatched the gate.

The door opened.

The evening light streamed in from outside the door, backlighting the silhouette of a person.

That person was half a head taller than Lu Xingzhou.

His shoulders were spread wide, like a walking wall. His military uniform was washed until it was almost white, the collar buttons were fastened meticulously, and the cuffs were turned up, revealing the tanned skin on his forearms.

The lines of his chin were angular, and his cheekbones were higher than they were three years ago. He looked like a stone that had been polished by wind and sand and scorching sun, with much more defined angles than before.

Lu Xingzhou's hand holding the teacup froze in mid-air, and his mouth opened slightly.

Su Nianci peeked out from behind the medicine cabinet.

The astragalus root she had just picked up to teach Hoshino to identify fell to the ground with a thud, bounced twice, and rolled to her feet.

She didn't bend down to pick it up.

The young man outside the door stood at attention.

With his feet together and his back straight like a spear, his right hand's five fingers pressed tightly together, palm facing down, fingertips touching his eyebrows.

The angle of that military salute was exactly the same as the one he gave when he left three years ago.

My throat was as hoarse as sandpaper rubbing against a wooden board.

"Sister, I'm back."

The courtyard was quiet for about two seconds.

Even the old tabby cat sunbathing at the base of the wall raised its head.

Su Nianci stood beside the medicine cabinet, looking at the person at the door.

He has lost weight.

She's lost a lot of weight.

When he left, he was broad-shouldered and strong, with the robust physique of a young man. Now, that robustness is still there, but it has been shrunk. His cheekbones are protruding, his cheeks are sunken, and his eye sockets are deep.

His hands hung down at his sides, all ten fingers covered in calluses, with thick knuckles and prominent bones.

On the web of his left hand, there was a freshly healed scar, the kind where the skin had rolled back and then grown back together. It was pinkish-white and stood out against his bronze skin.

Su Nianci's gaze lingered on the mark for a moment before shifting away.

Banxia dropped the branch and ran up behind Su Nianci, grabbing her trouser leg with her two little hands, peeking out with half her head, her eyes darting around as she stared at the stranger at the door.

Hoshino tilted his head and sized up the man for a long time, looking from the muddy military boots on his feet to the faded epaulets on his shoulders, and then to the sun-scorched bridge of his nose.

After looking her over, Hoshino turned to Su Nianci and asked a question.

"Mom, who is this uncle?"

The solemn expression on Su An's face at the door cracked.

He slowly lowered his salute, squatted down, and placed one knee on the ground so that his line of sight was level with Hoshino's.

"I am your uncle."

Hoshino tilted his head and thought about it seriously for a while.

"Is your uncle Feifei's uncle?"

Su An's Adam's apple bobbed suddenly.

Three years ago, on the morning he left, the little guy was only a month old. Nestled in Su Nianci's arms, the first word related to him that popped out was "Feifei".

Three years have passed, and this child still remembers.

Su An's eyes reddened, and the peeling skin on the bridge of her nose wrinkled up.

He grinned, but his smile looked even uglier than a grimace.

"Yes, Feifei's."

Banxia peeked her head out from behind Su Nianci's legs, scanned Su An up and down twice, and came to a conclusion.

"Mom, this uncle is so dark-skinned."

Su An's expression widened even further.

Lu Xingzhou finally found his voice, put the teacup he was holding on the threshold, and patted Su An on the shoulder.

The palm strike landed squarely, and Su An's body swayed slightly, but he didn't retreat.

"It's good that you're back."

Lu Xingzhou's voice wasn't loud, but everyone could hear the tension in his throat.

Only then did Su Nianci take a step and walk from the medicine cabinet to the courtyard gate.

She stood in front of Su An, tilting her head back to see his face.

Three years ago when he left, she could still look him in the eye at the chin.

Now she has to look up to see his eyebrows.

"How long have you been standing there?"

Su An was taken aback.

"What?"

"How long did you stand outside the door before knocking?"

Su An pursed her lips and remained silent.

Lu Xingzhou answered for him from the side.

"I heard footsteps outside the gate five minutes ago; they kept pacing back and forth at the gate."

Su An's ears turned red.

"I was afraid you were sleeping, so I didn't want to knock."

Su Nianci looked at him.

Looking at his face, which was sunburnt and peeled three times, looking at his fingers with fingerprints worn away, looking at his Adam's apple, which was twice as prominent as it was three years ago, below the collar of his military uniform.

She reached out and took his left hand.

Su An's body stiffened, and his left hand reflexively tucked into his sleeve.

But Su Nianci's hand was faster than his; her fingertips had already gripped his wrist.

Her gaze fell on the wound on the web of his hand.

The scar is pinkish-white with irregular edges and varying depths. In the deepest part of the center, you can see the newly formed granulation tissue growing along the periosteum.

Su Nianci's expression changed.

She was a surgeon by training, and she could determine the cause of an incision's curve, the direction of the wound, and the morphology of tissue hyperplasia after healing, even with her eyes closed.

This wasn't from a fall during training.

It wasn't cut with a knife.

The curvature and depth of this wound are traces left after a high-speed metal fragment was embedded and removed.

shrapnel.

Su Nianci raised her head and stared intently into Su An's eyes.

"Su An, where did you go?"

The smile on Su An's face gradually froze.