Hard work after winning the lottery

More than an hour has passed.

The sky had completely darkened.

The night wind carried the chill of the mountains, blowing against people with a bone-chilling cold.

But Hua Yun didn't feel cold.

Her heart, along with the boundless night, sank into an abyss from which there was no bottom.

My voice was hoarse from shouting, and every word was accompanied by excruciating pain.

My legs felt like they were filled with lead, and with every step I took, my lungs felt like they were on fire.

But she dared not stop.

We can't stop.

All that kept echoing in my mind were the three baby voices calling "Mama".

They were like sharp knives, slowly slicing through her heart.

The entire Baixi Village was brightly lit, and the search teams, spontaneously organized by the villagers, moved like fiery dragons, winding their way through the fields and at the foot of the mountains.

The beams of flashlights pierced the darkness, and shouts rose and fell, only to be swallowed up again and again by the silent valley.

Fear, like an airtight net, tightly enveloped Hua Yun, almost suffocating her.

All sorts of terrible thoughts grew out of control.

Baixi Lake at the village entrance... the steep slope behind the mountain...

Do not!

She didn't dare to think about it anymore.

Every second she thought about it, she felt like she was going crazy.

On the other side, Tang Bohua was running wildly towards Xishan Ranch, stumbling along the way.

He watched those three boys grow up and knew their temperaments best.

If you were to ask them where in the entire Baixi Village, besides their own homes, is the place they are most familiar with and feel safest in?

That must be a sheep farm!

Halfway up the mountain, Hua Shi was panting heavily and stopped, leaning against an old tree.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, his mind racing with calculations.

Those three little devils are quite clever; they certainly wouldn't stand foolishly on the main road.

If it's hide-and-seek...

Where do they like to hide the most?

A thought, like a bolt of lightning, suddenly cleaved through his chaotic thoughts.

haystack!

In the corner of the sheep farm, there are a few old haystacks piled with spare hay!

It's tall and big there, hollowed out in the middle, it's practically a natural hiding place!

Hua Shi's heart pounded wildly. He didn't even have time to catch his breath and took off running towards the sheep farm.

The sheepfold was quiet, except for a few sheep that had been roosting there for the night, which were startled by his footsteps and let out a few low bleats.

He rushed straight toward the several huge round haystacks in the corner.

The beam of the flashlight swayed on the haystack, but the surface of the haystack looked perfectly normal.

Hua Shi's heart sank even further.

Could it be... that I guessed wrong?

Undeterred, he stepped forward and reached out to brush aside the thick, somewhat prickly layer of dry grass.

"Splash—"

A small opening was made in the hay.

A faint ray of light shone through the opening.

In that very instant.

Three pairs of large, dark, grape-like eyes all looked over at the same time.

In those eyes, there was the panic of being discovered, the guilt of doing something wrong, and a trace of grievance after seeing a loved one.

found it!

Hua Shi felt a surge of heat rush to his head. He looked down the mountain and, with all his might, roared at the top of his lungs.

"Found them! The child is at the sheep farm!"

This sound pierced through the deep night, like a thunderclap, and resounded throughout Baixi Village.

Hua Yun, who was pacing anxiously at the village entrance, froze upon hearing the roar.

She slowly turned her head and looked incredulously toward the direction of the back mountain.

Found it?

Her children... have been found?

An overwhelming joy swept over her like a flash flood, instantly bringing her blank mind back to normal.

She didn't care about anything else and turned around to run wildly towards Xishan Ranch.

The pebbles under her feet hurt painfully, and the dry branches tore her trouser legs, but she was completely unaware.

At this moment, her world revolves around only that one destination.

When she stumbled into the sheepfold, she immediately saw the three children being carried out of the haystack by her uncle.

Their little faces, hair, and clothes were covered with tiny bits of grass. Their faces were red from the cold, and they hunched their necks, looking like three frightened baby quails shivering in their nest.

The three little ones froze the moment they saw Hua Yun.

Hua Yun looked at them, at those three little faces that she had been longing for.

That string, stretched to its limit, snapped with a "crack".

Her legs went weak and she almost collapsed to the ground, but fortunately, Hua Shu, who had rushed over from the side, caught her.

"Si'an... Si'le... Si'tao..."

Her voice was so hoarse that every word seemed to be squeezed out of her throat.

The next second, she broke free from her father's support and practically tumbled and crawled over.

She opened her arms and used all her strength to hold the three small, grass-covered bodies tightly in her embrace.

It was so tight they could barely breathe.

The immense fear of regaining what she had lost caused her to tremble violently.

"Waaah..."

A suppressed sob escaped from her throat.

Immediately afterwards, tears welled up like a flood bursting its banks, scalding hot tears falling in large drops onto the children's hair and necks.

She couldn't say anything, she could only tighten her arms again and again, as if she wanted to knead them into her bones and never separate them again.

The triplets were terrified by their mother's appearance.

They had never seen their mother cry so sadly, so desperately.

That suppressed sound, as if it were about to burst into tears, struck their young hearts like a small hammer.

They seemed to finally realize the enormity of their mistake.

That terrifying, man-eating kindergarten monster seems... seems less frightening than their heartbroken mother.

"Mom...don't cry..."

Si'an sobbed softly, reaching out her little hand to clumsily wipe away her mother's tears.

Sile's lips trembled, and she couldn't hold back any longer. With a "waaaah," she burst into tears along with her mother.

Si Tao, the instigator, was so frightened that her face turned pale. She clung to her mother's neck and cried uncontrollably.

"Mom...I'm sorry...we were wrong..."

For a moment, the empty sheep pasture was filled only with the heart-wrenching cries of the mother and her four children, which brought tears to the eyes of the surrounding villagers.

Back home, the brightly lit main room felt terribly oppressive.

Grandma Hua and Li Guifen held the children on either side of them, wiping their faces and hands with hot towels. Tears still clung to their eyes, but they couldn't utter a single word of reproach.

Grandpa Hua sat in his armchair, saying nothing, his wrinkled face as taut as a stone.

Anyone could see that the old man was extremely frightened.

If it were any later, if it were any colder, if we encountered some wild creatures in the mountains...

No one dared to think further.

This thrilling "running away from home" came to an end, leaving everyone exhausted and still shaken.

Late at night.

Hua Yun tucked the three little ones, who were clean and smelled of milk, under the covers.

They were clearly terrified today, clinging tightly to her, even in their sleep their little hands were still clutching the hem of her clothes, afraid that if they let go, their mother would disappear.

Hua Yun lay on her side beside them, carefully tracing their sleeping faces in the dim light of the bedside lamp.

Si'an's steady eyebrows, Si'le's slightly upturned lips, and Si'tao's handsome nose.

They are exactly the same, yet each has its own differences.

It's all her fate.

After tonight's fright, Hua Yun finally understood completely.

Children's resistance to kindergarten is not just due to their playfulness and willfulness.

In their little world, leaving their mother and going to a completely unfamiliar place is tantamount to being abandoned.

The fear was far more profound and intense than she had imagined.

She was being too presumptuous.

She thought she was doing it for their own good, but she overlooked their most genuine and urgent feelings.

She leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on each of the three smooth foreheads.

The warm touch carried a hint of guilt and boundless affection.

She held them in her arms and whispered a promise in a voice only they could hear, with utmost solemnity.

"Babies, Mommy promises you."

"Mom will never, ever abandon you."

"We're not going to kindergarten anymore."

She paused, then added a sentence, as if speaking to them, but also as if speaking to herself.

"I won't go at least this year."