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"Draw a map?" He Teng was bewildered by this term.

"It means wetting the bed." He Zhilan’s mouth twitched. "Don’t tell me you don’t know how to either! Dad told me that once, you peed the bed when you were already seven!"

He Teng knew that He Zhilan was saying all this just to tease him.

"I’ll deal with you when we get back!" He Teng didn’t argue. After dinner last night, He Zhilan and their father had a long talk, during which there was constant laughter. He Teng realized that any embarrassing thing he or He Da did as children was shared by their father with He Zhilan as a joke.

"Hmph." He Zhilan stuck her tongue out at He Teng, then got up and squatted to the side, took some soil from the ground, and casually stuck a small twig into the small mound of dirt. She called out to He Teng, saying, "Brother, this is a grave for our lost child. Even though it has no name, by placing a small mound of earth next to our mom’s side, it’s as if the child could come here if he misses grandma and grandpa, right?

He could even keep grandma company! By the way, do you think our mom can meet our child down there?

I really want to ask mom if our child is a boy or a girl, and whether they looked more like you or me. "

He Teng was startled, stood up, and walked over to He Zhilan. He stood while He Zhilan squatted; all he could see in his line of sight were her drooping eyelids, hiding all the emotions in her eyes, but her voice couldn’t conceal the sadness in her heart at that moment.

The child, in the end, still preoccupied her mind, difficult to let go.

"Zhilan, this child has already left us. We can miss him, but we can’t keep doing so forever.

You know how busy the child must be, having to accompany grandpa, and also our mom.

You always worrying about him, won’t that make him even busier?

We will have more children, to give him a little brother or sister.

When we get older, we’ll go down below and reunite with him. "

He Zhilan didn’t say a word, just nodded, but still insisted on leaving the small mound of earth by their mother’s grave.

However, she remained worried; worried that the child would be down there with no one to accompany and care for him, just like her when she left the Gu Family, helpless and with nothing.

She feared that kind of indefinite and boundless life, so she feared even more that the child she parted with was living that kind of life.

In the summer mountains, insect and bird calls were unending, and along the way, you could see various wild fruits, which were considered rural children’s snacks and fruit.

Children, not very old, but striving with all their might for a bunch of wild raspberries; once picked, they washed them in the nearby river and then ate them. Seeing He Zhilan and He Teng, they even sweetly called out "Uncle" and "Auntie."

He Zhilan really liked children, so when she saw them, even though she didn’t recognize which family’s children they were, she still greeted them with a beaming smile.

The small mountain village was peaceful, but in the capital, it seemed, there was another set of turbulent waves.

Lan Li returned to the capital on the third day after the gossip about the Gu Family’s daughter had died down. Still, in the streets and alleys, you could hear a few people discussing the matter.

After returning to the capital, Lan Li didn’t rush to report back to his military unit but went to the Lan Family first. Knowing that Lan Li was coming back, the Gu Family and the Lan Family members were all waiting at the Lan Family’s house.

"It took a lot of effort, but finally managed to get him transferred back." This sigh from Lan’s mother was truly genuine; if it weren’t for another incident, it would not have been so easy for Lan Li to get transferred back this quickly.