Reunion

His knee hit the lawn with a dull thud.

"Dad!" Lin Tianxiao's voice was hoarse and low, yet it rang like a great bell, pounding into everyone's heart. "Your unfilial son... Tianxiao... is home!"

With that, he bent forward until his forehead touched the ground, offering Lin Zhengguo the most solemn, most sorrowful, and most heartfelt bow, brimming with longing and guilt.

That kneel, that bow, seemed to drain every last bit of strength from Lin Tianxiao—and at the same time, to unshackle him from the heavy chains he had borne for ten whole years, chains called "sacrifice" and "lies." His shoulders trembled faintly. He didn't break into loud sobs like Ye Wan'er, but the turbulent current buried deep in his chest, a surge of patriotic duty and personal feeling intertwined, came through clearly in his tense back and that single "Dad," reaching everyone present.

Lin Zhengguo looked at the son kneeling before him, at his bowed head, now touched with gray, at the old military uniform washed pale with wear. Ten years' worth of grief, longing, pride, heartache, guilt... every emotion, so tangled and overwhelming, surged like floodwaters bursting through a dam and swept away every last one of his defenses.

"Good... good... You're home, that's all that matters... You're home!" Tears streamed down Lin Zhengguo's face. He reached out with trembling hands, trying to help his son up, but he was so overwhelmed that his arms shook violently, and for a moment he couldn't lift him. All he could do was repeat, again and again, "You're home, that's all that matters," his voice choked and hoarse, every word laden with a father's deepest feelings at having regained what he thought he'd lost forever.

The sight before them—father and son reunited, husband and wife together again, mother and daughter