Saina charged straight across the weed-choked yard and shoved open the rickety old wooden door to the inner room with both hands.
Martha was carrying a chipped wooden basin outside when the two of them collided head-on.
The basin fell to the ground, and murky dirty water splashed everywhere.
"Mom!" Without caring about anything else, Saina threw her arms around the gaunt woman before her, her voice thick with an unmistakably rough sob.
Martha froze completely. Her callus-covered hands hung in midair. Only after a full half minute did they come down heavily on Saina's sturdy back.
Mother and daughter stood in that puddle of filthy water. Neither said another word; they simply held each other in a death grip.
In the yard.
The rusty iron file in Old Buck's hand stopped moving, and he slowly raised his head.
His gaze passed over the heap of scrap metal and first landed on Su Li's ostentatious face.
Then his eyes moved past him to Elena in her dark red leather armor, before finally settling on Elonore, dressed in a pure white silk gown.
The old man slowly rose from the large stone block.
He lowered his head and used his callused hands to brush the black iron filings from the hem of his worn clothes, bit by bit.
Then he strode up to Su Li.
"Good that you're back. Have you eaten?" Old Buck's tone was utterly flat. That was all he asked.
He did not ask what had happened outside, did not ask what Su Li's status was now, and did not ask who the two women following behind him—women who looked impossible to provoke—were.
Craftsmen at the bottom of society had a straightforward way of dealing with the world.
"Not yet. We traveled on empty stomachs." Su Li's reply