Rainwater formed a glittering stream along the street. Like little rabbits crossing a stream, the boy and girl bounded away through the pounding downpour, squealing with delight and soaking their clothes through.
Amid those skipping footsteps, Zhang Ming seemed to recall things from the past. His mind drifted far away, to a distant time long ago. Even the thunder faded away in that instant, and the setting sun stretched the silhouettes in the rain long and slanting.
He could not tell whether the water on his face was rain or tears. He simply walked on.
Miss Gourd hummed a very familiar tune, tinged with a faint sadness: [High on the green mountains, daylilies bloom. Pick one and give it to me, your little girl~]
He did not know how long he had walked before the rain cleared. Zhang Ming quickened his pace. He saw that ginkgo tree. It had to be the ginkgo tree his sister had planted. Beneath the setting sun, its leaves fluttered in the wind like countless green butterflies dancing across the sky.
Every leaf was welcoming him home.
The string that had been stretched taut in his heart suddenly relaxed. Zhang Ming hugged the tree, then sat down against it on the lawn, heedless of the rain-soaked grass.
He realized that this was the home he had searched so desperately for. Nothing could have been more real than this moment.
Perhaps this was a good moment. The grief of the past had long since drained away. What arose now was instead a peaceful bewilderment and a faint sense of release. Flowing water, flying birds, the journey-it seemed everything had reached its end.
His only choice was to accept this new family member and listen to Miss Gourd's clear voice along the way.
[If one day your