Homo Sapiens

Mandalay.

At the Qingye Aviation Branch production base.

For Wang Haoran, Mu Ziying, and the other interns who had just completed their three-month trial period, it was finally time to make a decision.

Unlike the hesitant Wang Haoran, Mu Ziying submitted his application for naturalization that very day. He also requested leave to return to his hometown, planning to personally bring his mother and sister back with him.

In the main hall of Mandalay Airport.

Wang Haoran looked at Mu Ziying. "Are you really sure about this?"

"What is there to be hesitant about?" Mu Ziying replied calmly, though he added internally, ’It’s not like I have any other choice.’

Wang Haoran changed the subject. "I’ve never heard you talk about your family. Are things really that difficult back home?"

"You wouldn’t understand even if I told you. Let’s drop it. My flight is here."

"Alright, then. Have a safe trip." Wang Haoran patted his shoulder.

After the two said their goodbyes, the plane took off half an hour later, flying toward the distant north.

「In the distant north.」

Jizhou Province.

In a small, obscure county town.

Snow blanketed everything. On the white, snow-covered streets, an old woman with white hair pushed a small cart laden with steaming spicy pepper soup and donkey meat sandwiches.

"Aunt Li, one bowl of spicy pepper soup and two donkey meat sandwiches," a taxi driver said, his breath fogging in the cold air.

"Oh, it’s you, Weimin!" Li Suqin recognized the face under the mask at a glance. She deftly ladled out a bowl of soup and grabbed two sandwiches.

The taxi driver, Zhang Weimin, found a sheltered spot in a shop’s doorway and began to eat with gusto.

Meanwhile, Li Suqin continued with her business.

By the time dusk fell, she had sold all the spicy pepper soup. With three donkey meat sandwiches left, she decided to take them home for dinner.

Zhang Weimin, who had been driving his taxi all afternoon, appeared once again at the door of Li Suqin’s rented house. A thin girl of about sixteen or seventeen was helping move things.

"Brother Weimin."

"Xiaoyu, is everything packed?" Zhang Weimin asked with a smile.

"It is. I wonder when my brother will be back?" Mu Ziyu asked, a hint of longing in her voice.

Zhang Weimin shook his head. "He probably can’t make it back. How about I take you and Aunt Li to Beiping to see him tomorrow?"

"Oh..." Mu Ziyu sounded a little downcast.

"The south is much better than the north. The winters aren’t too cold, and you’ll get to meet a lot of new friends," Zhang Weimin comforted her.

Zhang Weimin, who had come over to help them pack, told the mother and daughter to only bring some clothes and valuables. There was no need to bring anything else, as many items weren’t allowed on the plane.

After a hasty dinner, Zhang Weimin went home.

Li Suqin sat in the drafty, lean-to kitchen, watching the flames in the briquette stove as she heated water for a bath.

Suddenly, tears began to stream down her face.

From inside her old wool sweater, she pulled out a small notebook. Tucked within its pages were layers of paper slips. With a trembling hand, she opened it.

"Jiaming! The children are grown, they’re successful now, and the debts are all paid..."

"This is the 6,000 I owed Fifth Brother Zhang..."

With her eyes blurred by tears, Li Suqin placed the IOU into the stove. The flames consumed the yellowed slip of paper, turning it to ash.

"This is the 20,000 I owed Ma Datou..."

"This is..."

One by one, the IOUs were fed into the fire, and the great stone that had weighed on her heart was finally, piece by piece, lifted away.

Thirteen years. It had been thirteen long years.

She had finally paid off the 270,000 yuan her husband had borrowed to buy a large truck.

As the last IOU burned to nothing, she covered her mouth, her tears flowing like a broken dam, trying not to let her daughter hear her sobs.

The night was quiet, and the north wind howled.

「The next morning, bright and early.」

Zhang Weimin arrived in his taxi.

Li Suqin placed a photo frame and an urn into a dedicated suitcase.

"Weimin, we’re troubling you again."

"Auntie, don’t be a stranger. Ziying and I are good buddies; we’re all family here." Zhang Weimin helped stuff the suitcases into the trunk.

Before getting into the car, Li Suqin glanced back at the rented house. It was just an ordinary little farmhouse courtyard in the suburbs, but it had sheltered her family for thirteen years.

Pushing down the reluctance in her eyes, she had already handed everything concerning the rental over to the landlord.

The taxi’s exhaust pipe coughed out a puff of white smoke, and then the car sped away.

Aside from a few neighbors who had come to see them off, no one else was there.

As he drove, Zhang Weimin offered some comforting words. "Ziying’s earning the big bucks now. Life is definitely going to get better and better. I hear it’s like spring all year round in the south."

"Really? It doesn’t snow there in the winter?" Mu Ziyu asked curiously.

"That’s right!"

Zhang Weimin and Mu Ziyu made idle small talk.

Li Suqin, however, just stared quietly out the window.

It wasn’t until they passed a village entrance that a complicated look flashed in her eyes.

Seeming to notice the change in Li Suqin, Zhang Weimin slowed down. "Want to go in and take a look?"

She looked at the village before them. It was her husband’s hometown, and a place of heartbreak for her and her children. She shook her head. "No. It’s all in the past."

Zhang Weimin didn’t say anything and just sped up, driving away.

After a great deal of trouble.

In the end, it was only after the Hongsawaddy embassy intervened that Mu Ziying was able to reunite with his mother, Li Suqin, and his sister, Mu Ziyu.

However, he reined in his excitement at being reunited and first made arrangements for his good buddy, Zhang Weimin.

"Weimin, thank you! This is just a small token of my appreciation." Mu Ziying gave him ten thousand yuan.

Seeing the stack of money, Zhang Weimin refused without a second thought. "Ziying, I can’t take this!"

"No, you have to. You’re staying in Beiping for half a month, and you’ll have to rest for another half month when you get back. Plus, your wife has to take care of the kids. You must take it!" Mu Ziying’s expression was resolute.

The two went back and forth for over half an hour before Zhang Weimin finally accepted the ten thousand yuan. After all, he was just a taxi driver with a family to support.

In the hotel specially arranged by the embassy.

Mu Ziying looked at his white-haired mother, and his eyes immediately reddened. His mother was only forty-seven, but her face was as haggard as that of a woman in her sixties or seventies.

"Mom!"

"Xiaoying, is work going well?" Li Suqin, seemingly not wanting to upset her son, deliberately changed the subject.

With a thousand words caught in his throat, Mu Ziying calmed himself slightly and managed a smile. "Work is fine. I’ve rented an apartment over there. We’ll find a school for Xiaoyu."

"Brother, I can work now..." Mu Ziyu pouted from the side.

But Mu Ziying’s face immediately turned stern. "No! You’re only sixteen. It’s too early to start working. You need to finish your education to find a good job."

Li Suqin didn’t want her daughter to have regrets later in life either. She took out the passbook. "Xiaoyu, don’t worry. Mom can still work. With your brother’s money, the family can still afford to send you to school."

Then she handed the passbook to her son. "Xiaoying, you should hold onto this money."

Mu Ziying took the passbook. The balance was from the 200,000 yuan security deposit given by the Qingye Group. There was still over 130,000 left; aside from the 60,000-plus used to pay off debts, his mother hadn’t touched the rest.

According to the agreement, if an intern decided to have their whole family immigrate after the trial period, the company would not take the money back. Instead, it would serve as a settling-in allowance for the skilled immigrant employee.

If the family did not immigrate, or if the employee did not continue to work for the Qingye Group, the money had to be returned in full.

Clearly, Mu Ziying had made up his mind back then without a shred of hesitation.

The mother and her two children chatted about everyday matters. Finally, filled with bright hopes for the future, they fell asleep peacefully.

For Li Suqin, especially, after more than a decade of trials and tribulations, her heart had finally found a moment of peace.

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