Although Zhang Zian and the others didn’t look like bad people, they were in a completely unfamiliar environment. Cai meiwen really wanted to take little celery home immediately, because the word “home” always made people feel at ease and warm. However, the storm outside was getting stronger and stronger. Even if she wanted to go home, she couldn ‘t. She could overcome all difficulties to find her daughter, but she couldn’t bear to take her daughter to risk her life in the storm. She knew how dangerous it was, as she had just experienced it.
After she treated the wound with iodophor, little celery helped her throw the used cotton swab into the trash can.
“Little celery, why didn’t you go home after school? why did you come here? Didn’t the teacher tell you to go home directly?”
She held little celery’s arm and asked seriously.
Cai meiwen’s workplace was quite far from her home. It was a private company, and it was located in the opposite direction of Zhonghua Road primary school, so it was very difficult for her to take little celery to and from school every day, which would take a lot of time.
In fact, when little celery first started school, she did send and pick her up every day.
Little celery was very sensible. She saw that her mother was working so hard that she had to get up early every night to prepare breakfast, send her to school, and then go back to work. It was so hard that she looked Haggard.
Going to school was fine, but leaving school was the most troublesome. Primary school ended early, and Cai meiwen got off work late. With this time difference, she could only beg her boss to let her pick up her child and then come back to work. She would also use overtime for free to make up for the time lost during this period. Not only did her boss’s face look terrible, but she also had to endure the looks of disdain from her colleagues. Because a lot of work was done by the team, her leaving halfway would delay everyone’s time.
One day after school started, little celery said that she could go to school by herself, and she didn’t need her mother to pick her up.
Cai meiwen’s first reaction was definitely worry and uneasiness, but little celery was very stubborn and insisted on going to and from school by herself. She even used a tender pen to draw a map of the route from home to school. This showed that she didn’t make this request on impulse. She had carefully observed the idea after coming up with it, and had firmly remembered it in her mind, and finally put it into practice on paper and pen.
The route map was full of the childlike interest of a child of her age. Since she was not able to read at the beginning, she could only use pinyin and graphics to describe the landmark buildings, especially when she needed to turn and cross the road. She even wrote warnings such as “stop once, look twice, and pass three times.”
Cai meiwen remembered that this pet shop seemed to be in the route that little celery had drawn. It was the outline of a house with the simplest brush technique, and then she drew a cartoon cat’s head inside the house. When she took little celery to school, she didn’t notice the existence of this pet shop. Perhaps she was in a hurry to send little celery to school and go to work, and was afraid that she would be scolded by the boss and get her salary deducted if she was late, so she didn’t have the mood to look at the shops on both sides of the road.
When she saw the map little celery drew, she was very surprised and happy at the same time. In addition to being surprised and happy at little celery’s careful observation, what was especially valuable was little celery’s care and concern for her mother. When other children of the same age were still squandering their parents ‘unconditional love, little celery already knew how to give back … To be able to feel this kind of care, no matter how hard she worked, it was all worth it.
She was not in a hurry to agree. The next day, when she sent little celery to school, she compared the route with the map and found that it was very accurate. Even a person who had just come to Binhai city could easily get to Zhonghua Road primary school from her house according to the route.
So, the next night, she agreed to let little celery go to and from school by herself.
Little celery was so happy that she jumped up and down on the bed. She didn’t seem to be nervous or afraid at all.
Cai meiwen smiled, but her heart wasn’t that big. On the morning of the third day, she left home first, pretending to go to work, but in fact, she was waiting downstairs quietly. She saw little celery walking out of the building during school time, carefully following the route map to school.
She followed little celery from a distance. She was very worried, especially when they reached the intersection, or when a stranger approached little celery.
Little celery seemed to be a little nervous. Every time she reached an intersection, she would repeatedly compare the road map to confirm the landmark buildings, then observe the traffic lights and vehicles before finally moving forward.
It wasn’t until the gate of Zhonghua Road primary school appeared in front of them that the mother and daughter both let out a sigh of relief. After watching little celery walk into the school, Cai meiwen happily went to work.
That night, little celery excitedly talked about her first time going to school alone. She described the process very easily, and Cai meiwen happily sang the same tune as her daughter while cooking.
Cai meiwen’s test for her daughter wasn’t over yet. In fact, during the day, she had asked a female colleague who she got along well with to help her.
On the fourth day, little celery went to school alone as usual. On the way, she met a stranger who talked to her. This stranger was Cai meiwen’s female colleague. Little celery had never seen her before. She took out little celery’s favorite snacks and tried to lure little celery to go with her, but little celery ran away without looking back, not paying any attention to her.
When Cai meiwen saw this scene from afar, she finally smiled in relief. It seemed that her usual advice had not been in vain.
In the days that followed, Cai meiwen could finally put more energy into work and get more rest. She also eased the tension between her and her colleagues, and all of this was because little celery could go to and from school alone.
Later on, she would occasionally follow little celery secretly. Little celery was more and more familiar with the route, and she was more and more at ease. The frequency of her following became lower and lower, and finally, she stopped following her.
Maybe it was because of the relatively good security environment and simple folk customs of Binhai city, but there were not many migrants. Little celery never had any problems going to and leaving school. Slowly, Cai meiwen could finally treat this matter as a normal thing. Only when she occasionally heard some rumors, such as a few jobless people with dyed hair, who were fighting and robbing on the way to little celery’s school and were then subdued, would her heart tremble. It also happened at night, and the primary school students had already returned home from school.
Until today, she had been busy with work the whole morning, and it was not until noon that she learned about the news of the typhoon. Private companies were always cautious about such news. They only decided to take a break when they had no other choice. After all, the government would not compensate the money that their boss lost because of a break.