Brian was very happy. He had been looking forward to this scene for a long time. When he came home,
her children run to him and his wife waited for her. Back to a warm and sweet home was the happiest
thing in life.
"You are garrulous, I don't know since when this mouth doesn’t belong to Brian. Brian talked less, cold
and domineering. You are like a ruffian now..."
"What did you say? I am a ruffian?"
Brian interrupted Winnie with a smile. If she continued, he could not imagine what kind of person he
was in her mouth. Would he be a womanizer?
"It is a slip of the tongue, you still have a gap from ruffians. The ruffians talk cheerfully and humorously
and you..."
"Stop, stop describing. I'm going to find a hole to get into."
Brian understood Winnie's jokes. She meant he was not even as good as the ruffian.
To punish Winnie for her slip of tongue, Brian immediately silenced Winnie so that she could not
describe what kind of person he was.
The next day, Luke's competition continued.
It was the final, the most exciting competition.
Compared to the previous several competitions, Luke tightened his nerves. It was not because he was
nervous, because he told himself to be serious and must focus on the competition.
"Mom, I get nervous if you look like this."
Luke said with a smile. He could not help but felt funny seeing his mother nervously rubbing her hands.
"I'm sorry, Luke, I am really nervous. But don't worry about it. You don't need to be nervous."
When it came to the last minute, Winnie could not help being nervous.
"Son, don’t be affected by Mom, if you are not nervous, Mom will not be nervous. Fighting, son!"
Brian took Winnie's hand and pulled her to his side, afraid that Winnie's tension infected Luke. At the
same time, he encouraged his son.
"Dad, Uncle Oscar, Mom, you can rest assured, I am not nervous at all, I will try my best in the
competition."
Luke, like a small adult, comforted a few adults. It would be a lie to say that he was not nervous at all,
but he could control the intensity of the tension, and once he started the competition, he had no extra
mind to be nervous, so Luke was not afraid.
"Good, we believe you, Luke, we rest assured. I have to remind you, be adaptable, don’t be too
persistent."
Oscar was the most confident one to Luke, but no one could guarantee that if there was an emergency,
so he had to remind Luke.
"Ok, I will remember."
Luke gave Oscar a confident smile.
"All right, go on. We await your good news."
After Oscar and Luke gave high-fives, Luke came to the competition calmly.
This competition was very intense. Although they were kids at about 8 years old, they were more
serious than adults.
In particular, Luke, as if no one else was around, was highly concentrated in the competition.
The audience today was also in highly tense atmosphere. Winnie's hand had been held by Brian. Her
heart was about to jump out of throat and even her breath became careful.
"I will not go with him for Luke’s next competition. It is suffering. If the competition lasts a long time, I
will probably faint."
In order to ease her nervous mood, Winnie whispered to Brian.
Brain first smiled. Although he was too nervous, he was not as nervous as Winnie.
"This is a world class competition and the tension should be at its highest. After this, it's trifles. You can
handle it."
Brian attached to the ear of Winnie and whispered, in order to relieve her tension.
"Why are you so nervous? Are you nervous because Luke will win or won't win?"
Oscar chimed in in a low voice. When he saw the final title, he already had a certain degree of
confidence and was not so nervous.
"It doesn't matter if he wins the championship, after all he is still young. I just want to him to advance a
little bit."
Brian thought so, and Winnie could not guarantee the results.
"What's the point of being nervous? I guess he can rank the third."
Oscar was afraid that Brian and Winnie would be disappointed, he could only say in a conservative
way.
"Really?"
Brian was skeptical.
"Yes, you can do whatever you want to me if he can’t win the third."
He assured, but he did not sat it was conservative.
"That's a relief to me. Winwin, don't be nervous. Third in the world is a very high achievement."
Brian tilted his head to comfort Winnie.
"My nervousness has nothing to do with the result. I don’t care which place he gets, I'm nervous about
the process."
Winnie's tension could not reduce by appeasing. She knew her son better than Oscar and knew that
what Oscar said was conservative. Thought she knew everything, she was still nervous, because the
process was more important.
"There's nothing we can do. We could only wait until the competition is over."
Brian said with a smile, he has been incompetent for Winnie's tension. The only thing to do was to hold
Winnie's hand and feel the sweat in her palm.
"Hopefully there won't be extra time, or Winwin will be carried out."
Oscar was also smiling, but his voice was small, even Brian next to him could not hear it.
The competition lasted longer than the previous ones, and it was a long time of suffering for Winnie.
Fortunately, Winnie endured it until the competition finally was over.
The results of the competition would be announced in the afternoon, but Winnie was not nervous
anymore. Now Luke was nervous.
"Mom, where do you think I would rank?"
Luke has been silent and nervous, finally could not help but wanted his mother to help him analyze.
"It doesn't matter where you rank, what matters is that you have tried and played your best. I think that
spirit is good enough."
Winnie did not dare to tell him the ranking, afraid that he could not accept it if she said it was low, but if
she said it was high, the result might be disappointing. She could only say enlighteningly.
"Mom, are you saying that because you don't have confidence in me?"
Luke had listened to too many words to enlighten him, and his mother was now enlightening him.
No matter where he ranked, he would accept it, but he wanted to win the championship for his father's
reward.
"I have confidence in you, but we can't be arrogant because the final result hasn’t come out. Luke,
don't think about it. That you can enter the final is already a kind of pride for Mom and Dad. You're
representing our country. How many people could represent the country?"
"Don't care too much about the ranking. You are still young and have little experience in the
competition. And you didn't take as long to learn software programming as the other kids, so that's
already pretty good for me."
Of course, Winnie believed in her son, but she was afraid that his son would be disappointed.
"Luke, what kind of results do you think you can get? Don’t you have full understanding about your
competitors? You should be able to estimate your result."
Brian asked Luke, so that he could understand his mother’s mimd.
"I..."
Luke hesitated, he did not know how to answer. In fact, he thought he should have won the
championship, but he was afraid that once he said it out and he failed, he would let his parents down.
Luke at this moment suddenly understood his mother's concerns and the reason why his father asked
him so.
"Mom, I see what you mean. We'll see what happens."
Winnie smiled for the wisdom of Brian and Luke.
"Well, just wait for the result."
C City.
It was already one o'clock in the morning. Isobel woke up suddenly from her sleep.
In fact, she had not been sleeping well but waiting for the results of the Luke’s competition.
Isobel took a look at the watch. She was not sleepy and immediately got up, only to see Rufus curling
on sofa.
It was still cold this month in C City. Rufus's quilt slipped on the ground, so he curled up his body.
Isobel got off the bed lightly and walked to Rufus, squatted down and picked up the quilt to cover
Rufus' body.
Although she was careful not to make a sound, Rufus was still disturbed.
"Why are you out of bed? Do you feel not well? I'll call nurse, you go to bed."
Rufus said at a time and did not give Isobel the opportunity to explain.
He got up quickly and was to leave, but Isobel stopped him.
"I am good. Your quilt fell over, so I picked it up for you."
Isobel explained in a low voice, Rufus turned back. He looked up at the clock and found it was past one
in the morning.
"Why are you awake at this hour?"
"I have been thinking of the achievement of Luke, so I can’t sleep well."
Isobel said and walked back to the hospital bed.
"You'll know in the morning after a sleep. Lie down and go to sleep. If you don't sleep well, you'll
recover slowly."
Rufus said. Although he was also concerned about the achievement of Luke, but at the moment he
was most concerned about Isobel.
Isobel went to bed but didn't lie down. She sat there.
"Rufus, I'm good. I can take care of myself. You can go back. Vanessa was alone at home, I am
worried about her."
Isobel found an excuse to let Rufus go back. Rufus was old and she did not want him to sleep on the
sofa because of her.
"Don't worry, Stella went back to accompany Vanessa."
Rufus could not be sent away so easily. It was a rare opportunity for him to with Isobel recklessly. He
did not want to go back now.
"Stella is with her, but..."
Isobel wanted to it would be better if Rufus take care of Vanessa. It was not that she did not believe
Stella, but wanted him to go back. But Rufus knew what she was going to say before her words were
finished.
"Stella takes good care of her. She likes Vanessa and regards Vanessa as her sister."
"Stella knows you come to me?"
Isobel suddenly realized the problem.
"No, except Paul, no one knows I came to see you. I told them to meet an old friend for a break."
Rufus had not impulse to put everything out. He must be ready and made a plan before he told about
Isobel and Vanessa.
"Alas......"
Isobel sighed, breathing hard at the thought of all these troubling things. This feeling of depression had
been with her for more than twenty years.
"Rufus, if we did not meet, it would be great. There would not be so many troubles, and your wife would
not have died."
She felt depressed about those years and her heart still trembled.
"You regret being with me, do you? I have no regrets, never. I would never have known what love was
if I hadn't met you."
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda