"Why do you come back so late?" turning his head towards Hawk, Richie asked in a caring tone.
"I was delayed by something," with a sly smile, Hawk replied. Waving the envelope in his hand, he added, "But I'm late just in time to take this here."
"Is that from Wing?" Looking at the envelope, Shirley's eyes shone. She stood up and took the envelope over from Hawk. While opening it, she said, "When we talked last time on the phone, she said for Charlie and Evelyn's birthday she would mail a..." Her speech rate slowed down as she looked down at something inside the envelope. She took something out of the envelope, then she finished her sentence, "Postcard."
She fixed her eyes on the things in her hands and read it carefully. When everyone started to look at each other and then looked at her in confusion, her eyes turned bright. Excitedly, she shouted, "Richie, Richie... Wing is pregnant!" With a picture of the B-mode ultrasound, she turned around to look at Richie and said again, "Wing is pregnant!"
"Really? Wow!"
everyone sitting on the sofa exclaimed out of surprise. Their reactions exploded inside the house in an instant, just like a happy bomb. Everyone sprang up to their feet. Shirley was in tears and Molly had her hands in her mouth in disbelief. Richie strode towards Shirley to take the B-mode ultrasound picture over to have a look. Both Brian and Eric, who had been playing with the kids, stood up and ran towards them. In such a pleasant way, happiness came without giving a notice in advance. Nobody there had a mental preparation for Wing's pregnancy, which made them feel happier hearing the good news.
On her mind, Molly couldn't contain her emotions when she flew to a place where an army of the State Parliament was stationed together with Brian and Mark. She felt that nearly every corner of the world was overwhelmed by a happy atmosphere.
Observing life from a soldier's point of view, one could not help but be happy each and every day of his life for he didn't know if he would wake up to live the next day. Thus he must live his life to the fullest as if it would be his last. Of course, she would feel even better if Mark didn't have to go to experience life in some military base for a year.
At the thought of this, she felt her happiness vanished into the air, like a ray of sunshine vanished by the thick clouds brought about by a storm. Mark was so young and he had just received the training as a power holder candidate. She didn't know why he had to study at the military base for a year as a way of exchange learning. Molly thought that it wouldn't be necessary for him to undergo training just to be the power holder of Dragon Island in the future. Even if he would become a power holder, he would not need to fight a battle. In this age of peace, did a power holder need to be familiar with military affairs?
Even if he needed to, why did he have to go to a remote mountain to do that?
These thoughts kept rolling in Molly's mind. Seeing the changing expressions on her face, Brian knew what she was thinking about. While reading the newspapers, he sighed slightly and said, "You will know why as soon as you arrive there."
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