"A-Ning," she repeated, her voice softer now as it sank in that he was really back. She had watched her brother leave the train, had watched him walk through the gate she couldn't follow through and thought she would never meet him again... and now here he was, in the library as if they had never been torn apart a second time.

"You are well?" she asked, stepping forward, tears in her eyes, reaching for him, to grab his shoulders and reassure herself that he was well, that he was really here. "Please don't scare me like that again, A-Ning!"