When I was in junior high school, the school was in another village, more than ten miles away from our village. At that time, my family was poor and could not afford a bicycle. Every day I walk to school.

In those days, many children in rural areas stopped studying after graduating from primary school. Even if three or five children went to junior high school, they would soon drop out of school and go home to help adults do farm work. I was relatively lucky. My parents had supported me through junior high school, and they hoped that I would continue to attend high school and then go to college. When I was in the first and second years of junior high school, two other companions went to school with me. But by the third year of junior high school, they both dropped out of school, leaving me alone to continue walking to a neighboring village to go to school.

In the winter of the third year of junior high school, as the senior high school entrance examination approached, we had to have an extra class every afternoon. Because it was winter, the days were short and the nights were long, the sky was dark very early, and I was naturally timid, not to mention passing a cemetery on the way, so I walked home alone in fear.

Every time I walked to the cemetery, it was almost dark. There was no one in the cemetery, and the occasional owl call or two made me shudder, and the eerie atmosphere was terrifying. Every time I passed the cemetery, I would run over desperately while shouting. I always felt that there was a ghost behind me, and when I ran home, my heart was still pounding.

I said to my mother, "I don't want to go to school anymore." My mother asked, "Why?" I said, "It's too late for school, and I'm afraid I'll pass a cemetery on the way." My mother was silent for a while, then said, "Don't be afraid, my stepmother will pick you up from school." At that time, my father was away from home and went to work in the city.

From then on, every time after school, when I approached the cemetery with trepidation, I would hear my mother's shaky voice: "Son, is that you?" I quickly replied, "Mom, it's me!" Then we ran to each other and rushed home side by side. On the way, I saw my mother holding a scythe tightly in her hand and asked, "Mom, what are you doing with a scythe?" My mother said, "If you meet a bad person, Mom will protect you." In this way, my mother would wait for me in the cemetery every day when it was dark until my father came back from the city.

When my father heard that my mother picked me up from school every day, he stared at my mother with wide eyes, and asked me in disbelief, "Son, is this true?" I said, "Of course it's true, my mother is very brave, and she is standing in the graveyard alone with a scythe waiting for me." After hearing this, my father hugged my mother tightly. Then my father told me that my mother was actually a very timid person. She is most afraid of the dark, and she does not dare  go out alone when it gets dark. I was born timid because of my mother.

After listening to my father's words, I couldn't help but shed tears. It was only then that I suddenly understood why my mother was silent for a long time when she decided to pick me up from school, why she held a scythe in her hand when she waited for me in the cemetery, and why she seemed so flustered every time she walked home. It turned out that in those days, my mother stood in the cemetery at night with great fear waiting for her son to leave school! However, what made my mother so much courage to wait for me to leave school? There is only one answer, and that is the mother's love for her son. This love makes the mother more courageous and fearless!