Luzhou Moon - Chapter 160
Even Xiaoyu loves her father the most. That's what she often says.
Her father never got angry with her, but her mother was sometimes fierce. So when she saw her mother even hitting her father, she rushed over without thinking.
Mother had disappeared, so Father squatted by the bed, raising his arm to wipe away Xiaoyu's tears with his sleeve.
"You can't bite people like that anymore." His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a seriousness that Xiaoyu couldn't argue with. Xiaoyu had never seen her father look like this before, and she was very scared, so she lowered her head and shrank to one side.
Father stood up again, picked up the porcelain plate of pastries from the table, and placed it on the chair by the bed. "Eat if you're hungry."
Little Fish timidly glanced towards the door, but when she didn't see her mother come in, she turned around and hurriedly grabbed a piece of pastry and stuffed it into her mouth.
Unexpectedly, because she ate too quickly, and because the pastry already contained crumbs, Xiaoyu choked and coughed incessantly, with snot and tears streaming down her face.
Father sighed and tried to lift his foot to pull her closer, but the curtain was lifted and Mother walked in, holding a handkerchief in her hand.
"What kind of mess is this..." she muttered as she vigorously wiped the little fish, clearly indignant.
Side Story: The Dandelion Dream (Part 2)
After this ordeal passed, even though Xiaoyu was well-behaved for a long time, she was listless for days, whether because she was frightened or for some other reason. Even when her mother brought the big yellow dog, she had no interest in playing with it.
Father wanted to take her down the mountain to see a doctor. Mother didn't think it was anything serious, but seeing how concerned Father seemed, she didn't object. Because the weather in the mountains had been unpredictable lately, the herbs drying in the yard needed someone to watch them, so Father took Xiaoyu down the mountain by himself. They agreed that Mother would pick them up in town after she had gathered the herbs.
Even when Xiaoyu was younger, she had been to the town, but back then her mother carried her to see the lanterns. This was the first time she had walked the mountain path with her father. Along the way, mountain springs flowed and birds chirped, which made her forget her fatigue and feel very energetic. Her father carried a bamboo basket on his back, which Xiaoyu had seen when she came out, but it was empty.
She asked her father why he still had to carry her down the mountain, wondering if he was going to buy her nice things to bring back.
The father replied that he might need to get medicine to brew, and it would be difficult to carry it without a bamboo basket.
Lian Xiaoyu was a little discouraged, but she didn't understand what getting medicine meant. Her father didn't explain much to her, only telling her not to run around and to be careful not to fall.
The journey down the mountain was relatively smooth, although they stopped to rest several times along the way. They finally arrived in town just in time for lunch. After finding a doctor who took her pulse, he said she just had a weak stomach and spleen and was not seriously ill. So he prescribed some medicine, which her father had someone put in a bamboo basket. He then wanted to take Xiaoyu to the town entrance to wait for her mother to come and pick her up.
But Xiaoyu hadn't had a good appetite these past few days, and after half a day of hard work, she was now starving. The two waited for a while, and when her father saw her crying and saying she was hungry, he had no choice but to take her to find a place to eat.
The aroma of the food in the small restaurant was so enticing that even the little fish couldn't resist stopping, refusing to leave once it smelled the delicious scent.
"How about we buy you a steamed bun?" her father coaxed her.
Little Fish saw several people sitting at the doorway eating noodles, so she pleaded, "I want to eat noodles."
For some reason, her father seemed a little hesitant, but he agreed after a short while. Little Fish followed her father into the restaurant. There were so many people there; she hadn't seen so many people in a very long time. The tables also seemed higher than those at home. She tried to climb onto the bench, but she couldn't muster the strength.
They tried several different approaches, but all ended in failure. The father sat silently at one end of the bench, just about to use his legs to hold her, when a diner nearby saw this and casually lifted the little fish onto the bench.
"This child is so pitiful." The people around seemed to be looking at her, and also at her father.
Lian Xiaoyu didn't know what she had to be pitied about. She wanted to talk to her father, but he stood up, picked up the chopsticks on the table with his mouth, and handed them to her.
"Catch it, don't drop it on the ground," he whispered. The little fish nodded and looked around. A moment later, the waiter brought over a fragrant bowl of noodles, but there was only one.
"Daddy, where's your noodles?" Little Fish asked, tapping her chopsticks.
Father shook his head. "I don't eat noodles."
"Are you going to eat?" Although Xiaoyu really wanted to eat, she didn't dare to pick up her chopsticks first since her father wasn't eating.
"I'm not hungry yet," Father whispered. "You'd better eat quickly, or it'll get mushy."
"Hmm..." Xiaoyu grabbed her chopsticks and tried to scoop up the noodles, but the table was too high, and she could hardly reach them. Other children were sitting on their parents' laps or being held by adults. She frowned and reached out to pull the bowl closer to the edge of the table.
"Don't move!" Her father saw that she was about to knock over the bowl, so he bumped her with his body. She was startled and dropped her chopsticks on the ground.
In the end, someone on the side took pity on her and put Xiaoyu on her father's lap, letting her sit close to the table, and she ate a few mouthfuls of the already dried-out noodles.
While the little fish was eating, her father sat very carefully and kept reminding her not to fall.
The noodles were so mushy they were no longer edible. Little Fish ate for a short while before turning to her father, looking bored, and saying, "I don't want to eat anymore."
Father sighed, put her down on the ground, and led her out of the restaurant. The two stood by the roadside, the older one carrying a bamboo basket, the younger one curiously watching the passersby, who in turn glanced at her and then at her father from time to time.
"Why do they keep staring at me?" Little Fish asked, tilting her head up.
Her father looked down at her and said, "It's nothing, let's go home."
"Aren't you going to wait for your mother to come and get you?" She didn't really want to walk back, because her legs were already sore.
Father thought for a moment and said, "Let's go back the way we came; she'll meet us there."
Little Fish tugged at her father's sleeve and followed him. They had barely left the town when her legs felt weak. She managed to take a few more steps, but finally couldn't bear it any longer and refused to walk any further with a pained expression.
Her father sat with her for a while, then turned his back to her and said, "Little Fish, take the medicine out of the bamboo basket."
She reached in and pulled out the medicine. Her father leaned back as much as possible, tilting the bamboo basket slightly. "Come on, stand inside."
The little fish had never tried playing like this before, and on a whim, it actually stepped into the bamboo basket.
Father said, "You must hold me tight and never let go."
Little Fish hugged her father's neck tightly. She felt her father move and stand up. Suddenly, she felt very tall, which made her very happy.
"Daddy, I've become an adult!" She was extremely excited, standing in the bamboo basket and shaking her father's shoulders incessantly.
Father seemed to be smiling, but his voice was low, "Little Fish, you've grown up, and Father can't carry you anymore."
"No, no, I still want Daddy to carry me!" She lay on her father's back and breathed on his neck.
Even Xiaoyu wished she could stand in the bamboo basket like this every day; this way of playing was a novelty she had never experienced before. Going up the mountain required climbing over a slope. Her father didn't talk to her much as they went up, just kept his head down and walked upwards. She gradually became sleepy, so she hugged her father's shoulders and drifted off to sleep.