A few days later, Huo Xiao learned that his son had won second place in the Qingniao Cup competition. To be honest, this result surprised him a bit, because as far as he knew, his son’s tennis skills were excellent, and he had always been ambitious about winning the championship.
Since his son only managed to get second place this time, the boy’s mood must be quite bad. This was probably why he had been avoiding his parents these past few days, rarely joining them for meals, Huo Xiao thought.
So, taking advantage of his son eating at home tonight, Huo Xiao carefully chose his words and asked, “How have you been recently?”
As for the competition, he didn’t dare to delve into it directly.
“Eh? Alright.” The boy, who was eating, looked up at his parents and responded in his usual brief manner.
Huo Xiao and his wife sighed softly and said, “Now that it’s summer vacation, do you want to go out and have some fun?”
They were trying their best to close the gap in their parent-child relationship.
However, after the last argument, Huo Yunchuan had shown obvious resistance towards them.
“I’ll make my own plans.” The boy’s tone was flat, which was what the Huo couple had expected. However, to their surprise, he paused and then, uncharacteristically, asked, “By the way, do you plan to have another child?”
Huo Xiao and his wife were stunned, their expressions full of surprise and bewilderment, quickly wondering about the purpose behind their son’s question. The first thought that crossed their minds was whether he was afraid of having another child in the family.
Huo Xiao quickly said, “No, you’re overthinking it.”
Madam Huo nodded, “You’re already sixteen. If we had wanted another child, we wouldn’t have waited until now.”
The parents sighed inwardly, realizing that their seemingly independent and mature son also had these childish thoughts.
“Oh.” Huo Yunchuan responded with a hint of disappointment.
Come to think of it, his parents were not young anymore, and the chances of them giving him a younger brother were slim to none.
Then he said no more and quietly finished his meal.
Before 4 PM the next day, the boy, wearing a baseball cap, left home and headed to XX Park, directly to the sandbox he visited the day before.
As usual, it was crowded with children, big and small, boys and girls, noisy and headache-inducing.
But upon seeing the familiar little rascal, he automatically ignored the noise around him. Huo Yunchuan’s eyes were only on the little kid who tirelessly played with the sand.
He walked over coolly and called down, “Little rascal.”
But the silly little rascal seemed insensitive to this name. It took two calls before he lifted his silly head and, upon seeing Huo Yunchuan, broke into a delighted and happy smile.
Generally, Huo Yunchuan found those wide-mouthed smiles quite disgusting; after all, no one wanted to see someone else’s wet tongue.
“Brother!” The little rascal enthusiastically rushed for a hug, which he didn’t mind.
“Yeah, little rascal.” Huo Yunchuan effortlessly picked up the small figure, adjusting his hold to make him sit more comfortably.
An Wuyang was stunned for a moment. Little rascal? Was he talking to him?
“Brother, I’m not called little rascal.” The little kid corrected him seriously.
Finally, holding the fragrant, soft little one again, the boy wholeheartedly enjoyed the pleasant feeling that made his pores open up while half-heartedly responding to the little rascal who insisted on chatting with him, “Oh, then what’s your name?”
“My name is…” The words “An Wuyang” were stuck in the little one’s mouth. After humming a bit, he finally tugged at his fingers and quietly said, “My name is little baby.”
Huo Yunchuan: “…”
Generation gap… but still very cute, tolerable.
“Alright, little baby.” He cooperated with the naive little one who didn’t even know his own name, “Where’s your sister?”
An Wuyang, immersed in the joy of being called ‘little baby’ by his brother, looked around when he heard the word sister, then shook his head in his brother’s arms, “I haven’t seen her.”
The boy frowned, “Where does she usually go?” And only one girl looking after the kid? Aren’t they afraid of him being taken away?…
“I don’t know.” The little one scratched his head, looking particularly confused, “Maybe she went to buy snacks.” He then pointed to the direction outside the park’s iron fence.
It was a small supermarket visible to the naked eye.
Huo Yunchuan glanced sideways at the little rascal who couldn’t take his eyes off the small supermarket, thinking, the destination might not be where the sister wanted to go, but definitely where the little rascal wanted to go.
“Then I’ll take you to have a look.” The boy endured the tingly feeling inside, willingly being tricked by a child more than ten years younger than himself.
“Okay!” The little one’s eyes lit up.
So, Huo Yunchuan carried him out of the park gate, crossed the road, and pushed open the glass door of the small supermarket.
He quickly scanned the place and was eighty percent sure that the little rascal’s sister was not there.
However, pretending to be serious, he carried the little rascal inside and looked around.
“Seems like your sister isn’t here,” Huo Yunchuan said casually, noticing the little one’s eyes glued to the snacks, “How about you pick some snacks? I’ll pay.”
“Huh?” The little one asked, “Really?”
Huo Yunchuan replied, “Yes, you can take whatever you like.”
The little one, who rarely bought snacks, grinned widely but wasn’t greedy. He only took a bunny-shaped lollipop, beautifully wrapped with a golden ribbon.
Holding it carefully in his hand, he said, “Brother, I want this one.”
Feeling a bit dizzy, Huo Yunchuan asked, “Just one?” He led An Wuyang to the nearby shelf, “You can choose more, I don’t mind.”
An Wuyang struggled internally but ultimately held onto the bunny lollipop and shook his head to refuse the older brother’s kindness, “No, thank you.”
His mother had told him not to accept things from others casually and to be a polite child.
After a moment of silence, the boy took a bear-shaped and a Hello Kitty-shaped lollipop from the shelf and said, “Then let’s add these two.”
He then stuffed the lollipops into An Wuyang’s hand and took him to the checkout.
“…” The little one, overwhelmed with happiness, held the three lollipops, looking at them repeatedly.
But soon, his attention was drawn to the balloons by the checkout counter. Balloons!
The balloons, with “Have a Happy Day” written on them, were colorful and tied to the railing, about twenty or thirty in total.
Cashier: “That will be thirty yuan, please.”
Huo Yunchuan paid, following An Wuyang’s gaze to the bunch of balloons, and immediately asked the cashier, “Can I get one of those balloons? How much?”
Cashier: “Uh, those are for store decoration.” He glanced at the child in Huo Yunchuan’s arms and smiled, “But I can give you one.”
Huo Yunchuan said, “Thank you.” Then he carried An Wuyang over, “Which color do you like?”
The little one, loving each one, hugged the older brother’s neck and said, “I want… the orange one.”
The boy nodded, reached out, and untied an orange balloon…
“Not this one.” The little one frantically shook his hand and pointed at the red balloon.
Huo Yunchuan’s mouth twitched as he looked at the bright red balloon, unwilling to take it. He gritted his teeth and asked, “Can you not choose that color…?” The boys in his class often joked that it was the color of a period, and he couldn’t accept it.
“Huh? Oh…” Realizing the older brother didn’t like orange, the little one thought for a moment and said, “Then that one, the pink one.”
Huo Yunchuan glanced at the soft pink balloon and didn’t refuse, “Alright.” He untied the balloon and handed the string to An Wuyang, “Don’t let go, or it will fly away.”
The little one was so happy to get the balloon that he shyly hugged the older brother’s neck and kissed him on the cheek, “Thank you, brother.”
“…” The boy turned into a wooden figure from that pure kiss.
Being kissed by the little rascal, he clicked his tongue.
Then he raised his hand to rub his face, which had turned red, and said, “No need to thank me.”
Since the little rascal’s sister wasn’t here, they would look elsewhere and take the little rascal for a stroll in the process.
“How old are you this year?” he asked.
The little one, struggling to hold both the balloon and the candies, said, “I’m four years old.”
“…” The boy turned his head, unable to suppress a smile under his baseball cap, and offered to help, “I’ll hold the candies for you.”
The little one’s tiny hand was too small to hold all three candies.
Leaving the small supermarket, the boy, who had never walked so slowly before, strolled leisurely through the park, trying to find out where the little rascal lived.
He asked, “Where do you live?”
Without hesitation, the little one replied, “Opposite Hou Hongqi’s house.”
Huo Yunchuan almost twisted his ankle on a cobblestone. Who was Hou Hongqi??
He composed himself and asked, “Where does Hou Hongqi live?”
Without hesitation, the little one replied, “Opposite my house.”
The boy looked at the little rascal’s earnest face and felt an urge to bite him out of frustration, “Do you know the name of your neighborhood?”
The little one frowned and asked, “Who’s the neighborhood?” Was it the older brother’s friend?
Huo Yunchuan: “…”
They had now reached the koi pond, where many beautiful koi fish were swimming.
“Wow, the goldfish are so pretty.”
The boy thought, those aren’t goldfish, they’re koi, but considering the child’s understanding… never mind, as long as he’s happy.
“What’s the name of your kindergarten?” he asked without much hope.
“The name of the kindergarten? I know.” The little one’s answer was unexpected, his words clear and loud, “Xinghui Bilingual Kindergarten.”
Huo Yunchuan sighed with relief, finally, they could have a proper conversation.
“Oh, which class are you in?”
They continued to walk slowly into the depths of the park.
“I’m in the middle class, the Apple class, and I can speak English too.” The little one boasted to his older brother, words spilling out like beans.
Huo Yunchuan: “…You’re amazing.” So, this was a little one from the Apple class—how impressive.
During this so-called ‘looking for sister’ but actually taking a stroll time, the little one, happily chatting, wrapped his arms around the older brother’s neck and softly hummed Do-Re-Mi.
Though off-key and full of childish charm, the boy carrying him had a joyful smile plastered on his face.
Hmm, Xinghui Kindergarten, middle class, Apple class, little one, got it?
The person holding you now is named Huo Yunchuan, nice to meet you.
1TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you and Enjoy reading! ❤️”
