"Uh... well, it's just..." Before asking the question, Chen Bing cautiously glanced at Liu Xiaoxiao. Seeing that the other girl had a blank expression on her face, she thought of a more tactful way to ask.
"Why are you alone in the park? Did you have a fight with your family?"
Please forgive Chen Bing, a lifelong single, for not knowing how to be tactful. Over the years, his relationship with Shang Yunmiao has always been straightforward, so his experience in chatting with girls his own age is practically zero.
Fortunately, Liu Xiaoxiao wasn't the type to hold a grudge over a single comment, but neither was she the kind of person who would openly share her innermost thoughts with others. So, the young girl chose to lower her head and remain silent.
Damn, I think I said something wrong. What am I going to do now? The atmosphere is so awkward.
Chen Bing touched his nose, and could only guess how to comfort Liu Xiaoxiao.
He reasoned that, logically speaking, a fifth or sixth grader who had been wronged outside would definitely go home and be upset. Since Liu Xiaoxiao was so concerned about her image and afraid of others seeing her cry, the fact that she came to a place like a park suggested she had likely had a conflict with her family.
Although I haven't heard any news about Liu Xiaoxiao since around first or second grade, according to the information I had before, this little girl seemed to often quarrel with her grandparents.
Based on the above, Chen Bing slowly said, "Well, actually, when people get older, they either like to talk a lot or they have a lot of bad habits, which is quite normal."
When you're with them, don't worry about any problems. Just let them do what they want. When grandparents get to their age, they can easily become old-fashioned. No matter what the younger generation says or how they explain it, it's really... Uh... no, well, you, you're crying... I, not?"
While Chen Bing was rambling on and on, engrossed in his own world, he completely failed to notice Liu Xiaoxiao's strange behavior beside him.
As Chen Bing spoke, the other person lowered their head further and further until hot tears fell vertically onto the little girl's legs, the sound of which continued to drip until it was finally silenced by the girl's suppressed sobs.
It's unclear what Chen Bing said that touched a raw nerve with Liu Xiaoxiao, but the tears in the girl's eyes finally broke free and flowed like a burst dam. At the same time, her nose twitched, making her look quite pitiful.
Unlike Shang Yunmiao's method of secretly crying, when Liu Xiaoxiao's suppressed emotions surged to their peak, she suddenly raised her head, looked up at the ceiling at a 45-degree angle, and burst into tears with half-closed eyes.
"Uh..." Chen Bing felt like he wanted to die. He was cursing himself for not knowing how to speak and wished he could just smash his head against a block of tofu to atone for his sins.
Just as he was wondering what to do, Liu Xiaoxiao lowered her head again and then leaned into his arms.
Okay, I'm pretty good at comforting girls by holding them in my arms. I've practiced it on Shang Yunmiao many times before. Chen Bing immediately prepared to hug Liu Xiaoxiao to comfort her, but before he could reach her, she took the initiative to leave his embrace and then picked up Zhao Cai, who was sleeping next to him.
Zhao Cai woke up from her sleep when she was suddenly hugged. When she saw the human hugging her and crying, she was stunned for a moment, then put her paws on Liu Xiaoxiao's head and meowed twice.
Liu Xiaoxiao might not know, but Chen Bing could tell that the little fat cat regarded Liu Xiaoxiao as a subordinate who had come to seek refuge.
To stop this absurd scene from continuing, Chen Bing went up and made a few fierce faces at Zhao Cai, successfully causing the other party to give up the little brother he had gained. The cat angrily left the sofa.
Damn it, meow (〃＞目＜), you just said you wanted my little brother, why are you yelling at me!
After Zhao Cai left, Liu Xiaoxiao continued to bury her head on the sofa and cry. Her cries were incredibly pitiful. No matter how Chen Bing tried to persuade her or even tried to get her to get up, she remained unmoved in her current position.
Oh no, I made the girl cry again. I deserve to die.
After a few minutes of maintaining this state, Liu Xiaoxiao's crying gradually subsided, and she got up and sat back on the sofa.
"Yes, yes... I'm sorry, I made your sofa... dirty..."
He spoke.
Ignoring her surprise, Chen Bing quickly said it was alright, then sat down on the sofa with one side of her body, leaning close to Liu Xiaoxiao with a concerned look in her eyes.
"Um...did I say something wrong just now? If you have something upsetting on your mind, it's best not to keep it bottled up. It might make you feel better if you let it out. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
Chen Bing felt that even if she had unintentionally touched on Liu Xiaoxiao's sore spot about the conflict with her grandparents, she shouldn't have cried so much, so the truth of the matter must not be what she imagined.
Perhaps it was a good cry that released all the pent-up emotions, or perhaps it was the effect of her suggestion in the second half of her statement, but after asking the question, Liu Xiaoxiao paused for a moment, and then simply expressed the myriad thoughts that had been bottled up in her heart to Chen Bing.
Grandma is dead.
"ah?"
This answer was completely unexpected for Chen Bing. He had assumed that Liu Xiaoxiao didn't have a good relationship with her grandparents, but he hadn't expected them to be so heartbroken over their passing. After all, birth, aging, illness, and death are the natural order of things; most people aren't even that heartbroken when their own parents die. So, is Liu Xiaoxiao really that sentimental and loyal?
"Please accept my condolences... Um, were you and your grandmother very close?"
"It's just... not so good."
"That is..." Chen Bing was even more puzzled now. Why was she so sad when they weren't even that close?
Faced with Chen Bing's questioning gaze, Liu Xiaoxiao slowly turned her head, looking at Chen Bing with her eyes red from crying, and answered slowly and deliberately, "From as far back as I can remember, I've always been with my grandparents. Although they would scold me and complain about me, they never said they didn't want me. They wouldn't buy me street food, but they would cook three meals a day for me. They would pick me up from school on time every day, and they would never miss a day because they forgot, were lazy, or it was windy or rainy."
Grandma, the day before she passed away, I told her not to come pick me up on her old tricycle anymore…
At this point, tears welled up in the girl's eyes once again.
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