The little gray wolf invited the little white rabbit to his home for a visit.
The next day in class, when Xia Tong opened her pencil case, she found that all four pencils her father had sharpened for her the day before were broken! Her parents hadn't let her bring a knife because they were worried she'd hurt herself while sharpening them. Class was about to start, but what was she going to do without pencils? Xia Tong was so anxious she was sweating profusely.
At this moment, Fu Jia opened his three-tiered pencil case, which was neatly filled with sharpened pencils. Xia Tong was extremely angry: This is blatant showing off!!! How could my pencil break like that? It must have been done by that scoundrel Fu Jia! Fu Jia, now completely at ease, looked at her and said, "I can lend it to you, but you have to agree to one condition!"
Xia Tong was indignant: "You broke my pencil and you still have the nerve to complain?" But class was about to start and she needed a pencil, so she turned around to borrow one from the two boys behind her. The two carefree boys, of course, wouldn't risk offending Fu Jia for a girl, and completely ignored her. She nudged the girls in front of her; those two girls were always high achievers and naturally arrogant, not even turning their heads. Xia Tong had no other choice but to borrow from the girl across the aisle. That girl wasn't a good student and was timid in class. She glanced at Xia Tong with a troubled look, then at Fu Jia beside Xia Tong, and silently lowered her head.
The teacher noticed Xia Tong borrowing things from all over the place and was a little unhappy: "Xia Tong, is there a spinning top on your butt?" Xia Tong felt very embarrassed and extremely frustrated as she sat back down in her seat.
The teacher started the lesson, and Xia Tong pretended to study, clutching her broken pencil. But there was always so much to take notes on in class, and without a pencil, Xia Tong was already scratching her head in frustration. Suddenly, half an eraser, broken off from the pencil, bounced into her hand. Xia Tong glanced at Fu Jia, who was sitting upright, taking notes. Just as she looked down, she heard Fu Jia whisper, "If you walk home with me after school, you can borrow my pencil." He then subtly pushed the pencil in front of Xia Tong.
Xia Tong thought about it and realized that she already lined up with Fu Jia to leave school every day, so there wasn't much of a loss for her, and she agreed.
So for many days after school, Fu Jia would hold Xia Tong's hand, with the silent Yan Chufan by her side. This strange combination didn't last long, until Yan Chufan withdrew.
When Fu Jia came to school that day, she saw Xia Tong listlessly slumped over her desk, fiddling with an ink bottle. It was an old ink bottle, the label on the surface was barely legible, only the two large characters "Hero" were still recognizable. Fu Jia found Xia Tong's behavior today very strange, so she snatched the ink bottle from her hand and examined it for a long time, but the bottle only contained water, nothing else. Fu Jia was puzzled: "Hey, Xia Xiaotong, why are you holding that bottle without saying anything?"
Xia Tong didn't want her precious bottle anymore. She turned her head away and lay face down, only showing Fu Jia the back of her head.
Fu Jia was confused and nudged her. Xia Tong immediately bristled, sitting up abruptly and glaring at him: "You're lying! You big liar! My mom said ocean babies aren't alive at all, they can't grow legs and feet! They never grow up! They can't possibly carry you to breakfast!"
Fu Jia was taken aback by her sudden outburst of anger and then subjected to a barrage of insults. It took him a while to remember the lie he'd told her months ago. Fu Jia was speechless: "I was just joking around, wasn't I? This silly girl actually took it seriously?" He was about to ask for clarification when Xia Tong started fuming again: "I put them in an ink bottle and changed their air every day, hoping they'd grow up and play with me. Even when my mom said I'd been lied to, I didn't believe her. But look at them, they're practically transparent from being soaked and haven't grown any legs!"
Fu Jia then looked closely at the ink bottle. So the marine life he'd bought last time was inside? And it'd faded from being soaked? He shook the bottle; sure enough, you couldn't see anything inside unless you looked closely. Looking at Xia Tong's scrunched-up face, Fu Jia had only one thought: She's so silly! She actually raised that marine life for months just because of that one sentence? He shouldn't lie to her anymore.
However, he quickly forgot about that decision o(╯□╰)o. He really disliked being questioned: "What do you feed the ocean babies every day?"
"Huh?" Xia Tong was taken aback, then asked, "Didn't we not need to eat anything? The uncle who sold the Ocean Baby didn't say that! And my mom didn't say that either."
"You're not going to feed them if I don't tell you? How will they grow if you don't feed them? Will you grow tall if you don't eat?" Fu Jia lectured her.
Xia Tong was puzzled again. Whenever she didn't want to eat vegetables or anything like that, her mother would always say that if she didn't eat, she wouldn't grow tall. Yes, ocean babies should eat too, right? How can they grow up if they don't eat?
Seeing her hesitation, Fu Jia pressed her advantage: "Ocean Baby only eats rice grains. I feed our Egg a lot of rice every day to make it grow this big."
"Eggs?"
"Egg is the nickname of our Ocean Baby. So you're saying that you starved these Ocean Baby animals to death!" Fu Jia said, putting on an air of certainty. "Otherwise, come to my house and see Egg. I can have it carry you around."
Xia Tong believed it completely after hearing this. She unscrewed the ink bottle and said with a sad face, "Lanlan, Xiaozi, Meimei, I'm sorry, Mom didn't take good care of you and let you starve to death." As she spoke, her whole face twisted into a knot.
Seeing that she was about to cry, Fu Jia cut a new eraser and wrote on it: "The Tomb of Lanlan, Xiaozi, and Meimei." He then said to Xia Tong, who was still grieving, mimicking a line from a TV drama, "Don't be sad. I made tombstones for them, so their souls can rest in peace."
Xia Tong took the eraser with a solemn expression, leaned it against the ink bottle, and stared blankly into space.
It was time for school to let out again. As usual, Fu Jia led Xia Tong by the hand. As soon as they left the school, Fu Jia pulled Xia Tong to a park near the school and pointed to a tree, saying, "Let's bury them there."
So, with a casual gesture, Fu Jia pinpointed the feng shui burial sites for the three fake ocean babies. The two of them worked together to bury the ink bottle under the tree, symbolically creating a mound, and then erected the rubber tombstone in front of it in a rather formal manner. After washing their hands, they went back to the place where they were supposed to pick up their parents. By the time they arrived, most of the parents had already left, but the car that was supposed to pick up Fu Jia was still there, though Xia's mother was nowhere to be seen.
Xia Tong panicked. Where was her mother? Why hadn't she come to pick her up today? Could it be that her mother had left while she was burying the sea babies? A sense of abandonment and fear washed over her. Fu Jia, seeing this, didn't get in the car, but simply asked, "Where's your mother?"
"I don't know—will Mom abandon me?" Xia Tong kept looking around, her heart pounding like a cat on a hot tin roof.
“Then come to my house! You can see our Egg.” Fu Jia suggested.
At this moment, Fu Jia, the only person Xia Tong knew, became her lifeline. She silently prayed in her heart: As long as I'm not left alone, please don't leave me alone, I'm scared.
"I'm waiting for my mom--" Xia Tong answered with a sob after searching everywhere for her mother without success.
At this moment, the uncle who came to pick up Fu Jia also got out of the car: "Little girl, don't cry. Do you remember your mother's phone number? Uncle will call her for you and ask her to come pick you up."
Xia Tong wiped away her tears: "I remember, I remember." Xia Tong had been required to memorize her mother's and home phone number since she was very young, so she fluently recited her mother's number as soon as she finished speaking. With an adult beside her, she felt a little more at ease. She looked at him expectantly with her rabbit eyes, which she had just wiped dry from rubbing.
He had just taken out his phone when Fu Jia snatched it away, and he volunteered, "I'll call—"
The uncle, whose phone had been taken away, knelt down and hugged Xia Tong, trying to comfort her in a low voice.
Fu Jia then said, "This number is not in service."
Xia Tong panicked again, but she held her uncle and said calmly, "Please give me the number again."
After a while, Fu Jia said, "This number is not in service. You must have remembered it wrong."
Xia Tong was about to cry when her uncle instructed, "Give me your home phone number." After Xia Tong gave it to him, the two of them, one big and one small, looked at Fu Jia and waited for his news.
After a while, Fu Jia said, "No one is answering the phone."
His uncle held out his hand to him: "Give me your phone, I'll make the call."
Fu Jia was unwilling, but at this moment her uncle's face darkened: "Jia Jia, listen to me."
Fu Jia hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly handed him the phone, her eyes darting around uncertainly. The uncle took the phone and dialed, but no one answered. He pondered for a moment, then leaned down to Xia Tong, who had a pained expression, and said, "It's getting dark, and I can't leave you here alone. Why don't you go to Jia Jia's house first, and then call your mother tonight to have her pick you up?"
Fu Jia immediately showed a delighted expression and urged, "Yes, yes, let's go to my house. If we leave, you'll be kidnapped and sold by human traffickers if you stand here alone!"
Xia Tong still pouted, "I don't want to -- Mom won't be able to see me when she comes later."
"Then we won't stay with you. You can stay here by yourself and wait for the big bad wolf to catch you and eat you when it gets dark!" Fu Jia threatened her.
The uncle standing to the side was exasperated by Fu Jia's tactic of coaxing and threatening the young girl to take her home. He pushed Fu Jia away, who was pulling at Xia Tong, and picked her up. "It's not safe to stand here now. There are many bad people at night. I'm a policeman. Look—" He showed her the military green shirt he was wearing underneath, trying to gain her trust. He wasn't a policeman at all, but it didn't matter now. As long as he could persuade this stubborn little girl, that was enough.
Xia Tong hesitated for a moment: "Then--police officer, can you take me to find my mother?"
The uncle was amused by her childish voice: "Okay--how about I have your mom pick you up tonight?"
"Well... okay." Xia Tong hesitated before agreeing.
Upon hearing this, Fu Jia smiled and got into the car first.
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When I have a stockpile of chapters, I update twice a day... When I don't have a stockpile... I'll try to update once a day... ╮(╯▽╰)╭
So, I made a picture using Meitu Xiu Xiu today and people laughed at me. I'm determined to learn Photoshop!!!
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