Chapter 19

A small boy could be seen sitting in a rock and looking at his notebook with teary eyes, he seems to have gotten a zero in his tests.

"WuWu..Pa will be mad if I show him this marks." He said as he crumpled the page and after some seconds he straightened them again.

He closed his notebook, kept it inside his bag and walked towards the setting sun.

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When the stars were almost on the verge of appearing. He stood before a small house with a broken roof and with tiny and worried steps he finally entered the house.

"I am home." He said while opening his shoes while looking at the bigger ones and placed his small shoes next to it.

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He walked towards the living room and heard a sizzling sound and the smell of meat frying reached his nose, making his stomach produce demanding nosies for food.

"Son, seems like you didn't give food to your tiger today and see he is roaring." A warm voice said form the kitchen.

"Even if I give it all of the zoo, it will still not shut up."

"Hahaha, don't say that or else it will sulk. Plus the more it roars the more it grows."

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"Pa, but why are you making meat today? I don't remember having any special occasion today to have meat..." The boy said as he sat down on the floor in a mat.

The man who looked like he was in his early 30s smiled and bought two plates of rice and fryed chicken with soup and placed it infornt of him in a small table.

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"There is a special occasion today."

"Really? What is it?"

"Today my son got his very first test result for primary year, tell me how isn't it special?"

The man said with a big smile, while the little boy's face turned sour and he pushed back the plate towards his father.

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"What's wrong? You don't want to eat?"

"I want to...but I don't deserve to eat meat..." The boy said as he clenched his fists and looked at the table with teary eyes.

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"But why?" The father asked in a worried tone,

The boy didn't utter a word and quietly opened his bag and gave him the notebook where he got a zero today.

"I failed and even got a zero. So, I don't deserve to eat meat." He said as a tear rolled down his eyes.

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The father after some silence finally spoke,

"You are right, you don't deserve meat--" He said as he took his plate and walked towards the kitchen.

The boy seeing all this started crying silently and even hugged his stomach which was so hungry that could no longer produce any sound.

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The man after some minutes came back and stood before him, "---You deserve extra meat and egg for this." He said as he placed the plate where a egg was beautifully paced above the rice and more meat could be seen in his plate.

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The boy was happy to see the food but also surprised as why would he deserve this,

"Pa....but I failed...so why?"

"Because looking at your test I can say that despite the results, you have really tried hard for it and that's is what matters."

He said as he picked up a peice of meat and feeded him with it.

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"He-Ling always remember, what matters is you tried your best, not scored the best." He said as he ruffled his head and the little Ling nodded his head with a big smile.

"I will remember that...Pa.." The boy said and his surroundings stated to get blurry.

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"He Ling! Wake up! Hey!!" Xian said as he shook Ling who woke up with a jerk and his eyes meet directly with Xian's.

"Finally you woke up, I really thought of picking you up and throwing you into the river today but I stopped myself thankfully."

"Xian, what's wrong?" Ling asked as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

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"What's wrong? It's past 7 Am now, while you usually wake up at 6. I knocked at your door so many times, even called but you didn't answer so in the end I broke the door and--"

"What!!" Ling shouted and looked behind him and saw the lock being broken.

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"I am sorry, I will repair it for you."

"Leave that and tell me first, are you okay? Didn't you arms hurt while breaking the door? You just got recovered and started looking for troubles again--" Ling babbled nonstop and seeing no other option Xian covered his mouth with his hand.

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"You just woke up to nag me I guess. And right now you tell me, are you okay?" Xian asked and slowly removed his hand and placed it in his forhead.

"As I thought, you have a slight fever."

"Maybe because of yesterday. But it's okay, I am used to it." Ling said as he removed the blanket and was about to walk but Xian made him sit on the bed again.

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"But I am not used to having a sick person walk around, so until and unless it's urgent you won't move around and will not do any work but rest."

"Xian, I am not weak, you know. Now let go."

"Ling, I am serious." Xian said as he looked into Ling's eyes,

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"Fine, now let go, I need to go to the washroom. It's urgent." Ling said and quickly ran to the toilet, after being done with his business, he took a step towards the kitchen but after feeling the glare of Xian, he returned to his room and laid down there comfortably.

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After some time, Xian entered the room with food, he feed Ling, gave him medicine and sat there until he slept. In the evening, he was there again to wake him up and check his temperature which was now back to normal.

"See you rested earlier and now you are fine."

"Hmm, thank you so much, my stranger or else I would still be sick."

"Anyway, when you were asleep, were you dreaming of something fun..."

"Why do you ask?"

"Well the way you smiled then was very different then usual."

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"That's because I dreamt of the person who means the world to me.." Ling said as he smiled and closed his eyes.

"Pa, My father, my mother, my best friend, my motivator, my inspiration, my reason of being...my everything."