Jiujiu and A-Ling's Weekendays Event - my submissions

Day One - Shopping/Letters

Jin Ling is about seven years old in this one

Jiujiu - Uncle (mother's younger brother)

Diedie - Daddy

A-Niang - Mommy

Xiao-Shusu - Little Uncle (Jin Guanyao)

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"A-Ling, you've got a letter!" A-Niang calls down.

Jin Ling pauses the game he's playing on his switch, Little Fairy perking up on her bed before settling again. After turning back to give her a couple pats, he races down the stairs to where mom was standing in the kitchen doorway.

She was holding a letter in her hand, folded in a creamy envelope with a purple wax seal, imprinted with the Jiang family crest.

He knew that he had to be careful with these kinds of letters, so Jin Ling stoped himself from just ripping it open, going into the kitchen to get a butter knife. Carefully sticking the knife under the seal with his mom right over his shoulder, Jin Ling popped the wax seal off of the envelope. As mom turns to put the butter knife away, he takes out the letter inside, opening it for mom to read to him. He recognizes some of the characters, but he's still learning!

She takes ahold of the paper over his shoulder, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. It tickles him a little when her cool jade bracelet grazes his ear.

"Dear Jin Ling," A-Niang starts, "I invite you to go shopping with me at The River Mall this Saturday. I would pick you up at 11 AM and drop you off at 3." To this, a-niang nods appreciatively. "Please write back with your response."  A-Niang puts the paper back down.

"Well, do you want to write one now?"

Jin Ling nods, reaching for a pan left on a table.

A-Niang turns to go out of the kitchen. "Let me go get some paper from your father's office."

When a -niang returns, Jin Ling carefully writes out a response, letting mom pour on the wax seal over the closed envelope.

"Okay,"  A-Niang lets Jin Ling blow out the candle used to melt the wax. "Let's leave this here so the wax can harden, and you can come back down in 30 minutes for dinner." A-Niang slides the letter further onto the table.

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"Jiujiu!" Jin Ling runs down the front steps as soon as he sees his jiujiu's dark purple car pull into the driveway.

His mom calls out for him to have a good time, but he just jumps right in.

Jiujiu waves to a-niang before he turns back. "You buckled up?"

"Yep!" Jin Ling chirps back.

"Alright." Jiujiu sighs out as he waves to his sister and peels out of the driveway.

"So, did you like letters?"

"Yes! You had very fancy paper."

Jiujiu just smiled at that, but didn't ask anymore questions, so Jin Ling let him know all about the stuff he missed since that last saw each other. And he had quite a bit to tell, because he saw his jiujiu almost a week ago. He tried to write it in his responding letter, but his a-niang stopped him before he could write everything.

"I tried to tell you this in my letter, but mom thought I would have nothing to tell you when we saw each other," Jin Ling explained. jiujiu just laughed.

He then reached back to pat Jin Ling's knee, "Well you tell me all about what I missed then."

Jin Ling was more than happy to fulfill the request.