The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 3.1 - Too Many Things of the Past (1)

Little Uncle Jì soon left. Supposedly, he would not be coming back until the Lunar New Year period.

So that meant it should be during winter break.

<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only

Time seems to always pass very slowly during your student days, especially in primary and middle school, when you practically count each passing day on your fingers. By the time winter break arrived, he had already somewhat faded from her memory, and she was beginning once again to look forward to being able to go to Dad and Mama's home for winter break. At last, in that break period of approximately twenty odd days, there were two days where Mama had time to have her at their home.

Since a young age, the concept of "home" to her was "Dad and Mama's home" and "Grandfather's home." To her, there had never been the concept of "my home." Her parents' home was very unfamiliar to her. She would come here only once every several months, but each time, she would feel very comfortable. Perhaps this was the power of blood relation.

<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

She arrived here by shuttle bus and very smoothly found her way to the door, carefully opening it with the key that hung around her neck.

At this time of day, there was still no one here.

Changing into slippers, she stepped inside and made her rounds through every room before setting down her schoolbag and beginning to survey around to see whether there was anything new that she had not seen before. One at a time, she took in everything, but she merely looked with her eyes, not daring to casually touch or shift anything. She carried on like this until she spotted two large gift boxes of Nestlé coffee out on the balcony. Suddenly, she remembered... a taste.

That taste that, on that night after her fever, had caused a whole night of sleeplessness for her.

She wanted to open it up and try it, but she had to wait for her mama to come home first.

The one downside to staying here was that no one would cook at set mealtimes, because there was no one at home during the day. However, she soon found in the fridge a box of rice and many dishes that had already been premade. They should have been prepared specifically for her. Those dishes, though, were all too healthy, and she did not like them. So, she only took out the dish of green chili peppers with pickled vegetables, which was Mama's favourite to eat with her rice porridge for breakfast.

Super spicy. She was super happy as she mixed it with rice and ate it. This was what Mama liked to eat, so of course, she definitely had to like it, too.

<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com only

Later, her mama came home, and she finally curiously asked whether she could bring the coffee back with her to drink. Mama did not seem to think there was anything wrong with this and agreed to her request. Therefore, the next day when she went home, she carried two large, red gift boxes of Nestlé coffee onto the shuttle bus with her. The number of people on the bus was particularly few. The uncle-like soldier who had been driving the whole time looked at her, chortling hilariously, "Xixi, who are you bringing these back to give to?"

Who was she giving them to?

Why hadn't she thought of that? She could give a box to Little Uncle Jì.

She beamed. "I'm giving away one box and keeping one for myself."

"This stuff isn't for little kids to drink, eh."