On Sunday, Li Ye sat on the sofa reading the newspaper while his daughter, Little Pouch, circled around him like a puppy.
"Dad, when our school goes on break, can you take Brother and me to San Francisco to see Uncle Ollie? Uncle Ollie said my horse had a foal. I haven't ridden in so long."
Li Ye snapped the newspaper open. "No. When you're on break, Dad still has to work! Besides, you have winter vacation homework."
Little Pouch immediately said, "Then let my second aunt and little aunt take me! I'll bring my homework and do it at the lighthouse. I promise I'll finish it. If I'm lying, I'm a puppy."
Hearing his daughter's instant comeback, Li Ye knew he was in for a hard battle today.
Once a child learned how to think, learned how to use that little brain to fight wits and courage with their parents, the parents' happiest family days were gone forever. That obedient good child had grown crafty.
Li Ye turned the newspaper over and said unhurriedly, "That won't work either. It's winter now. There are no great east-west mountain ranges around the lighthouse, so Arctic cold currents can sweep south unchecked,
When those cold currents head south, they bring blizzards. Little Pouch, you know that. Once it snows, you can't ride horses at all, and the foal can only stay in a heated stable. The smell of horse manure baked by the heat... tsk, tsk, tsk."
The last time Little Pouch had gone to Li Ye's estate in San Francisco, he had taken her to shovel horse manure. The little girl had wrinkled her nose and nearly stopped breathing, so she should have remembered it vividly.
But Little Pouch asked in confusion, "Dad, are you lying to me? I asked Uncle