Water Feast

"Mother, this one's good too. Try it. I brought this especially for you from Great Liang."

"Oh, and these honey dates too. I happened to see them on the road and thought they tasted good, so I bought you two jin."

"Mother, do you like sour things? I brought you a jar of pickled ones too."

Excited before his birth mother, Yang Xiaohai finally no longer needed to pretend. He completely returned to how a boy his age ought to be.

"Oh, and this too!" Yang Xiaohai said, stuffing a huge bag of silver into his mother's arms.

"Oh dear, oh dear, that's far too much. Don't take any more, it's enough, enough."

Hearing his own mother say that only made Yang Xiaohai more eager to keep taking things out, as though he meant to empty the entire carriage.

Only after his mother stopped him for quite a while did Yang Xiaohai finally stop moving things.

He began telling his mother of the pain and longing he had endured over the years, but she was deaf. Seeing the slightly bewildered look on her face, it was clear she could not hear him, leaving all the words in his heart bottled up with nowhere to go.

"Come, come. You've only just come home, so you don't know the family. I'll point them out and introduce you." As she spoke, Yang Xiaohai's mother stood up, took his hand, and led him toward the other Tanka People watching nearby.

"This is your second brother."

"Hello, Second Brother!" Yang Xiaohai called to the man before him, who was even shorter than he was.

Second Brother looked extremely awkward and spoke in a somewhat muddled fashion. "Er... ah, you're back? Have you eaten?"

"This is your Third Brother."

"Hello, Third Brother." Third Brother was much