Back at the cave abode.
Yangyang had already eaten.
When she saw the fish I'd brought back, she secretly suppressed her smile.
She couldn't let Mommy know how happy she was.
I kept my eyes fixed on my daughter's face.
She looked dazed, like a frightened bird.
It was as though everyone around me, even my own dear daughter, was eager to strip me of my personhood.
So I had to put an end to this bad habit.
Yangyang obediently clasped her little hands behind her back and said something she didn't mean. "Yangyang's already full."
Her little brain had seized the high ground of wisdom.
She knew that if she said she wanted some, her mother wouldn't give her any.
But if she said she was full, her mother would insist she eat a little anyway, on the grounds that it would be wasteful otherwise.
"Are you sure you don't want any?" I continued gazing at my daughter's tender little face.
"No, no."
"Yangyang's already full." The little dumpling bounced back into her room and brought out the lunchbox she'd eaten from. "The lunchbox hasn't even been washed yet."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Come over and have a little. It'd be a waste not to. Don't force yourself—just have a bite or two to taste it."
Fireworks burst in Yangyang's eyes. "Mm-hmm!"
Before eating, she rubbed her little belly and said with great reluctance, "Yangyang can only eat a little, okay?"
I set the lunchbox on the table beneath the tree, then sat down on the bench and lifted my daughter onto my lap. "Mm. Just have a taste, then stop."
Before we left, Shuang Yue had made another serving of Tianhai Lake spirit fish and packed it up for me to bring home so Yangyang could