Uncle wanted to know...
Were the old man's words just now...
deliberate?
Or had he said them without thinking?
Was the old man striking back?
Unfortunately.
His eyes couldn't see through things.
He couldn't make out the old man's expression, hidden by the rain and fog and obscured by the water running down his face.
Forget it.
Uncle wouldn't push himself.
His eyes were about to start twitching.
"Grandpa, do you hate me?"
Uncle asked him directly.
"Why?"
The old man was puzzled.
Why...
Uncle smiled bitterly.
"Because you've always been rather unfriendly toward me."
"Never mind the fact that you punished me just because of two peaches..."
"What you said to me just now was really hostile."
"I didn't mean anything bad by it."
"When I asked you that, I just wanted to know..."
"How much those two peaches your friend gave you were worth to you..."
"If those two peaches were just an ordinary gift from your friend..."
"Then it wouldn't be that big a deal if I accidentally ate them."
"What you did to me was far worse than me accidentally eating your peaches."
"I was just a kid back then."
Uncle stood up for his younger self.
"A little kid."
"You made me suffer a lot."
"...I fell down more times during that period than I did in all the other years of my life combined."
It was true...
Once he realized that, he was a little stunned himself.
He really had gone through a lot back then.
"Falling down hurts."
Uncle's mouth twitched.
His legs had been bruised all over during that period.
He'd always smelled of medicine.
"...You took my homework out of my schoolbag..."
The first time he sat in the classroom, he'd searched his schoolbag