"All right, all right, don't cry. Ice cream's here. Don't cry..."
The young girl fumbled about, clearly without the slightest experience soothing a child. Yet she remained endlessly patient and full of Gentleness as she handed the ice cream to her brother-in-law, then turned to Zhang Suannai beside her. "Why is he crying again?"
"No idea."
Zhang Suannai folded her arms, looking as though it had nothing to do with her. "He started crying the moment you left... Maybe he can't bear being away from you?"
That last part went straight to the young girl's heart.
Her three-year-old brother-in-law couldn't bear being away from her, just as she, at three, hadn't been able to bear being away from him...
"That must be it!" the young girl told Zhang Suannai with a solemn face.
When she looked back, her muddleheaded brother-in-law had taken the ice cream and begun eating it. Soon, cream covered his face. The young girl didn't dare leave him with Zhang Suannai again while she went inside for tissues, so she reached out and carefully wiped the cream from his face with her palm.
Her brother-in-law had done the same for her when she was little.
The thought suddenly made her so happy.
"That won't get it clean," Zhang Suannai said, holding up her phone. "You're just smearing it around. Even if you can't see it, his face will still be sticky."
"Then what should I do?"
"Use a wet wipe."
"But..."
"It's fine. Just be quick, while he isn't paying attention."
"All right!"
The young girl lowered her hand and said with Gentleness to her brother-in-law, "I'm going to get a wipe for your little face. Don't cry or run off. Stay here and eat your ice cream, and when you're done, I'll take you to the