Only then did Xiaohua and her dad return to the courtyard with several young men. Xiaohua skipped along, excitement all over her face, while her dad limped, his bad leg making a faint scraping sound as it dragged across the ground.
Xiaohua Ama, who had just finished clearing away the dishes, busied herself again, bustling back and forth to welcome the new guests and arrange their rooms. Xiaohua hopped around beside her, helping fetch the keys.
Only Xiaohua's dad seemed like an outsider. He walked alone to a small square stool in a corner of the courtyard, sat down, and leisurely began smoking.
After a while, Xiaohua Ama finished up, then went into the kitchen and clattered away as she stir-fried two or three simple dishes and warmed a pot of wine. She brought them over to Xiaohua's dad and set them on the small table beside him.
Then Xiaohua Ama smiled and called Xiaohua over, and the three of them sat around the little table to eat.
As they ate, the three chatted and laughed, and the atmosphere was warm.
Xiaohua's dad was no longer so taciturn either. He always answered his wife and child's chatter with a gentle smile, occasionally picking up a morsel with his chopsticks and giving it to Xiaohua.
If one ignored the Yin Souls entwined around Xiaohua's dad, and the way Xiaohua Ama openly discussed her earnings from entertaining customers that day at the dinner table as though it were an ordinary household matter, the family's meal could have been called harmonious, full of the domestic happiness of an ordinary home.
Once Xiaohua and her mom finished eating, they each went off to attend to their own affairs.
Only Xiaohua's dad remained, picking at the dishes now and then as he slowly drank his