After staying in bed for about two more hours, Cheng Zhiyan finally gave Xiaotu permission to get up.
After finishing her morning routine, it was time for breakfast.
Xiaotu anxiously followed Zhou Yue around, yet she didn’t say anything.
Zhou Yue turned around, gazed at her in amusement, then stooped down and asked, “Xiaotu, since you keep following me around, is there something that you wanted to ask me?”
“Yes…” Xiaotu nodded her head seriously and said, “Auntie Zhou, can I…put some powder on?”
“Put some powder on?” Zhou Yue was surprised, but then she burst out laughing. She asked, “Why does a child like you need to put on powder?”
“My daddy is coming back today…” Xiaotu said a little shyly.
“Oh…so it’s for your father to see.” Zhou Yue nodded, then held Xiaotu’s hand and led her upstairs, saying, “All right, Auntie will dress you up.”
Cheng Zhiyan, who had been sitting at the table eating breakfast, looked up upon hearing this. As he watched Xiaotu’s figure following behind his mother, he couldn’t help but shake his head.
After a little bit more than ten minutes, Xiaotu joyfully came out of Zhou Yue’s bedroom.
Zhou Yue had not only applied a layer of powder to Xiaotu’s face, she’d also made a red dot in the middle of her forehead and found a large red flower in her closet and tied it to Xiaotu’s braid.
Xiaotu was also wearing a large red cotton jacket today, so now she certainly resembled a festive doll.
Cheng Zhiyan didn’t know what to say when he’d seen how Xiaotu was dressed, so he didn’t say anything and simply continued eating his breakfast with his head down.
Yet of course Xiaotu rushed up in front of Cheng Zhiyan and asked him jubilantly, “Brother Orange Juice, do I look pretty, do I look pretty, look at the pretty flower in my hair.”
“Yep, I see it.” Cheng Zhiyan replied without even lifting his head.
“Do I look pretty, do I look pretty?”
“You look pretty,” Cheng Zhiyan replied casually.
“Hee, hee, hee…” Xiaotu giggled foolishly and joyfully turned to the mirror to continue looking at her reflection.
When it was almost noon, Xiaotu’s father and mother indeed returned.
As soon as Zhou Yue opened the door, Xiaotu shot out like an arrow.
The weather had turned nice outside, and the sky was so blue it sparkled like a sapphire. There were occasional gusts of wind that made the bare tree branches shake and rattle.
Xiaotu’s father was standing in the warm sunlight. With a smile on his face, he walked toward her.
He wore a crisp military uniform without the cap. He was tall, and he stood perfectly upright. He had striking facial features, and a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed vibe.
Xiaotu stopped dead in her tracks just as she was about to rush out of the door of Cheng Zhiyan’s house. As she gazed at this tall, handsome man in front of her, she felt that he somewhat seemed as he had in her memory, but he also appeared somewhat foreign as well. For some inexplicable reason, her initial eagerness had actually turned into a kind of fear.
Upon seeing the daughter who he hadn’t seen for a long time, Xiaotu’s father couldn’t help but call out from afar, “Xiaotu.”
Then he stooped down and waved to her.
A moment later, Xiaotu’s short little legs rushed toward her father, and she threw herself into his arms.
She got a whiff of the lingering scent of tobacco mixed with the chilly air up her nose, and the prickly stubble on her father’s face rubbed back and forth against her cheeks.
Xiaotu was in high spirits for a while, until she suddenly pushed away her father, clasped her own smooth cheeks, and shouted, “Daddy, your beard is too prickly.”