"What are you doing sitting here?"
Xiao Yong walked over, talking and gesturing, but Tang Tang just grinned foolishly, not understanding a word he said.
Xiao Yong couldn’t help but feel deflated.
Dejectedly, he said, "The doctor says you were born deaf, and it’s very hard to cure. If it can’t be cured, then you’ll never learn to speak, Tang Tang..."
Xiao Yong was actually a rather kind kid, and he got sadder the more he spoke.
He felt that Tang Tang was so obedient and well-behaved, if only she could hear and learn to speak, that would be so wonderful.
Just then, Tang Tang seemed to understand something.
She suddenly puckered her lips and blew puffs of air.
Her cute actions amused Xiao Yong, and his spirits lifted again.
He blew a couple of breaths too, then asked, "Tang Tang, what are you doing? What does this mean?"
Naturally, Tang Tang didn’t reply; she just grinned silly at him while touching her own ears.
"Do you want me to blow for you?" Xiao Yong asked.
To these children, who were hurt from a young age, the greatest comfort was to blow gently over a wound; blow twice and the pain lessened, a quick blow and it would soon be better...
So Xiao Yong leaned close and blew gently into Tang Tang’s ear.
It tickled Tang Tang, causing her to scrunch her neck and laugh ’hanhanhan’ incessantly.
At this moment, the gate suddenly rattled and was opened from outside.
Even though Tang Tang couldn’t hear it, she saw the movement and quickly stood up and ran over.
Seeing this, Xiao Yong immediately followed.
"Tang Tang, don’t run off carelessly, be careful of being kidnapped and sold..."
At this time, he also saw clearly who opened the gate.
"Grandpa Xu, you’re back." Official source ıs 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⟡𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⟡𝓷𝓮𝓽
The Grandpa Xu Xiao Yong was referring to was Granny Zhang’s eldest son.
Granny Zhang was getting on in years, and most of the work at Rainbow House was handled by her eldest son and his wife.
Grandpa Xu, whose real name was Xu Liangyou, was a very kind old man. Before he retired, he often helped out at Rainbow House. After retirement, he treated this place as his job. Although he hadn’t officially taken over his mother’s role, it was almost the same in practice.
He and his wife got up early every day, one taking care of the children’s breakfast and cleaning, the other going to buy groceries.
He had to go to a distant suburb to shop at the market because the vegetables there were cheap, and even riding an electric tricycle, it took quite some time.
"It’s Xiao Yong and Tang Tang, huh? Xiao Yong, take good care of Tang Tang, make sure she doesn’t run around..." Xu Liangyou kindly instructed.
Tang Tang was both deaf and mute; if she got lost, it would be very troublesome.
"I know, Grandpa Xu." Xiao Yong took Tang Tang’s hand.
Tang Tang greeted Xu Liangyou with a bright laughter, then started looking around at the door; although she was still laughing, both Xiao Yong and Xu Liangyou could feel Tang Tang’s disappointment.
"Tang Tang, are you waiting for someone?" Xu Liangyou asked with some surprise.
"Is it the sister who took care of you that day?" xu Liangyou guessed.
A few young volunteers had visited recently and brought many things for the children, so Xu Liangyou made such an assumption.
But since Tang Tang couldn’t hear, naturally, she didn’t answer him.
Xu Liangyou chuckled and patted his head, then reached into his basket and pulled out a big tomato, then stuffed it into Tang Tang’s arms and lifted her off to the side.
"Don’t move around here, be careful of cars hitting you."
Then he reminded Xiao Yong again to take good care of Tang Tang before turning to park his tricycle inside the yard.
Xiao Yong looked down at the bright red tomato in Tang Tang’s hands; he actually wanted to eat it too, but didn’t have the heart to snatch it from his sister, so he turned his gaze away.
This was also a privilege of Tang Tang’s; everyone always liked to give her something to eat. The reason could be her young age, how cute she looked, or perhaps her constant smiling...
Then as if remembering something, he turned Tang Tang’s head to face him, and said with gestures and words, "You’re waiting for the brother from yesterday, right?"
"Silly girl, you don’t know what’s going on, always grinning foolishly~" Xiao Yong muttered discontentedly.
Just then, Tang Tang reached into her shorts pocket and pulled out a candy, which she stuffed into Xiao Yong’s hand.
Xiao Yong smiled broadly and was not shy at all; he unwrapped the candy and popped it into his mouth.
"Thank you, Tang Tang, come on, let me wash the tomatoes for you..."
Xiao Yong took Tang Tang to the tap in the yard and started to wash the tomatoes for her.
"You need to wash them clean before you eat them, otherwise your stomach will... hmm..."
Xiao Yong turned around and found that Tang Tang had disappeared again.
Looking back toward the gate, sure enough, Tang Tang had returned to her little stool, cupping her hands, curling up her little legs, looking outside the gate like a little frog.
Xiao Yong felt more and more that he was right in his guess, Tang Tang was indeed waiting for someone.
It must have been the brother from yesterday; Tang Tang must really like him, otherwise, why would the usually well-behaved girl suddenly run over and hug him?
"Wait, could he be Tang Tang’s father?"
Xiao Yong immediately let his imagination run wild, the more he thought about it, the more possible it seemed, and he became quite excited, but then he felt angry.
Tang Tang always smiled at others, only with that man from yesterday she behaved differently, clinging to his legs and not letting go. At the time, he hadn’t thought much about it...
At this moment, Xiao Yong seemed to have convinced himself that the man was Tang Tang’s father; in his heart, he no longer referred to him as ’brother,’ after all, that man was the bad person who had abandoned Tang Tang.
Because Tang Tang couldn’t speak, that’s why nobody knew he was Tang Tang’s father, and the man even pretended to be clueless...
Thinking this, Xiao Yong walked over angrily.
He stuffed the washed tomatoes into Tang Tang’s hands, and said angrily, "Tang Tang, you don’t need to wait anymore, your father isn’t going to come."
"Smile, smile, that’s all you do," Xiao Yong was frustrated to the point of anger.
"Do you understand what I’m saying?" Xiao Yong gestured as he spoke.
But obviously, aside from basic actions like eating and sleeping, Tang Tang didn’t understand anything else.
So, Tang Tang kept smiling.
Xiao Yong thought for a moment, then turned around to look for Grandpa Xu and Grandma Ding.
Xu Liangyou was moving the groceries he had bought into the kitchen; with so many mouths to feed, the daily amount of groceries was not small, so his wife, Ding Guilan, was also lending a hand to help.
"Vegetable prices have gone up again, almost catching up to meat prices..."
Xu Liangyou was somewhat worried. The rise in prices meant increased expenses, but their few steady sources of income were fixed every month. This way, sooner or later, expenditures would exceed income.
"We’ll have to think of something else," Ding Guilan didn’t have any good ideas either.
While they were talking, Xiao Yong ran over in a panic.
"Grandpa Xu... Grandpa Xu..."
Xu Liangyou instinctively glanced in the direction of Tang Tang and, seeing her sitting there obediently, he finally sighed in relief.
He asked with some confusion, "What happened? Why are you so panicked?"
"It’s Tang Tang’s father... that brother from yesterday, he is Tang Tang’s father..." Xiao Yong said eagerly.
"Slow down, what about Tang Tang’s father?"
Hearing this, Xiao Yong took a breath and then began to explain what happened yesterday.
"That person must be Tang Tang’s father," Xiao Yong said with certainty.
To increase his credibility, he added, "Aunt Zhu was there too, she saw it as well."
The couple, Ding Liangyou and his wife, exchanged glances, both seeing shock on each other’s face. Could it really be as Xiao Yong said?
"It might just be that Tang Tang quite likes that person."
"But why would Tang Tang like him so much the first time they met?" Xiao Yong still insisted on his own view.
"It’s no use talking so much, where can we go find him now?" Ding Guilan said.
Hearing this, Xiao Yong let out a sigh, deflated like a punctured ball, and turned to go find Tang Tang.
"Tang Tang is still waiting for him. If he doesn’t come, Tang Tang will be so sad..."
Just at this time, they saw Tang Tang suddenly stand up, with her short legs she ran quickly towards the outside of the courtyard.
As Xu Liangyou had entered, the courtyard gate was left ajar, and Tang Tang squeezed through the crack and slipped out.
Seeing this, they hurriedly chased after her.
Xiao Yong’s shout startled everyone in the courtyard, and seeing Xu Liangyou and his wife rushing anxiously, everyone followed suit and ran after them.