Chapter 893: Chives Scrambled Eggs
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Although the words of the rickshaw grandpa had arrived suddenly, Ling Hong still answered. After all, he was quite familiar with this rickshaw grandpa and someone staring beside so he had to behave himself.
“Yes,” Ling Hong nodded.
“Your grandfather is surnamed Ling as well?” asked the rickshaw grandpa.
“Of course,” Ling Hong felt like laughing. Of course his grandfather’s surname was Ling.
When the rickshaw saw Ling Hong nodding, he blanked out for a while before raising his head again.
Grandfather Ling seemed to have understood something as well. However, he was afraid that his feeling was misleading him and thus, he did not say anything.
“Little Six? You are Ling Little Six?” asked the rickshaw grandpa while gazing at Grandfather Ling.
“How did you know that?” asked Grandfather Ling when he heard the name he had never heard of for a long time. He was the sixth child in the family and was thus known as Ling Little Six back when he was younger.
“Haha, so it’s really you! Ling Little Six, oh Ling Little Six. You seem much st.u.r.dier than you were during your youth. No wonder I couldn’t recognize you anymore. It has been decades since we last met,” said the rickshaw grandpa as he roared with laughter.
The rickshaw grandpa seemed excited, to the point the wrinkles on his face seemed to be rolling out. As he spoke, he clapped on Grandfather Ling’s shoulders.
Pa! Pa! The rickshaw grandpa applied quite a lot of force onto the slap, creating a resounding sound.
Ling Hong grew anxious when he saw the rickshaw grandpa slapping his grandfather so hard, to the point his grandfather’s suit was creased.
After all, his grandfather was placed extreme emphasis on his appearance, and would never wear any clothes with so much as a crease on it. But Grandfather Ling seemed to be blanking out, not responding at all.
“Cla.s.s Monitor Jia? You’re Cla.s.s Monitor Jia?” asked him with his eyes fixed on the rickshaw grandpa after a while.
This was the first time Ling Hong had seen so much excitement in his grandfather. His grandfather was so excited his face was flushed red while his hands were tightly grabbing onto the rickshaw grandpa’s hands.
“Haha, what do you mean by fake cla.s.s monitor. I am the real cla.s.s monitor,” said the rickshaw grandpa with a laugh as he held his excitement in. [1. The Jia in Cla.s.s Monitor Jia sounds the same as fake in Chinese.]
“So it’s really you, cla.s.s monitor. Cla.s.s monitor, you… why…” Grandfather Ling stepped forth and pushed Ling Hong out of the way and grabbed at the rickshaw grandpa’s hands before he started looking him up and down.
Just like that, the two ignored everyone else and sized each other up, behaving like long-separated brothers.
As for Ling Hong, he silently stepped backward, moving to a distance that would not intrude upon the two.
“What about me? I look younger than you, right? From your looks, it is obvious you are always worrying about many things,” said the rickshaw grandpa proudly as he looked at Grandfather Ling’s white hair.
“But, cla.s.s monitor, you were the one to lead us into battles all those years ago. You are a war hero. Why… why…” Grandfather Ling was unable to finish his words.
The rickshaw grandpa was truly dressed too ordinarily. With one look, it was obvious that although his clothes were clean, they were very cheap. Even, the coloring on the sleeves was fading. This gave off an impression that the rickshaw grandpa was living a miserable life.
“Stop the nonsense. I’m living a good life. Don’t you see me eating here? The food of Boss Yuan is expensive yet delicious. A foodie like me won’t be able to stop eating here,” said the rickshaw grandpa with a wave of his hand.
Grandfather Ling wanted to say more, but when he saw that the rickshaw grandpa did not seem to care about his current life, he stopped himself and said something else instead, “How have you been all these years, Cla.s.s Monitor Jia?”
“I’m good. You should call me Brother Jia instead,” said the rickshaw grandpa with a wide smile.
“Of course. Of course. You have always been my Brother Jia,” said Grandfather Ling with a nod, his eyes turning misty.
“Ling Little Six, looks like you are living well as well. Look, you still have all your limbs on you!”
Cla.s.s Monitor Jia gazed at the limbs of Grandfather Ling with a wide smile on his face. If someone else was saying these words, Ling Hong was sure his grandfather would erupt in anger. But when the rickshaw grandpa said these words, his grandfather’s eyes turned red instead.
“I’m living well. Of course, that is thanks to you carrying me down the mountain back then,” said Grandfather Ling as he nodded repeatedly.
“That’s nothing. We were all away from our country. After carrying you down, I went up again. And after that, we never saw each other anymore. It has been so many years since then,” said Grandpa Jia with a sigh.
“That’s right. I was seriously injured back then. Since the war was ending, I was sent back to our country to recover. It has been 37 years since then,” said Grandfather Ling.
“That is in itself a good outcome. I was worried you were killed in the war instead,” said Grandpa Jia after nodding.
Grandfather Ling sighed and said, “That’s what I was afraid of, our brothers losing their lives.”
“I don’t know about the rest and have no way of contacting them. But it is still good that we get to see each other again,” said Grandpa Jia with a wide smile. One big reason he has been traveling everywhere on his rickshaw was to complete the request his comrade-in-arms made of him all those years ago.
Back then, of his comrades that were killed, the youngest of them had just reached adulthood. And before their death, they had requested Grandpa Jia to pa.s.s on their messages to their respective loved ones, such as “Mom, I lost three catties of weight here”, “Qian Qian, in truth, I am still deeply in love with you”, and so on. As the cla.s.s monitor, Grandpa Jia promised to pa.s.s on their last words. And thus, he spent 20 years traveling everywhere doing what he promised to his dead comrades. As he lacked information about many of them, he still had two messages to pa.s.s on. Of course, he had not given up and was still trying to this day.
As a surviving war veteran, he would forever strife to fulfill his promise so long as he still lived.
“Yes! It is a good day today. Hahaha, let’s go and grab a drink!” said Grandfather Ling happily as he pulled at Grandpa Jia’s hand.
“Bullsh*t. I need to stay here to have my meal. You haven’t eaten the food here before, right? This Little Yuan is really very good in cooking. Even his Chives Scrambled Eggs would definitely be different than what you had tried before as well,” said Grandpa Jia.
“Eh, that’s an old joke from when we were young. Why are you still saying that,” said Grandfather Ling resentfully.
“Haha, I can’t help myself. That joke was how I managed to recognize you,” said Grandpa Jia without bothering to hold back.
“What joke?” Ling Hong interrupted in a timely fas.h.i.+on, relaxing the mood in the air.
“Why are you interrupting, kid?” said Grandfather Ling as he glared at Ling Hong.
“This is your grandson? He’s a decent young man,” praised Grandpa Jia with a smile.
“Yes, he is precisely my useless grandson that is incapable of anything. Come, greet him,” said Grandfather Ling.
Of course, when talking to Ling Hong, he would not be as gentle when speaking. He immediately dragged Ling Hong over.
“What should I call him? You haven’t told me that, grandfather,” Ling Hong said helplessly.
“Of course you are calling him grandfather. My grandson is also Cla.s.s Monitor Jia’s grandson,” said Grandfather Ling seriously.
“h.e.l.lo, Grandfather Jia. I am Ling Hong,” Ling Hong greeted obediently.
After all, Ling Hong was very talented in terms of reading expressions. He did as told even though Grandpa Jia had always been a rickshaw driver with many interesting stories.
From how seriously his grandfather was behaving, he knew this was something serious. And thus, Ling Hong was not messing around as well.