I weave fate in parallel time and space

Chapter 32 Fish Soup
"dong dong dong"

The sound from outside the door attracted Alicia's attention, and with the jingle, the four-color turntable on the door frame turned yellow.

That's the gate of the imperial capital, Alicia thought.

Calcifer didn't shout, she probably already guessed in her heart who came back.

The door opened slowly, as expected, Xia Ya was standing behind the door, he walked up the steps slowly, and looked around.

Compared to when we left in the morning, this place has completely changed. All the dust in the corners has been cleaned, the ceiling has no cobwebs, and those messy magic books are neatly stacked on the workbench. superior.

Since a lot of garbage has been cleaned up, the whole space has become much more spacious.

"It's much more pleasing to the eye." Shaar said.

"Is it just "pleasing to the eye"?" Calcifer on the hearth said weakly.

He pointed to the wall behind him, "Look, she even cleaned off the soot on the wall for me, and even put a new white paint on it."

Xiaya seemed to want to say something, and then he smelled a faint fragrance.

"It smells so good, what did you do?" he asked.

Alicia raised her hand and opened the lid of the iron pot placed on the table, and the rich aroma filled the room with the heat.

"Mrs. Foster, next door to Eagle Point, gave me two sea fishes that her husband caught today," Alicia said.

After a pause, she said, "That's a good man."

Xia Ya approached the iron pot, and there was a full pot of fish soup in it, the soup was thick and white, just the aroma that penetrated into the nostrils, one knew that it must taste extremely delicious.

"Can you still cook?" Xia Ya asked in surprise.

"She forced me to do it." Calcifer complained from one side, "This woman is too rude, Char."

"My mother taught me." Alicia completely ignored Calcifer's meaning, but changed the subject, "She is from the East and has a good cooking skill."

As she said that, she noticed the place where Shaar came in, and a strange child came up, the orange-red middle hair exuded a faint luster under the light of the fire from Calcifer on one side.

He was staring at Calcifer at the moment, obviously, he was very shocked by a group of talking flames.

For some reason, Alicia always felt that there was something familiar about this child, and she seemed to have seen it somewhere.

"This child's name is Arthur. Just now, he became an orphan." Xia Ya said, "He may live here for a while."

"I haven't agreed to be called that name yet." Arthur muttered in a low voice.

"Oh, what a poor child." Alicia said sympathetically. She has also lost loved ones, so she can fully empathize with this.

But then, she looked at Shaar suspiciously, "However, are you so kind?"

Xia smiled, "When did I give you the illusion that I was not mean?"

He teased, "If I'm not mean, I should have kicked you out last night when you came uninvited."

Alicia snorted twice, but said nothing, which she couldn't deny.

The girls whose hearts he ate could not stand up and testify.

But then, she heard Xia saying to himself, "But his relatives gave me a large peninsula as a reward."

Looking at Alicia who had such a face in front of him, he said a little funny.

"Let's eat first."

He sat on the chair by the dining table, motioned for Arthur to sit down too, and said while looking at the fish soup in front of him.

"Is this the only fish soup?"

"I don't know if you came back at night." Alicia said, "And can you expect a 90-year-old lady with backaches and backaches to cook a whole table after cleaning all day?"

"It makes sense." Shaar said.

"Don't eat so much at night, it's not good for your stomach."

Alicia picked up the spoon on one side, filled a spoonful of soup for Shaar, Arthur, and herself, and brought some fish.

Xia used to live far away from the sea, so most of his food was freshwater fish, and this was the first time he ate sea fish.

Compared with freshwater fish, sea fish has no small fishbone, so it tastes better, and the muscle elasticity is much better than that of freshwater fish, and the meat is more tender, but in fact the difference is not big.

But the lack of fishbone really made Char like it.

Needless to say, the fish soup is the essence. The fish itself is only a few hours from the time it is caught to the pot. It is quite fresh, and it has been stewed for a long time.

When Xiaya tasted it carefully, Arthur, who was sitting opposite him, had already gulped down the fish soup.

Because I drank it too fast, I squeezed out some of the gas inside, and finally let out a "ha".

His eyes lit up, and he handed the bowl to Alicia.

"I want another bowl."

"Okay, okay." Alicia seemed very happy that what she made was recognized by others, so she carried a spoon and filled another bowl for Arthur.

Arthur took the bowl and continued to gobble it up with a spoon. Alicia patted his head.

"Eat slowly, eating too fast is not good for your stomach. Did you often not get enough to eat in the place where you stayed?"

"Not as good as yours," Arthur said.

Alicia smiled, somehow, she always felt that this child had an inexplicable intimacy.

"You can eat more if it's delicious. I cook a lot."

Arthur was silent for a moment, he stopped drinking the fish soup, and looked up at Alicia.

She was looking at herself with a smile at the moment, her eyes narrowed with a smile, and the wrinkles left by the years on her face became more obvious, which was very kind.

Arthur was startled, his nose twitched when he came back to his senses, and soon he turned his head and continued to eat fish.

The table was cleaned by Alicia and covered with a white tablecloth.

Alicia, who had been paying attention to Arthur, saw two small water spots on the tablecloth, and he was not drinking fish soup.

She carefully looked at his face under the light, and found that his eye sockets were slightly red, and there were some imperceptible tear stains on his face.

He didn't say a word, just ate the fish in silence.

"Why are you crying?" Alicia asked with concern, "Is there any discomfort?"

"Obviously, it's too delicious to cry." Calcifer grinned from one side.

"I am fine."

Arthur wanted to raise his hand to wipe the tears from the corner of his eyes, and a piece of paper was handed over.

He raised his head, glanced at Xia who was handing the paper, and silently took the paper, wiping his tears while choking his throat.

"Thank you."

"It's hard to hold back crying." Xiaya watched him quietly, "It's not something you should learn at your age."

"I'm different from everyone else!"

Arthur raised his eyes to look at Shaar, his reddish eye sockets sparkled with sparks, his face was flushed, his lower lip trembled slightly, like a stray cat with blown fur.

"I've never been weak."

Xia Ya didn't care, he asked with a smile, "Do you think crying represents weakness?"

"Isn't it?" Arthur asked.

Xia Ya shook his head, "Everyone has cried before, whether it is a brave hero on the battlefield or a high-ranking emperor, they all cry.

It's just that they learned to hide and shed their tears at the right time.

It doesn't mean strong, but it doesn't mean weak either.

Everyone has the right to express sadness, if you never cry, it doesn't mean you are strong, it just means you are numb.

The real strength is the person who is still brave after crying, and still moves forward with tears in his eyes. "

Looking at Arthur who fell silent, Xia continued to laugh.

"The weakness is not in your tears, but in your heart.

Only by facing weakness directly can you overcome weakness, and crying is exactly this process.

Your reluctance to cry only shows that you are afraid of weakness. "

Arthur didn't respond, he just lowered his head without saying a word, more and more water stains on the table, some even dripped into the fish soup.

His thin body was trembling slightly, but even so, there was no sound.

Alicia touched his back distressedly, comforted his emotions, and murmured softly.

"It must have been very hard in the past, right?"

Alicia's gentle words were the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Arthur raised his head and burst into tears, crying loudly, tears soaked the skirt of his clothes, Alicia was wiping away his tears with a piece of paper on one side.

I don't know how long it took, and because of venting his emotions once, Arthur's emotions gradually eased down.

After wiping away his tears with paper, he spoke slowly.

"You look a lot like someone I know."

Alicia raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"The grandma who is the director of the orphanage where I live." Arthur murmured softly, "But she died, just last year, and she was the only person in this world who treated me well."

Alicia quietly watched Arthur's side face with his head down, and suddenly, she smiled.

"Now, there is a second person in this world who treats you kindly."

Arthur opened his eyes slightly, and he turned his head to look at Alicia, who was smiling at him gently, although her teeth were sparse and her face was wrinkled, it was not pretty.

But Arthur felt a warm current flowing in his heart.

His nose twitched again, he turned his head, responded in a low voice, wiped his tears with his sleeve, and continued to eat the fish soup in front of which dripped a lot of tears.

(End of this chapter)