"Dong dong dong"
The sound from outside the door attracted Alicia's attention, and with the sound of a bell, the four-color dial on the door frame turned yellow.
That's the gate to the imperial capital, Alicia thought.
Calcifer didn't shout, she probably already guessed who was back.
The door opened slowly, and as expected, Xia Ya was standing behind the door. He walked up the steps slowly and looked around.
Compared to when I left in the morning, this place has completely changed. All the dust in the corners has been swept clean, the ceiling is free of cobwebs, and the messy magic books are neatly stacked on the workbench. superior.
Since a lot of rubbish has been cleared away, the entire space has become much more spacious.
"It's very pleasing to the eye." Xia Ya said.
"Is it just 'pleasing to the eyes'?" Calcifer said feebly on the hearth.
He pointed to the wall behind him, "Look, she even cleaned the soot off the wall for me, and even painted it with new white paint."
Xia Ya seemed to want to say something more, and then 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. The rich aroma filled the room with the heat.
"Mrs. Foster from next door to Eagle Point gave me two sea fish that her husband caught today," Alicia said.
After a pause, she said, "That's a good man."
Xia Ya approached the iron pot. The pot was full of fish soup. The soup was thick and white. Just from the aroma that penetrated her nose, she knew that it must taste extremely delicious.
"Can you still cook?" Xia Ya said somewhat unexpectedly.
"She forced me to do it." Calcifer complained from one side, "This woman is so rude, Char."
"My mother taught me." Alicia completely ignored Calcifer's meaning and changed the subject, "She is from the East and has very good cooking skills."
As she said that, she noticed where Char came in, and a strange child came up. His orange-red hair shone lightly under the firelight from Calcifer on one side.
He was staring hard 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. He became an orphan just now." Xia Ya said, "He may have to live here for a while."
"I haven't agreed to this name yet." Arthur muttered quietly.
"Oh, what a poor child." Alicia said sympathetically. She had also lost a loved one, so she could completely relate to this.
But then, she looked at Xia Ya suspiciously, "But, are you so kind?"
Xia Ya smiled and said, "When did I give you the illusion that I was not well-intentioned?"
He teased, "If I hadn't been kind, I should have kicked you out when you came uninvited last night."
Alicia hummed twice, but had no words. She couldn't deny this.
The girls whose hearts he had eaten could not stand up to testify.
But then, she heard Xia Ya say to herself, "But his relatives gave me a large peninsula as a reward."
Looking at Alicia who looked like this, he said a little funny.
"Let's eat first."
He sat on the chair next to the dining table and motioned for Arthur to sit down too. He looked at the fish soup in front of him.
"Is this the only fish soup?"
"I don't know if you'll come back tonight," Alicia said. "And can you expect a ninety-year-old lady who has been cleaning all day and has backache to cook a whole table of dishes?"
"It makes sense." Xia Ya said.
"Don't eat so much at night, it's not good for your stomach either."
Alicia picked up the spoon on one side and filled Char, Arthur and herself with a spoonful of soup, along with some fish.
Xia Ya used to live far away from the sea, so she ate mostly freshwater fish. This was the first time she ate sea fish.
Compared with freshwater fish, the fish meat of sea fish does not have small fish bones, so there is no scruple to eat, and the muscle elasticity is much better than that of freshwater fish, and the meat is more tender and smooth, but in fact there is not much difference.
But the fact that there are no fish bones really appeals to Char.
Needless to say, the fish soup is the essence. The fish itself only takes a few hours from catching to being put into the pot. It is quite fresh and has been stewed for a long time. It is stewed into a thick white color and the taste is extremely delicious.
While Char was savoring the fish soup, Arthur, who was sitting opposite him, had already drank all the fish soup.
Because I drank too fast, some of the gas inside was squeezed out, and I finally let out a "ha" sound.
His eyes sparkled, and he handed the bowl in his hand to Alicia.
"I want another bowl."
"Okay, okay." Alicia seemed very happy that what she made was recognized, so she picked up the spoon and filled Arthur with another bowl.
Arthur took the bowl and continued to devour it with the spoon. Alicia touched his head.
"Eat slowly, eating too fast is bad for your stomach. Did you often not have enough to eat where you used to stay?"
"It's not as delicious as yours," Arthur said.
Alicia smiled. Somehow, she always felt that this child had an inexplicable affinity.
"If it tastes good, just eat more. I cooked a lot."
Arthur was silent for a moment. He stopped drinking fish soup and raised his head to look at Alicia.
She was looking at herself with a smile, her eyes narrowed with a smile, and the wrinkles left by the years on her face became more obvious, and she was very kind.
Arthur was startled. When he came to his senses, his nose twitched, and he quickly turned his head and continued eating 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 stains on the tablecloth, but he was not drinking fish soup.
She looked at his face carefully through the light and found that his eyes were slightly red and there were some unnoticeable tears on his face.
He didn't say a word, just eating the fish in silence.
"Why are you crying?" Alicia asked with concern, "Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?"
"Apparently, it's so delicious that I'll cry," Calcifer grinned from one side.
"I'm fine."
Arthur wanted to raise his hand to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes, and a piece of paper was handed over.
He raised his head, glanced at Xia Ya who was handing the paper, silently took the paper, and said while wiping his tears, choking in his throat.
"Thanks."
"It's hard to hold back crying." Xia Ya looked at him quietly, "It's not something you should learn at your age."
"I'm not like everyone else!"
Arthur raised his eyes and looked at Xia, his reddish eyes were filled with sparks, his face was red, and his lower lip was trembling slightly, like a stray cat with fried hair.
"I'm never weak."
Xia Ya didn't care. He smiled and asked, "Do you think crying means weakness?"
"Isn't it?" Arthur asked.
Xia Ya shook his head, "Everyone has cried, whether they are heroes who are not afraid of death on the battlefield or the emperor who is aloof, they will cry.
However, they learned to hide and shed their tears at the right time.
Although it doesn't mean strong, 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 true strength is those who remain brave even after crying, and those who still move forward with tears in their eyes. "
Looking at Arthur who fell silent, Char continued to smile.
“Weakness is not in your tears, but in your heart.
Only by facing weakness can you overcome weakness, and crying is exactly this process.
Your unwillingness to cry can only mean that you are afraid of weakness. "
Arthur didn't respond. He just lowered his head and said nothing. There were more and more water stains on the table, and some even dripped into the fish soup.
His thin body was trembling slightly, but even so, he made no sound.
Alicia touched his back distressedly, comforting him and murmuring softly.
"You must have been very lucky in the past, right?"
Alicia's gentle words became the straw that broke the camel's back.
Arthur raised his head and cried loudly. His tears soaked his clothes. Alicia kept wiping his tears with a piece of paper on one side.
After an unknown amount of time, Arthur's mood gradually eased because he had vented his emotions.
After wiping his tears with paper, he slowly spoke.
"You look a lot like someone I know."
Alicia raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"The grandmother who was the director of the orphanage where I lived." Arthur murmured in a low voice, "But she died just last year. She was the only person in the world who was good to me."
Alicia quietly stared at Arthur's side face with his head lowered, and suddenly, she smiled.
"Now, there is a second person in this world who is kind to you."
Arthur opened his eyes slightly, and turned his head to look at Alicia. She was smiling gently at him, although her teeth were sparse and her face was full of wrinkles, which could not be said to be 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 with a lot of tears dripping in front of him.
