An Xiaofu tried to imagine it as Mo Hua had described and nodded earnestly, “I do!”
“If you want to do it, you have to put in the effort to make it happen.”
An Xiaofu felt a bit scared when he thought about his grandfather.
So Mo Hua said, “The more you fear something, the less you dare to do it, and the less you do it, the more you fear.”
An Xiaofu mumbled something, unsure of himself.
“Will your grandfather hit you?”
“Not usually, but my father will…”
“Are you afraid of your father’s glare?”
An Xiaofu nodded.
“Then pretend your grandfather has already glared at you and beaten you up, and then you go and talk to him.”
An Xiaofu was stunned.
“He’s already glared and beaten you; what more is there to fear?”
An Xiaofu had an epiphany and suddenly felt less afraid, “It does make sense…”
Mo Hua patted him on the shoulder, “If you don’t work hard now for the things you like, you will regret it later.”
An Xiaofu felt a surge of boundless courage and nodded seriously.
But the courage dissipated as soon as he got home.
Thinking about his grandfather and father, he instinctively felt fear.
What exactly he feared, he couldn’t say, but he was very afraid.
An Xiaofu couldn’t eat and couldn’t sleep at night; he wanted to go to Mo’s restaurant to relax but felt guilty and too ashamed to face Mo Hua.
Mo had encouraged him so much, yet he was backing out, which made An Xiaofu feel very guilty.
An Xiaofu’s mother saw him like this and was very worried:
“I told you to eat less, not to stop eating.”
An Xiaofu whispered, “Mother, it’s not that…”
“Have you been troubled by something these past few days?”
An Xiaofu couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Unable to guess her son’s troubles, she could only say, “You’ve got to eat up, you need strength to think.”
An Xiaofu had no appetite initially, but after a few bites, he suddenly regained it and ended up eating voraciously, filling himself up.
After eating, the vanished courage suddenly came flooding back.
An Xiaofu said with a tragic face, “Mother, I’m off.”
His mother watched, puzzled by her child’s behavior…
Filled with a resolve to face death, An Xiaofu walked down the long corridor and finally arrived at Old Master An’s study.
That walk almost drained all his energy.
An Xiaofu stood for a long time, gathering some courage, before he gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and crossed the threshold of the study.
Old Master An had known his grandson was coming for a while.
When he was little and carefree, Xiaofu often ran here to play on his own.