The Panda House staffer kept eagle eyes on Erica as she held the panda. Although the panda wasn't that big, it seemed like he had handed her a bag of boulders instead. She couldn't lift it. "Oh, it's so heavy!"
The staff member was on the verge of laughing, but he held it back. "Yes, Lili is six years old. That's an adult panda. She weighs about 110 kilograms, much heavier than you, Mrs. Huo."
"110 kilos?" Erica's mind was blown. 'Wow. He's right. She's a lot heavier. No wonder he seemed like he was straining when he held the creature. It took a fair amount of strength to do that!'
Soon, three pandas waddled up to Erica. She asked, "Since I can't lift them, can I 'rua' them here?" She used a Chinese Internet slang there, "rua" meaning that you like something a lot and you want to play with it.
"Rua?" Matthew asked. He'd never heard that term before. He was now standing next to Erica.
Even the staffer was confused by the word "rua." Erica then reached out two hands and made a gesture to explain, pinching a pretend panda in the air. "Yeah, rua. Like this."
"Oh..." One of the staffers got it. He was a younger fellow who often surfed the net. He pointed at the panda next to her with a smile and asked, "Mrs. Huo, sure you want to rua it?"
Erica nodded with a smile, "Yes!"
"You can play with it, but I wouldn't get too rough. They look defenseless, but they're not. If anything happens, don't say I didn't warn you."
"No problem!"
Looking at the woman gently touching the panda, Matthew asked the young staffer, "What was she talking about?"
The worker racked his brains, trying to find a more suitable word to help Matthew understand. "Mr. Huo, Mrs. Huo wants to...well...play with it. Yeah, that's it!"
"Play with it?" Matthew seemed to get even more confused.
"Yes, she wants to play with the panda!" Ignoring the confused man, the staffer turned to Erica and reminded, "Remember Mrs. Huo, be careful. If you piss it off, it will rua you instead!"
"Okay! I will!" Erica decided to pinch the panda more before it got angry!
Matthew took out his phone and opened the Baidu app. He searched for the word "rua" and waited a second or two. Only then did he understand what it meant.
He put away his phone and shook his head helplessly. He watched the woman play with the pandas. She pinched them so much before they ran off, and then she ran after them trying to entice them back with shoots of bamboo.
The panda named Riri stretched out its paw and patted the woman on the leg. Erica loved it, and started giggling. Her bright laughter filled even the dark spaces in Panda House.
Matthew stood there, his eyes following the woman, his gaze filled with infinite tenderness.
Erica had asked why he didn't take the kids along in the car.
It was because this was the place he built for her. Why would he bring the children? So they could tear up the place?
However, he would definitely take his sons to the zoo to see pandas and hug them, but not here. Well... It was actually okay with him if he brought his kids here. After all, it was a testament to money spent well. But he'd only let them look through the fence. They didn't need to come in.
More than an hour later, Erica fed the pandas with the bamboo in her hand and reluctantly followed Matthew out of the Panda House.
Before leaving, Erica looked at the stone board with the names of the three pandas engraved on it again, and a strange feeling washed over her.
When she got to the car, she suddenly screamed, "Matthew!"
The man was startled by her cry, and so was the driver. He quickly turned his head this way or that to see if there was anything dangerous.
After calming himself down, he asked helplessly, "Why did you scream?"
She turned to him and held his hand tightly, tears in her eyes.
Before she could say anything, he frowned and asked, "Why are you crying?"
Hot tears slid down her rosy cheeks. She finally understood how the pandas had got their names. Lili, Riri and Kaka were all named that for a reason. Each name represented a syllable of her own name.
After waiting for a long while, Matthew began to look her up and down. "You okay? Did one of the pandas hurt you?"
She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks, and answered him in a choked voice, "No... Matthew, how long have you had these pandas?"
"Almost six years." The pandas had been adopted by him the day they were born.
The woman wiped her tears messily. "Their names... Did you give them those names from the beginning?"
"Yes," he nodded. 'Did she... figure it out?' he thought.
Seeing him nod, Erica leaned in his arms and burst into tears, her sobs racking both their bodies.
Matthew couldn't think of anything more to say.
Even the driver was worried about her. He summoned up his courage and asked his boss, "Mr. Huo, what happened to Mrs. Huo? Is she hurt?"
Rubbing the woman's head, Matthew said, "No. It's okay. Let me handle this." 'Those seem to be tears of joy, ' he thought.
"Okay. Very good, sir!"
Lulled by Matthew's gentle words, Erica stopped crying. She raised her head and asked the man in a choked voice, "When your dad asked you to marry me back then, You said no, right? I remember that..."
She was starting to get it. He didn't just love her while they were married.
He'd always loved her. Or so it seemed. He was smitten with her a long time before their marriage.
When she was still a teenager, angering her father and then running all day to escape him. When she didn't know what love was. He had a crush on her back then.
Matthew took out a tissue and dabbed at the tears on her face. He didn't deny anything, but said gently, "I didn't like the idea of anyone controlling me, so you bet I said no."
Erica burped. Although she knew it was not good to talk about this kind of thing in the car, home was too far away, and she couldn't wait to know the truth. "But I once asked you if Phoebe was the goddess in your heart. You said 'yes'!" That was why she always thought Phoebe was the love of his life.
The man took out another piece of tissue and wiped her nose. "Do you remember what you asked me? You had two questions. My 'yes' was the answer to your second question—is that because your dad doesn't like Phoebe?"
As Sheffield said, women liked digging up the past and using it against their boyfriends.
Erica was stunned. "Why didn't you make that clear?"
The man cocked an eyebrow. "Why didn't you tell me Ethan wasn't your kid?" He thought she carried a torch for Ethan's father. After all, she'd given birth to his child. This was pretty early on, though. Matthew didn't want to make fool of himself by hitting on a woman who couldn't love him back.
Later, when he knew Ethan was not her child, he didn't know how to confess his feelings. It had become habit to hide them. If she hadn't asked him, he wouldn't have explained anything to her.
After all, he had never confessed his love to a girl, so he didn't know the words to use.
To him, the matter of love was hundreds of times more difficult than signing a contract worth countless millions. S
uddenly, Erica hugged him. "Matthew, you are so annoying. To think I didn't know what I was missing out on. Have you ever thought about what you would do if I married someone else?" No wonder her parents always said she was lucky. They were right. She really was lucky.
She had a family who loved her a lot before she got married, and after marriage, she had a husband who loved her deeply and four gifted sons.
Her life was perfect.
With a confident smile, Matthew said, "I always get what I want. And I wanted you."
It all depended on his whim.