Chapter 272 - Once loved

"Little Jia, do you know how to do jigsaw puzzles?" Tangtang asked as he looked around for what to play with Little Jia.

Little Jia shook her little head. "I've never tried it. I think it's too difficult."

Tangtang took her tiny hand in his also tiny one. "You will not know unless you try. Come, I will teach you."

"Okay."

The kids sat beside each other at a little table. Tangtang jumbled the pieces of a jigsaw bunny.

"You just have to put the pieces together to form a complete bunny. This one goes here, this one here…"

He put the pieces together one at a time until he was done.

"Do you understand now?"

"Uh huh." She nodded.

Tangtang brought another jigsaw, this time it was a pair of roses.

"Can you try fixing this one?"

The little girl nodded and stuck out her little hands to take it. She thought about it and started by placing the pieces that should be at the edges then used them to complete it. She had learnt faster than Tangtang had expected.

The little boy smiled warmly. "Little Jia, you learnt very fast. Daddy said that kids who learn to do things very fast are clever." Actually, it was not all that impressive. All those jigsaws were quite easy with very few pieces.

In the next minutes, Little Jia had taken a liking to this game. She did the jigsaws faster each time.

In the end, the pair of kids even decided to compete. Tangtang thought of which jigsaw to chose…he had done all of them before. It would not be fair to let Little Jia pick one she had not done. "Little Jia, how about you pick one from the ones you have just done?"

Little Jia thought it would be too easy. "Let's try two with more pieces."

Tangtang nodded and brought two of the most difficult jigsaws that even he had never successfully solved on his own for Little Jia to choose from. He naturally took the other one.

After jumbling the pieces, the competition started.

Half an hour later, the kids looked like they were about to cry. Why did it have to be so difficult? Little Jia had done it halfway and it still looked jumbled so she gave up. She glanced at her little friend. "Tangtang, you got it wrong. This piece should go here and this one here."

"What are these pictures anyway? They look so strange." Little Jia was not too familiar with them.

"They are called maps of countries."

Little Jia tilted her little head. "That one over there looks like France." She pointed at a completed jigsaw.

Tangtang was shocked. "Huh? How did you know?"

"When mommy and daddy said that they would go to a place called France for something called a honeymoon, mommy pointed at a piece that looks exactly like that on a globe." At that time, she did not understand a thing and only looked on.

"Oh, my daddy and mommy went to a place called Maldives for their honeymoon."

"What's a honeymoon?"

"I don't know what it means either."

Just like that, the competition was forgotten. The kids went outside after a while.

Seeing them play, Kara took some snacks and fruit and went out too. "Tangtang, Little Jia, I brought over snacks and fruit. Do you want some?"

"I do, I do!" they said in unison. They were quite hungry after playing for a while.

…

Some meters away.

Lu Shaoting was going to check on them too. Before he even got close to them, what met his eyes was Kara giving fruit to the kids. She would put a piece of fruit into Tangtang's mouth then put one in Little Jia's mouth too. The kids would chew it happily and ask for more.

It was so heartwarming that Lu Shaoting stood to watch with a smile. Even when the kids left Kara to go back to play, he did not avert his gaze. She was watching them play and he was watching the back of the woman he once loved.

Once loved…

It made him drown into thought.

In the past, he would feel heartache watching her like this but now he felt nothing.  She was just another woman in the crowd.

He hoped…there wouldn't ever be a day that he would forget about his love for Su Ling and think of her as a woman he once loved.

While he was still deep in thought, Kara turned to go back into the house and was surprised to see Lu Shaoting. "What are you doing out here?"

"I came to give my girlfriend a call." He answered naturally.

Kara found it quite unexpected. "You finally have a girlfriend? We should celebrate that. You have been single for so long that we were starting to think that you could be…you know."

That's because I had you in my heart, okay? I'm glad I finally found my own match.

"I will invite you and Liaowen to our wedding. Tangtang will be my little ring bearer." His answer was very truthful.

"Sure." She thought it was a good idea too.

He turned to leave.

Kara smiled at his retreating back. I'm glad he has a girlfriend now. Liaowen can finally stop thinking that he possibly has feelings for me.

___

After playing with Tangtang the whole day, the both of them were now officially friends. She even forgot that she had come specially to see her Small Xixi.

She only agreed to leave the Xu residence when her uncle persuaded her.

"Goodbye Tangtang. Goodbye Uncle Liaowen, Aunty Kara, Small Xixi." She said her cute goodbyes with a smile.

The trio waved back in goodbye. As for Xu Lingxi, 'Small Xixi' henceforth became her nickname.