Bitter Melon

Nian Ci He

Bitter melon is a vegetable. It is green and the shape is oval. Chinese medicine says bitter melon is a healthy food. It can help clean your stomach.

I remember when I was a child, my mom usually cooked bitter melon once a week because my dad had a habit of smoking. My mom thought bitter melon could help detox his body. She knew my brother and I didn’t like bitter melon because it tastes very bitter, so she cooked it in different ways, like bitter melon fried eggs, bitter melon braised ribs, bitter melon pig bone soup, etc., but we still didn’t like to eat it.

One time, we only had bitter melon braised ribs and rice for dinner. I didn’t like to eat bitter melon, but I didn’t have any choice, so I just ate ribs, one piece, two pieces, three pieces… My dad looked at me. He was angry. He said, “Bitter melon is good for you! You should eat it! Try it!” I was very afraid of my father, so I had to take a piece of bitter melon into my mouth, but I really did not like the taste, too bitter. Eating, eating, my tears flowing out.

Later my dad saw me eat so hard, and he said, “Forget it, do not eat it” and told my mother to put some other dishes out. When I saw the other dishes, my sadness turned to happiness.

Now every time I eat bitter melon, I think of this thing as a child, and I think of my dad. I miss him a lot.

Noodles

Li Ping Chen

Long, long ago, when I was five or six, my father or mother used to get breakfast ready for me, and then they went to work.

One day, as usual, my father made noodles for me. The problem was there were too many noodles. The bowl was bigger than my head. I thought I really couldn’t finish such a bowlful of noodles. So I made a stupid decision.

After my father left home, I stood at the window, and looked at my father until he had passed out of sight. I got a chair and climbed up on it, and I poured all the noodles out of the window.

A few hours later, my father came back while I was watching TV. He shouted at me and spanked me.

A few days later, I knew that while I poured the noodles out of the window, my father’s leader was going to work. He lived on the first floor, and we lived on the fourth floor.

This story tells us that if you really want to destroy crime, you should trust your bathroom but not the window. I am still repentant and in pain.

Free Lunch

Yongsheng Zhang

One day fifteen years ago, my friends and I visited a new department store called Asia Department Store in Zhenzhou City. It was the biggest department store in Henan province.

We first saw an elevator and we went into it. We were excited and took it up and down a few times. We just window shopped; we didn’t want to buy anything. We looked all over the department store. We were tired and hungry; everyone wanted to eat a big lunch.

We went to the food court. There were restaurants; we didn’t know which one was better. I saw one that was not crowded and it was cheap and clean. We went into it and sat at a table. A waiter gave us menus and we quickly ordered some good dishes.

The cooks cooked very fast. We just drank a half cup of tea, and the waiter served all the dishes. We ate eagerly because we were very hungry.  One of us said, “The dishes were great! We should eat slowly and savor the taste. We also should drink some beer.”

We ordered some beer. We were eating and chatting; we were very happy. Suddenly, one of us shouted, “My teeth!”

“What happened?” we asked him.

“I bit a stone! My teeth hurt!” he said.

We called the waiter and asked him what to do. He didn’t know, so we asked to speak to his boss. He apologized with sincerity and gave my friend five yuan to buy some painkiller and asked us not to talk more about it, just pay the bill then go.

We were angry, we told him, “We will call 110!”

He was very scared. “Please don’t call 110. What do you want?”

We didn’t know what to do. One of us said, “Don’t pay the bill for the lunch.”

The boss said, “No problem, it’s my treat.”

We didn’t pay for lunch and didn’t take the five yuan either.