The sun was shining brightly by noon, making his mouth feel dry and parched, but despite feeling hungry again, he could not bring himself to swallow the dry bread. Thus, he reluctantly took out the ham and nibbled on it to fill his hunger.
He was no stranger to walking on mountainous roads, but he was ultimately still a child with limited energy and will. Nonetheless, he held this firm belief that he must find his way home and return to his mother’s side, or else she would be worried sick for his safety.
I can’t let mommy worry!
I must push on!
Just like that, Baby Chu carried his tired body, as well as his limited food supply, and continued walking until night had fallen.
The sky was gradually getting darker; the temperature had fallen drastically and the wind had begun picking up. The chilly wind blowing against his sweat-drenched shirt had him shivering. On top of that, he was so exhausted that his head was spinning.
He had no idea how long he had walked, only finally stopping when the sky was becoming pitch-black. He then found himself a relatively clean spot, where he sat down and curled up to hide from the wind.
His heels were hurting badly. When he removed his shoes, he realized, with a start, that his heels had gotten scraped and were now tender to the touch from blisters—a result of walking and eventually limping for the entire day.
A wave of heartache washed over him as he sniffled and wondered when he would finally reach the county. He found himself really pitiful for being abandoned alone in the wilderness.
He took out the only food he had left—a half-eaten ham—from his pocket. He had wolfed down the bread earlier in the evening. He was just about to bite into it when, much to his shock, he heard a few whimpering sounds coming from next to him.
He warily whipped his head about, only to spot a tiny, white puppy that was covered in dirt staring right back at him as it licked its mouth. Bright moonlight reflected off its innocent and innocuous eyes, which were trained on the ham in his hands. It did not approach him, though, and from its cautious actions, it seemed quite timid.
The little mutt’s keen senses had probably picked up on the ham’s delicious scent, which lured it out of its hiding place and led it here.
Baby Chu could not help feeling somewhat sorry for the pup when he saw how skinny it was, but the troubling thing was that he only had this tiny bit of food left to eat; it would be gone once he ate it. On top of that, his stomach was rumbling badly for food and this tiny bit of ham would not even be enough to satiate his hunger.
“I’m sorry”—he felt bad for saying this—”but I’m starving, too, or else I would’ve given this piece of ham to you!”
Naturally, the puppy could not understand what he was saying; it merely cocked its head as it continued staring at that piece of ham. From time to time, the mutt would look up at him as if it were pleading him, and its big, innocent eyes were hard to ignore.
With a fierce determination, the boy made the hard decision to look away from it and chomp on his food. Just as he moved to do so, he heard another whimper coming from the side, which got him glancing sideways. The puppy was probably starving badly, for it eventually lay on a nearby spot and continued looking at him with its doe eyes. Its aggrieved look really called for pity!
“Ay, forget it! Come over here; I’ll share a little bit with you.”
