"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, "Erica, 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.
"Matthew, Erica 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 Erica, 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 Google. 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.