"Slow down!" Yang Ping caught up and grabbed him by the back of his collar. "You can't run where there are lots of people…"
"Got it!" Dabao twisted around. "Dad, you're even more naggy than Grandma!"
Xiao Su caught up from behind and hung the canvas bag over Yang Ping's shoulder. "You keep an eye on him, I'll go buy the tickets."
"I have money…"
"You have money?" Xiao Su raised an eyebrow. "That hundred in your wallet is the one I put in there three years ago."
Yang Ping patted his pocket. He watched Xiao Su's back as she walked toward the ticket booth and smiled faintly.
The parent–child event at the botanical garden was held in a grove of ginkgo trees. A dozen or so kids were gathered around a teacher in a floral dress, listening to her explain "the structure of leaf veins" in an exaggerated tone. Dabao stood in the front row, little face tipped up, eyes wide and round, as if he were hearing the ultimate secret of the universe.
