A long time later, he finally found his voice.
He heard his own voice crack and go off-key as he shouted:
"Grandpa, Khang is back!"
Khang turned his head to look at the stunned Bang Beo, chuckling softly:
"We're back."
He held the blooming golden lotus in his arms, saying gently:
"Home at last."
The small golden lotus happily rubbed against his fingertips. Everything was just right.
...
The eight-year-old child had a chubby face. His figure had begun to grow taller, but his round face hadn't thinned out at all.
His chubby face was pinched time and again by the adults in the house.
The boy grimaced, lying prone on the windowsill, watching the golden lotus bud resting shyly in the stone water tank.
"When will you bloom?"
His childish, sweet voice carried a slight lisp.
The golden lotus was several times larger than before. Its stem swayed, hiding among the lotus leaves, revealing only the very tip of the bud.
