长寿面
Long-life noodles
Name: ________________ Date: ________
“您好，”小芳说，“这个蛋糕是您的。外卖员送错了。”
老人看着蛋糕上的字，半天没说话。然后他笑了，眼睛有点红：“是我女儿。她在国外工作，很少回来，可是我的生日，她从来没忘过。”
他赶紧请小芳进来，指了指桌子上的面：“你看，我还以为这碗面也是她点的。”
小芳看着那碗面。面已经被吃了一半。
“过生日要吃长寿面，”老人说，“我以为她还记得这个习惯。刚才我一个人高兴了半天。”
小芳本来想说：那是我的面。可是她看着老人的脸，突然说不出来了。
“您吃吧，”她说，“面要趁热吃才好吃。”
老人拿来两个盘子，坚持要她留下来吃蛋糕：“一个人吃不完。你帮我吃一块，就算帮我过生日了。”
他们坐在小桌子两边，一个吃面，一个吃蛋糕。老人告诉她，他姓马，退休以前是中学老师，女儿去国外已经八年了。
九点半，马爷爷的手机响了。是女儿打来的视频电话：“爸，蛋糕收到了吗？”
“收到了，收到了。还有面，也收到了。”马爷爷说，“面很好吃。你怎么知道我想吃牛肉面？”
手机那边的女儿愣了一下。小芳在旁边，轻轻地摇了摇头。
女儿仔细看了看小芳，好像明白了什么，笑着说：“爸，你喜欢就好。”
那天晚上，小芳回到家，肚子里只有一块蛋糕。奇怪的是，她一点也不觉得饿。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 错 | cuò | wrong; mistaken; mistake; fault |
| 笑 | xiào | to laugh; to smile |
| 眼睛 | yǎnjing | eye |
| 回来 | huílái | to come back; to return |
| 生日 | shēngrì | birthday |
| 忘 | wàng | to forget; to overlook |
| 过 | guò | (particle) marks a past experience: have ever |
| 进来 | jìnlái | to come in; to enter |
| 面 | miàn | noodles; flour |
| 记得 | jìde | to remember |
| 帮 | bāng | to help; to assist |
| 蛋糕 | dàngāo | cake |
English (for the teacher)
“Hello,” Xiaofang said, “this cake is yours. The delivery man brought it to the wrong place.”
The old man looked at the words on the cake and said nothing for a long while. Then he smiled, his eyes a little red: “It’s my daughter. She works abroad and rarely comes back, but she has never once forgotten my birthday.”
He quickly asked Xiaofang in and pointed at the noodles on the table: “Look, I thought she’d ordered these noodles too.”
Xiaofang looked at the bowl of noodles. Half of them had already been eaten.
“On your birthday you eat long-life noodles,” the old man said. “I thought she still remembered the custom. I’ve been happy all on my own for ages.”
Xiaofang had been about to say: those are my noodles. But looking at the old man’s face, she suddenly couldn’t say it.
“You eat them,” she said. “Noodles are best while they’re hot.”
The old man brought two plates and insisted she stay for some cake: “I can’t finish it on my own. If you help me eat a slice, that’s helping me celebrate my birthday.”
They sat at either side of the little table, one eating noodles, one eating cake. The old man told her his name was Ma; before he retired he was a secondary school teacher, and his daughter had been abroad for eight years.
At half past nine, Grandpa Ma’s phone rang. It was his daughter on a video call: “Dad, did you get the cake?”
“I got it, I got it. And the noodles, I got those too.” Grandpa Ma said. “The noodles are delicious. How did you know I wanted beef noodles?”
On the other end, his daughter paused for a moment. Beside him, Xiaofang gently shook her head.
The daughter looked carefully at Xiaofang, seemed to understand something, and said with a smile: “Dad, as long as you like them.”
That night, Xiaofang went home with only a slice of cake in her stomach. Strangely, she didn’t feel hungry at all.