CHAPTER 16

Original (published in "Lun's World"): 2004-05-04

Rewritten: 2025-05-10

I had to go to work on Monday, and at 11 o'clock on Sunday night, when I was getting ready for bed, Lun shouted that he wanted to go to a certain shopping mall to play some amusement rides. We tried to appease him, but he became more and more demanding. In the end, I took him to the emergency room and taught him a lesson that he should be more restrained.

Lun’s latest new tricks are “Qingqing” and “Zhuanzhuan”. When he is not in class, he will repeat to me or his mother, "qingqing" train (train, train) and "zhuanzhuan", which means a rotating amusement ride.

It happened that on a weekend during the Chinese New Year, we went to Lougheed Mall in Burnaby to buy things. It happened to be the mall's annual promotion event. In the large parking lot near North Road, there were amusement rides such as a Ferris wheel, a mini train and a merry-go-round to attract families to come and shop. When Lun saw it, he kept thinking about it and insisted on going to play for a while. In fact, he is very well-behaved. Playing two or three games each time is enough for him, and he only asks to enter the game once.

The challenge for both of us is that when he is extremely excited and nervous, he becomes overwhelmed. After entering the amusement park, he couldn't decide which game to enjoy first, so he pulled me around. Every time I stopped and asked him if he wanted to play a certain game, he would scream nervously and refused to enter the gate. After repeating this several times, I also became nervous. In the end, I had no choice but to tease and force him to buy the ticket first. Later we divided the work. My wife focused on queuing up to buy tickets, and I served as an attendant and bodyguard to save time.

From experience, as long as you can get him over the gate of the game facility, he will settle down. This time was the same, he was overjoyed after riding the mini train and the small roller coaster.

Unexpectedly, a week later in the afternoon, he mentioned "Qingqing, Zhuanzhuan" again. Usually the rides in this mall are only open for one weekend, so I took him to another mall to try his luck, but he insisted on going his own way. When he found out from the back seat that I was not driving along the old route to Lougheed Mall, he immediately made a "whoosh" sound and protested.

In order to appease him, I immediately turned to the mall for an on-site inspection. We arrived at dusk. The venue lacked equipment for amusement rides, and as it was getting dark, the scenery was not as good as last weekend. He was very dissatisfied and continued to nag.

An idea suddenly occurred to me and I took him back and forth on the SkyTrain instead of the mobile ride for a few stops. It was past 9:30 when we got home. I expected to settle down. Unexpectedly, at 11 o'clock, he repeated his old trick, this time shouting "Super Store, Qingqing". I made up my mind to teach this kid a lesson, otherwise I would not only have a sleepless night but also set a bad precedent. After discussing it with my wife, we decided to send him to the emergency room.

I changed my clothes and went out, and he followed me happily. We went to the supermarket first, and he gave up only after he saw with his own eyes that the market was closed. Then say "Qingqing". I drove straight to the emergency room, and he was shocked to realize that the destination was the hospital he feared the most, and he refused to get out of the car no matter what. The more I pretended to force him, the more he resisted, and finally he asked to go home. As soon as we stepped into the house, he went to bed. From then on, he no longer said "Qingqing, turn around" at night, and we both had some peaceful time.