Two Little Crabs
Little crab Dingding was swimming leisurely in the pond, humming a tune: “I am a happy little crab…”
Suddenly, Dingding stopped. It spotted a round object under the lotus stem. What could it be? Dingding curiously peeked for a long time and concluded that it was a silver coin.
“I have a new toy!” Dingding quickly crawled over and tried to lift the silver coin with its two pincers.
To its surprise, the silver coin spoke, startling Dingding!
“I am not a silver coin; I am little crab Dangdang…” the coin said slowly.
Dingding exclaimed in surprise, “Ah! Where are your eight legs?”
Dangdang said sadly, “Yesterday, while I was shedding my shell by the pond, a boy knocked off all my legs…”
Dingding gasped, “How terrible!”
Dangdang cried, “I can’t move to find food anymore, and I won’t survive for long. Can you stay with me during my last days?”
Dingding looked at Dangdang and said firmly, “I am willing to!”
Dingding thought: Summer has just begun, and they still have plenty of beautiful times ahead. Not only would it accompany its legless friend, but it also needed to think of ways to help Dangdang survive.
Dingding cheerfully said, “It’s not a big deal! As long as your body is here and your spirit is happy, what does it matter about the legs? Besides, I have eight legs; I think I have too many! You can share mine.”
Saying this, Dingding crawled under Dangdang and carried it on its back. They moved slowly along the bottom of the pond, finding food to eat together and enjoying the scenery. In the clear pond, there were so many beautiful and fun things, and Dangdang slowly cheered up.
One day, Dingding and Dangdang encountered a group of swimming tadpoles. The leading tadpole asked, “Little crab! Are you carrying a pot lid?”
Dingding explained, “That’s my best friend, little crab Dangdang!”
“Oh! Why does Dangdang have no legs?” the tadpoles asked all at once.
Dangdang, feeling sad, replied, “A bad boy knocked off my legs.”
The leading tadpole quickly reassured, “Your legs will grow back! Look at us; when we were born, we had only tails and not a single leg, but we kept swimming, and our legs grew!”
Dingding asked excitedly, “Really?”
“Of course! We’ve already grown two legs. Aunt Turtle said that if we keep swimming, we’ll grow two more legs. Then we’ll become frogs!”
Dingding happily told Dangdang, “Did you hear that, friend? You will definitely grow back your legs!”
The tadpoles were about to continue their parade. Before parting, the leading tadpole reminded them, “Make sure to keep moving; otherwise, your legs won’t grow!”
Dingding made up its mind to help Dangdang grow back its legs.
Dingding didn’t know how to swim, so it designed a unique swimming method: it would run hard along the pond bottom and then float along the current, gliding for a short time. Though it wasn’t exactly swimming, it was somewhat similar.
Dingding ran tirelessly day and night, carrying Dangdang on its back. Dangdang was deeply touched and quickly said, “You’ll tire yourself out, my friend!”
“I’m a famous strongman; how could I tire out?” Dingding ran on, never stopping. Dangdang felt the warm pond water flowing over its body and thought, maybe this is the warmth of tears?
In autumn, the pure white lotus turned into lotus pods, and the lotus roots in the mud grew into big, fat ones. Dangdang grew back its eight new legs!
Dangdang jumped off Dingding’s back, excitedly saying, “My legs have grown back! Now we can walk side by side in the pond!”
Dingding, feeling tired, smiled, “I think I’ll take a nap first…” It closed its eyes, stretched out its eight legs and two pincers, and stopped moving.
With its new legs, Dangdang gently held Dingding’s pincers, deciding to always protect it until it woke up. It wouldn’t give up on Dingding, just as Dingding never gave up on it.
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
