Impatience cannot digest hot tofu.

Author: Hu Xuewen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: My mother got married to Liu Hao while she was pregnant with me, and Liu Hao knew it before the wedding. I was still very young when my mother ran off with a rich ruffian, leaving me with Liu Hao. Liu Hao lost his job, got another one, then lost it again, and finally became a pedicab driver. He raised me as his own son, but I never treated him like a father. He pretended to be upright and kind, but in my eyes, it was all because he was too weak. I knew he desperately wanted to marry a woman and start a family, but at the same time, he worried about what would happen to me if he didn’t have me in his life. Liu Hao took me with him time and again to undergo inspections, only to give up every time just when we were about to enter the house. Liu Hao was in a car accident and, on his deathbed, he longed to hear the title "Father." But I was too stubborn to say it out loud. I knew that my life’s lesson was to practice saying "Father" until I could say it properly.
The Hasty Cannot Eat Hot Tofu tells the story of Liu Hao, an ordinary tricycle driver, depicting his bittersweet life experiences and his optimistic and positive attitude toward life. The book unfolds around two threads: one is the emotional entanglements between Liu Hao and three women, and the other is the father-son bond between Liu Hao and his adopted son, Liu Xiaohao. These two threads run parallel yet intersect. Throughout the story, the protagonist, Liu Hao, is caught between these two threads, constantly moving back and forth, torn between his endless longing for love and his deep love for his adopted son. The conflicts in reality leave Liu Hao lost and awkward on several occasions.
That uniquely designed tricycle appears alongside Liu Hao from his very first appearance and remains a signature prop until the very end of the story. In Liu Hao’s real life, it seems as if three wheels are spinning—representing the three women who appear in his life: He Wenlan, Yang Qian, and Chen Hong. He Wenlan’s illusion, Yang Qian’s materialism, and Chen Hong’s innocence each collide with Liu Hao, creating different emotional symphonies that form his love symphony. Meanwhile, the father-son bond between Liu Hao and Liu Xiaohao occasionally alters the rhythm of the entire melody.
This is a father-son pair without blood ties. Although Liu Xiaohao never called Liu Hao "Father," Liu Hao has already come to see him as part of his life. For Xiaohao, one woman abandoned him, another rejected him, and only the third accepted him. He was unlucky, yet he was also lucky—because what he received was true love beyond blood ties, which helped his young heart find a home for love. When the words "Father" were finally whispered from Xiaohao’s lips, they not only brought the story to a perfect close but also added a powerful note to the essence of truth, goodness, and beauty, stirring deep emotions in the hearts of the audience.