I had two little red-eared turtles, small like a kid’s palm, living in a small wash basin. Just filled in a thin layer of water, and put two little stones.

Every day I would get the smashed pork from the fridge, gouged out a small piece, and put it in the little hole on the stone. Then the turtles would move slowly and get to the meat. They tasted the meat and ate it out slowly. This might be the first time that I felt the pleasure of having my own animals.

Although they ate meat every day, they’d never grow up. Soon after, they disappeared from my life forever.

I would have cried and bet my parents to buy new turtles, and they might have refused my request. When I became older, I saw the news discussing the “weekly pets” issue. Some bad buyers sell animals that cannot live long, like the weekly chicken and weekly dogs, that customers buy, only to find they die after just a week.

Only kids do not understand cruel facts. More cruelly, when they get it, they are still not happy. That’s what happens later in a trip with other kids.