A Story Behind A Mandarin Orange

I must jot this down for record before it slips my mind.  Our boy's class teacher gave each of them in the class a mandarin orange two days before the school closed for CNY.  Our boy got his with a cute tiny leaf still intact on the fruit which his pals oohed and aahed that it was indeed 'special', you know that kind of mine is better than yours among kiddos. Hahaha...  

He put the orange on his desk and went kepoh-ing.  When he walked back to his seat, he suddenly noticed that 'precious' leaf on his orange's gone!  He then sensed someone staring at him with his hand firmly pressed protectively on his school bag as though it would fly away.  Our boy quickly walked to that boy and demanded his precious orange back.  That boy refused but my boy insisted,  'Kuai dian huan gei wo'  (return to me quick) and after a while, he finally got his precious orange back. :) 

Our boy has always been a good-natured boy and will give in to other's request most of the time. I had been worried about him being bullied by his peers but I am relieved that my worries were virtually unfounded. I am so proud of him and gave him lots of praises over this incident for standing up for his own right!

A little fact about Mandarin Oranges:

Our boy's Mandarin orange looked something like the above picture,

only that the leaf was like.. errr.. 3x smaller. Hahaha..

Why are Mandarin oranges one of the must-haves during CNY:

In Cantonese, the word for Mandarin orange and gold are phonetically similar. Both are pronounced as "kam". Hence, Mandarin oranges represent wealth. When visiting relatives or friends at open house, it is also the norm to bring "kam" along as gifts. However, when giving away oranges, the number of oranges must not be odd, and usually an auspicious amount is given.