A Small Story from the Forest
The Love of a Bear and an Ant

A bear chased an ant for three seasons running, and never chased up so much as one spring.

This Issue's Serial · Seasons One to Three, All in One

📖 In this issue: He is Xiaoxiao, the most devoted young bear in the forest. She is Lili, the cleverest little ant around. One of them is so honest he is a little bit thick-headed; the other is so sharp she is a little bit smug. When “Marry me” meets “my belly will burst,” this love across species is guaranteed to be nothing but laughs. Three episodes back to back — sit back and enjoy the whole thing!

A bear who had loved for a very, very long time finally mustered his courage

Once upon a time there was a boy bear who fell in love with a girl ant, and he loved her for a very, very long time. So one day, the boy bear finally went to the girl ant to propose:

“Marry me,” he said. “I'll treat you well. Just picture it — we live happily together for decades, and when we're old, a whole crowd of children gathers around us. Isn't that lovely?”

The girl ant answered him in horror:

“If I ever carry your child, my belly will burst and I'll die on the spot. Go away, quick — there's no future for us!”

And so our poor little bear slunk off, feeling sheepish. But he was not the sort to give up so easily — after that first proposal he was more certain than ever: a girl who doesn't say yes right away is a good girl, a girl worth chasing, a future wife worth having!

▲ Season One, four-panel comic: The Proposal · The Refusal · Slinking Away · Never Giving Up

Season Two · Teacher Momo's Secret

One box on the ear, traded for a single pearl of wisdom

Now we come to Season Two, and it's about time we gave our hero and heroine their names. Our dashing boy bear is called Xiaoxiao — he thinks he's terribly handsome, so every morning before he goes out he combs his hair in front of the mirror for a whole hour. In fact, plenty of hunters would rather he combed his hair every day, so they can pick up all that precious bear fur and sell it, than catch him and cut out his gallbladder.

Our beautiful, slender girl ant is called Lili. She believes a woman's greatest charm lies not in beauty, nor in figure, but in being clever and quick-witted. Beauty fades, and a good figure won't save you — none of it stops a human from stepping on you flat in the street. Better to be clever, she reckons. Clever keeps you alive longer.

After turning Xiaoxiao down, our Lili felt terribly brilliant, and her mood was bright and breezy. She said to her best friend Niuniu:

“See? This is exactly why I say a woman should be clever. If I'd said yes to him, I'd only end up with my belly bursting open — I'm not that silly, hmph!”

Xiaoxiao didn't see it that way. Xiaoxiao was a plain, honest young bear, and ever since he'd heard his father say, from inside his mother's belly — “A woman doesn't soften because the man hasn't tried hard enough” — he had burned that sentence deep into his memory. So when his mother went into labor, he stubbornly refused to come out, until she screamed in pain, “My darling, my heart's about to stop beating!” Convinced that this proved the point, he finally came out.

So our persistent Xiaoxiao decided to persist all the way to the end. He figured he had already won over his mother's heart — so how much harder could a tiny little ant like Lili be?

So one day, Xiaoxiao went looking for his teacher

— a bullfrog who was always drooling. His mother called him Momo, because the moment he was born he was wet all over, as if he were covered in foam.

“Teacher Momo, I want to marry the lovely Lili. We love each other, but Lili is afraid that if she ever carries my baby, her belly will burst and she'll die. What am I supposed to do about that?”

Momo stared at Xiaoxiao with those big bull eyes of his, his belly swelling and shriveling, swelling and shriveling, as if mocking such a foolish question. He thought for a long while. Then he said: “I'll teach you a trick. But don't go telling anyone, all right? Come here — lean in close, I'll whisper it. I don't share this with just anybody!”

Xiaoxiao hurried to stick his ear over — though the flap of that ear sent up such a gust of wind that it nearly blew Teacher Momo into the pond. Teacher Momo whispered his secret to Xiaoxiao at the top of his lungs:

“Here's the trick, and it's dead simple! Just don't let Lili get pregnant!”

Light dawned on Xiaoxiao. “Oh! It's that simple? Why didn't I think of that? A teacher really is a teacher!” And off he went, delighted, to propose to Lili a second time.

When Xiaoxiao found Lili, she was hiding by the roadside with one leg stuck out. “Lili, what are you doing?” he asked. She jumped. “You scared me half to death! I'm waiting for Jiujiu the elephant to come past so I can trip him up — serves him right for saying that an ant trying to shake an elephant is laughably out of its league!”

Xiaoxiao smiled. Privately he didn't think Jiujiu had said anything wrong — but this was the girl he was courting, after all, and he couldn't very well contradict her. Better to get on with the business at hand: the proposal. So he said to Lili, very sincerely:

“Lili, last time you told me that if you ever carried my baby, your belly would burst and you'd die. I've thought about it, and I've decided I won't let you get pregnant at all, so you don't need to worry about that anymore. I love you. Let's be together! And when we're old, with all those children gathered around us — what a happy sight that will be!”

Lili was furious. She slapped him twice, right across the face. Of course, our clever Lili moves awfully fast, and Xiaoxiao only thought a mosquito had bitten him — his face felt a little itchy, that was all, and he paid it no mind.

Lili scolded him: “Well now! If I'm not getting pregnant, then where do all those children come from? So you want to marry me and keep a mistress on the side too? Get out of here!”

Our Xiaoxiao was a plain, honest young bear, and hearing this, he decided he really was no good — though for a bear, being no good isn't exactly a mark of shame. His face went red, then white, then red again, and he mumbled and nodded and scurried home, where he cried and howled. He felt endlessly sorry for himself: why was the road of love so rough and so helpless? Why couldn't he reach the heart of the girl he loved?

But Xiaoxiao still clung to his belief that a woman doesn't soften because the man hasn't tried hard enough. So he wiped away his tears and swore he would never give up, he would keep at it, and one day he would surely win Lili over!

▲ Season Two, four-panel comic: Combing His Hair Daily · The Clever Refusal · Teacher Momo's Secret · Two Crisp Slaps

Season Three · Scientist Xiaoxiao's Experiment

Love isn't a question of philosophy — it's a question of science!

In the last season, we left Xiaoxiao beaten once again on the road of love, and it made him think of something his father Sasa had told him — “A woman's heart is like the sea.” “But if only Lili really were like the sea, she wouldn't have to worry about my bear cub bursting her belly.”

So how do you make an ant's belly bigger? Xiaoxiao was sure this was no philosophical question at all — it was plainly a scientific one, and it had to be solved by scientific means.

Our Xiaoxiao was a young bear who never admitted defeat. He still held to the truth that a woman's refusal only means the man hasn't tried hard enough — and naturally, he would need scientific methods for that too. So the very next day, bright and early, Xiaoxiao arrived at the school laboratory. He hoped to discover the truth of his love through science.

After 100 failures, on the 101st try, inspired by the nice old balloon-selling grandpa at the laboratory gate, Xiaoxiao invented a balloon ant.

When he pumped air into the balloon ant's body, the tiny ant grew bigger and bigger, until it was fully big enough to fit himself inside. Xiaoxiao was happier than words can say. He felt that the season of his harvest had finally come.

▲ Season Three, four-panel comic: Obsession in the Laboratory · The Balloon Ant Is Born · The Third Proposal · A Calm Foot Massage

Xiaoxiao marched off, proudly holding the balloon ant floating in midair, to find Lili. Lili was just then having a foot massage with her best friend Niuniu — twelve attendants were rubbing their feet. Xiaoxiao said to her, with the utmost sincerity:

“Dear Lili, look — I've found a way to make your belly bigger! Just like this! Once your belly is big, you won't have to worry about carrying my baby and bursting open! Marry me, and I'll treat you well. Think of when we're old, with all these children gathered around us — how happy that will be!”

Lili nearly spat out the watermelon seed she was chewing. Furious, she shouted at Xiaoxiao:

“Get out of here! What are you playing at? You want to pump air into my belly and blow me up, is that it? As if I'd fall for you bear-men's tricks — and just look at that bear face of yours!”

Lili was still scolding when she suddenly opened her eyes and found that Xiaoxiao had long since fled without a trace. So Lili calmly went back to enjoying that six-legged foot massage with Niuniu.

🌲 Forest Theater · Next Episode Preview

Scolded three times already — will Xiaoxiao knock on Lili's door a fourth time?

💬 Talk Back: What new scheme do you think Xiaoxiao will cook up next season? Leave us a comment below!

Little Stories from the Forest · Issue 1

The Love of the Bear and the Ant (Season One · Season Two · Season Three)

Words and pictures our own · Please contact us for permission to republish