On National Day, there were many people at the movie theater entrance, with young people and families everywhere.

Outside, Chuxia and her family spotted Bang Zi and his group of kids.

They were no longer selling ice cream but had switched to selling sunflower seeds, peanuts, and soda, with plenty of customers.

Chuxia and Cen Zhengnian didn’t approach them, but An An ran over to talk with them.

Since the movie hadn’t started yet, he helped the kids sell snacks for a while.

When he came back, he handed Chuxia a packet of sunflower seeds and peanuts and said, “Mom, here, have some.”

Chuxia accepted it without hesitation and asked An An, “Did you pay for this?”

“Bang Ge didn’t want any money. He said it’s a gift for us.”

“Even so, you need to pay.” Chuxia instructed An An to return the money.

She saw Bang Zi frown and look her way, but he eventually accepted the money.

Inside the cinema, An An tightly held Chuxia’s hand, his eyes full of curiosity as he looked around.

He had never been to a cinema before.

It was so big inside, with so many seats!

How does the movie play? What is that big white cloth in the middle door for?

His mind was filled with questions, but he didn’t ask any, choosing instead to guess on his own.

After Chuxia and Cen Zhengnian helped him find his seat, he couldn’t help but turn his head back and forth, touching the seat here and there.

Chuxia could feel his excitement.

She grabbed his hand and pointed to the big white cloth in front of them, saying, “When the movie starts, the images will appear on that cloth. It’s similar to watching TV at home, but the movie screen is much bigger.”

As she spoke, An An’s attention was completely drawn to the white cloth, his eyes filled with curiosity.

Chuxia was about to explain how movies were projected, but Cen Zhengnian suddenly spoke up, “An An, do you want to know how the movie is projected?”

An An immediately turned to him and hesitated before nodding.

Cen Zhengnian smiled, stood up, and pulled An An up with him, saying, “Then let’s go see how the movie is projected.”

An An’s eyes lit up, and he looked at Chuxia with a silent plea to go.

Chuxia waved her hand, “You two go ahead.”

Cen Zhengnian also reached out to Chuxia, “Join us?”

Chuxia shook her head, “I’ll stay. There are too many people; the projectionist might not be happy.”

Seeing she genuinely didn’t want to go, Cen Zhengnian didn’t insist.

He took An An’s hand and walked toward the projectionist in the middle of the cinema.

At that time, the projectionist was operating the projector from a height above the crowd in the middle of the cinema.

When Cen Zhengnian and An An arrived, a group of curious children was already gathered around, fascinated by the projector and the process of showing movies.

The projectionist, with a friendly demeanor, said, “Sure, you can take a look. Just don’t touch anything.”

The projectionist’s good temper was likely the reason so many kids were gathered around.

If he were unfriendly, he wouldn’t let people get close.

An An looked at the projector beside the projectionist, which seemed strange with many unfamiliar components.

He couldn’t wait to learn about it before the movie started.

Unable to hold back, An An tugged on Cen Zhengnian’s sleeve, “What’s that?”

Cen Zhengnian looked in the direction An An was pointing.

It was two wheel-like parts on the projector with film reels.

“This is…” Cen Zhengnian’s voice gradually rose above the noise in the cinema, and the surrounding children listened intently, their eyes wide as they learned about the projector’s components and their functions.

Their expressions ranged from confusion to sudden understanding.

Cen Huai’an listened with the same focus, remembering every word Cen Zhengnian said.

He realized that projecting a movie was not such an easy task after all.

When it was time for the movie, the usher began ushering people in, shouting, “The movie is starting! The movie is starting! Quickly, go back and sit down!”

Cen Zhengnian reached out and patted Cen Huai’an’s head, bending down to say, “Shall we go find Mom?”

Cen Huai’an, now understanding how movies are shown, nodded.

Cen Zhengnian led him back to their seats.

However, Cen Huai’an was still curious about how the projector worked, so he kept looking back until they were seated.

Fortunately, their seats were not far from the middle door where the usher was, so he could still see.

As soon as he sat down, the entire cinema suddenly went dark, and a strong beam of light was projected onto the white screen at the front.

With the sound of “click-click-click,” the wheels Cen Huai’an had been curious about began to turn, and the movie slowly started to appear on the screen.

Despite all the explanations Cen Zhengnian had given, nothing compared to the real thing.

As the lights in the cinema went out, Cen Huai’an was so mesmerized by the movie that he couldn’t even blink.

Chu Xia and Cen Zhengnian didn’t interfere, completely letting him satisfy his curiosity.

Only after the movie had been playing for a while did Cen Huai’an settle down and start watching attentively.

Chu Xia looked at Cen Huai’an, then at Cen Zhengnian, and handed the bag of melon seeds and peanuts to Cen Zhengnian.

Eating these in the cinema was quite inconvenient.

She couldn’t do as others did and just throw the shells on the floor, so she decided not to eat them.

When the movie ended, Cen Huai’an was still a bit reluctant to leave.

“Happy Life” had a simple plot, depicting the daily life of a northern farmer’s family.

The ending was pleasant, with the meticulous sister-in-law realizing her mistakes and the whole family living happily.

So Cen Huai’an could understand and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Afterwards, the most memorable thing for him was the bowl of dumplings that was hidden away.

He wanted to eat dumplings now.

As they exited the cinema, Chu Xia saw Bangzi and a few others, who were squatting at the entrance, offering her some soda.

Chu Xia declined.

“You’re already doing a difficult job. Don’t be so generous.”

Bangzi scratched his head and said to Chu Xia, “The soda for Auntie was bought by me.”

Chu Xia understood why Bangzi was being so generous.

It was because he could now attend school with his friends after Chu Xia suggested it and helped persuade his grandmother.

He didn’t know how to thank her, so he wanted to give her something he had.

Chu Xia met his stubborn eyes and accepted the soda, saying, “Just this once. If you do this again, I’ll be upset.”

“Okay!” Bangzi’s face broke into a pure, bright smile as he ran off with his friends, shouting, “The movie was great!”

Chu Xia couldn’t help but laugh and told Cen Zhengnian, “They just sneaked in to watch the movie too.”

Cen Zhengnian, momentarily distracted by her smile, suddenly felt his heart beat a bit faster.

He touched his chest and gave a soft “mm.”

It was quite common for people to sneak into movies. Many children did it, and even some adults, which was hard to manage.

After leaving the cinema, with still some time before noon, Cen Zhengnian and Chu Xia took Cen Huai’an to the park for a boat ride and enjoyed the autumn scenery.

Then, the family went to the market.

“What should we have for lunch?” Chu Xia asked, looking at the vegetables in the market.

She didn’t really expect an answer.

Usually, she just made whatever Cen Huai’an ate, and he couldn’t even specify what was good.

Cen Zhengnian didn’t have much of an opinion either.

But as soon as she asked, Cen Huai’an blurted out, “Dumplings!”

Chu Xia and Cen Zhengnian exchanged a glance and laughed in unison, both recalling the dumplings from the movie.

However, she had never made dumplings before.

The steps were numerous and quite cumbersome.

Especially chopping the filling, which was physically demanding; she was worried that she might get exhausted before the filling was properly prepared.

But with Cen Zhengnian around, this problem was solved.

Chuxia clapped her hands and said, “Great, let’s have dumplings! We’ll go buy some meat.”

Back at home, Chuxia sat in the corridor, directing Cen Zhengnian as he chopped the meat. “The meat on the left is still a bit big; chop it some more.”

A neighbor from the family compound happened to pass by, and seeing Chuxia and Cen Zhengnian working together, her eyes widened in surprise. “Chuxia, you’re really lucky! Zhengnian is so considerate of you.”

Chuxia accepted the compliment with a smile, appreciating their envy. “Yes, yes. He’s always worried I’ll get tired and doesn’t want me to do any hard work. Sister-in-law, you could have your husband help with cooking too!”

Every time Chuxia said this, Cen Zhengnian would smile at her and remain silent, thinking to himself: My wife has become much more cheerful.

Noticing his gaze, Chuxia gave him a mock frown. “What are you looking at? Get back to chopping!”

The dumpling wrappers were rolled out by Cen Zhengnian and Cen Huai’an together.

At first, Cen Zhengnian didn’t know how to do it, but Chuxia taught him.

He wasn’t clumsy; after just two demonstrations, he managed to roll them out decently, and he gradually got better at it.

Chuxia then called Cen Huai’an over to help with the dumpling filling. “You teach An An how to roll out the wrappers. Once you’ve learned, you can teach him how to make dumplings.”

“Alright.” Cen Zhengnian had no objections and was very patient while teaching Cen Huai’an.

However, he struggled with making the dumplings himself.

His attempts were misshapen, with either the filling spilling out or the dumplings lacking form.

Cen Zhengnian looked at the oddly shaped dumplings and then at Chuxia’s perfectly round dumplings, which looked like little ingots.

He wanted to hide the poorly made ones.

Chuxia, with a half-smile, took the dumpling wrappers from him and said, “Alright, don’t waste the filling. Let An An play, and you focus on rolling out the wrappers.”

Cen Huai’an didn’t go out to play; instead, he helped Chuxia with making dumplings.

Although his hands were small, the dumplings he made looked much better than Cen Zhengnian’s.

The main reason was that he was clever, putting just a little filling each time.

Though he was slow, the dumplings turned out just right.

Chuxia praised him generously, “You’re better at making dumplings than your dad!”

Cen Huai’an’s eyes curved into a smile, and he put even more effort into making dumplings.

The dumplings had a pork and green bean filling and were delicious.

The meat was chopped with a perfect texture and the seasoning was just right.

With a small dish of vinegar, Cen Huai’an ate a whole bowl of dumplings, and Cen Zhengnian ate quite a bit as well.

During lunch break, Cen Huai’an thought to himself, “No wonder people in movies hide dumplings because they are so delicious. If Grandma were here, he’d hide them too.”

In the afternoon, Chuxia took Cen Huai’an to the Youth Palace.

Teacher Guo Lin was indeed still in the classroom.

They arrived just in time to hear him giving a lecture on the basics of Go to the children.

They sat at the back and listened attentively.

After the class, some children gathered around Guo Lin to ask questions, while others lost interest and gradually left.

When only Chuxia and her family were left in the classroom, Guo Lin finally noticed them and showed a look of surprise.

“Have you made a decision?”

“Yes,” Chuxia replied.