“Delicious, everyone, hurry up and eat,” Nie Bozhao said to his sons.

Er Dan ate with great enthusiasm. The little guy was naturally built like a tadpole, and recently, not only had his little bottom grown rounder, but his belly had also gotten bigger.

After finishing his meal, Er Dan, who had earlier shouted about wanting to change his mother, felt guilty and quietly began to carry bowls into the kitchen.

When Chen Lina saw that Nie Bozhao had a skin tear on his hand, she asked, “How did you get such a big cut? How careless of you.”

“I imported a batch of head-bowing machines and went to help install and test them. I got hurt while working on it.”

“You’re a researcher, not part of the installation team. Why are you involved?” she replied.

“Since foreign engineers aren’t allowed to come, and everyone here is rough with few who know English, we have to figure it out ourselves.”

Chen Lina went to the small storage room, rummaged around, and found iodine to clean his wound. “A small injury, not serious. Go wash the dishes.”

“Comrade Chen, didn’t you say you loved me in your past life?”

Nie Bozhao sat at the dinner table, a tall man with a bronzed face, wearing black-framed glasses.

He looked scholarly and serious.

“Love me, yet you still make me wash the dishes when I’m hurt? This is so heartbreaking. Your so-called prince and princess love is all a lie.”

Chen Lina pressed a large piece of gauze onto his hand and replied, “How full of yourself are you, to think I love you? I loved the old Nie from my past life—handsome, rich, gentle, and caring. Look at you now, not even one-thousandth as good as him.”

Although she said that, when he was young, he had indeed been quite handsome.

With his deep-set eyes, high nose, and the black-framed glasses, he looked very refined.

“So, I’m not allowed? Just because I’m not like him?” When their three children went into the big bedroom, Nie Bozhao quietly asked.

Chen Lina couldn’t stop laughing. “Yes, just him. After all, I only love him.”

With no love, there’s no talk of married life.

He should have slammed his fist on the long dining table, making a loud noise.

Since childhood, Nie Weimin had been used to hearing his parents fight, especially his mother, who had a habit of throwing things around the house.

Most of the time, his father didn’t fight back, but he would pound the table.

As the eldest, hearing that sound meant his parents were arguing again.

So, Nie Weimin quickly ran over, looking anxiously at them. “You can’t argue!”

“We’re not arguing! Everything’s fine. Go play,” Chen Lina said. “Later, Mom will wash some oranges and apples for you, and remember the salad dressing from the Kazakh trader the other day? I’ll make you a fruit salad. San Dan’s been eating so much lamb, I think you’re all a bit constipated.”

Hearing about the fruit salad, Nie Weimin relaxed and left.

Nie Bozhao thought he should try harder.

After washing the dishes, he would go back to the small bedroom.

The room was still warm from the fire he had lit yesterday.

“Comrade Chen, come here for a moment,” he said.

After fifteen years of marriage in their past life, Chen Lina still didn’t understand how this man, once a serious workaholic with a middle-aged and old-fashioned personality, had turned so gentle, considerate, and witty after all these years.

Of course, with their past life experience, she could tell he was gearing up to surprise her.

Chen Lina happily went over.

That evening, it was hot, and she wore a light, flower-patterned woolen nightgown she had knitted herself, following instructions from her mother-in-law.

Her figure was elegant and graceful.

Chen Lina was very pleased with how she looked.

“Now that I think about it, I was too hasty back then. I’m officially asking you to marry me. Will you marry me?” Nie Bozhao said in a gentle, magnetic voice.

Chen Lina’s heart screamed, “The ring, the ring, he’s about to give me a ring!”

Look, his romantic side was still alive.

But instead of a ring, he moved aside and said, “I have a surprise for you.”

A shiny, vintage foot-operated sewing machine stood in the corner of the room, though she had no idea when he had brought it in.

It was the oldest model, but the paint gleamed.

Beside it was a wooden board for ironing clothes.

Chen Lina brushed aside her slightly curled hair, the warm yellow light making her smile look like a beautiful oil painting.

She had an oval face with naturally wavy hair, a look that perfectly matched the aesthetic of the frontier people.

All the foreign workers at the base had given her the nickname “Awar Guli.”

She opened the sewing machine drawer, finding the usual tools: a box of paper-wrapped needles, a spool of thread, and a thimble.

Chen Lina took the shiny thimble and put it on her ring finger. “It’s very pretty, but I can’t accept your proposal. I don’t think your heart is sincere enough.”

She held her hand up with the thimble, coldly rejecting him.

It felt good.

In her past life, she had rejected him eight times, and this was the ninth.

Chen Lina thought to herself, “I’ll have to reject him eight more times.”

“As the old saying goes, if they come to you, it’s not a good deal. Today, I finally understand this,” Nie Bozhao said, heartbroken.

“What do you mean? Are you saying something here, old Nie?” she asked.

“When you rushed to marry me, I thought I should think it over and hold back, after all, Mr. Sun had just passed away. According to the old rules, I should have waited at least a year. But you rushed in, and it turned out to be a moon that shines only with cold light.”

“What does that mean?” Chen Lina looked out the window at the crescent moon.

“Only cold light, not warm,” he said poetically, typical of an industrial university graduate.

Chen Lina raised the thimble, turned, and went back to the bedroom. “When you understand what love really is, we can talk.”

Love, that was her lifelong pursuit.

Nie Bozhao’s work never seemed to have a day or night off.

Even after working hard on a sewing machine, he still couldn’t win over Chen Lina’s affection.

Feeling puzzled, he buried his head in his thesis again.

Chen Lina returned to the master bedroom, where Nie Weimin was still awake.

The little one was covered with a large blanket, his eyes wide open and bright: “I know, you must’ve been kissing!”

After saying that, he shyly bit his lip.

Chen Lina had been a little angry with Nie Bozhao for his lack of romance, but at this moment, the child made her laugh: “Little Nie, I find your thinking problematic. You’re just a child; you should eat with Er Dan and San Dan when the sun rises, and sleep when night falls. Don’t worry about adult matters. Also, did you forget to brush your teeth? Your mouth smells bad.”

Nie Weimin giggled, and Chen Lina gave him a playful slap: “Brush your teeth before bed. Go brush now!”

“My dad always tells us to brush before bed, but my grandma doesn’t let us. She says, in our old Sun family’s genes, we won’t get cavities.” After thinking for a moment, he added: “So, you’re like a grandma, only grandmas make kids brush their teeth.”

This was probably a clash of two ideas.

Sun’s mother grew up in the poorest and most difficult rural areas of Zhang County.

When she was a child, she probably didn’t even know what toothpaste was, so she never had the habit of brushing teeth.

But she also didn’t eat many sweets or candies, so even without brushing, her teeth didn’t decay easily.

But Nie Weimin and his brothers were different.

Chen Lina made sure to give them at least one candy a day, along with cheese, canned food, and so on.

Surely, these things weren’t great for preventing cavities.

“Little Nie, do you remember the teeth of Ha Gong?” Chen Lina asked.

Nie Weimin instinctively responded: “They’re black, dirty, and stink.”

“Then tell me, are Chen Tiantian’s teeth white?”

“White, and they smell good.” Little Nie Weimin became embarrassed and quickly pulled the blanket over his head.

Chen Lina thought to herself, this kid may be small, but he’s so mature: “That’s because Chen Tiantian brushes her teeth all the time. Ha Gong always wants to kiss her, and she cries every time. If you don’t brush your teeth, when you grow up, you’ll want to kiss her, and she’ll cry, too.”

Nie Weimin grunted: “I don’t want to kiss. It’s too dirty.” The little brat, he doesn’t know anything.

After getting onto the bed, he lay at the edge, drowsy.

Just then, Chen Lina heard Nie Bozhao washing his feet and splashing water.

After a while, he came in and sat on the edge of the bed.

He was about to lift the blanket, but Chen Lina immediately spoke up: “Sleep over there.”

“Didn’t I propose already?”

“But I haven’t said yes yet.”

“Then aren’t we already a couple?”

“Until I agree, we’re just in a marriage-like relationship. To put it plainly, I’m not ready to take things further with you.”

Well, there was no way to be shameless now.

Nie Bozhao sat for a while and then said, “You know, in my past life, I must have treated you like a princess. Chen Lina, I really admire my past self.”

The only red flag car in the entire mining district, he had convinced the district leader to give it to her just because she wanted a car.

She wanted a sewing machine, and he stayed up late writing his thesis to earn money to buy it for her.

Nie Bozhao thought, this princess must have pure blood to make all this happen.

It was amazing—this night, Chen Lina got up in the dead of winter, went to the backyard to check the walls, and waited for a while.

But, those two people who had been sneaking around didn’t show up.

After the eighth day of the twelfth month, it was the New Year.

Though there were no elderly people in the mining district, the festive atmosphere wasn’t strong, but because of the many families, people started preparing New Year’s goods from the beginning of the twelfth month.

The base also began distributing welfare.

Eggs, lamb, flour, rice, and cooking oil were essential.

These were all delivered by large trucks from the mining district and distributed by Mulan Farm staff to each household.

As for candy, sausages, fireworks, and fruits—things the children liked and Chen Lina enjoyed—these had to be picked up with tickets at the supply and marketing cooperative in the Wumayi mining district.

Sister Wang and a few of the other families were the first to pick up their goods.

When the items were brought back, the first to benefit were of course the children.

Coincidentally, it was the weekend.

Chen Lina was making breakfast when San Dan, with his short little legs, rushed in like a rabbit.

“Mom, eat, mom, eat.” The child said while tugging at Chen Lina’s pants.

Chen Lina looked down, and the little one handed her a longan: “Mom, peel it and eat.”

In this border area, there were many things, but fruit was not one of them.

Now, it was the time of great development. People often said that in the borderlands, the only fruits were grapes and cantaloupes.

But actually, various fruits hadn’t been grafted or improved yet, so there wasn’t a bounty of fruit like there would be two or three decades later.

One longan, when peeled, smelled so sweet that even Chen Lina couldn’t resist.

She said, “Er Dan, can I have this one?”

The child tilted his head, then saw his mother’s mouth open, and immediately looked down at the ground. “Okay,” he said reluctantly.

Chen Lina peeled the fruit, ate half herself, and gave the other half to Er Dan.

Once Er Dan tasted it, he found it delicious.

Though he was young, selfishness was natural for him.

Holding onto the seed, he thought, “It’d be great if I could eat the whole thing by myself.” And then, he cried out loud.

“It’s just one longan. Let the child have it. We have fruit tickets. You can go pick up our share from Umai later,” Nie Bozhao said.

“This is called sharing, not letting the child eat everything alone,” Chen Lina replied, after Er Dan ran off to play. “Adults always want to give the best to their children, and the children, of course, think everything good and precious should be theirs. Nie, I need to tell you, this isn’t good. It will spoil the child. No matter what it is, it should be ‘one for you, one for me.’ That’s how it works in our family.”

When Er Dan grew up, he became very selfish because he had been bedridden for a long time.

He would often tell Chen Lina that Nie Bozhao didn’t love her.

At the time, Chen Lina didn’t understand how children feel possessive of their fathers and truly thought her husband didn’t love her.

But as Nie Bozhao neared death, he made sure everything was in order—big decisions like the family business shares and small details like where the flashlight was in case of a power outage.

Only then did she realize that he really did love her.

So, with Er Dan, she was particularly focused on teaching him to share, not hoard love for himself.

Nie Bozhao was excellent in his research, but when it came to educating children, he had little experience.

He thought Chen Lina was being a bit childish.

Soon, Er Dan came running back, holding three longans.

He gave the biggest one to Chen Lina, kept a medium-sized one for himself, and handed the smallest one to his father.

“Thank you, Er Dan. The longan is very delicious,” Nie Bozhao said, eating the one his son had given him.

It tasted sweet.

Er Dan tilted his head back, waiting for Chen Lina to peel the fruit for him.

He put the longan in his mouth but didn’t swallow it, savoring the sweet taste.

He quietly grabbed some vegetables and ran to feed the rabbit.

The little blind rabbit, now with good eyesight, had grown much fatter.

The kids named it “Little Sister.”

On weekends, Nie Bozhao’s main task was to remove the ash from the fireplace and take it to the desert to dispose of.

Meanwhile, Chen Lina was busy making breakfast for the children.

Since it was the 8th of December (Laba), she was cooking Laba porridge, a special dish from the border areas that included walnuts, raisins, and various nuts.

After cooking a thick pot of porridge, she prepared breakfast for the whole family.

“The living conditions in this family district are too bad. There should be someone specifically responsible for cleaning up the ash and garbage, not like now, where every household’s task on the weekend is just to dispose of the garbage,” Chen Lina complained. “When the ash is cleared, the whole place gets dusty, and some people clean well, while others don’t. The roads get filthy.”

“What do you think should be done?” Nie Bozhao asked.

“Create a property management company to take care of it. Your oilfield is making so much money, surely you can hire a few people to deal with the trash? Every time I see the ash, it gives me a headache,” Chen Lina said, shaking her head.

After all, when Nie Bozhao was away on business, it was her responsibility to deal with the ash.

Nie Bozhao smiled. “If you’re willing to come to the small bedroom with me, no matter how busy I am, I’ll rush back to help you with the ash.”

Chen Lina raised her eyebrows. “I’m a princess. A princess should never do that.” She refused.

Soon, an old friend, Xiao Chen, came to visit.

“Sis-in-law, are you cooking again?” he asked, clearly hoping to join them for a meal.

He rushed into the kitchen and saw Chen Lina preparing spring pancakes in a frying pan.

He rubbed his hands together. “It’s been so long since I’ve had this. I didn’t know you could make this, Comrade Chen.”