The couple were sticking together here. Li Da was sour, he finished the rice in his bowl in a few bites, said I’m going out for a walk, took the bowl to the kitchen first, and then left the yard.

　　”Is Dad angry with me?” Gu Zhao asked his wife.

　　Li Zhouzhou shook his head. “Dad is not angry. Dad is just, just…”

　　”Dad just can’t bear to see me clinging to you.” Gu Zhao leaned against his wife’s arm, showing a wistful expression, and said, “But I just like Zhou Zhou and I just like to cling to you. Doesn’t Zhou Zhou like it?”

　　Li Zhouzhou was so soft-hearted that he said “hmm” very seriously despite being shy.

　　After finishing the meal and cleaning up, Li Zhouzhou wanted to go to Xingge’er’s house. He said to his husband, “It’s not far. His house is upstairs. We can just go up the slant from where we get water.”

　　”Then his family has convenient access to water, so it will be more convenient for us to wash clothes.” Gu Zhao recalled that according to Zhou Zhou’s walking speed, it would only take five or six minutes to walk there.

　　Li Zhouzhou nodded, made some hot tea for his husband, wiped his hands and went out.

　　Xing Ge’er married someone from the same village. His husband’s surname was Wang, and they were considered a well-off family in the village. The Wang family had two brothers and a sister, but the sister got married within half a year of Xing Ge’er’s marriage. Now the two brothers and their parents live together and have not separated.

　　They are a large family in the village.

　　The Wang family is large and has a large yard. Except for the kitchen and granary, which are made of mud and tiles, the main houses where people live are all made of bricks and tiles. The main house is where the old couple lives, and the newly built house at the back is where the second wife, Xing Ge’er’s family, lives.

　　Li Zhouzhou raised his hand and knocked on the gate, and it was Xingge’er’s sister-in-law Xu who opened the door.

　　”Zhou Zhou, come in and sit down. It’s so cold.” Xu enthusiastically led people in.

　　Li Zhouzhou nodded and called someone, “Hello, sister-in-law, I want to talk to Brother Xing.” Then he entered the yard.

　　Someone in the main house heard the noise and shouted through the window, “Old man, who’s here?”

　　”Mother, it’s Zhou Zhou.” Mrs. Xu replied.

　　No one inside was talking. Xu smiled and changed the subject, saying, “Xing’er is looking after the child in the back room. Do you want to go over there by yourself, or should I take you there?”

　　”Don’t bother sister-in-law, I can go find Xing’er by myself.” Li Zhouzhou said goodbye to Xu and went around the main house to the back.

　　After Xing Ge’er got married, Li Zhouzhou could count the number of times he came to Wang’s house on his fingers. Because Xing Ge’er’s mother-in-law didn’t like him, Li Zhouzhou could sense it, so he stayed away from them to avoid causing trouble for Xing Ge’er.

　　”I heard my sister-in-law calling your name in the back room. I came out and it was really you. Why are you here?” Xing Ge’er knew that Zhou Zhou didn’t like to go to his house unless there was something important.

　　”My dad said the weather is bad, so I wanted to go to town early. I came to ask you if you want to go tomorrow.” Li Zhouzhou spoke while standing under the eaves.

　　Xing Ge’er agreed to go immediately. After all, the housework was not a big deal and he could go any day. He just needed to trouble his sister-in-law to look after Yuanyuan for a day, which was easy to do.

　　”Come in and sit for a while. Oh, no one at home is in the room. It’s just me and Yuanyuan.” Xing Ge’er pulled Zhou Zhou into the house to chat for a while. He was bored at home alone.

　　Only then did Li Zhouzhou go in.

　　The room was warm and the kang was heated early. Yuanyuan, who was almost one year old, sat on the kang. He looked like a dumpling, white and tender. Li Zhouzhou couldn’t help but smile when he saw him. Xing Ge’er grabbed a handful of melon seeds and put them on the small table on the kang. He poured water and said, “It’s fun, it can even spit bubbles.”

　　”he’s really beautiful.” Li Zhouzhou smiled at Yuanyuan, but didn’t touch her. He had just come in and he still felt cold, and his hands were icy.

　　Xing’er loved what he heard and was happier than if he was praised. He said, “At the beginning, his father said to call us Ban’er or Tieniu. Pah, pah, pah, we don’t call ourselves those things. We are Yuanxiao dumplings, white and plump, aren’t we?” As he said that, he used a rattle to amuse his son.

　　The children in the village were given mean nicknames when they were born, such as Hutou, Tiedan, Niudan, Shuanzi, Bandeng, etc. If you called out the names in several villages, you would hear three or four children’s voices.

　　Xing Ge’er is a proud person by nature, so his children don’t have such ugly names.

　　The two of them had a conversation in the room, with Xing’er talking and Li Zhouzhou listening. It was nothing more than some trivial family matters. His mother-in-law had complained about him in the morning, and he fed Yuanyuan an extra sip of sweet egg soup. Before the sister-in-law could say anything, the mother-in-law was already unhappy.

　　”…I will buy some maltose tomorrow and bring it back. I will give it to my sister-in-law first.” Xing Ge’er said.