His mood sank as he recalled the memory.

Chu Xia noticed his change in demeanor and thought he might be upset from watching the other kids get scolded, knowing that his own childhood hadn’t been very happy.

She patted his head and said softly, “I won’t pull your ears. And when have I ever hit you? Well, aside from before.”

When Cen Huaian made mistakes, his punishments were standing in a corner, practicing calligraphy, or losing red stars from his reward chart.

To Cen Huaian, losing red stars was just as painful as getting hit.

As they walked home, Chu Xia saw that Cen Huaian was still lost in thought.

Sensing that something was wrong, she asked, “Has someone pulled your ears before?”

Cen Huaian nodded, “Grandma did. It hurt.”

This was something that had happened before Chu Xia came into his life.

Hearing it, she felt a pang of guilt in her heart.

She knelt down and hugged him, “With Mommy and Daddy here, no one will pull your ears again.”

Cen Huaian hugged her back.

The sadness he had been feeling melted away, leaving him warm, like the comforting sensation of soaking in a hot bath.

He smiled softly, letting out a small “mm” as he hugged his fairy-like mom tightly.

He was so happy to have her now.

“Mom, I’ve been learning martial arts. I’ll protect myself from now on,” he added, feeling proud, as though he could protect his mother too.

Chu Xia let go of him, holding his hand as they continued walking home. “Alright, I know An An is very strong now.”

Cen Huaian’s mood lifted, and it was as though all the unhappy memories faded away.

That night, Cen Zhengnian came home for dinner.

Chu Xia called him and An An to help pull down all the loofah vines from the backyard.

The loofahs they picked would be used to make scrubbing tools for cleaning pots.

Chu Xia taught An An how to make them—just peel the skin, cut them into small pieces, and wash out the seeds.

While Chu Xia and Cen Zhengnian were pulling down the vines, Cen Huai’an prepared all the loofahs, laying them out neatly on the table to dry.

As soon as Chu Xia and Cen Zhengnian came in, Cen Huai’an looked up expectantly, his face beaming, clearly waiting for praise.

Chu Xia couldn’t resist pinching his cheek.

“Go get your red star chart,” she said.

Cen Huai’an had earned a lot of red stars again.

He was eager to exchange them for some treats and also wanted a new flight chess game.

“What treat do you want to trade for?”

“Mom, can I trade for a cake?” An An asked.

“You can have cake for your birthday,” Chu Xia replied.

Cen Huai’an pressed his lips together. “But Mom, I want cake now.”

“If you trade 30 red stars for a cake, you won’t have enough left to trade for the flight chess set,” Chu Xia reminded him.

An An thought about it for a while.

Thirty red stars was a lot, and cake was expensive.

The flight chess game could wait.

Looking up at his mom, he said, “Mom, I want the cake.”

Chu Xia agreed. “I’ll buy you one when we visit your great-grandfather’s house on Sunday.”

She scratched off 30 red stars from his chart as An An watched, his heart aching a little.

Later that night, in their bedroom, Chu Xia sat on the bed reading a case booklet that Cen Zhengnian had given her.

Hearing him come in, she turned a page and asked, “Is An An asleep?”

“Mm,” Cen Zhengnian replied, undoing the buttons on his coat with one hand.

When Chu Xia looked up, her eyes were drawn to his slender, fair fingers as they unbuttoned his coat one by one.

Her gaze shifted to his Adam’s apple and then to his jade-like face. Suddenly, she felt warm all over.

It was such a casual action, so why did it feel so… alluring?

Chu Xia covered her face, telling herself to look away quickly and not stare.

But her eyes were glued to Cen Zhengnian without blinking.

He lifted the hem of his sweater, pulled it over his head, and took it off. In the process, his tight abs were momentarily exposed.

Chu Xia licked her lips, still unable to look away.

Cen Zhengnian was about to take off his last shirt, but halfway through unbuttoning it, he suddenly looked up.

A smile played at his lips, and his deep eyes locked onto Chu Xia’s, as if they could pull her in completely.

“Do you still want to watch?” His voice was husky.

Chu Xia snapped back to reality instantly, shaking her head vigorously and quickly averting her gaze.

Her face flushed crimson, and her earlobes turned as red as blood-red rubies.

Cen Zhengnian chuckled softly and walked slowly toward Chu Xia. “I don’t mind.”

“No, no,” Chu Xia stammered, barely knowing what she was saying, unable to think clearly.

Cen Zhengnian didn’t turn off the light, forcing Chu Xia to take in every detail of him, leaving a deep impression.

Chu Xia hadn’t had time to buy a cake for Cen Huai’an when a heavy snowfall arrived.

Chu Xia loved watching the snow from the window; it was as if the entire world had turned white.

Outside, children were having snowball fights.

Chu Xia and Cen Huai’an wanted to build a snowman in the backyard.

The snowman they made back in Liangzhou had melted as soon as the sun came out.

Besides, Cen Zhengnian hadn’t been with them in Liangzhou, nor had Huangzi and Heizi.

This time, Chu Xia and An An wanted to make a snow family of five, and they even pulled Cen Zhengnian into it.

When Cen Zhengnian heard they were going to build their family, he wanted to make it realistic and sketched a design.

Chu Xia and Cen Huai’an looked at the drawing, nodding in approval. “This is exactly what we want it to look like! Let’s get started!”

At first, they followed the drawing, but soon Chu Xia and Cen Huai’an began improvising.

Cen Zhengnian didn’t mind at all; for him, the design was not that important.

As they built the snowmen, the two dogs, Huangzi and Heizi, ran around the backyard, occasionally trying to paw at the snow figures, curious about what their owners were doing.

Most of the time, Cen Huai’an managed to catch them, holding on tightly to their necks to protect the snowmen.

Eventually, the dogs got distracted, digging in the snow nearby, and Chu Xia made good use of the snow they dug up, rolling it into balls to create the two dogs.

“An An, this snowball is a bit too big,” Chu Xia said, pressing it inwards.

It wouldn’t go in, so she continued pushing until it fit, brushing the snow off her gloves. “But it’s not a big deal.”

The snowballs Chu Xia made were a bit small, but she just added more snow to fill them up.

Both she and An An had a rough approach to snowman building.

Cen Zhengnian, on the other hand, carefully stuck to his design, though with this team effort, he didn’t mind how Chu Xia and An An’s snowmen turned out.

“Mom, doesn’t Huangzi’s head look a bit off?” Cen Huai’an asked.

Chu Xia stepped back and examined the dog head she had made. Apart from being slightly oversized, she didn’t see anything wrong.

“It looks good. It’s just like Huangzi.”

Cen Huai’an continued staring at the snow dog, still feeling something was amiss. But with the design now lost, they decided to leave it as it was.

He shook his head and went back to building Heizi.

Cen Zhengnian brought small black coal pieces from the house to make eyes, noses, and mouths for the snowmen.

Once the snowmen were done, Chu Xia stepped back, pulled out Cen Zhengnian’s drawing, and compared it to the snowmen. Not identical, but definitely unrelated.

Cen Huai’an leaned on Chu Xia’s arm, looking between the drawing and the snowmen in silence.

Cen Zhengnian smiled at the snowmen, simply enjoying the joy of the family activity.

The appearance of the snowmen didn’t matter.

Chu Xia looked at the snowmen and felt an urge to capture the moment, but without a camera or phone, all she could do was take in the sight before the snow melted.

“Zhengnian, didn’t An An and I do a great job? This year’s snowmen are as good as last year’s!”

Chu Xia always had a mysterious confidence in her creations.

Cen Zhengnian nodded sincerely, playing along. “They really resemble us.”

Chu Xia scrutinized the snowmen, frowning a bit. “Not really. I made my face too big—it should have been smaller.”

In the yard stood three snowmen, and Chu Xia’s face was actually the smallest. She gestured for a while, then sighed. “Oh well, I’ll make it smaller next year.”

Cen Zhengnian smiled, agreeing, “It’s great as it is.”

Huangzi and Heizi, sensing an opportunity, sneaked over to their respective snowmen, leaving a few paw prints on them while Chu Xia, An An, and Cen Zhengnian were busy admiring their work.

Recently, Cen Huai’an had become even more popular with the neighborhood kids, thanks to a simple sled Chu Xia and Cen Zhengnian had commissioned a carpenter to make. Huangzi and Heizi pulled the sled, giving An An rides.

Every child wanted a turn on Cen Huai’an’s dog sled, but An An only allowed rides to those who could beat him in a game of chess. He didn’t want to overwork Huangzi and Heizi.

Usually, the dogs only pulled the sled when they needed exercise, as Cen Huai’an couldn’t run easily in the snow, so Chu Xia came up with this solution.

Whether it was checkers or gomoku, no kids could win against Cen Huai’an.

“An An, let me have a ride! I’ll pay you,” pleaded Long Long, the kid who had been chased down by Mr. Han and his mom for not finishing his homework. He pulled out a handful of loose change, coins of various denominations.

Cen Huai’an shook his head. “No.”

Long Long burst into tears. “I can’t beat you at chess!”

Other kids tried to sneak onto the sled while Cen Huai’an wasn’t looking, but Huangzi and Heizi only obeyed An An.

They stayed put when anyone else climbed on.

Crying, Long Long ran home, demanding that his mom let him ride on Cen Huai’an’s dog sled.

Longlong’s mother, annoyed by his persistent pleading, couldn’t even get him to stop by pulling his ear.

Frustrated, she came to Chu Xia and asked if Longlong could have just one turn.

“Just one time, please. He’s pestering me so much that I can’t get any work done,” Longlong’s mother said, looking exhausted.

Chu Xia didn’t have a solution either—this was An An’s dog-pulled sled.

“You’ll have to ask An An. Only if he agrees.”

Just then, Cen Huaian came back on the sled, and Longlong’s eyes filled with envy as he unconsciously took a few steps toward him.

His mother quickly pulled him back.

Chu Xia smiled at Longlong’s mother and said, “An An is back now. You can ask him. Huangzi and Heizi are his good friends. He feeds them, and they only listen to him. They don’t even listen to me.”

Cen Huaian untied the wide cloth ropes from Huangzi and Heizi and led them over.

Longlong’s mother bent down to ask him, but Cen Huaian firmly shook his head, his tone resolute: “No. Huangzi and Heizi are tired.”

After saying that, he led Huangzi and Heizi inside without even glancing at Longlong, who was still staring longingly at them.

Chu Xia gave an apologetic smile to Longlong’s mother, “Sorry about that.”

Longlong’s mother still wanted Chu Xia to persuade Cen Huai’an, but Chu Xia shook her head. “If An An doesn’t want to do something, I won’t force him.”

Left with no other choice, Longlong’s mother took him back home, though she was clearly a bit upset.

They were neighbors after all—what was the big deal about letting another child have a turn on the dog sled?

It wasn’t like it was being pulled by people.

There were two dogs—did they really need to be treated like they were so precious?

Other parents thought the same way.

Their children also came home, pestering them for a ride on the dog sled.

Chu Xia, however, didn’t pay attention to those comments.

It wasn’t tiring to pull one person, but there was more than one child in the residential compound.

So many kids wanted a turn.

If you allowed one, then another would want to ride, and if you agreed to one, you couldn’t refuse the others.

That would leave Huangzi and Heizi with no rest all day.

Chu Xia and Cen Huai’an both loved those dogs too much to let that happen.

To outsiders, Huangzi and Heizi were just dogs. But to Chu Xia and An An, they were family.

Besides, they weren’t running a business.

Why should they exhaust the dogs just to maintain good relations with their neighbors?

Even in later years at the ice rink at Shichahai, the sled dogs were often fake.

On Sunday, Chu Xia took An An to visit Grandpa Jiang.

As promised, she bought him a cake along the way.

When they arrived at Grandpa Jiang’s house with the cake, Zhang Lu and Jiang Weixian, who were already there, excitedly called out.

Zhang Lu’s bright, sun-like eyes turned to Chu Xia, “Aunt, when can we eat the cake?”

Grandpa Jiang’s beard twitched.

He sat in his chair, pretending to be uninterested in the cake, but his eyes kept sneaking glances at it.

He loved sweets too.

But Grandpa Jiang wasn’t allowed to eat too many sweet things now.

He was getting older, and overly rich or sugary foods would put too much strain on his body and weren’t good for him.

Every time Uncle Jiang or Second Uncle Jiang came over, they would remind Grandpa Jiang and Aunt Li not to eat too much.

Chu Xia also reminded Aunt Li.

Grandpa Jiang always wanted to eat sweet-and-sour fish or sweet-and-sour pork, and if no one was paying attention, he’d even sneak some extra sweet snacks.

Old people are like children sometimes. Grandpa Jiang was no exception.