After Shao Qiyang made up his mind, he mulled over his decision repeatedly that night. He felt that it might not be good to be direct. He could take things step by step and drop hints to help Mu Jingzhe truly realize his intentions and see that he was serious about her.

  Taking advantage of the holidays, Shao Qiyang decided to give it a serious shot.

  After holding back for so long, he finally decided to take the first step. Shao Qiyang was so excited that he couldn’t fall asleep.

  When he fell asleep in the latter half of the night, perhaps out of guilt, he somehow dreamed of Shao Qihai. In his dreams, they went to the market when they were kids and ended up buying a hat.

  Because they were poor and didn’t have the money to buy a second hat, they kept insisting the other one take it. Later on, he was the one who gave up the hat so his brother could have it.

  This had happened a long time ago. Shao Qiyang didn’t know why he dreamed about it, but what was even stranger was the second half of the dream.

  He clearly remembered that the hat was a very common army green hat, but for some reason, the color of the hat in his dream had changed. It had turned emerald green, so green that it was dazzling[1].

  Back when they were kids, when he had put the hat on his older brother’s head, his brother had clearly felt touched. However, after he put it on his head in the dream, his brother’s expression changed drastically. He took off the hat and stomped on it with all his might. Then, he even wanted to beat him to death and tried to charge at him.

  “Brother, don’t…”

  Shao Qiyang fell from his bed and successfully frightened himself awake. Looking at the bright sky, Shao Qiyang heaved a sigh of relief.

  “Thank goodness it was a dream.”

  This was the first time Shao Qiyang had dreamed of Shao Qihai. However, the dream was a little strange. He even felt a little afraid after waking up.

  Shao Qiyang was stunned for a moment before he laughed bitterly.

  At the end of the day, this dream had come about because he’d decided to take action and felt that he had let his brother down. As the saying went, ‘what you think about in the day you will dream of at night’. This dream was simply a manifestation of his guilt.

  “Second Brother, don’t blame me. When I join you in heaven, I’ll apologize to you. I can even work like an ox or a horse for you.”

  Great Eastern Village had a custom of eating glutinous rice balls on the second day of the Lunar New Year. Thus, Mu Jingzhe woke up and made glutinous rice balls. She whipped up a total of twelve eggs, two per person, and a little bit of wine. The fragrance assailed their nostrils.

  “Quick, one bowl and two eggs each.”

  \r \r \r

  After they ate the glutinous rice balls, Mu Jingzhe took the children back to her maiden home on the second day of the New Year. Li Zhaodi and the rest were waiting.

  Shao Qiyang was left home alone. He walked around the house and thought for a while before sitting on a simple swing hanging from an apple tree outside the door.

  Previously, in the summer, Mu Jingzhe had been napping under this apple tree. He had occasionally heard her mention that it would be great if there was a swinging chair so that she could take an afternoon nap there.

  For the time being, Shao Qiyang couldn’t make a swinging chair, nor was there any store where he could buy a ready-made one. Thus, he decided to make a swing first and slowly make a swinging chair in the future.

  Shao Qiyang waited for Mu Jingzhe to be pleasantly surprised, but when she returned, although she was pleasantly surprised, she didn’t go over to try it herself. Instead, she asked Little Bei to go.

  “Little Bei, go play. This is what you wanted. Shao Qiyang, thank you. Previously, Little Bei said that she wanted one, but you made it for her before I could do so.”

  “Thank you, Uncle. I like it a lot.” Little Bei thanked him and then muttered, “It’s just a little big.”

  Shao Qiyang: “…”

  He wanted to say something but stopped. In the end, he didn’t say anything. He couldn’t very well say that he had made it for Mu Jingzhe and not Little Bei.

  Shao Qiyang didn’t remain glum for long before he regained his energy. He went out early in the morning and returned with a bunch of plum blossoms. The area around the house was completely white. He had specifically found red plum blossoms and put them in a special bottle.

  He wanted to place the flowers in Mu Jingzhe’s room to surprise her, but the moment he entered, he bumped into Mu Jingzhe.

  Shao Qiyang’s face turned red. Just as he was about to say something, Mu Jingzhe took the flowers. “I was just saying that I was going to look for a prop, and you brought these over. That’s awesome.”

  Mu Jingzhe placed the flowers on the table in the courtyard and waved at Shao Qiyang. “Come here quickly. Let’s take a family photo.”

  Shao Qiyang: “…”

  So she wanted to take a family photo.

  Shao Qiyang acknowledged her and stood beside Mu Jingzhe. While sitting next to the plum blossoms, Mu Jingzhe sniffed and nodded continuously. “They’re beautiful and they smell lovely.”

  The regret in Shao Qiyang’s heart seemed to have dissipated by quite a bit.

  “Hurry up and stand properly. I’m going to snap the photos. Qiyang, you should sit down too. Sit beside your sister-in-law. The photo isn’t going to look nice if you stand there because you’re too tall.”

  Shao Qiyang responded and sat down. Only after he sat down did he remember that the county photo studio seemed to have couples sitting and children standing in family pictures.

  His heart fluttered, and he couldn’t help but look at Mu Jingzhe, wanting to know if she realized it.

  However, just as he looked over, he heard the uncle in front of him, who was helping take the photos, shout, “Aiyah, Qiyang, what are you doing? I’ve already taken a photo. You’re not facing the camera properly in it.”

  “It’s alright. It’s interesting regardless of how the photo was taken. Come on, Uncle, have a seat. I’ll take the photos for you.”

  Mu Jingzhe had already stood up and started taking photos of the villagers. It was rare to take photos in this day and age.

  Many a time, the people of the photography shop would come out in spring, when the flowers were blooming, to take a picture of the villagers. Many people couldn’t bear to do it, so they didn’t have many photos of themselves taken throughout their lives.

  Now that Mu Jingzhe had a camera, everyone was wearing new clothes, and there was nothing to do during the New Year, someone mentioned it and asked Mu Jingzhe to help take the photos.

  Mu Jingzhe agreed but also had a photo of her own family taken.

  The third day of the Lunar New Year passed in the midst of all this photo-taking. More than half of the families in the village came to get photos of their entire family or their children. Fortunately, Mu Jingzhe had backup camera film.

  The pot of flowers that Shao Qiyang had brought back had become the most gorgeous prop in many family photos.

  The three days of the Lunar New Year passed just like that. Shao Qiyang was persistent, so he didn’t give up. On the fourth day of the New Year, an opportunity finally arose.

  The department store in the county city reopened for business that day. Shao Qiyang went to the department store and bought the trending vanishing cream[2] for Mu Jingzhe.

  In this era, vanishing cream was one of the gifts that men gave to women if they wanted to confess their feelings. The meaning of the gift was “I like you”.

  When Shao Qiyang gave her the present, his heart almost jumped out of his chest. He was afraid that Mu Jingzhe would get mad or something. Fortunately, she didn’t.

  “Eh, how did you know that I wanted to buy this? I bought some for the kids previously and I just used up one jar after applying it on them every day. I was just about to buy more. Did you notice it?”

  Shao Qiyang: “Yes…”

  With a lot of difficulty, he managed to utter that one syllable and watched as Mu Jingzhe took the cream to the kids’ room.

  In winter, one’s skin tended to crack easily. In the past, the children’s faces would always be red and even crack. However, this year, Mu Jingzhe had bought them vanishing cream early and asked them to apply it. She supervised them as they applied it every day.

  Shao Dong and the others felt quite comfortable after applying it, but the cream gave off a nice fragrance after it was applied. The students kept smelling it, so they felt a little embarrassed.

  Sometimes, when they felt that it wasn’t so dry out, they didn’t want to apply it. In the end, when Mu Jingzhe caught them, she would apply it on their faces and even their hands.

  The weather was slowly getting warmer after the New Year. Seeing that the jar was finished, the kids thought that they didn’t have to apply it anymore. They hadn’t expected Mu Jingzhe to bring another jar over. Furthermore, according to Mu Jingzhe, she would apply it on them both in winter and summer.

  It felt good to have their mother apply the cream on their faces, but their classmates had already stopped doing so. Also, the boys felt embarrassed to be smelling even more fragrant than their female classmates.

  [1] wearing a green hat means being a cuckold

  [2] a cream or ointment that leaves no visible trace when rubbed into the skin