In the blink of an eye, the weather turned cool and crisp in autumn.
Little Xiao Sijin received a new gift, a pair of pretty little shoes. From time to time, Zhao Auntie would hold her little arms as she toddled unsteadily around the floor.
Ding Sha bought a lot of salted egg yolks and thought that with the Mid-Autumn Festival coming up, she should make some mooncakes.
She planned to make mooncakes with lotus seed paste and salted egg yolks as well as some with meat filling.
As for ice skin mooncakes, she thought about it and decided to just order some boxes online instead. She didn't care much for eating ice skin mooncakes herself, so she wasn't very confident she could make good ones.
Recently, Xiao Jun became obsessed with skateboarding. Every day he would put on loose pants and carry his skateboard to go play with his skater buddies at the park down the street.
Wang Wenhao was already halfway done hanging up the menu at the restaurant. Xiao Jun figured they should hire another chef so that he and Ding Sha wouldn't have to run around so much in the kitchen anymore.
After getting tanned a few shades darker, Xiao Jun came back and first took a shower before playfully spending some time with little Xiao Sijin.
After father and son bonded for a while, Xiao Jun went over to help Ding Sha.
"Had enough fun?" Ding Sha asked.
Xiao Jun looked at her expression but couldn't tell if she was angry.
"Sha Sha..." Xiao Jun went over grinning to hug her waist.
Ding Sha impatiently said, "You dark egg, get away from me."
But Xiao Jun only hugged her tighter.
Ding Sha helplessly said, "It's not that I don't want you to go, but you should at least put on some sunscreen. You got sunburnt and were peeling skin off yourself without even realizing?"
Xiao Jun wrinkled his nose. "Didn't want to put it on. That stuff feels gross."
Ding Sha rolled her eyes. "That's just psychological. If you go out again tomorrow without putting any on, then don't bother coming home."
"Okay, okay, I'll put it on, is that alright?" Xiao Jun reluctantly nodded.
But the next day Ding Sha glanced at the sunscreen bottle to find it still perfectly intact.
When Xiao Jun came home, he found that Ding Sha was ignoring him completely, not only that but acting as if he didn't exist.
Xiao Jun knew things had gone badly.
He chased after Ding Sha trying to tell jokes and make her laugh, but the usually easily amused Ding Sha didn't react at all.
He kept trying to talk to Ding Sha but she refused to even look his way.
After stealthily watching for a while, Du Rourou went to the kitchen to whisper with Wang Wenhao. "Sister Sha is fighting with Brother Xiao!"
"Fighting?" Wang Wenhao listened. "I don't hear any yelling though?"
"They're giving each other the silent treatment. Sister Sha is totally ignoring Brother Xiao." Du Rourou said.
Just as she finished saying so, they saw a dejected Xiao Jun enter the kitchen.
Unafraid of trouble, Wang Wenhao bluntly went up to him. "Master, is Mistress not talking to you?"
Xiao Jun gloomily mumbled yes.
"How come?" Wang Wenhao was quite curious. After all, Ding Sha had always been even-tempered and all smiles with everyone.
Xiao Jun briefly explained the reason. Wang Wenhao said, "That's it?"
"Mm." Xiao Jun mumbled again.
"Master, that's where you went wrong. Mistress cares about you, and you disregarded her concerns even after getting sunburnt. How could she not get angry? Anyone would be angry in her shoes."
Wang Wenhao said, "Just think, Master. What if Mistress went out every rainy day without an umbrella, and when you asked her why, she said she was too lazy to take one. And every time, she catches a cold but still refuses to bring an umbrella the next time. Wouldn't you get angry too?"
Xiao Jun had felt it wasn't a big deal at first, since it was just some sunscreen. But after hearing Wang Wenhao's explanation and imagining that scenario, he immediately understood why Ding Sha was angry.
Xiao Jun patted Wang Wenhao. "I'll give you a bonus at the end of the month."
After saying so, he hurried off.
Ten minutes later, Ding Sha came in. "Where did your master go?"
She didn't see Xiao Jun anywhere and thought maybe he went out to play again.
"Didn't notice." Wang Wenhao said.
Ding Sha huffed and went back out.
Wang Wenhao quickly messaged Xiao Jun. "Master!! Mistress is looking for you!! Hurry back!"
"Where did you run off to?"
"Master??!!"
But Xiao Jun didn't reply at all.
Ding Sha put the prepared mooncake mix into the oven. She wanted to make the kind of traditional mooncakes with red and green strands wrapped inside flaky layers of crust.
Looking at the mooncakes baking in the oven, Ding Sha felt more and more upset as she thought about it.
Du Rourou was following her as she filmed ingredients. Suddenly she saw a white hand sharply slap the table in the frame.
"Sister?" Du Rourou was startled.
Ding Sha came back to her senses. "Oh, sorry, did I scare you?"
Du Rourou shook her head. "It's fine. Sister, is your hand okay?"
Despite knowing she was older than Ding Sha, Du Rourou still habitually called her "sister". Her little uncle said to call leaders at work "sister"!
Ding Sha looked at her palm, "It's fine, just a little red."
"Just a little red from what?" Xiao Jun came in holding a bag.
Seeing Ding Sha's expression, Du Rourou took her camera to go look for Wang Wenhao instead.
Xiao Jun sat down. "Still mad? I'm sorry, it was my mistake. I won't do it again in the future."
As he spoke, he took things out of the bag. "Look, I bought a lot of sun protection stuff - hats, arm sleeves, and lots of sunscreen sprays. I promise I'll bundle up properly every time I go out from now on."
Ding Sha's eyes shifted to glance at him. Xiao Jun knew from this that she was no longer angry. He grinned and leaned over wanting to hug her waist.
Ding Sha pushed him away in disgust. "It's hot enough without you stinking things up. Stay away from me, dark egg."
Xiao Jun sniffed himself. "How do I stink! I showered when I came home!"
Ding Sha glared at him. "You just stink, everywhere! Sweat stench! And way too dark!"
Xiao Jun knew there was no escaping that adjective now.
"I'll go rinse off again." He got up to shower.
Ding Sha rifled through the pile of sun protection items and inspected each one thoroughly before bringing them back to put away properly.
The staff at the restaurant noticed that recently Ding Sha no longer called the boss "Jun" but a rather amusing sounding new name instead.
Dark egg.
The first time Ding Sha directly addressed Xiao Jun as "dark egg" in front of everyone, Xiao Jun resignedly acknowledged it.
Wang Wenhao nearly did a spit take.
Du Rourou giggled from a distance. "Sister Sha, you call Brother Xiao a dark egg?"
"Mm-hmm." Ding Sha agreed very naturally.
"He's so dark that if you turn off the lights you can't find him, what else to call him but dark egg?"
Xiao Jun could only accept it helplessly.
On Mid-Autumn festival, the restaurant gave each customer mooncakes. After trying them, some asked if they could buy more from Ding Sha.
She hadn't made many, just enough for themselves plus some to give away and share, so there weren't a lot left over. She simply decided not to sell them.
But Ding Sha thought that she should prepare earlier next year and sell some mooncakes then.
Right after the long National Day holidays when employees were still feeling lazy about going back to work, Xiao Jun presented two plane tickets to Ding Sha.
"Let's go, shall we take a trip too?"
Ding Sha was stunned for a moment, even forgetting to yawn. "What?"
She took the tickets and looked at them in confusion. They were tickets to fly to Chengdu.
"A trip? What about our son? The shop??"
