The first snow of winter came very quickly, faster than imagined.
It was as if just yesterday they were still discussing knitting Little Ping An a sweater for the autumn, and today they suddenly had to prepare to buy down jackets for the baby.
Time passed so fast that Ding Sha was a little caught off guard.
Thinking back to being anxiously pregnant with Little Ping An last year, and this year he can already make vague gurgling sounds, Ding Sha just felt it was wondrous.
On New Year's Day they opened the door very early. Xiao Jun insisted on selling tangyuan rice balls in his shop. Ding Sha just went along with him.
They prepared sesame, peanuts, rose bean paste fillings, as well as fresh meat fillings. All were fillings that Ding Sha made herself and delivered to the tangyuan shop to wrap.
The cooked tangyuan contained Jiuniang wine brew, sweet and eating them made one happily squint one's eyes.
Du Rourou was reluctant to stretch out her hands due to the cold, and squeezed next to Wang Wenhao to share a bowl with him.
Si Le fed Little Shitou first before eating himself.
Gong Sister-in-law put a bowl in a thermal container to bring over to Da Zhuang later.
Looking at Si Le, Zhuang Auntie smiled very kindly.
Lin Jiayu knocked on the door and entered, “Good morning!”
Ding Sha greeted him, “Morning, Teacher Lin. Have you eaten? Would you like a bowl of tangyuan?”
"To be honest, I actually smelled the aroma and that's why I came in. Do you believe me?" Lin Jiayu smiled as he sat down, not at all pretentious.
So Ding Sha smilingly asked him which filling he wanted.
Lin Jiayu thought for a moment and asked for two different ones.
The tangyuan were small, finished in two bites each, so eating a bowl with more didn’t make one’s stomach bloated.
In winter there were few people who got up early to eat breakfast. Most were vaguely bleary-eyed, going out to walk the dog or work overtime. They came in to buy a bowl of hot tangyuan to painfully scaldingly finish before rushing at deadly speed to catch the bus.
Sitting by the window watching the few people outside, Lin Jiayu contentedly sighed, “I wanted to do this in the summer too. My first reaction when I came in wasn’t too sad then either, but that I felt sitting here drinking tea in the winter would definitely be very comfortable."
Ding Sha asked him, “What about now?”
Knowing what she was asking, Lin Jiayu lazily propped his cheek looking like a satisfied big cat, “It’s pretty good, you could even say making lemonade out of lemons.”
Ding Sha tilted her head.
So Lin Jiayu started telling her about it.
He had always kept himself tightly wrapped up before, never telling anyone about matters regarding his sexual orientation. After a long time his heart always felt suffocated. Having someone like Ding Sha to confide in now, he didn’t mind telling her about it either.
“My parents never agreed to us being together. I moved out of home when I started university, although still living in the same city, I really didn’t run into them much after that.”
“I know they deliberately avoided all the areas I might possibly appear.”
“The matter of him cheating made my parents find out. They were very angry but awkwardly asked me to return home.”
“I was actually quite happy. I had been prepared to be alone all my life, but I didn’t expect my parents who had always been so stubborn and old-fashioned to actually go inquire about other men.”
Saying this he laughed and shook his head, “It’s pretty cute.”
“Then you–” Ding Sha was astonished for a moment.
“I’ll bring him to meet you another day, so you can at least see each other since I’ll have to bring him around in the future anyway.” Lin Jiayu said very openly.
“Great!” Ding Sha was truly happy for him.
After sending Lin Jiayu off, Xiao Jun came out holding Little Ping An.
“Why did you take him outside? It’s so cold out and he hasn’t woken up yet.” Ding Sha carefully wrapped Little Ping An up tighter.
“To get some fresh air. Can’t be cooped up indoors every day.” As Xiao Jun spoke he freed a hand to pick up a skateboard too.
“You took out the skateboard too?” Ding Sha was astonished.
“To show it to the skater boys. They’ve been wanting to see my son for a long time.” Xiao Jun said somewhat proudly.
“If your son gets sick, you go rolling out of here gracefully with your skateboard. Got it?” Ding Sha smiled.
“Promise. Even if I’m sick, my son cannot have anything happen to him.” Xiao Jun raised three fingers again.
Ding Sha spat at him. “As if I’d believe that.”
Still she carried her son along with Xiao Jun to the park where they often went skateboarding.
Having just walked over, the skater boys were playing wildly. Then they saw the handsome guy and beautiful woman carrying what looked like a finely carved jade baby walking over.
“Whoa!!!!!”
