Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, five days had passed.
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month—the Lantern Festival.
A row of single-story houses south of Hui River Dam sent curls of smoke drifting into the morning breeze.
In the kitchen, firewood burned in the stove. Jiang Ning used a poker to control the flames while Xue Yuantong pressed close beside him, her little face glowing red in the firelight, her eyes especially bright.
"Jiang Ning, I heard that people in the north like eating dumplings on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, while people in the south like tangyuan. So here's the question: what do we in the Central Region eat?" Xue Yuantong counted on her little fingers.
Aunt Gu, who was cooking in front of the earthen pot, glanced at her silly daughter. "Of course, we eat both."
As she spoke, Aunt Gu looked at the tangyuan in the pot and casually tossed the dumplings in as well.
That was right. In Yuzhou, the custom was to boil tangyuan and dumplings together in one pot and eat both. There was no need to agonize over the choice.
When the dumplings were nearly done, Aunt Gu said, "Tongtong, go call Chuchu over for breakfast."
Tongtong gave him a meaningful little look. "Jiang Ning, you go call her."
The three of them had played a Diamond Game last night. The two of them had been slaughtering their opponents, while Chuchu had been the only one getting beaten up. Her gaming experience had been terrible.
In the end, Chuchu's record was 0-7. She pressed her lips together without saying anything, claimed she was going to study, and went home alone.
Xue Yuantong nudged Jiang Ning, signaling for him to hurry up and apologize. Chuchu must