When Li Long brought Mingming and Haohao back from the Fourth Team, he sensed that Gu Xiaoxia was unhappy.
Mingming and Haohao noticed too. Mingming handed Gu Xiaoxia the big handful of elm seeds he had gotten from Li Qiang.
"Mom, have some!"
"You can have mine too!" Haohao offered a pocketful of Thorn Sprouts blossoms. These were two of the few snacks available to country children at this time of year. The elm seeds were nearly gone; Li Qiang had taken Mingming and Haohao to break off branches from the Big Elm Tree over at Yan'erwo.
The Thorn Sprouts blossoms had come from there too.
Gu Xiaoxia immediately smiled. She picked off an elm seed, then took a Thorn Sprouts blossom and put it in her mouth.
"There, I've had some. You two eat the rest."
Only after seeing their mother smile did the children put their things away and go off to eat and share them. There were, after all, a Fawn and a Lamb in the yard, along with a furtive little Hedgehog, and they could all eat these things.
The children were generous, taking a bite themselves and then sharing a bite with the little animals. The animals gathered around them. The Fawn was rather naughty and would snatch food, while the Lamb was quite well behaved. When the Fawn snatched things, Little Black would maintain order from the sidelines.
A couple of barks would make the Red Deer behave.
Everything had its match.
"What's wrong?" Only then did Li Long ask what had happened.
Gu Xiaoxia did not hide anything and told him about the phone call.
"I see." Li Long smiled. "When that former mother-in-law of mine remarried, she probably felt she was happier than you two, so she could afford to be more