Xue Fu pursed her lips and pointed to the roasted peanuts in the glass cabinet: "Then weigh another pound of peanuts."

I don't know if these roasted peanuts are salty or bland...

Salty peanut-filled glutinous rice balls, that's so strange.

Upon hearing her request, the saleswoman quickly reached out and opened the glass display case.

My aunt poured two spoonfuls of the porcelain jar into the weighing basin, precisely weighing one pound of peanuts, no more, no less.

"Alright, here you go. Half a pound of sweet potato starch, three mao plus half a pound of grain coupons. One pound of peanuts, five mao plus two liang of grain coupons." The aunt quickly calculated in her mind, "A total of eight mao, seven liang of meal coupons."

Xue Fu took out money and bills from her pocket, pulled out a few and placed them on the table: "Auntie, here you go."

"Okay, sure," the aunt counted the items and handed them to Xue Fu. After the money and goods were settled, she called out in her hoarse voice, "Alright, next! What do you want to buy?"

Xue Fu carried her purchases and walked out of the queue.

After walking outside the supply and marketing cooperative, she took two deep breaths of fresh air, and when she looked down and saw the things in her hands, she felt good.

With light steps, she walked towards the Gu family's house.

No one was home at the Gu family's house right now. Gu Fei was still out playing and hadn't returned yet, and Gu Chong was still at the commune. She was all alone, and it was very quiet.

She put the things in the kitchen cupboard, then walked around the yard a couple more times and realized it was still early before lunch.

But now that she's back at the fishpond, she's feeling a bit lazy and doesn't want to walk; she just wants to find a place to sit.

So she moved a chair out and sat in the yard, basking in the sun while reading.

She now carries books with her everywhere.

She silently read two pages of a book in one morning.

Just as she was about to turn to the next page, she heard a noise at the door. Xue Fu subconsciously looked down at her watch and saw that it was already 11:30.

She assumed that Gu Fei had come home for dinner after playing outside.

Xue Fu closed the book, got up from the chair, and instead of going to the door, walked towards the kitchen.

She said, "Xiao Fei, come back and wash your hands! I'll go heat up the food!"

It wasn't Gu Fei's childish voice, but a deep, resonant, and concise sentence from an adult man: "Afu, it's me."

Xue Fu was both surprised and delighted: "Hey! Why did you come back at noon today!"

She immediately changed direction and jogged towards him, bumping right into his arms: "Don't you have driving lessons or practice today? How come you have time to come back?"

Although she asked him things like, "Why are you back? Don't you have to study?"—a kind of "urging"—her fox-like eyes curved into the shape of the bright moon, full of joy and delight.

A pair of beautiful eyes had already revealed all of her thoughts.

"Yes, you don't need to go over this afternoon either."

"All the tractors in the commune have been requisitioned today, so there are none left to teach, and that's why we're being sent back first."

He explained to her gently.

Xue Fu nodded to indicate that she understood, then she raised her hand to support herself against his chest, trying to get out of his embrace.

But at that moment, Gu Chong's hand was around her waist.

Her waist was slender, and when she leaned against his chest and looked up at him, her back arched back slightly, her waist curving into a beautiful arc. Gu Chong couldn't help but pinch the soft flesh on her waist.

This piece of flesh was already sensitive, and when he squeezed it, Xue Fu immediately trembled, feeling a tingling sensation all over her body. Before she could react, she fell headfirst into his arms.

"you...!"

Xue Fu was about to say something to her when she heard her own voice become strangely shy. She swallowed what she wanted to say and just stared at him with her bright, watery fox eyes to express her dissatisfaction.

Gu Chong smiled at her, a smile that made him look even more youthful.

Gu Chong always had a blank face with little expression, so when he smiled like this, it was easy to lose focus and force people's attention to shift from other places to his face, to the corner of his lips that were curled up.

His tactic of using a handsome man to seduce Xue Fu has always been effective.

Seeing the coquettishness on her face disappear and be replaced by a shy blush, Gu Chong asked her gently what she had been doing.

He noticed the books laid out over there: "Were you reading just now?"

"Yes, I watched for a while."

Are your eyes tired?

Xue Fu blinked and shook her head.

"Then you can sit and rest for a while longer, I'll go heat up the food."

Gu Chong raised his chin, gesturing for her to sit back down and wait for him.

"don't want."

Xue Fu refused; she still had things to tell him.

"Do you know what day it is today?" She looked at him hesitantly.

To be honest, if she hadn't overheard people chatting while passing by the supply and marketing cooperative today, she wouldn't have remembered what day it was.

Today, Gu Chong looked no different from any other day, and Xue Fu thought that he had probably forgotten as well.

She made a "hmm" sound, and was just about to give a hint when she heard him say the correct answer.

"Lantern Festival".

"Hey! It's good that you know!"

Xue Fu smiled sweetly, then reached out and tugged at his sleeve, asking him to guess what she had bought.

"I went to the supply and marketing cooperative this morning, guess what I bought?"

"Did you buy any food?" Gu Chong asked, getting to the heart of the matter. "What are the customs for celebrating the Lantern Festival in Haicheng?"

Xue Fu snorted and told him to guess for himself.

Gu Chong raised an eyebrow: "Eating Yuanxiao?"

Xue Fu: "Of course! It's exactly what it sounds like. Of course we eat glutinous rice balls on the Lantern Festival!"

She said, "However, your customs are a bit different here; you don't eat glutinous rice balls for the Lantern Festival."

"We don't eat that. We'll just have something nice to eat at the dinner table, mainly meat."

Gu Chong's account was the same as what she had heard at the supply and marketing cooperative.

Her heart skipped a beat. Could Gu Chong make glutinous rice balls?

"Have you ever eaten it?" she asked a silly question.

They don't have the custom of eating glutinous rice balls here, so how could Gu Chong have eaten them?

Sure enough, she saw Gu Chong shaking his head, his tone slightly regretful: "I've never eaten it."

"All right."

Xue Fu pursed her lips and didn't let Gu Chong guess anymore; she confessed what she had bought that morning.

"I bought half a pound of sweet potato starch and a pound of peanuts. I want to eat peanut-filled glutinous rice balls."

She fluttered her eyelashes at him, blinked her eyes, and looked at him with a wet, pleading expression, which was quite adorable.

Gu Chong: "It's okay, I can learn."

Gu Chong: "So how do you do it?"

He had never seen what Yuanxiao (sweet rice balls) looked like, and upon hearing about these two ingredients, he couldn't imagine what shape they would take.

He imagined it would be something round, somewhat like a steamed bun, but tapioca flour would be stickier than wheat flour, lacking the softness of fermented dough. The filling would be crushed peanuts.

Xue Fu didn't know how to make it either, but she described to him what Yuanxiao (sweet rice balls) looked like, and it sounded very simple.

"It's a small, round ball, about this size."

She put her thumb and forefinger together to make a small circle.