The two of them wrote their homework with lightning speed, and finished it in no time. Then they quickly packed up their books, pens, rulers and other things, put them in their schoolbags and hung them on the wall.

"Come here, little brother, let your big brother play with you."

After packing his things, Chen Feng went up to Sheng Xiping and Sheng Xinhua and shook a rattle to amuse Sheng Xinhua.

There weren't many toys back then; that rattle drum was one that Sheng Xitai played with when he was a child.

Although Sheng Xinhua played with it every day, he never got tired of it. When he saw his older brother shaking the rattle drum, he reached out and grabbed it.

Sheng Xinhua has regained some strength in his hands now, and he can hold the rattle drum quite steadily.

However, he hadn't mastered the technique yet and couldn't imitate Chen Feng's rattle-drum movements. He just waved it around aimlessly, occasionally making a noise, but he was quite happy nonetheless.

While Sheng Xiping was soothing the child, everyone on the south kang (heated brick bed) sped up their dumpling-making.

Sheng Liancheng also washed his hands and came over to help pick up dumplings, chatting with Sheng Xi'an as he did so.

Ask about the second son's work in Xilinhe and how much money he has earned in the past few months.

"Wow, you make over a hundred a month, plus food, that's pretty good. You've really grown up, you can earn money now."

When Sheng Liancheng heard that his son had earned more than 400 yuan, he was very pleased.

As our son grows up and starts earning money, our family's life will get better and better.

As we were talking, the dumplings were almost all wrapped, so we quickly went to wash the pot and boil water to cook them.

Before six o'clock, the dumplings were cooked, taken out and served. The family sat around the table, eating the hot and fragrant dumplings.

Sheng Xinhua started eating complementary foods at six months old. The baby is very robust and eats everything. Zhang Shuzhen also takes good care of him.

From the initial steamed egg custard and millet porridge, it gradually evolved into various minced meats and fish mixed into the porridge, and now it's all about soft noodles and wontons, with different variations every day.

When Sheng Xinhua was six months old, he got two lower teeth, and then two upper teeth. Now he has a total of eight teeth, with two more on top that are about to come in.

With teeth, eating is easy. Zhang Shuzhen rinsed a few dumplings with cold water to prevent them from being too hot and burning the child.

The dumplings were served on a small plate and placed in front of Sheng Xinhua. The boy immediately reached out, grabbed one, and put it in his mouth.

When Zhou Qinglan saw this, she quickly stopped him, preventing him from stuffing the whole dumpling into his mouth, and only letting him bite off about a third of it.

Nothing tastes better than dumplings. Even though the child is young, he knows what's good and bad. Sheng Xinhua ate these dumplings with great relish.

Before long, he finished what he had in his mouth, then grabbed his mother's hand and took another bite, biting off a third of it, and continued chewing.

"This child is really strong-willed; he's already feeding himself at such a young age."

I remember when you were little, I had to chew your food and feed you.

Zhang Shuzhen looked at her grandson, then at her sons and daughters, and sighed.

“Back then, there wasn’t much good food at home. Whatever the adults ate, they would chew up a bit and feed it to you. That’s how we raised you.”