Yun Tangyin was chewing on acacia flower cake when she suddenly noticed the flour on Fu Yucheng's ear. As she reached out to wipe it away, her fingertips touched his burning skin.
"What else did your sister-in-law teach you?" she teased him, watching the crumbs of noodles falling from his eyelashes. "Did you secretly learn a lot?"
Fu Yucheng added a piece of firewood to the stove, sparks crackling and making his cheeks flush: "What are you saying? My sister-in-law said you like sweets, so she specially added some osmanthus sugar."
He suddenly pulled out an earthenware jar from the cabinet, which contained dried locust flowers. The yellowish-brown petals were covered with fine sand. "These were picked last autumn and dried for a full half month. They smell wonderful."
Just then, Xiaolan's footsteps came from outside the courtyard, fluttering in like a little sparrow. "Sister-in-law!"
She rushed into the house carrying a cloth bag, a snowflake stuck in the red ribbon of her braid. "My mother asked me to deliver some freshly pickled radish."
Seeing the cakes in the steamer, her eyes suddenly lit up. "Save some for me too? Can I eat it?"
Fu Yucheng stuffed the largest piece into her hand, the brown sugar dripping onto the cake like a small stream: "It's fresh out of the oven, eat slowly."
Xiao Lan squatted in front of the stove, holding a cake in her hands. Her mouth was stuffed full, and she mumbled, "It's sweeter than the jujube cake my mother makes!"
She suddenly pointed to Yun Tangyin's belly, "When the baby comes out, I'll bring her locust flower cakes every day."
Yun Tangyin chuckled, touching her lower abdomen, when she suddenly heard the creaking sound of a cart outside the courtyard.
Fu Yucheng lifted the curtain and saw Zhou Desheng carrying a bag of flour and walking towards them, his military green cotton-padded coat covered in snow.
"I just got some fresh noodles from the cafeteria," he said, placing the bag on the stove. Seeing the steamed cakes in the steamer, he said, "Brother Fu, are you making something delicious for your wife again? Can I try some? I want to learn how to make it too. My wife has been asking for it for days."
Fu Yucheng slapped his hand away: "Go wash your hands!"
Zhou Desheng chuckled as he walked toward the water vat, his military boots leaving deep tracks in the snow.
“Brother Fu is becoming more and more virtuous,” he said as he came in, shaking the water off his hands. He grabbed a piece of cake and stuffed it into his mouth. “My wife can’t do anything except sew shoe soles.”
Yun Tangyin stuffed a piece of cake wrapped in oil paper into Zhou Desheng's hand: "Take it back and try it. Fu Yucheng said that he added rice wine when making the dough. You should try it too."
Zhou Desheng was walking out with the cakes in his pocket when he suddenly turned back and shouted, "The regiment is showing another movie this afternoon to mark the end of the year. Remember to go and get a good spot!"
Fu Yucheng was filling a jar with locust flower cakes when he heard this. He turned around and smiled, "I know, I'll save you a front seat."
He tied the mouth of the jar tightly with red paper, making the knot quickly and evenly. "This is for my second sister-in-law. She said yesterday that she wanted to eat this."
Looking at the flour stains on his military green cotton-padded jacket, Yun Tangyin suddenly remembered that when he first married into the family, he even needed her help to tie his shoelaces, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
On the way there, the snow was ankle-deep. Fu Yucheng shielded Yun Tangyin on the inside, leaving half of his body exposed to the wind and snow.
"Walk slowly," he said, pulling her hand into his chest, the calluses on his palms tickling her. "The road is slippery, don't fall."
Yun Tangyin followed in his footsteps and suddenly noticed that the heels of his military boots were worn shiny.
Song Yushuang was also at Jiang Jianhua's place. When the door opened, she was sewing shoe soles. The blue cloth was embroidered with a pair of mandarin ducks, and the stitches were crooked but showed her seriousness.
"What brings you here?" Jiang Jianhua ushered the two into the house. The clay pot on the stove was bubbling and wafting the aroma of angelica. "I just made chicken soup to nourish Yinyin."
Fu Yucheng placed the locust flower cake on the table. When he lifted the lid of the jar, a sweet fragrance mixed with the aroma of medicine wafted out, like spring crashing into winter.
Song Yushuang picked up a piece of cake, the brown sugar melting on her fingertips: "It's sweeter than last year's. With your skills, you could be a chef in the cafeteria."
She ladled chicken soup into Yun Tangyin's bowl, the oil floating on the surface like a thin layer of gold leaf. "Drink more. This chicken is free-range from the back mountain; it's more tender than the ones in the cafeteria."
As Yun Tangyin was drinking her soup, she suddenly noticed a red date at the bottom of the bowl, round and plump like a small red lantern.
When I got home, the snow had stopped, and the sunlight made the snow look white.
The red lanterns outside the courtyard gate were still swaying, their red silk surfaces shining even brighter against the backdrop of the snow.
Yun Tangyin heard the rabbit in the bamboo cage jumping around and peeked into the kitchen while clinging to the railing.
"Hungry?" She threw a piece of locust flower cake into the cage, and the rabbit grabbed it and ran off, its round body creaking against the cage.
Fu Yucheng squatted by the cage and laughed: "This little thing is even more greedy than you."
In the evening, Aunt Li came to borrow soy sauce with her child in her arms. The child was clutching a piece of locust flower cake, its face covered in sugar residue.
"The whole regiment knows how well your steamed cakes are made," she said, placing a bowl of pickled vegetables on the stove. "These are freshly pickled mustard greens; I'll give them to you to eat with your porridge."
The child suddenly pointed at Yun Tangyin's stomach and mumbled something indistinctly.
Fu Yucheng stuffed a piece of freshly steamed cake into the child's hand. Watching the child giggle as he held the cake in his hand, he suddenly moved closer to Yun Tangyin.
Yun Tangyin added a piece of pine firewood to the stove, and the flames leaped up, casting Fu Yucheng's shadow on the wall, the outline of his military green cotton-padded jacket flickering in and out.
"Li's child is so clever," she said with a smile as she ladled millet porridge into a bowl. The rice oil on the surface of the porridge looked like a layer of shiny amber. "He's only a little over a year old, but he already knows how to guard his food. He holds the cake like he's holding a precious treasure."
Fu Yucheng reached out and brushed the stray hairs from her forehead, his fingertips dusted with flour, leaving a white mark between her eyebrows.
Suddenly, the buzzing sound of a movie projector drifted in from outside the courtyard, mixed with the laughter of the military families.
Aunt Li's loud voice was especially clear: "Yinyin! Hurry up and bring Yucheng! The movie 'Tunnel Warfare' is about to start!"
Just as Yun Tangyin was about to get up, Fu Yucheng had already found a thick cotton-padded coat with a thick layer of camel hair sewn into the lining. It had been sent by Song Yushuang a few days ago.
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