Nian'an lay on her small bed, hugging a sesame pillow, with a piece of sesame candy still clutched in her hand.
"Sugar, Tiger," he mumbled indistinctly, his eyelids growing heavy.
Jiang Jianhua covered him with a thin blanket and gently blew out the oil lamp: "Sleep well, you'll dream of endless sesame candy."
Inside the house, only the moonlight and the child's even breathing remained. The night in Huaiyuan was like a bowl of thick sesame paste, filled with the aroma of cooking, slowly settling into the most peaceful flavor.
Just as dawn broke, Nian'an was awakened by the sound of bamboo baskets outside the window.
He sat up, clutching the sesame pillow, his nose still covered in sesame paste residue from last night. Suddenly remembering something, he ran barefoot into the yard.
Fu Yuanshan was tying red rope around a newly woven sweet potato basket, the bamboo strips along the edge of the basket were polished smooth: "Little ancestor, why aren't you wearing shoes again? Be careful not to step on bamboo shavings and prick your feet."
The kitchen was filled with the sweet aroma of sweet potatoes. Jiang Jianhua poured the steamed sweet potatoes into a stone mortar, and the wooden mallet pounded them down, splashing up golden sweet potato paste.
"You have to pound it until it becomes sticky," she said, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "That way, it will be chewy enough when mixed with sesame candy."
Song Yushuang sat in front of the stove adding firewood, the firelight making the white hair at her temples gleam silver: "I've made a few soft-boiled eggs, I'll give them to the children to eat with sweet potatoes later, one sweet and one fragrant, just right."
Fu Yucheng carried a hoe toward the sweet potato field, and kicked a sesame bag as he passed the corner of the yard.
“This must have been dropped by Nian’an last night,” he said, picking up the bag and shaking it. Sesame seeds fell onto the blue bricks with a “rustling” sound, like a handful of scattered stars.
Nian'an, shuffling along in her tiger-head boots, called out as Sesame Pillow bobbed in her arms, "Dad, candy, sweet potato."
Fu Yucheng laughed and put his arm around his shoulder: "Go dig up the biggest sweet potato and make a tiger-shaped sugar cake, which will be even sweeter than sesame candy."
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