Fu Yucheng reached out and touched the fabric of the little cotton-padded jacket. When his fingertips touched the copper buttons, the cool metal mixed with the warmth of the fabric reminded him of the copper thimble that Yun Tangyin wore on her lapel when he first met her.
“These buttons are so shiny you can see your reflection in them,” he said with a smile. “If a child wears them, he’ll be the most dazzling little kid in the neighborhood.”
Yun Tangyin folded the cotton-padded jacket neatly and put it into a wooden box lined with floral fabric, as if she were hiding a rare treasure.
“When spring comes and the weather warms up, we can give it to the child,” she looked up at Fu Yucheng, her smile as bright as a flickering fire in a stove. “Then he can wear his new cotton-padded coat and sunbathe in the yard with Snowball and the others.”
Xiao Lan squatted by the cage and saw Snowball digging at the food trough with its little paws. She quickly added a handful of soybeans to the trough: "Snowball, eat quickly, so you can grow strong and play with your little brother."
She suddenly remembered something, took a frozen hawthorn out of her pocket, and stuffed it into Fu Yucheng's hand. "Brother Fu, this is for you. My mother just pickled it. It's even more sour than the last one. You can suck on it to refresh yourself when you're chopping wood."
Fu Yucheng took the hawthorn, took a bite, and squinted his eyes because it was so sour, which made Yun Tangyin and Xiao Lan laugh.
"You silly girl, you always give me sour things," Fu Yucheng said with a smile, shaking his head, but then stuffed the remaining hawthorns into his pocket. "I'll eat them when I'm chopping wood tomorrow; they really do help to refresh me."
From outside the courtyard came Director Wang's loud voice, mixed with the crying of his little grandson: "Is Fu Yucheng home? My son keeps nagging to see the little rascal!"
Yun Tangyin looked out the window and saw the child peeking through the crack in the courtyard gate, his little face red from the cold, and clutching a half-eaten candy in his hand.
“Call him in,” Yun Tangyin said to Fu Yucheng, “Don’t let the child get cold.”
Fu Yucheng lifted the curtain and went out, carrying the child back in. The little guy was still sobbing, "Uncle Fu, I want to see Snowball."
He lay on the edge of the cage, his little hand gently touching the bars. Seeing Snowball moving closer to his hand, he suddenly laughed out loud: "It likes me! It's shaking hands with me!"
Yun Tangyin stuffed a cookie into his hand: "Eat it quickly, and then have your Uncle Fu take you home, otherwise your mother will worry."
After the children left, the house finally quieted down.
Xiao Lan packed her things, picked up the empty cloth bag and walked out: "Sister-in-law, Brother Fu, I'll come first thing tomorrow morning to help you change the cotton wadding for the rabbits."
She walked towards the alley entrance through the snow, her red hair tie flickering like a flame in the night. "Don't forget to let me feed the snowballs!"
Yun Tangyin smiled and replied, "I won't forget, I saved some soybeans for you."
Fu Yucheng added a piece of coal to the stove, and the firelight made the outline of his profile even clearer.
“Tomorrow I’ll finish making the feeding trough and add a small partition to the cage,” he said, sitting down next to Yun Tangyin. The snow on his military boots melted on the blue bricks, leaving small watermarks. “So the little rascals will have a place to run around, instead of always crowding together.”
Yun Tangyin leaned against him, listening to the faint sounds of the rabbit in the cage, when the little one in her belly suddenly kicked her.
“Look,” she said, holding Fu Yucheng’s hand and pressing it against his lower abdomen, “it’s greeting you too. It must be happy to hear you say you’re going to make a feeding trough.”
Fu Yucheng pressed his ear against it and whispered, "When it comes out, I'll teach it to feed the rabbits and make it best friends with Snowball."
In the latter half of the night, the snow began to fall again, gently landing on the window paper like countless tender hands tapping softly.
When Yun Tangyin woke up, she found that Fu Yucheng was not beside her. When she got out of bed, she saw him squatting in front of the rabbit cage, holding a piece of cotton cloth soaked in warm water, gently wiping the stains on the bottom of the cage.
The light from the oil lamp slanted across him, and a few cotton wadding particles fell onto the shoulders of his military green cotton-padded jacket, like snowflakes.
"Why aren't you asleep?" She went over and draped an old cotton-padded coat over him. "Be careful not to get cold."
When Fu Yucheng turned around, his eyelashes were damp with moisture: "I heard Huaqiu whimpering, and I was worried it would get cold, so I added some cotton wool to the cage."
He pointed into the cage, where Flower Ball was nestled in the gray mother rabbit's arms, its little paws pawing at the mother rabbit's fur as if it were holding a hand warmer.
Yun Tangyin squatted down beside him, watching the three little rabbits rise and fall gently with their mother's breath, and suddenly felt her heart soften like a ball of cotton.
“Wait until spring,” she said softly, “open the cage door and let them run around in the yard and get some sun.”
Fu Yucheng held her hand, the calluses on his fingertips tickling her: "Let's build a little nest under the old locust tree so they can shelter from the rain and smell the fragrance of locust blossoms."
As dawn broke, Yun Tangyin was awakened by the noise from the kitchen. Fu Yucheng was squatting in front of the stove, tending the fire. The sweet potato porridge in the pot was bubbling and filling the room with a sweet aroma.
She walked over, wearing a cotton-padded coat, and noticed a rabbit hair stuck to his military cap. She couldn't help but reach out and remove it for him: "Why didn't you sleep a little longer?"
Fu Yucheng added a handful of pine needles to the stove, and the fragrance of pine resin mingled with the aroma of porridge: "I wanted you to have hot porridge as soon as you got up. Aunt Zhang said that pregnant women need to eat on time."
Just as I ladled the porridge into a bowl, Xiaolan's voice came from outside the yard, mixed with the sound of a bamboo basket swaying: "Sister-in-law! I've come to help you change your quilt!"
When she lifted the curtain and came in, the tip of her nose was red from the cold, and the bamboo basket contained half a bag of soybeans, which were still steaming.
“My mother said these soybeans are freshly ground and more nutritious than old soybeans,” Xiaolan said, glancing into the cage. She saw Snowball dozing on the white rabbit’s back and suddenly laughed, “Snowball is so lazy, it just woke up and is already asleep again.”
Fu Yucheng handed Xiaolan a bowl of hot porridge. A few red dates floated on the surface of the porridge. The sweet aroma mixed with the heat wafted onto Xiaolan's face, gradually warming her red nose.
"Drink it while it's hot," he said with a smile. "It won't taste good when it's cold. Your mother would be heartbroken if she knew you came to work on an empty stomach."
Xiao Lan held the bowl of porridge, sipping it slowly, but her eyes never left the rabbit cage.
Snowball seemed to be awakened by the aroma of porridge. It lifted its head from the white rabbit's back, twitched its little nose, and stared intently at the bowl in Xiaolan's hand with its bright black eyes, which made Xiaolan chuckle: "Brother Fu, look, Snowball wants to drink porridge too!"
Yun Tangyin was squatting by the cage changing the cotton wadding when she heard this. She looked up and smiled, "It's still too small to drink porridge. When it gets a little bigger, we'll make it corn porridge."
She folded the old cotton wadding she had taken out and planned to put it out to dry in the sun. "After this cotton wadding has been dried in the sun, I'll put it back on the rabbit tonight. It'll be soft and warm."
After finishing his porridge, Fu Yucheng picked up an axe to chop wood for a feeding trough. Just as he reached the gate of the courtyard, he saw Zhou Desheng carrying a shovel, his military boots leaving deep footprints in the snow.
“Brother Fu, let me help you chop wood,” Zhou Desheng put the shovel down in the corner and rubbed his hands, which were red from the cold. “I heard yesterday that you were going to make a feeding trough for the rabbits. I happened to have nothing to do, so I came to lend a hand.”
Fu Yucheng stuffed a piece of locust flower cake into his hand: "Eat something to tide you over before you get back to work."
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