Chapter 2
Four-year-and-nine-month-old Li Muxue had the typical chubby, pinkish-white face of a baby. A shallow dimple was hidden on her right cheek, only showing when she smiled. At this moment, she was standing on tiptoe in the second-floor corridor, watching Xu Chen clumsily but earnestly try to catch a dragonfly. Her pursed lips pressed the dimple into a small pit, like a grain of brown sugar sprinkled on flour. Her bright eyes—mostly black pupils, the whites like almonds soaked in spring water—when she blinked, her eyelashes cast fan-shaped shadows on her eyelids, like small fans fluttering gently.
The pink dress she wore was newly made by her mother, with a bright yellow trim sewn around the neckline. In those days, a mother making a dress for her daughter by hand was the best way to convey maternal love, regardless of the cost of the fabric. The hem was embroidered with crooked little daisies, which she supposedly stitched herself with colored thread—the stitches so thick you could stuff an ant in them—yet she was always very proud of them…
“Brother Chen, if you really can’t catch me, come up here. Dad’s calling me home for dinner, I’m not waiting for you. Because you’re too clumsy! Hehehe…” Li Muxue always liked to press the tip of her tongue against her lower teeth when she spoke, and the end of her words would slightly curl upwards, like she was holding a half-melted fruit candy in her mouth. When she laughed, her whole body trembled slightly, and even the cherry hair tie tied to her braid bounced up and down, and that strand of hair that always stuck up stood up high, looking like a proud little tail.
Xu Chen dreaded seeing her angry. Once, another child in the yard snatched her crayons. She stood in the middle of the yard, hands on her hips, her face flushed red, her lips pressed into a thin line, her dimples completely gone, replaced by furrowed brows. Before she could even speak, tears welled up in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall. Her dark, grape-like eyes became watery, like two pools of water about to overflow. Finally, unable to hold back any longer, tears fell onto her clothes, but she still stubbornly shouted, "I...I'm not crying!" Her angry and aggrieved expression was like a kitten whose tail had been stepped on, making one want to laugh and feel sorry for her at the same time. So, Xu Chen looked up and called out to Li Muxue on the second floor, "Little sister, I promised to catch a dragonfly for you, I won't give up, don't be angry, it'll be here soon!"
Li Muxue smiled happily upon hearing this reply, because she knew that her Brother Chen would never lie to her. However, she still said, "Don't catch it anymore, let the little dragonfly fly freely. I'm happy just watching it fly. Consider it a gift from you. You should hurry home and eat, or Aunt Wang will spank you! I'm so hungry, I'm going home now..."
Xu Chen nodded, looking slightly disappointed.
In fact, Xu Chen was only three months older than her, practically the same age. They were both born in the staff quarters of this state-owned machinery factory and grew up in this large compound. Li Muxue's family lived on the second floor, and Xu Chen lived right above her; you could say the only thing separating them was the ceiling.
In this city, known as the heavy industrial base of New China, there were at least several hundred factories like Huaxing Machinery Factory. People unconsciously held workers in higher regard simply because they worked in state-owned factories, and Xu Chen and Li Muxue were no exception. Xu Chen's mother, Wang Lili, was the factory's accountant, a typical intellectual at the time. Li Muxue's father, Li Junsheng, was the director of the third workshop, a true grassroots cadre. However, Xu Chen's father, Xu Zhenguo, and Li Muxue's mother, Qiao Kexin, were ordinary, nameless workers, though all worked in the same factory. Naturally, Li Muxue and Xu Chen were sent to the same kindergarten, run by Huaxing Machinery Factory itself. Because they were of similar age, they were in the same class, and the two children were inseparable, both at home and at kindergarten…
(To be continued)
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