Extra Chapter 29
Stellar Calendar 278, December 10th, Snowy
The puddle I dug for Bobo has frozen over. A few days ago, it was just a thin layer of ice floating on the surface, spreading out under the sunlight. Now the entire surface has solidified into thick ice. Baldy somehow found a small hammer and was banging on the ice surface.
I asked him what he was doing, and Baldy confidently replied, “Even little snowmen deserve a hot spring!”
The snowmen we made earlier had turned into a puddle of slush. Baldy had made a few more small snowmen himself, tiny ones just the size of his palm. To make them last longer, Baldy would put these little snowmen in the freezer every day.
I crouched down and took off Baldy’s gloves, revealing his reddened hands. His fingers were frozen like chubby radishes. I asked if he was cold, but he stubbornly insisted, “Not cold with gloves!”
“Be careful of frostbite. Have you forgotten about Grandpa Xiong’s cracked hands?” I flicked Baldy’s forehead gently.
“We’re making dumplings inside. Do you want to join us?”
Baldy perked up at the mention of food. “Dumplings?! Fried or boiled?”
Saying that, he gathered the little snowmen into a small box.
“We’re still making them. We’ll have half fried and half boiled later.” I hugged Baldy, warming his icy cold hands in mine.
Baldy squinted and requested, “Warm my face too~”
His cheeks had rosy patches from the cold, and his nose was red too. I could easily cover Baldy’s entire face with one hand.
Even with his face covered, Baldy kept chattering away, “What fillings do we have? Corn and pork, celery and pork, carrot and beef, cabbage and fresh meat…”
His speech was rapid. Normally, he would complain about memorizing texts, but when it came to food, he remembered everything clearly.
Inside the house, Ruge and Bobo were making dumplings. This time, some dumplings were filled with sugar. Ruge said that eating dumplings with sugar inside meant the new year would be filled with sweetness.
Baldy was excited to hear this. Whether life was sweet or not didn’t matter to him; he just wanted sugar.
We spent the entire afternoon making dumplings around the round table. Ruge made the most beautifully shaped ones, while Bobo’s were small and delicate. Baldy’s dumplings were less uniform, some bursting with juice and stuffing exposed.
“Why are your hands so skillful, big brother?” Baldy curiously poked Bobo’s hand.
Bobo looked puzzled too. “Why did yours turn out like this?”
Although Baldy’s dumplings were not pretty, his unique style had a market. The elderly in the nursing home loved Baldy and Bobo’s dumplings.
After making the dumplings, we took Baldy and Bobo to the nursing home to deliver them. Each elderly person received a dumpling.
“Grandpa Xiong likes corn and pork filling, Grandpa Jian doesn’t mind, and Grandpa Luo prefers celery and pork filling over triple delights…”
Bobo kept murmuring as he picked dumplings into the boxes.
Whenever Bobo delivered dumplings to these elderly people, I was there too. How come I didn’t know what kind of dumplings these people liked? Did I miss something back then?
“Big brother, how do you know everything~ Do you know what my favorite dumpling filling is?” Baldy shook his tiger ears, looking sparkling at Bobo.
“You like dumplings with sugar filling the most,” Bobo replied without hesitation.
“Ah~ How did you know that!”
“You told me yourself.”
“Huh, did I really say that? When did I say that?”
“When we were making dumplings, silly Baldy.”
…
After delivering the dumplings, I wrapped Baldy and Bobo in my coat, braving the wind and snow to take the youngsters home.
Baldy squeezed his little head out from the collar and asked me, “Dad, why are there so many grandpas in the nursing home? Is it because they don’t have children to take care of them?”
“No, it’s because of poverty, not whether they have children or not.”
I used to have no expectations of love or children, imagining the powerful and wealthy living in poverty in their later years.
I recalled a story I had once read about an elderly man. He had no partner, no children, only a beautiful villa. Later, for some reason, he seemed to have decided to sell the villa.
I couldn’t remember the exact reason anymore. All I remembered was how reluctant the old man was to part with his villa. Many buyers made bids, each one higher than the last, but the old man never agreed. He kept thinking, such a beautiful villa, how could he bear to sell it?
People were amazed at how high the old man’s price was.
Then a young man from a happy family appeared. He had a gentle wife and lively children. His offer was the lowest in the entire bidding, but it was all he had saved.
He told the old man, “I’m not buying your house with this money, but I want you to join our family. You will still live in this villa, and my wife and I will treat you as our father, and my children will treat you as their grandfather.”
In the end, the old man sold the villa to the young man, and they lived happily together.
I remembered that when I first read this story, I couldn’t understand it at all.
I didn’t understand why the old man in the story did this.
The house was still the same house, just with more people. How could such a life be happy?
At that time, I couldn’t understand and even thought that such unrealistic stories were fabricated and had no basis, detached from reality.
But now, as I looked down at Baldy’s little head poking out, my once firm beliefs were shaken.
If… if during my illness, I had encountered such a situation, with children as cute, lively, kind, and optimistic as Baldy.
Would I have agreed to such a deal, even if it meant making a loss?
I don’t know.
Are there really youngsters in this world cuter than Baldy and Bobo?
It should be over now, so this assumption doesn’t hold.
I reached out and brushed off the snowflakes from Baldy’s head, gently pushing his furry little head back into my coat, whispering, “It’s cold outside, stay still in my arms.”
The snow was heavy. I heard Baldy murmuring to Bobo inside my coat, “Oh, I just wanted to tell Dad not to worry, I’ll take good care of him in the future and keep him from going to the nursing home…”
Hearing this, I couldn’t help but curl my lips. Despite the strong wind and snow outside, I knew it was warm and bright inside the house.
Soon, I would be at home eating dumplings.
“I’m definitely going to get dumplings with sugar filling!” Baldy exclaimed, waving his little fist.
Stellar Calendar 278, December 24th, Snowy
Ruge said today is Christmas Eve on Earth. I asked what we should do for Christmas Eve, and Ruge said we should exchange apples, decorate Christmas trees, reunite with family, and hang colorful stockings at the bedside.
Apples were easy to buy, and Baldy had plenty of colorful stockings. I just didn’t understand why Baldy’s colorful stockings had to be hung at the bedside.
Ruge told us about the story of Santa Claus, saying that Santa Claus, an old man with white hair and a red suit, would ride a sleigh pulled by nine reindeer loaded with gifts, flying from the distant horizon to slip into houses through chimneys and quietly place gifts in the stockings at the bedsides of good children.
I wondered what a chimney was. How big must a chimney be to fit a chubby old man?
Baldy was thrilled to hear this and asked if Santa Claus would prepare candies for him.
Ruge said, “Good children will receive gifts.”
Baldy quickly raised his hand, claiming to be a good child.
Ruge asked Bobo what he wanted as a gift.
Bobo said anything would do, but Ruge replied, “There’s no such thing as ‘anything will do’ in the world.”
Bobo looked up at Ruge, his clear blue eyes hinting that he had already guessed that Santa Claus giving gifts was just a cover.
“I want a piano—although I guess stockings can’t fit that, so I’ll settle for candies.” He blinked.
“Actually, I don’t really want a musical instrument, because I can sing without accompaniment~”
Indeed, Ruge’s singing voice as a mermaid was the most melodious sound in the world, needing no accompaniment to captivate.
The people in the nursing home had apple trees, and when we went to pick apples, they gave us the biggest and reddest ones. Baldy placed an apple beside his little cheek, and I noticed the apple was bigger than half of Baldy’s face.
As I quietly watched Baldy, who was hiding his face with the apple, suddenly burst into laughter. He turned the apple around to show tiny teeth marks on it.
“Oh, I just took a small bite secretly~ Dad, how did you find out?”
He thought I had been staring at him just now and noticed him nibbling the apple. Actually, I found him cute with the apple, so I looked a little longer.
“No eating without permission.” I gently pinched Baldy’s cheek.
“Little glutton.”
We had agreed to eat the apple together that night. Baldy held the apple in one hand and carefully covered his mouth with the other, nodding seriously at me.
Back home, we began decorating the Christmas tree. We chose a purple tree outside, tied ribbons on it, hung dolls that Baldy and Bobo liked, and finally wrapped it with small colored lights.
The twinkling lights at night were beautiful. Baldy asked if we could set off fireworks. I asked Ruge if we should set off fireworks on Christmas Eve.
Ruge said he didn’t know, laughing, “It’s not like we’re on Earth. What’s the point of such formality? Besides, even on Earth, Christmas isn’t that formal. This kind of foreign festival is just about celebrating if you want to, and if you don’t, no one can force you.”
I knew that, but I wanted to follow the traditions of Earth to make Christmas familiar and less lonely for Ruge.
Baldy specially picked out his largest colorful stocking and hung it at the bedside, then fell asleep early. That night, I quietly gave Baldy and Bobo their gifts, and after some thought, I took out a small stocking for Baldy, filled with candies, and placed it at Ruge’s bedside.
I remembered the little mermaid Ruge, who also needed to experience Christmas like a child.
Stellar Calendar 278, December 25th, Snowy
Today is Christmas Day. Our whole family went skiing.
Ruge sang, “Breaking through the heavy snowstorm, we sit on the sleigh~ Galloping across the fields, we laugh and sing~”
Bobo laughed and sang, “The bells on the horse ring, bringing much joy~ Tonight skiing is so much fun, let’s sing the skiing song~”
“Jingle bells, jingle bells, bells ring jingle~ Tonight skiing is so much fun, we sit on the sleigh~”
Together in the snow, we sang, “Jingle bells, jingle bells, bells ring jingle~ Tonight skiing is so much fun, we sit on the sleigh~”
I’m very happy.
