I Became the Mother of His Child

The arrival of New Year's Eve brought much excitement to the cold winter as every household in the Song Family Village decorated with bright lanterns and streamers. Young Song Chengguang was especially happy, dressed in a festive new outfit; these past few days, he'd occasionally wander around the house out of boredom, finding the ancient building fascinating with its many places to explore and several exits to run through.

Mrs. Song had no sooner finished lunch than she started preparing the food for the first day of the new year with her little girl, Song Yuan Yao. One moment they were slaughtering chickens, the next washing vegetables, with the big kitchen stove bustling all afternoon.

The younger Song Chengguang was the happiest of all; after lunch, he went to check on his younger brother and sisters, climbed onto the bed to babble with Little Moon and Little Baby for a while, then scampered off to play outside.

Before long, Song Chengguang came into the house grinning with a small snowball that Song Yuanhuan had made for him, eager to show it off to Xu Xiuxiu. "Mommy..." Song Chengguang, clutching the snowball, entered the bedroom: "Daddy made a ball." Song Chengguang had eagerly waggled his little butt, bent over to bring the snowball from outside into the house, a snowball that continued melting and dripping water as it rolled in.

"Oh my." Xu Xiuxiu looked at Song Chengguang, who was so cheerfully playing with the snowball, clothes wet, little hands red from the cold but still beaming, and steam seemed to rise from her head. "Chengguang, the snowball is cold, you're too young to play with it," Xu Xiuxiu sternly requested her son.

"Daddy gave it." Song Yuanhuan, not knowing what to do, tried to defend the snowball's right to exist.

After teasing Xu Xiuxiu last night, Song Yuanhuan had been in a great mood. After lunch, seeing that the snow outside had stopped and the weather had cleared up, and though it was still cold, the noon sun felt warm, he sat in the main hall chatting idly with Mr. Song. He noticed Song Chengguang standing on the porch of the hall, looking longingly at his niece shoveling snow to build a snowman, and generously made a snowball for his son to play with.

"Be a good boy, Chengguang, and go call your father," Xu Xiuxiu coaxed, gritting her teeth to stifle her anger.

"Okay." Song Chengguang let Xu Xiuxiu clean his fingers before ignoring the snowball on the floor and turning to do as his mother had told him.

"Daddy, Mommy wants you," Song Chengguang walked into the main hall and passed the message to Song Yuanhuan.

"What does Mommy want Daddy for?" Song Yuanhuan asked Song Chengguang, puzzled.

"Uh, Mommy probably wants to beat up Daddy." Song Chengguang remembered his mother's angry look from before and sympathetically gazed at Song Yuanhuan.

"..." Song Yuanhuan, feeling awkward, glanced back at Father Song, who was listening with his ears perked, then reluctantly looked down at Song Chengguang and gently prodded, "What have you been up to just now?"

"I brought the snowball inside to show my little brother and sister. They're so young, they must have never seen snow," Song Chengguang believed he had done nothing wrong and was proud of his reasoning.

"..." At those words, Song Yuanhuan's face stiffened, and he looked at his eldest son in his arms with a near-tearful expression. Indeed, it was as if sons were born to be their father's bane.

"Chengguang, go tell your mom that Daddy is busy pasting couplets and doesn't have time right now." Song Yuanhuan rationally decided not to provoke his wife, for if he obediently went inside, Xu Xiuxiu might be angry enough to twist his ears off.

"Why?" The little one furrowed his brows in question.

"What do you mean why? Hurry up and go, or else I'll never make you another snowball again," Song Yuanhuan growled out of annoyance.

"Cough cough!" Father Song, while puffing on the Daqianmen cigarettes his second son had bought for him, watched the conversation between his second son and eldest grandson. Seeing his son growl at his grandson, Father Song immediately took umbrage. Feigning a cough, he shot a stern look at his second son once he turned to look at him, asserting his authority as the head of the family: "Don't scare the child."

"Understood, Dad!" Song Yuanhuan complied and then gently coaxed his son to go and reply to Xu Xiuxiu.

After receiving the message from Song Chengguang, Xu Xiuxiu glared fiercely, staring down the quickly melting snowball at the bedroom door, grinding her teeth in anger.

The New Year's Eve night was bustling with activity. Since Xiuxiu was observing her postpartum confinement, despite having a few more dishes on the dinner table, the food was tasteless. Her face bore a bitter expression; just thinking about enduring several more days like this brought her to the verge of tears.

After finishing dinner, Song Chengguang happily began to receive red envelopes from his elders. Apart from the red envelope money from his own parents, Song Yuanhuan and Xu Xiuxiu, the amount in the other envelopes wasn't much—just a token from the rest of the Song Family. Nevertheless, Song Chengguang was still overjoyed. Carrying a little pouch that Xiuxiu had specially sewn from a hat, he gleefully spun around in joy at the Song Family's home. Seeing him so happy, Xiuxiu, who didn't care much about money herself, let him be.

However, when the little one excitedly left the house but returned crying, Xiuxiu immediately regretted her indifference.

"Mommy..." Song Chengguang buried his face in Xiuxiu's embrace with a pout, trying to hold back his tears.

"What's wrong?" Xiuxiu, sitting on the edge of the wooden bed and holding Song Chengguang as he climbed into her lap, softly inquired.

"Cheng Guang's money is gone," Song Chengguang lamented, very upset.

"How could it be gone? Did Cheng Guang drop it somewhere?" Xu Xiuxiu felt relieved to hear the little one was upset about losing his New Year's money.

"It's not in the pouch, the money is gone," Song Chengguang said as he took off the little backpack and handed it to Xiuxiu to check. Then he began to cry very hard.

Xiuxiu spent some time trying to comfort him, but still couldn't manage to appease the little one. Clearly, the little one was deeply upset about losing the New Year's money he had collected for the first time. Therefore, Xiuxiu, frowning and at a loss, could only hold him and step out of the room. This was the first time Xiuxiu had left the room since coming back from the hospital.

"Xiuxiu, why have you come out?" Inside the hall, the Song Family members were still merrily drinking and dining. Seeing Xiuxiu holding the crying Song Chengguang, Song Yuanhuan immediately stood up and approached anxiously asking.

"Cheng Guang's New Year's money has disappeared! He's so upset, he can't take it. You go around the house and look in every corner, see if you can find it!" Xiuxiu didn't care about the red envelope money, but Song Chengguang was truly heartbroken. She couldn't bear to see the little one so sad, especially since she had been neglecting him recently and now wanted to show him more love.

"Okay. I'll go look for it now, you quickly go back inside." Song Yuanhuan furrowed his brow as he took his son from Xiuxiu's arms and urged Xiuxiu back into the room. With the house doors wide open in the dead of winter, it was not good for her to catch a chill during her postpartum confinement.

"Okay," Xiuxiu nodded. "If you really can't find it, then prepare another one!" Xiuxiu whispered another instruction, lowering her voice. After all, Song Chengguang was still young; he wouldn't notice if a few new red envelopes were prepared.

"Okay," Song Yuanhuan nodded after understanding Xiuxiu's intention.

Although losing New Year's money was a small matter, the Song Family was thrown into uproar once again when they found out who surreptitiously took the money.