Decorations

“Mother… tell me.”

Zhuang Zhuang refused to let her go. He hugged Xiaoguo tightly, looking like he would not let go until she told him.

Seeing that he was going to do it the hard way, Xiaoguo tried her best to lift him up. She thought to herself, “Don’t think that I can’t carry you, little meatball. I’ll show you how strong I am.”

But in the end, it was a slap in the face. Before she could even lift him, she almost broke her back.

A miserable cry sounded. Zhuang Zhuang was so shocked that he immediately let go of her. He looked at her and asked nervously, “Mother, are you alright?!”

“I’m okay.”

Xiaoguo held on to the table and stood up straight. Although her legs were trembling, she comforted Zhuang Zhuang and said, “Mother is really fine.”

“That’s great!” Zhuang Zhuang heaved a sigh of relief. He was so frightened just now. He thought that his mother had broken her back. It turned out that it was just a false alarm. It was great!

“Yes, yes, yes…”

Xiaoguo smiled stiffly and said yes three times, but her hands secretly reached behind to rub her waist.

It was no joke. Zhuang Zhuang has been gaining weight rapidly recently. When Jiang Danhe was still around some time back, she had picked up the boy before. However, even though she had exerted all her strength just now, Zhuang Zhuang didn’t move an inch off the ground. Her back almost went on strike after the attempt.

Looking at Zhuang Zhuang, whose face was trembling, Xiaoguo made a decision. “Jiang Qingwen, it’s time to lose weight…”

Xiaoguo tried to relax her back before bringing Zhuang Zhuang back to the house to rest. Before that, she was planning to make the glue for the flowers and also prepare noodles for lunch the next day. But she wasn’t sure if her back could take it. If she broke her back now, everything would be ruined. Although she still had her healing power, she had to be careful. She had better rest first and see how it goes.

Zhuang Zhuang carefully helped Xiaoguo up and opened the door for her. He was very considerate.

Xiaoguo followed behind him without any worries. When she saw that Zhuang Zhuang was busy taking care of her, and had forgotten about his question earlier, she heaved a sigh of relief. She had already told him that it was a secret surprise. It would be no fun if he knew what the surprise was.

“Mother, sit down for a while. I’ll get some books for you to read.”

Zhuang Zhuang had thought of everything. In order for Xiaoguo to have a good rest, he prepared water and snacks, and placed them in front of her before leaving to get the books.

Xiaoguo looked at Zhuang Zhuang, who looked like a little adult, and felt very emotional. He could now take care of others. The days go by so quickly.

Soon, Zhuang Zhuang returned with half a stack of books. He read them one by one for Xiaoguo. While laying on the bed, she listened until she was on the verge of dozing off. Fortunately, she kept thinking about her unfinished work, so she didn’t fall asleep.

“Alright, Zhuang Zhuang, Mother is going to work.”

Xiaoguo sat up and stretched. She was overjoyed to find that her back was fine. It was an important part of her body and she had always cherished it. Now that she knew that it was still healthy, Xiaoguo wished she could hug it. She cannot live without her back!

Filled with energy, Xiaoguo brought Zhuang Zhuang straight to the kitchen again and began to make the glue paste, knead the dough, and cut the noodles.

With Zhuang Zhuang’s help, all the preparation work was quickly done. All that was left was to cook everything tomorrow.

Just as Xiaoguo was looking at the ingredients in satisfaction, Zhuang Zhuang suddenly thought of a question. “Mother, what are we eating tonight?”

So, the work is not done yet…

Xiaoguo instantly wilted. She had all the food for tomorrow, but what about tonight? She had thought that she could rest. “Oh my god!”

Mrs. Yang might have heard Xiaoguo’s silent wail. She braved the snow and brought over a few buns. She said that they were stuffed with alfalfa and asked Xiaoguo and Zhuang Zhuang to try them.

Xiaoguo thanked her profusely. After sending her off, she turned to Zhuang Zhuang and said, “Let’s make porridge tonight and have alfalfa buns.”

Although she had never eaten alfalfa, it sounded healthy and green.

“Okay! Let’s eat porridge!” All Zhuang Zhuang could think of was that he would eat porridge tonight. The alfalfa buns were quickly forgotten.

At night, Xiaoguo boiled water and gave Zhuang Zhuang a hot bath. He was the little birthday boy tomorrow. Xiaoguo prepared everything like she usually did for the new year. There were new clothes, new shoes, and everything else. Everything that could be worn were all brand new.

“Have a good night’s sleep. When you wake up tomorrow, you’ll be a birthday boy.”

Xiaoguo spoke as she dried his hair.

“Hehe.” Zhuang Zhuang was delighted to hear that. He was looking forward to tomorrow. It would be best if tomorrow came in the blink of an eye.

“By the way, Mother.”

Xiaoguo had just put down the towel when she heard Zhuang Zhuang’s voice. She asked curiously, “What’s wrong?”

“Can I invite Brother Xiaohu and Sister Xiaohua over tomorrow?”

“Of course,” Xiaoguo agreed without thinking.

In fact, she had wanted to invite their entire family over at first. However, she knew them too well. If they were invited, they would definitely come with gifts. Xiaoguo was quite sure of that.

She had wanted to invite them to join in the fun, but she would indirectly trouble them to spend money on gifts. It was really not appropriate to do so for a child’s birthday, so she extinguished the thought as soon as it surfaced.

However, inviting Xiaohu and Xiaohua was different. The two of them were just children, and they were invited by Zhuang Zhuang. Hence, Xiaoguo was extremely agreeable with this idea.

“Yay, that’s great! I love Mother the most…”

Zhuang Zhuang was spouting sugar-coated words incessantly. He threw so many loves and likes at Xiaoguo that she was overwhelmed. She completely gave up resisting and immersed herself in the warm honey that was called Zhuang Zhuang. She was unwilling to wake up from her daze.

Mother and son played and laughed. Zhuang Zhuang was still young, so sleepiness quickly overwhelmed him. Xiaoguo gently coaxed him to sleep and tiptoed to the kitchen. Zhuang Zhuang was asleep, but she still had work to do.

She was going to give Zhuang Zhuang a birthday cake tomorrow. Although there was no milk or cream, she could make a naked cake for him.

As it was very difficult to fluff up the egg whites, she was going to use whole eggs instead. The cake would not turn out as soft if she were to do that, but she had made something like that before and it tasted pretty good.

Xiaoguo stirred the oil, eggs, flour, and white sugar together and placed them in a large ceramic basin. As she didn’t know if the cake would turn out okay, Xiaoguo was prepared to stay up all night to get it done.

Xiaoguo placed the basin in the preheated oven and closed the small door tightly, leaving no gaps. She tried to keep track of the time. Whether the cake turned out successful or not depends completely on the oven.

She still had a second plan. If it didn’t work, she would change it to steamed cake. Although it wasn’t as tasty as a baked one, at least one wouldn’t get heaty from consuming a steamed cake.

With a plan in mind, Xiaoguo felt more at ease and went to paste the flowers.

While the paste was still sticky, Xiaoguo placed all the flowers on the table and glued the dangling strips together. She blew air on them to make the glue dry faster.

While the flowers were drying, Xiaoguo took out the remaining red paper, brush, and ink.

Out of the eight pieces of paper, six were taken out. One word was written on each piece. Placed together, they read, “Happy birthday, Zhuang Zhuang.”

Xiaoguo held the brush carefully, not daring to move unnecessarily. If there were any ink spots, the writing would be ruined.

When she was done, she carefully picked the pieces up and placed them by the side. After putting everything away neatly, Xiaoguo admired the words she had written. Although they weren’t perfect, they were still written carefully stroke by stroke. The words were the same size and looked pretty decent.

While she was writing, the flowers had become stuck together. Xiaoguo carefully picked one up, and the other flowers were pulled up as a result. She picked up the entire garland and shook it. After making sure that it was sturdy, she prepared to put it up on the wall.

She stood on a chair and carefully hung it on the exterior wall of the first room. Anyone who enters the house will see it.

After hanging the garland, she picked up the writing that had become completely dry, and pasted the words on the wall in sequence under the flowers.