After finishing, she placed the letter into the envelope.
Then, with careful precision, she sealed it and slid the envelope into her wool coat pocket.
Cheng Yu closed the door to her room and came down from upstairs.
"Little Yu, you’re down? Shall we watch the Spring Festival Gala together?" Qi Siyuan, engrossed in the show, saw her daughter coming down and warmly invited her with a smile.
Cheng Yu struggled to put on a cheerful face, "No, Mom! It’s been so long since I last experienced our Chinese New Year. The atmosphere outside seems nice, I want to take a walk."
"Should Cheng Yue go with you?" Cheng Nanfang reached for the phone to call Li Youjun’s house, "That boy ran off to find Li Zhi, I’ll have him come back."
"No need, Dad!" Cheng Yu declined, "I can manage on my own. I won’t go far, just a walk around our military compound, there’s no danger."
"Alright then!" Qi Siyuan got up, took a scarf from the coat rack, and wrapped it around Cheng Yu. "Dress warmly, don’t catch a cold."
Cheng Yu nodded, opened the door, and went out.
She then walked out of the military compound and came to the edge of the street, where she dropped her freshly written letter into the mailbox.
"I hope you can remember me!" Cheng Yu murmured to herself, then turned and walked away.
Her figure grew more distant, eventually disappearing at the end of the road.
A shadowy figure emerged, looking around before pulling out a thin piece of wire from his pocket to pick the mailbox’s lock.
From a pile of letters, he pinpointedly located the letter Cheng Yu had just deposited.
He casually took it out, stuffed the letter into his pocket, re-locked the mailbox, and vanished into the dense night, like a ghost disappearing into the streets and alleys.
...........................
After setting off firecrackers and returning to the house, steaming hot dumplings were already on the table.
Feng Yuzhi greeted everyone excitedly to eat dumplings, "Come on, everyone, let’s eat dumplings! Men, eat less; I’ll prepare some snacks and a little alcohol for you to drink after the meal."
The two families gathered around the table and sat down, each with a bowl of dumplings, dipping them in vinegar, with a few slices of raw garlic, everyone enjoying the feast.
Although most families could afford meat dumplings these days, the meat in the dumplings still predominantly consisted of fatty pork.
An Hao didn’t particularly enjoy eating fatty pork, but there were no vegetarian dumplings prepared, and she felt too embarrassed to say anything, so she had to reluctantly swallow them down.
"An Hao, eat up," Feng Yuzhi saw her eating slowly and enthusiastically urged her to eat more.
Previously, because An Hao had married Qin Jian, causing her own daughter, Yan Huan, to be depressed for a long time, she had held a grudge against An Hao.
But this time, since Yan Huan had decided to look for a partner, Feng Yuzhi became happy and even started to look favorably on An Hao as well.
"Hmm, thanks, Aunt, but I’m almost full."
Qin Jian glanced at her bowl, still more than half full, and commented, "You’re full after just a few? You never eat properly, no wonder you’ve gotten thinner over the past few months."
"Who says? I’ve eaten quite a lot." An Hao replied, picking up a dumpling and biting into it, the oily taste filling her mouth was truly nauseating.
An Hao wrinkled her brow inadvertently, swallowing the dumpling after barely chewing a few times.
Qin Jian noticed her subtle movement, "What’s the matter? Doesn’t suit your taste?"
With that one question, all eyes turned towards An Hao.
"No, it’s just... I find it a bit difficult to eat meat..." An Hao expressed her sentiments as delicately as possible.