[Famine refugee little glutton vs. wild, rugged, overprotective military officer + scheming, flirtatious young intellectual + romantic, passionate doctor who studied abroad]
[Everyone’s beloved, doted-on darling; family life; building a fortune]
In a year of famine, the military rogue He Ye used half a ration biscuit to win Lin Mo’s tiptoe kiss.
After that, he couldn’t get enough. The milk of the muntjac he hunted made her cheeks plump as a baby’s. He took the cotton from his military greatcoat and sewed her a winter jacket, keeping his pockets full of the Shanghai milk candies she loved. He let her charge ahead wherever she pleased, while he loaded his gun behind her and kept her safe.
The whole of Qingshi Gou was buzzing: that consumptive girl who had fled the famine had been spoiled into a willowy beauty by the He family’s youngest son, a loyal dog of a man.
The young intellectual from the city knew how to tempt a hungry little cat, too. Zhong Cheng always left three buttons of his white shirt undone. When he taught Lin Mo, he deliberately let his warm breath brush her earlobe; as he guided her hand around a pen, his fingertips traced circles across her palm. If she coughed, loquat-and-honey pear paste would appear on her windowsill. If she glanced twice at a faded red hair tie in the supply co-op, he would spend the night melting down a priceless blood-jade bracelet into beads, insisting it was just an inexpensive good-luck charm.
Dr. Gu, back from studying abroad, was the wildest of all. He always stole a peck at her ear when greeting her cheek to cheek, and deliberately pressed his stethoscope to her chest to listen three times. The toes worn raw by her flight from famine were dressed with lace bows. The gentleman bent to kiss her ankle and fastened a gold anklet around it. Beneath its ruby heart was a line of Russian love poetry: I would trade Brezhnev’s medal for the sound of your satisfied burp.
On the night of the autumn harvest, all three men confessed to Lin Mo on the same day. He Ye crushed Zhong Cheng’s jasmine stationery beneath his military boot, while Gu Xici’s pocket-watch chain coiled around He Ye’s rifle. “This little princess belongs in my care!”
