Ju-Long had focused on his writing but he still paid attention to the sounds in the yard so he knew it every time the boy came back with a bundle of firewood and on his tenth return, JU-Long got up and went into his room to retrieve five pennies, when he came out back the boy was standing near his books again looking in amazement at the writing on the paper. Ju-Long made a sound and the boy looked up with clear awe in his eyes, Ju-Long ignored the look and handed him the pennies and watched him leave before heading to the kitchen to prepare his family’s dinner.

He looked at the sky and guessed that maybe it would take an hour for the sky to get dark so instead of the usual dinner he wanted to make something different, he took out some flower and then mixed the dough before forming it into tin noodles by just rolling it flat on the board and using the knife to make thin strips of dough and then set it aside one by one until the large piece of dough was gone. He then took out some oil, vegetable, spices, and meat, he chopped them all finely and then fried them up in the pan before pouring in water and letting it boil, a few minutes later he put some of the noodles in only making enough for one serving because it was easy for the dishes to spoil in this kind of weather.

He lined the rest of the dough out on a board and set it aside to dry, when his meal was finished he sat down at the door to eat after putting the goat milk for the children to warm up, the large bowl in his hands was soon cleared and he got up and went to the room; He could see Ming-Yue and her brothers had just woken up and were just lying there in a daze causing him to chuckle.

He took them to the kitchen and fed them one by one before washing out the pot and warming some water in order to wipe them down and then put them back in the room, he used the extra water for a quick bath and then returned to his room, he locked the door and then laid down next to the pillows that were blocking off his children’s path to the floor.

The next day Ju-Long found himself sitting up in bed before the sun even rose, the morning was quiet so the sigh he let out echoed for a bit before disappearing, his body was just too accustomed to the cycle he lived in while living with his mother’s family, so even now he was living in a more relaxed environment his body just wouldn’t take the chance, another sigh left his lips and he accepted his fate as he got up and left the room.

He went out to the yard and took off his extra robe, he closed his eyes and tried to remember the training the original used to do early in the morning, it took a while to come to him and then he absorbed it and slowly moved to slip into the first position. The moves flowed in his mind like water and for a while, it was difficult for his body to keep up but soon he was able to flow along with the movement, he felt as if the air surrounded him in a barrier and as he completed the last move he was able to break that barrier.

He looked up at the rising sun and let out the murky breath he was holding, he continued to stand there for a while longer before going to the kitchen, he fetched water from the well and then heated it up, the sweat was washed off of his body as he took a bath and then scrubbed his hair. He rinsed his skin and then poured the rest of the water over his head, he took hold of his hair and rung it out before drying it, followed by the rest of his skin, when he was done he got dressed in a clean set of clothes and headed back to his room.

When he checked the bed, he sighed and accepted the fact that he’ll wake up in a wet bed every day, as usual, he wiped off his children one bye on put on fresh clothes on them and then took the dirty bedding and their clothes to wash along with the ones he had worn to train this morning. By he had gotten accustomed to it he was quickly able to wash the clothes and hang them out under the morning sun before going back to the kitchen to start working on his family's breakfast.

Since it was early he was able to make something that would take longer to cook so he proceeded to mix some dough and began to make baozi, he only wanted two so he didn’t use many ingredients and was able to set it into the pot to cook quickly as he used a second one to make some soft congee for him and MingYue He pulled it out when it was done and added some milk to the one that was for her before setting it aside, he then warmed up the rest of the milk and left his congee and baozi in the kitchen taking his children’s breakfast to them.

When he got to the room Ming-Yue had sat up on her own and was looking out the door so as soon as he entered she let out a loud coo and babbled, Ming-Ru and Ming-Sheng looked in his direction and gurgled at him. A warm feeling swelled in his chest as he sat down and began to feed them, watching as they ate with a gentle smile on his face, this was the kind of mornings he wanted with his family and even though it happened in an unexpected way he was finally able to have his wish.