Looking at a Bunch of Lunatics

“Not bad, I guess.”

Xiaoguo wasn’t humble at all. When she heard Zhuang Zhuang’s praise, she immediately agreed with his words, and that made him laugh.

With that, the two of them continued to look for a spot to make snowmen. During this time, strange-looking snowmen were born in the hands of the mother and son.

Actually, it was not exactly accurate to call them snowmen—those that were normally round in shape. Out of the entire courtyard of snowmen they had made, only the first two were the conventional type. The subsequent ones they created were based entirely on their imaginations.

As the day went by, they were not making snowmen anymore—instead, they seemed to be creating snow sculptures.

During this time, Xiaoguo even recreated the main characters from SpongeBob SquarePants. The Plankton was also one of her creations.

The more snow sculptures they made, the more excited they became. At first, they only made the snowmen in the courtyard, but gradually, they started to work on the snow outside the house.

The two of them created a set of snow lions on either side of the door to guard the house.

The space outside was huge. The two of them played to their heart’s content.

Just as the two of them were getting serious, Mrs. Yang happened to see this unusual scene when she came out of her house to discard charcoal ash.

“Xiaoguo, what are you doing?”

Mrs. Yang wrapped her clothes tightly and slowly walked towards the two of them. She took her time to look at the strange objects around her.

“Sister-in-law.” Xiaoguo came back to her senses and looked at Mrs. Yang’s probing gaze. She smiled in embarrassment. It was quite awkward for an adult to be seen playing like this in the snow.

“Aiyo, aren’t you afraid of the cold?”

Xiaoguo’s nose and face were red from the cold. Most importantly, her hands which were grabbing onto the snow, were so red that they looked like they were cooked. She was not the same person who had to bundle herself up whenever she was out.

“It’s not cold. You can touch me, I feel hot.” As Xiaoguo spoke, she wiped the snow off her body and reached out to touch the back of Mrs. Yang’s hand. “What do you think?”

“That’s true. They feel quite warm.”

Mrs. Yang held her hand and squeezed it hard. She looked puzzled. Xiaoguo had been playing in the snow for so long, but her hands were so warm.

“Don’t worry. Zhuang Zhuang and I are actually feeling a little hot.”

Xiaoguo raised her head in Zhuang Zhuang’s direction. Mrs. Yang looked over and Zhuang Zhuang nodded to show that he was feeling hot.

“What are you two doing?” Seeing that they were not cold, Mrs. Yang did not say anything else. She changed the topic and started asking them about the sculptures.

Before Xiaoguo could speak, Zhuang Zhuang spoke first. “Mother is building snowmen with me. There are many more in our courtyard.”

Zhuang Zhuang put down the snow in his hand and gestured for Mrs. Yang to look at their courtyard. The excitement on his face was hard to conceal.

“Wow, indeed.” Mrs. Yang looked into the courtyard from the front door. Snowmen of various sizes and shapes were erected in every corner of the courtyard. Although it was a strange sight, she thought that they looked interesting.

“Mother, what are you doing?” Before Mrs. Yang could enter XIaoguo’s house to take a closer look, Xiaohu called out to her. When Brother Yang did not see Mrs. Yang return to the house after a long time, he was worried that she might have slipped and fallen. He was planning to go out to take a look, but Xiaohu volunteered to go look for her.

“Brother Xiaohu, come and see the snowmen.” Zhuang Zhuang was delighted to see Xiaohu. He grabbed him and walked into the courtyard. He gave his friend a complete tour around the sculptures and introduced the names of every snowman to him. He even explained the origins of their names.

“Sigh.” Mrs. Yang came out of the courtyard and elbowed Xiaoguo. When she turned around, she said, “Your son has a good memory.”

“What happened?”

Xiaoguo patted the snow off her hands and looked confused. As she had not followed them in, she did not understand what Mrs. Yang was saying.

“Look, he’s explaining to Xiaohu about the snowmen. He can remember all their names so clearly.”

Mrs. Yang looked at her enviously. “Your son is really amazing. If only he were my son.”

When Xiaoguo heard this, she smiled and replied humbly, “I don’t think so.”

“Hehe, you don’t think so…?” Mrs. Yang imitated Xiaoguo’s tone and said jokingly, “Then let’s exchange our sons.”

“I don’t mind.” Xiaoguo smiled sincerely. “I would be happy to have such a big boy for my son.”

Mrs. Yang was amused by Xiaoguo’s words. The two of them looked at each other and laughed for a long time.

Xiaoguo looked at Zhuang Zhuang in the courtyard and thought to herself, “This is my baby, I wouldn’t change him for anything in the world.”

In the end, Mrs. Yang and Xiaohu began to get interested in the snowmen. As they listened to Zhuang Zhuang’s vivid explanation, they were tempted to try things out. In the end, not only did Mrs. Yang not return to the house, Xiaohu, who had come out to look for her, was also nowhere to be seen at the Yang’s residence.

Hence, Xiaohua insisted on going out to take a look. Of course, in the end, Xiaohua did not return. Even Yang Jia, who had gone out with her to exchange books, went missing as well.

Brother Yang was getting restless. None of them had returned. Could there be a big bad wolf outside?

Hence, he left the house too. And what he saw was a pile of unknown objects at the door. There were rows of snow objects in various sizes—they looked pretty cool.

He followed the footprints in the snow and arrived at Xiaoguo’s house.

“Why are you all gathered here?”

Brother Yang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He was wondering why everyone had disappeared. So they were all playing here.

Each of them were standing by a snowman and were adding their own ideas to their creations. When they heard the voice, they all looked up at the same time.

Brother Yang was startled. Being stared at by six red faces was quite a visual impact.

“Old Yang, hurry up and build the snowman.” Mrs. Yang wiped her snot and quickly invited him to join in.

“I don’t think so. I’m too old for this.” Brother Yang waved his hand with an embarrassed expression. “Although this thing was indeed quite interesting, but…”

“Aiya.” Mrs. Yang clapped her hands and walked straight towards him. She reached out and tugged at him. “Alright, alright. Hurry up and come with me. Don’t be embarrassed.”

As soon as she said that, everyone laughed out loud. Although this activity seemed a little childish, they quickly realized that it was extremely addictive.

“Come with me, Brother,” Yang Jia said helpfully when he saw that Brother Yang was still hesitating. Yang Jia didn’t think it was appropriate at first, but after a while, he realized that it was really fun.

Xiaoguo didn’t say anything and continued to work on the snow in her hand. Occasionally, she would look up at Brother Yang.

Brother Yang was still hesitant at first. He only squatted down after Mrs. Yang pulled him twice. He took the snowball that was handed to him and rolled it half-heartedly in the snow.

Very soon, Brother Yang had become part of the group. However, he was no longer satisfied to make a snowman together with Mrs. Yang. As he spoke, he found an empty spot and started making his own.

Within a short time, the few of them had unknowingly built many snowmen. At first, they were only working at the entrances of the two houses, but later on, one of them started to move further away from the house. The rest subsequently followed and unknowingly crossed over to the street. Fortunately, the two families lived at the edge of the village, so there were few villagers who would pass by this way. Since they were not really obstructing the way of anyone, they just continued building their snowmen without worry.

In the meantime, a few villagers noticed the commotion at this corner of the village. After spotting what the group was doing, someone went home and brought his family out to watch the spectacle.

Basically they were just busybodies. This started when a child who had come out to play in the snow, saw that there were ghosts outside. Hence, he quickly went home to look for his mother. In the end, when the family came out to take a look, they realized that it was just some snow structures. Those were no ghosts, instead there were only a few lunatics who had come out to play in the snow. Rather than staying at home, they had come out to play even when they had snot flowing out of their noses. If they’re not lunatics, then what are they?

Some of the villagers started to spread the word and gathered more people to watch the lunatics in action.

The few people who were still building the snowmen were abruptly startled when they looked up. They stood rooted to the ground and looked at the crowd that had unknowingly gathered around them. Looking at each other awkwardly, they did not know what to do.