Because all the children in the kindergarten saw Charles Page fighting, his dark eyes showed no trace of color, filled with a coldness toward the world. His wild biting of Henry Brooks terrified all the kids.

Little Emma was extremely upset.

On the way home, Lillian Clark held her hand, and she kept thinking about it. In the afternoon, Susan Clark came knocking at the door, holding a piece of cake about half the size of a palm.

Susan Clark had high cheekbones and very thin eyebrows. As soon as she entered, she handed the cake to Lillian Clark, then pinched Emma Bennett's little face.

Emma Bennett blinked her big eyes and called out softly, "Auntie Xiu."

Susan Clark laughed and said, "It's still Emma's cheeks that feel the nicest to touch. Come, let Auntie take a look. I heard you were sick before, but you didn't get any thinner. These chubby cheeks look so blessed."

Emma Bennett instinctively looked at her mother.

Lillian Clark's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot, but Susan Clark kept going: "Sigh, not like my Grace, who never puts on any weight. Although everyone says she looks like Chang Xue and will be pretty when she grows up, I still think Emma looks cuter."

Lillian Clark forced a smile: "You're too kind, your Grace is very pretty."

Having received praise for her own Grace, Susan Clark left satisfied.

Chang Xue was a well-known Hong Kong actress that year, starring in many movies. When Emma Bennett was in elementary school, she really liked this beautiful actress's comedies. In 1996, Chang Xue was called the "Jade Girl," and Grace Ford, whose features resembled Chang Xue's by seventy percent, was called the "Little Jade Girl."

Emma Bennett vaguely felt something was off, but her memory stopped at third grade, and she couldn't recall what it was.

She thought dejectedly that she was so chubby, and little Grace Ford really was light and pretty.

Lillian Clark was even more annoyed. She herself was a bit plump and hated being talked about, but Susan Clark always used such subtle jabs. So what if her daughter looked like Chang Xue! It's not like she's really Chang Xue. They're just kids—her own Emma still looked the cutest and most adorable.

Emma Bennett tiptoed to reach for the cake on the table, but Lillian Clark said, "You just ate dinner. If you eat cake now, you won't digest it and your stomach will hurt."

The cake was a hard cream cake, also called a margarine cake. Lillian Clark couldn't bear to buy such things; their family had both the old and the young to support. For Emma Bennett's birthday, they usually just bought a bag of fruit candies and boiled an egg in sweet soup.

Emma Bennett was a bit tempted, but she shook her head, her eyes curving into two crescent moons as she smiled: "Let's split it in two—one for you, Mom, and one for Charles Page."

She made a cutting gesture with her small hands, and Lillian Clark was stunned for quite a while. Finally, she nodded in affirmation: "Yes, let's take some to that child."

Lillian Clark cut the cake, looking at her daughter, who was barely taller than the table and watching eagerly, and felt both soft-hearted and amused: "Mom doesn't like cake, you keep it. Come on, let's take some to Charles Page first."

They walked past the greenery in the neighborhood, where a few families grew some vegetables in the communal garden.

Charles Page's home was just across the way. The mother and daughter went upstairs from the other side and knocked on the door of the fourth floor.

Heavy footsteps sounded, and the next moment, the resolute face of Brian Page appeared. The man was a criminal police officer, exuding righteousness. He looked carefully and realized the mother and daughter looked familiar, probably from the same neighborhood, but he was a bit embarrassed that he couldn't remember their names.

Lillian Clark smiled understandingly: "My surname is Zhao. Hello, Officer Page. My daughter Emma and Little Charles are classmates. We came to bring him some cake."

Brian Page looked down and saw a little girl with two bun-shaped pigtails. Her big eyes were bright and watery, and her skin was very fair. Her eyelashes were long and curled, making her look like a soft, plush New Year doll.

The New Year doll was a bit shy, and under Lillian Clark's prompting, she called out "uncle" in a childish voice.

Even Brian Page couldn't help but feel his heart melt. He smiled kindly and said, "Little Charles is in his room. Emma, go see him. Little Clark, please come in and have a seat if you don't mind. I'll pour you some water."

"No, no, it's just to drop off some cake. Officer Page, you go ahead with your work. Emma, go see Little Charles, and come right out after you give it to him."

Emma Bennett, having received her instructions, carefully carried the cake and followed Brian Page to Charles Page's room.

Brian Page opened the door, and at the desk sat a little boy writing neatly.

He was preparing to enter preschool.

"Little Charles, you have a visitor."

Emma Bennett looked nervously at Charles Page. His room was bigger than hers, simply decorated, and everything was neatly arranged—not like her mom joked that her room was a kitten's den.

Charles Page turned his head, his pitch-black eyes looking past his father's tall figure to see the little girl.

She was holding a piece of cake, half the size of an adult's palm. When she saw him look over, she didn't know whether to smile, and approached him a bit timidly.

She held the cake up with both hands: "Charles Page, this is for you."

He looked at her in silence.

This was a girl who wasn't afraid of setbacks.

The first time she gave him a paper airplane, he tore it up and even hit her hand.

The second time, it was the brightest lotus flower of the summer, which he threw onto the table.

This time, it was a cake, the kind with incomplete flowers on the cream.

She looked at him anxiously, her gaze clear and gentle.

He remembered she was still so little, more than a year younger than him, probably with another year of kindergarten to go. And next month, he would be starting preschool, so it might be a long, long time before he saw her again.

He reached out and took the cake she had so carefully brought over.