The milky flavor spread through her mouth, fragrant and rich. Perhaps it was due to the current material shortages, but Tang Xiaonan had never thought White Rabbit candy could taste this good. Adrian Hawthorne always seemed to have a few pieces hidden in his pockets, and he would give her one whenever he saw her.

"Here, Mr. Hawthorne, have this."

Tang Xiaonan took out a golden sesame ball from her snack bag, one that Phoebe Huxley had fried. During the Qingming Festival, besides Qingming cakes, sesame balls were another popular snack, and families with the means would fry up a batch.

The ingredients for sesame balls were simple, as was the method, but getting the temperature just right was a bit tricky. You mixed glutinous rice flour with water to form a dough, shaped it into a small bowl, and added a bit of brown sugar—or white sugar—as filling. Then you rolled it into a ball, coated it in sesame seeds, and deep-fried it until it became a fragrant, golden sphere.

Phoebe Huxley had fried a large batch, taking some to her parents’ home and giving some to her in-laws. Her relationship with Raina was much more harmonious now. Of course, they weren’t as close as a real mother and daughter—that was absolutely out of the question, considering Phoebe Huxley bickered with her own mother every other day.

Now, whenever Phoebe Huxley made a nice dish, she would bring some over on her own, without any prompting from Tang Xiaonan. Raina would naturally return the favor. Through this back-and-forth, the two had grown much closer. With Phoebe Thorne also acting as a peacemaker between them, the minor disagreements that used to cause blow-ups were now nipped in the bud the moment they appeared.

Phoebe Huxley placed the remaining sesame balls in a basket and hung it from a roof beam, giving Tang Xiaonan one each day as a snack. Tang Xiaonan rarely ate it all herself, usually splitting it with Amanda Chapman and Jim Thorne. Today, however, she had saved it for Adrian Hawthorne. ’It’s been a few days since I last curried favor with the big shot!’

Adrian Hawthorne glanced at the sesame ball. It was a glutinous rice snack, which he happened to love. He wasn’t fond of wheat-based pastries, but he had zero resistance to anything made with glutinous rice. Things like sweet rice balls, Qingming cakes, New Year cakes, and zongzi—Adrian could eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner without ever getting tired of them or suffering from acid reflux. In contrast, eating too much food made with regular flour tended to upset his stomach.

"You have it."

Adrian Hawthorne pushed the sesame ball back to Tang Xiaonan. The chubby girl surely only had the one, and he couldn’t take a child’s snack. When he had a free moment, he’d go to the other villages to buy some glutinous rice flour and oil and have Rosalind Green fry some sesame balls, too.

"I’m not eating it."

Tang Xiaonan shook her head vigorously. It wasn’t that she didn’t like it, but her teeth just weren’t up to the task; glutinous rice snacks were too sticky. Besides, she preferred White Rabbit candy. She held the sesame ball up, stood on her tiptoes, and tried to stuff it into Adrian Hawthorne’s mouth, but her arm grew sore before she could even reach his chin. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

’Did he get taller again?’

Tang Xiaonan stood beside Adrian Hawthorne, sizing herself up against him, and her heart sank even further...

She used to at least reach Adrian Hawthorne’s neck, but now she only came up to his shoulder. ’What has he been eating, pig feed?’

Completely crushed, Tang Xiaonan glanced mournfully at her own short legs. ’My third brother got taller, my cousin got taller, and Adrian Hawthorne got taller, too. But I haven’t grown an inch! Where’s the justice in that?’

Adrian Hawthorne found this amusing. "You’ll get taller if you eat more," he consoled her.

Tang Xiaonan pouted and shook her head, still dejected. "I don’t want to."

’I’m afraid I’ll just grow sideways.’

"If you don’t eat, you won’t grow tall. You’ll be as short as a bean sprout—a yellowed one, at that," Adrian Hawthorne said, deliberately trying to scare her.

The little fatty had recently slimmed down quite a bit. Her face wasn’t as round as before, and her once-pudgy triple chin was now just a double. Adrian Hawthorne had only found out after asking Jim Thorne that the girl had a poor appetite and was only eating a tiny bit at each meal. The Thorne family was worried sick about it.

Tang Xiaonan’s eyes widened in indignation. She shoved the sesame ball into Adrian Hawthorne’s hand and stormed off to find Old Master Tate.

’Just because I’m little doesn’t mean I don’t have a temper! Hmph!’