When little Chen An was first born, his face was wrinkled, his eyebrows sparse, and he had jaundice. When his eyes were closed, he looked like a dried-up orange. Only when he opened his eyes did he become presentable to look at—Chen An’s eyes took after Wang Liting, with beautiful streamlined shapes. Even though they currently had single eyelids, they still looked big and bright.

A few days later, Wang Liting was discharged from the hospital. The doctor reminded her that she needed to let the child get some sunlight to help with the jaundice.

The master and secondary bedrooms in Wang Liting’s home faced southeast, so they could get sunlight without leaving the house. However, the doctor said the baby needed to be in the sun twice a day. But by afternoon, there was no more sunlight inside the house. She had to observe her postpartum confinement period and couldn’t move around, so she could only have her mother-in-law carry the child outside to get sun.

Each unit building in Taihua Dragon Court had a courtyard, but the courtyards weren’t shared—they belonged to the property rights of the first-floor units. The courtyard for Wang Liting’s unit building belonged to Ye Xiaomei’s family. If she didn’t want to borrow someone else’s courtyard, her mother-in-law would have to walk to the small pavilion at the complex’s main entrance. However, it was currently flu season, and with people constantly coming and going there, plus the cross-ventilation, it would be easy for a small child to get sick. Wang Liting had no choice but to ask Chen Tao to sound out Cheng Dong’s opinion.

The courtyard was enclosed, with no separate door leading outside. For outsiders to use the courtyard, they would first need the key to that family’s front door and pass through the interior of the house to reach it. Ye Xiaomei wasn’t home every day either. Moreover, the young couple Cheng Dong and his wife had decorated their home very warmly and kept it spotlessly clean, with bright windows and clean tables. To let others have a key—setting aside security concerns—the lady of the house would probably feel uncomfortable about it too. Wang Liting thought it best to have the men sound each other out first, and if it really wasn’t appropriate, they could think of another solution.

When Ye Xiaomei learned about this, she specifically climbed up to the second floor while holding her belly and said: “Sister Wang must think I’m stingy.” As she spoke, she pressed the spare key into Wang Liting’s hand.