When Evelyn Ford woke up, she saw the little snowman on the table. It had been placed inside a glass, probably to keep it from melting, and looked charmingly simple.

"You’re awake?" Ronan Kendrick came in, moved Mina from Evelyn’s arms to the side, and sat down next to her.

"Who is this?"

"Can’t you tell?" Ronan said, giving her a suggestive look.

Evelyn refused to admit it. "It’s definitely not me. I’m not this plump."

"Plump? But you’re so skinny." Ronan picked her up and held her in his arms, saying earnestly, "You’re really skinny."

Evelyn stifled a laugh and pinched his waist hard. "But you made the snowman so fat. It doesn’t look like me at all."

"My mistake. Why don’t you teach me how to make a new one?"

"Alright. Pay close attention."

Ronan’s eyes were full of laughter. "Yes, Professor Ford."

Evelyn took out a handful of snow from her space and began to divide it into smaller balls. "This is the head. The head can be a bit rounder."

Ronan tilted his head to watch her. Evelyn finished shaping her snowman and placed it next to the one Ronan had made. In comparison, hers was taller and held a longsword.

"Is this one me?"

Evelyn nodded. "Yep. What do you think? Isn’t mine better? Have you learned yet?"

Ronan scooted closer, clinging to her. "I haven’t learned. Teach me again. Professor Ford didn’t even teach me hand-in-hand just now."

Evelyn gave him a light rap on the head. "Student Kendrick wasn’t paying attention in class. You’re sleeping on the floor tonight."

"I was wrong, Professor Ford."

"I’m not listening, not listening, not listening."

Outside the door, Quincy had been on his way to ask Evelyn if she wanted to have hot pot tonight. But when he heard their sappy conversation, he scrambled away in fright.

The snow on Immeasurable Mountain fell endlessly. If not for the greenhouse, the vegetables they had planted earlier would have been ruined. Evelyn remained engrossed in her dimensional planting. Over the past few days, she had hatched ten chicks using an incubator. Ronan had also built some chicken coops. After the chicks hatched, they were moved into the livestock space. Fortunately, the chicks didn’t pass out after entering the space; instead, they began to chirp noisily.

The livestock area was also land, but it was barren, yellow soil. Evelyn planned to sow some Four Seasons Green seeds to turn the planting space into a grassland.

The seeds sown on the farm earlier had been covered by snow before they could sprout, so they probably wouldn’t grow now. Evelyn could only pin all her hopes on her planting space.

One morning, Chet Lawrence was on his routine patrol of the farm. The sky was still dark, a thick fog filled the air, and a light, snowy rain was falling. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Chet made his rounds and saw the fences were all intact, with no signs of damage. He was about to head back when he heard a faint cry. Chet was puzzled. ’Why would there be a baby crying this early in the morning?’ He opened the farm gate to investigate. When he saw an infant lying in the snow, wrapped in only a single swaddling cloth, he was stunned.

"Evelyn! Ronan! Something terrible has happened! Something big! Come out, quickly!"

Outside the cabin, Quincy was anxiously shouting for them. Evelyn, not yet fully awake, heard the noise, rolled over, and went back to sleep, completely ignoring Quincy’s hollering.

Ronan got up and went out. Seeing him, Quincy rushed over. "You’re finally awake! It’s terrible! Chet found a baby, abandoned right outside the farm! What should we do? Where’s Evelyn?"

Ronan was also surprised after hearing Quincy’s words. "Found a baby?"

"Yeah, a little girl. Yunnis Denton said the baby was probably abandoned right after she was born. But I suspect whoever left her did it on purpose. Chet heard the baby crying as soon as he went out on patrol, which means the person was lying in wait. They must have left the baby right before Chet got to the gate. Otherwise, in this cold, the baby would have frozen to death long ago."

Seeing Ronan spacing out, Quincy gave him a push. "What should we do? Do we leave her out there or keep her?"

"Go to Fairgate and ask around about any women who’ve given birth in the last couple of days. As for this matter, I’ll ask Evelyn for her thoughts when she wakes up." After saying that, Ronan went straight back inside, leaving Quincy stamping his feet in the cold.

"I wonder who abandoned her. What a sinful thing to do."

When Ronan returned to the cabin, Evelyn was awake. She stared at him for a few seconds, then closed her eyes to go back to sleep.

"Quincy said someone abandoned a baby at the farm gate, and Chet brought her in."

Evelyn opened her eyes and looked at Ronan. "I heard. Do as you said. First, ask around about women who’ve given birth recently."

Around noon, Evelyn and Ronan went to the screening room. Since it had been snowing, everyone gathered there to watch TV and chat when they had nothing else to do.

From a distance, they could hear a baby crying, along with the soft, gentle voices of people trying to soothe her.

"So pitiful. Her legs were frozen purple. If Chet hadn’t found her in time, the baby would be dead."

"The baby seems healthy, though. These days, I’ve barely seen any newborns. Why would someone abandon their child?"

"They probably couldn’t afford to raise her. In this day and age, it’s hard enough for adults to survive. It’s common for children and the elderly to be abandoned."

"If you can’t afford a kid, don’t have one. Forgive me for being blunt, but the parents are real pieces of shit. Life is already hard enough, and they bring a child into it just to suffer with them. That kid was so unlucky to be born to parents like that. If I find out who abandoned her, who had a kid but won’t raise it, I’ll beat them to death."

Everyone was filled with righteous indignation, but they all fell silent when Evelyn walked in. In truth, besides Officer Graham and Ronan, no one knew that Evelyn had also been an abandoned child. They just saw the look on her face and were too scared to say another word.

"Miss Ford, when I saw the baby, her cries were faint, and she was purple from the cold. I had no choice but to bring her back first," Chet Lawrence explained hurriedly.

"Mm, I know. What’s the baby’s condition?"

"She’s a little better. I just milked one of the goats and was about to give her some after filtering it. Evelyn, look at her. She’s as small and skinny as a newborn kitten. It’s so sad."

Evelyn glanced over. The baby was indeed tiny and thin. Everyone present knew exactly what the person who abandoned her was thinking. It was nothing more than a ploy to get the farm to take the child in and give her a chance to live.

But the farm wasn’t a charity, nor was it an orphanage. Once they made this exception, many more people would start abandoning their children here.

Evelyn remained silent. If they sent the baby back, she probably wouldn’t survive. But keeping her would also be a significant burden.

"Evelyn, are we going to keep the baby?"

Evelyn looked at the crowd. Some couldn’t bear the thought of abandoning the child, some were silent, and others, like her, were thinking more comprehensively, naturally considering the potential consequences of taking the baby in.

"I don’t think we can keep her," Miles Vaughn was the first to state his position.

"If we keep this one, it won’t be long before more abandoned babies show up at our gate."

Wyatt Vaughn sighed. "But if we can’t find her biological parents and we leave her outside, she’ll either freeze or starve to death. Honestly, I just can’t bring myself to be so cruel to a baby this small."