Over a month had passed, and winter had firmly arrived. December 25th was particularly cold.
Xu Si arrived earlier than Jiang Rong. He filled both their thermoses with hot water and took out hand warmers from his pocket, peeling off the paper and waiting for them to heat up in his pocket.
He watched as Jiang Rong entered the classroom. She wore a white down jacket with a caramel-colored scarf wrapped around her neck, her small face buried in it with only her eyes visible.
Xu Si stood up to let her pass, watching as she sat down and removed her scarf and gloves. Jiang Rong reached for her thermos, finding it full again. She unscrewed the cap, took a sip, and smiled at Xu Si.
“Give me your hands, little teacher,” Xu Si said.
Jiang Rong obediently held out her hands. Xu Si placed two warm hand warmers in her palms. “Put these in your pockets to keep warm.”
“What about you?”
Xu Si smiled and touched her fingertips with the back of his hand. “I’m not cold.” His fingertips were warm.
Jiang Rong took out a wrapped apple from her bag and gave it to Xu Si. “It’s Christmas Eve today.”
“Thank you, little teacher,” Xu Si smiled.
Then he watched as she took out several more apples and put them in her drawer. “Who are these for?” he asked.
Jiang Rong pointed to each apple, explaining: “This is for Luo Xing, this for Shen Mo, this for Yang Shikun, and this for Hao Ming.”
Xu Si looked at those apples, then at his own, feeling that his was wrapped the most beautifully.
He had prepared just one apple, but couldn’t find nice-looking paper yesterday, and since he never celebrated these silly holidays before, he didn’t know how to wrap apples properly.
He took out the apple from his bag and gave it to Jiang Rong. “Merry Christmas Eve, little teacher.”
“You too.”
Yang Shikun and Hao Ming came in laughing. Seeing the apple in Jiang Rong’s hands, Yang Shikun couldn’t help but laugh: “Jiang genius, who gave you this ugly apple? It’s wrapped so badly! Hahaha!”
Xu Si: “Ugly?”
Yang Shikun nodded: “Yeah, it’s ugly. Brother Si, don’t you think so?”
Xu Si: “…”
Jiang Rong paused before saying: “Xu Si gave me this apple.”
Yang Shikun: “…”
After a moment of silence, he tried to backtrack: “Look at these colors, look at this ribbon, how high-class and elegant. I was blind earlier.”
Xu Si: “…”
Jiang Rong took out two apples from her drawer and gave them to Yang Shikun: “These are for you and Hao Ming.”
Yang Shikun didn’t dare look at Xu Si’s expression as he took the nicely wrapped apples from Jiang Rong: “Thank you, Jiang genius.”
He chose his preferred color and handed the other to Hao Ming: “From Jiang genius.”
Hao Ming also thanked her: “Thank you, Jiang genius.”
During the second morning class:
“It’s snowing!” Someone shouted during math class, and everyone started looking outside.
White snowflakes, like willow catkins, began falling.
Teacher Fang Zixin stopped writing on the blackboard and looked outside. Seeing it was indeed snowing, he looked at the curious little heads below: “You can go out to look, but come back quickly.”
The students of Class 17 rushed outside.
Xu Si looked at Jiang Rong: “Want to go see?”
“Yes.”
They walked out through the back door to watch the falling snow.
Jiang Rong tried to catch snowflakes in her hand. They melted immediately, feeling cool. Her eyes curved into crescents as she smiled, and Xu Si, watching her from beside, smiled too.
“Class is starting, class is starting, come back quickly!”
After seeing the snow, the students all rushed back into the classroom.
By the end of class, a white blanket of snow covered everything outside.
Xu Si came in from outside, his hands tightly clasped together, mysteriously asking: “Guess what I have in my hands?”
Jiang Rong shook her head.
Xu Si opened his hands to reveal a ball of white fresh snow, almost melting in his palm.
Jiang Rong reached out to touch the snow, feeling the coolness on her fingertips.
B City rarely saw snow; she hadn’t seen it for several years.
“The snow isn’t heavy. If it was, we could build a snowman.”
“I haven’t built a snowman for many years.”
“If it snows heavily this year, let’s build one together.”
Jiang Rong smiled: “Okay.”
The snow quickly melted in his palm.
She noticed his reddened fingertips and took out her gloves from the drawer: “Your hands are red from cold, wear these to warm up.”
Her gloves were creamy white and fluffy.
Xu Si took her gloves, trying not to laugh as he compared them to his hands: “Little teacher, these gloves are too small.”
Jiang Rong looked and saw her gloves did look extremely small in his hands.
She took the gloves back and suddenly remembered the hand warmers in her pocket. She took one out and placed it in Xu Si’s palm: “One each.”
“Okay.”
…
After the third class, Shen Mo waited at Class 17’s door with a small box, calling out: “Can someone get Jiang Rong?”
When Jiang Rong came out, she handed her the box: “This is for you.”
Jiang Rong took it, hugging it close, then gave her an apple: “I was just about to bring this to you.”
Shen Mo accepted it: “Thank you.”
Jiang Rong gave her a sweet smile.
“It’s cold outside, go back in.”
“Okay.”
After Shen Mo left, Jiang Rong opened the small box to find various flavored lollipops.
Luo Xing had also prepared oranges for her.
…
“Could you call Xu Si for me?”
Hearing this, Yang Shikun looked at the girl’s gift: “Sorry, Brother Si doesn’t accept gifts from others.”
The girl looked disappointedly at her gift: “Oh, okay.”
Just as Yang Shikun sighed in relief, he heard a male student: “Could you call Jiang Rong?”
He looked inside: “Jiang genius isn’t here.”
The boy handed something to Yang Shikun: “Please help me give this to Jiang. It’s from someone at No. 17 Middle School.”
Yang Shikun held the gift, unsure whether to accept it on her behalf.
The boy added: “When you mention No. 17 Middle School, she’ll know.”
Hearing this, Yang Shikun figured they must know each other, so he accepted: “Alright.”
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