On Saturday, the first snowfall came to Pingcheng. When Ruan Mian woke up in the morning, everything outside was already covered in white. Small piles of shoveled snow could be seen everywhere in the alleyways and corners. The criss-crossing overhead cables in the distance were also wrapped in a layer of white, with birds perching on them. The heavy burden made the cables sway and drop flakes of snow.
Houses in the south don’t have central heating. It was fine indoors without opening the windows, but once the windows were opened, the piercing cold wind cut to the bone. Ruan Mian closed the window tightly and put on a coat before going downstairs.
Fang Ruqing and Zhao Yingwei rarely had a weekend off. The two of them were busy in the kitchen early in the morning. When they saw Ruan Mian get up, Fang Ruqing looked outside and said, “It’s the weekend, how come you didn’t sleep in a little longer?”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
The wind blew into the living room making Ruan Mian feel cold. She lowered her head and gave a light cough, “I’ll go wash my face and brush my teeth first.”
“Go ahead, wear something warmer.”
“Got it.”
Ruan Mian shuffled to the bathroom in slippers. At the door, she bumped into Zhao Shuyang who had just come out after using the toilet.
After calling Ruan Mian “sister” the first time they met, the little boy never called her that again. But he really liked sticking to Ruan Mian usually.
At this time, he grabbed the hem of Ruan Mian’s down jacket, blinked his big eyes twice, “Do you want to have a snowball fight?”
It wasn’t that he was asking if she wanted to or not, he clearly wanted to play but didn’t dare go out alone.
Ruan Mian’s throat felt itchy. Afraid of infecting him, she pressed her fist to her lips, turned her head and coughed twice before smiling and saying, “We’ll eat breakfast first, then we can go out after, okay?”
“Okay.”
He let go of her clothes, “Let’s pinky promise.”
Ruan Mian chuckled. She stretched out her little finger and hooked it with his, pressing down with their thumbs.
After eating breakfast, Ruan Mian went back to her room to change clothes. She took a hat and scarf and went with Zhao Shuyang to play in the snow outside.
The snow near the house hadn’t been shoveled yet. Ruan Mian played with Zhao Shuyang for a while. Her ten fingers turned red from the cold. Finally unable to bear it, she stood by the side watching him push snowballs by himself.
Zhao Shuyang was small but strong. In no time, he had rolled two round snowballs. Ruan Mian rubbed her numb hands and went over to help him stack the two snowballs together.
Just as they were having fun, someone called out, “Ruan Mian.”
Hearing the voice, Ruan Mian looked back to see Li Zhi walking over here. She clapped her hands and stood up, “Don’t you have weekend cram school at your high school?”
“It’s too cold.”
That’s what he said, but he seemed impervious to the cold, wearing just a thin T-shirt inside his open down jacket. “What are you doing?”
“Building a snowman.”
Li Zhi raised his eyebrows with a smile. He turned his head back to look, “Is that your brother?”
“Yeah.”
Ruan Mian stuffed her almost numb hands into her pockets and stood side by side with him on the roadside, “How did you come from that direction?”
Li Zhi also had his hands in his pockets. “There’s a wall near the internet cafe that collapsed from the snow. It blocked the road. Didn’t you notice there were more people passing through here this morning?”
Ruan Mian smiled. “I just woke up and didn’t pay attention.”
The two chatted casually like this while standing at the roadside. Zhao Shuyang looked back to see Ruan Mian ignoring him. He squeezed a small snowball and threw it over, hitting Li Zhi who was talking.
“So…”
“Thud…”
Li Zhi stopped speaking abruptly.
He brushed the snow off his clothes and glanced at Zhao Shuyang standing in place. He laughed, “This kid deserves a beating, doesn’t he?”
Ruan Mian felt a little embarrassed and touched her nose. “Zhao Shuyang, come over and apologize to your brother.”
“Forget it, just kidding around.”
After saying that, he reached out and grabbed a clump of snow from the rubble on the side and threw it at Ruan Mian. He laughed and took two steps back after throwing it. “Sister pays little brother’s debt.”
Ruan Mian pursed her lips, wanting to say something but held back, “… “
Li Zhi retreated to Zhao Shuyang’s side and put his arm around the boy’s shoulder. Half squatting down, he said to him, “Let’s have a snowball fight, we’ll throw snowballs at sister together, okay?”
The little rascal nodded vigorously, “Okay!”
Ruan Mian: “…”
How confusing.
The three of them started throwing snowballs. The air was filled with flying snowballs. Ruan Mian couldn’t withstand the bombardment from the two and took the initiative to surrender.
After playing for a long time, Li Zhi helped Zhao Shuyang build a big snowman on the flat ground. Ruan Mian contributed her red hat.
Seeing this, Zhao Shuyang insisted on wrapping his scarf around the snowman’s neck too.
After tidying it up, Li Zhi took out his phone from his jacket pocket and said to Ruan Mian, “Go stand over there. I’ll take a photo of you two as a memento.”
“Huh?”
“To remember this.”
Ruan Mian smiled helplessly, “Alright.”
She stood on the left of the snowman and Zhao Shuyang stood on the right. Occasionally some snow drifted down from the sky. Li Zhi held up his phone, glanced at the screen, and turned his head, “You look like I’m holding a knife to your neck forcing you to take this picture. That expression.”
Ruan Mian was born with a fear of cameras. Hearing him say this, she couldn’t help laughing out loud. Li Zhi seized the opportunity and quickly pressed the shutter button.
Old cameras make a loud “click” sound when taking photos. The snowman, child, and girl with a brilliant smile were captured in the photo along with the sound.
Li Zhi handed her the photo to look at.
Ruan Mian glanced at it and praised, “You took it very nicely.”
“I’ll send it to you later.”
Li Zhi put away his phone and looked up towards the distant sky.
The two were silent for a while. Then he called out, “Ruan Mian.”
“Hmm?”
Ruan Mian looked up at him.
He turned to look at her, speaking uncharacteristically seriously, “Smile more like this from now on.”
Ruan Mian was startled for a moment. Her gaze met his for a while before she lowered her head to avoid eye contact, not responding.
Li Zhi’s eyes drooped. He ground the snowball beside his foot and said, “In this lifetime, just living is suffering enough. For some unimportant things, don’t take them to heart. Don’t be so hard on yourself, be happier.”
Ruan Mian stared at the spot he had stomped open. It was a very long time before she nodded slightly.
Li Zhi didn’t say anything more. Later he took a call and left.
Not long after he left, Ruan Mian also took Zhao Shuyang home.
Later in the day, Li Zhi said on QQ that he had sent the photo over.
Old QQ on mobile phones couldn’t receive pictures. Ruan Mian went upstairs to the study and used the family computer to receive the photo. While receiving it, Li Zhi sent a message:
Li Zhi: Can I post the photo on my space?
Li Zhi liked photography. His space had many photos taken by him. Ruan Mian didn’t refuse. Then he sent another message:
Li Zhi: I’ll pay you modeling fees later. Something else came up, bye for now.
Ruan Mian: No need to trouble you, go busy yourself first.
Li Zhi: Auto-reply: okay.
Seeing his auto-reply on screen, Ruan Mian laughed and closed the page with a click of the mouse.
After dinner, Ruan Mian went to the study to look up materials and logged into QQ on the computer. After finishing looking up the materials, she browsed through her newsfeed and saw a set of photos that Li Zhi had posted an hour ago.
There were nine photos in total, all portraits of people.
Men and women, young and old, a slice of life1.
She scrolled down and in the likes section saw a familiar avatar.
Ruan Mian instantly felt her heartbeat falter. She clicked on the avatar, entering Chen Yi’s newsfeed.
Chen Yi didn’t post often, the latest was from three months ago when he shared a photo of an orange cat.
Also appearing in the photo was a hand in the top right corner, fingerprints clearly visible, joints slender and distinct, with a small mole next to the index finger near the thumb2.
Ruan Mian recognized it as Chen Yi’s hand and had saved the photo at the time.
As usual, she browsed through everything from beginning to end, and habitually deleted her visitor log before leaving.
After doing all this, just as Ruan Mian was about to log off QQ, Meng Xinglan sent her a message asking what time she was leaving home tomorrow.
Ruan Mian suddenly felt conflicted. She had only agreed earlier because she was overwhelmed by her emotions at the time and couldn’t make the right decision.
She thought for a bit before replying to Meng Xinglan that something had come up suddenly and she wouldn’t be going anymore.
She couldn’t be so despicable as to meet that girl in such an ingenuine way when no one else knew anything.
Later on, Ruan Mian learned from Meng Xinglan that the meetup that day had been cancelled anyway due to a sudden heavy snowfall.
As for Chen Yi, she didn’t know what agreement he had reached with Sheng Huan again, but Sheng Huan never came back to their class. The breakfasts and milk teas also stopped being delivered.
Everything seemed to have returned to how it was before.
This peaceful period didn’t last long before the end of term exams arrived as scheduled. Ruan Mian had improved a lot on her last monthly exam, and took the exam in classroom 3 this time, while Chen Yi was still in classroom 1 as always.
On exam day, it was still heavily snowing in Pingcheng. The walk over was filled with colorful umbrellas, adding splashes of color to the vast white snowscape.
After the final English exam ended, Class 1 students returned to their homeroom for a class meeting and to collect the winter break assignments. Ruan Mian walked back with the classmates who had been in the same exam room.
Back in the classroom, Zhou Hai was directing a few male students to go move the exam papers and assignments while the rest of the class tidied up the messy desks and chairs after the exam.
Ruan Mian was pulled over to sit next to Meng Xinglan. Chen Yi and Jiang Rang happened to be standing nearby, but the classroom was filled with people and she could only hear his voice.
“I won’t be in Pingcheng this year,” Chen Yi said.
Leaning against the desk, Jiang Rang asked, “Going to your grandpa’s place?”
Chen Yi gave an affirmative “Mm,” and shifted aside to let other students pass as he said lightly, “Probably won’t be back until after New Year’s.”
“Alright, I was hoping to hang out with you.”
Chen Yi glanced at him. “Isn’t your dad coming back this year for New Year’s?”
“Yeah right…” Jiang Rang muttered “Damn,” and said, “Like I’ll get to go out at all if he’s back.”
Chen Yi smiled wryly, bending to pick up his slipping backpack and placing it on the desk, the furry hood of his down jacket lightly brushing past the girl’s head.
He didn’t notice her entire body tensing up in that moment.
After distributing the assignments and exam papers, Zhou Hai went through the usual reminders about staying safe over the break, and finally said with a smile, “Happy New Year everyone!”
The class roared back noisily, “May you prosper in the coming year, give us red envelopes!”
Old Zhou laughed, “Alright, when you guys come back to get your report cards, I’ll have a red envelope ready for each of you.”
One of the boys piped up, “Bullshit, Teacher Zhou. After seeing our grades, who’s gonna be in the mood for red envelopes? We’ll be lucky to just get through the New Year in one piece.”
Perhaps due to the impending break and upcoming New Year’s, the boisterous mood in class persisted even after the meeting ended.
Before leaving, Meng Xinglan made plans with Ruan Mian to go shopping in a couple days, saying “You better not stand me up again this time.”
Ruan Mian smiled, “Don’t worry, I won’t.”
Meng Xinglan winked at her. “I’m going to go find Liang Yiran first, let’s coordinate over QQ later.”
“Okay.”
The classroom gradually emptied out. Ruan Mian gathered her belongings and also left via the back door, amidst the lively chatter.
Reaching the first floor lobby, a voice suddenly piped up beside her, “How much of the book list I gave you have you gotten through?”
Ruan Mian jumped in fright, dropping all the books she was hugging. Fortunately she hadn’t gone outside yet, the lobby floor was marble so the books only got a little dirty.
Chen Yi slung his backpack over his shoulder and bent down to help pick up half the books. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine.”
Ruan Mian wiped the smudges off the covers as she restacked them. “It was my fault for not paying attention while walking.”
He pulled out some tissues from his pocket and handed them to her, then asked again, “So how much of the book list did you get through?”
“I read…”
“Chen Yi!”
Ruan Mian had just started to reply when another louder voice cut her off.
She turned her head to look.
It was Sheng Huan.
The girl wore a denim coat and short skirt, prettily made up. She stood there smiling brilliantly.
Chen Yi saw her too. A fleeting annoyance crossed his brow, but he still said to Ruan Mian, “You should head back first. I’ll message you on QQ later.”
Ruan Mian’s breath hitched. Swallowing back the surge of heartache, she said, “Okay.”
Chen Yi nodded, then turned to walk toward Sheng Huan.
Watching his retreating figure, Ruan Mian blinked back the sting in her eyes. Unable to resist, she called out, “Chen Yi.”
The boy halted and looked back at her. “What’s up?”
Ruan Mian smiled at him, on the verge of tears. “Happy New Year.”
- ???? (renjian baitai) – idiom meaning “the myriad manifestations of human life” ↩︎
- ?? (hukou) – The novel used this word; it’s the part of the hand between the thumb and index finger (picture for reference)
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