This winter saw little sunlight; the small town seemed wrapped in a half-damp cotton quilt, cold enough that Ma Huimin had to keep the oil heater on at home during the day.

That day the sun rarely came out, and Ma Huimin hurriedly called Ren Jianbai’s wife on the sixth floor, wanting to borrow the Ren family’s rooftop to air out some quilts.

Lin Tian of course had no problem with it: “Auntie, come up anytime, I’ll leave the rooftop door open for you.”

She thought about it, then added: “Actually, why don’t you wait for me, I’ll come down and help you carry the quilts.”

Ma Huimin hastily said: “No need, no need! Absolutely not! You shouldn’t do heavy lifting right now, I’ll carry them up myself, it’s fine!”

At ten in the morning, Zhou Ya went out to buy groceries, Fang Long hadn’t gotten up yet. Ma Huimin first went to Zhou Ya’s room, carrying his and her own quilts upstairs. As for Fang Long’s, Ma Huimin planned to wait until she woke up before taking hers up to air out too.

From the third floor to the sixth, only three flights, but carrying two quilts still took some effort for Ma Huimin.

After airing out the quilts, Ma Huimin headed back downstairs. Nearly at the fifth floor, her knee suddenly gave way, and she lost her footing, falling down the stairs!

After finishing his grocery shopping, Zhou Ya was driving the van toward the food stall when his phone rang. He picked it up and looked—it was Fang Long.

He answered, and before he’d even gotten out a “hello,” the voice on the other end was already shouting: “Zhou Ya, Big Auntie fell! She—she can’t stand up right now! I don’t dare move her! Get back here quick!!”

Zhou Ya abruptly clenched his back teeth, wrenching the steering wheel hard to the left.

The turn was too sharp, and the bags of meat and vegetables in the back tilted with the momentum.

While turning the car back home, Zhou Ya tried to steady his emotions, asking Fang Long about his mother’s current condition.

Fang Long had just been woken by the doorbell, with Lin Tian ringing anxiously and telling her about Big Auntie’s fall.

She’d bolted up from bed, not caring that she looked disheveled, and rushed upstairs.

Ma Huimin had hit her tailbone against the edge of the stairs; her whole body had gone weak, but there was no discomfort elsewhere.

By the time Zhou Ya got home, the fifth-floor stairwell was packed with neighbors, and his mother, supported by Fang Long, was already able to stand.

A neighbor called out: “A’Ya’s back!”

Everyone made way for Zhou Ya. Ma Huimin, despite her forehead covered in cold sweat from the pain, still managed a smile for her son: “Oh, why’d you come back? I just fell, it’s nothing serious…”

Fang Long’s expression was rarely serious: “What do you mean nothing serious? You couldn’t even stand up just now!”

Zhou Ya took off his leather jacket, handed it to Fang Long, and turned to prepare to carry his mother on his back, saying bluntly: “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

Ma Huimin’s eyes widened, shaking her head repeatedly: “I just fell, some liniment at home will do, why go to the hospital?!”

“We have to go.” Zhou Ya wasn’t negotiating with her.

Lin Tian was also in the stairwell, along with other neighbors, all urging Ma Huimin to go see a doctor.

The old woman was afraid of hospitals, always feeling that the moment she stepped into one, she’d be diagnosed out of nowhere with this illness or that.

But her son’s attitude was resolute, and Ma Huimin had no choice but to finally climb onto Zhou Ya’s back.

“I—I want to go to the hospital too!” Fang Long clutched Zhou Ya’s leather jacket tight, hurrying after him down the stairs.

“Go change your clothes first.” Zhou Ya walked quickly, but every step was steady, his breathing even. “Aren’t your feet cold?”

Only then did Fang Long remember that in her rush to leave, she was still wearing the loose T-shirt she used as a nightgown, hadn’t even put on pants, her bare knees ice cold.

Ma Huimin looked up and called to her: “Long Long, you don’t need to come! It’s such a small thing, I’ll be back soon!”

“No, I have to come!” Fang Long insisted, gripping the stair railing to shout down, “Zhou Ya, drive Big Auntie to the hospital first, I’ll change and ride my own bike over!”

By the time she’d said all this, Zhou Ya was already nearly at the third floor.

He looked up and nodded.

Fang Long hurried back home, washed up and changed, grabbed her motorbike key and ran out the door.

There was a hospital on the next street over, not too far. As Fang Long rode her bike there, several images suddenly flashed through her mind.

Fleeting, like the flap of a butterfly’s wings, but Fang Long still caught them.

In the images in her memory, the person on Zhou Ya’s back was her.

Ma Huimin had X-rays taken; her tailbone wasn’t fractured. The doctor told her to rest at home and observe her condition over the next few days.

“Humph, I told you it wasn’t a big deal, no need to come to the hospital…” Ma Huimin’s backside hurt, unable to sit normally, having to lean slightly to one side to avoid the pain.

She muttered: “See, didn’t the doctor just say to put on some liniment and rest more at home?”

“Oh come on, at your age a fall on the tailbone could be serious or not, of course you needed a doctor to check.” Fang Long grumbled, pursing her lips. “Also, you wanted to air out the quilts, why didn’t you call me to help?”

“You went to bed so late last night, I wanted to let you sleep a bit more.” Ma Huimin rubbed her aching knees, sighing. “This old body of Big Auntie’s really isn’t holding up anymore, aching here or sore there all day long… I don’t even know if I’ll get to see you two—”

Hearing this, Fang Long’s scalp went numb.

Big Auntie had said this line plenty of times before; Fang Long knew exactly what would follow—nothing but her feeling her days were numbered, worried she wouldn’t live to see the two of them each start their own families, worried she wouldn’t get to hold a grandson or granddaughter…

She hurriedly cut her off: “Ptooey ptooey ptooey! Stop! Don’t say it!”

Zhou Ya had gone to pay and get the medicine, so Ma Huimin could say a few more words while he wasn’t around.

Now, recalling the moment she’d fallen down the stairs, Ma Huimin felt somewhat shaken in hindsight, an inexplicable sorrow welling up. Instead of being interrupted by Fang Long, she took Fang Long’s hand and patted the back of it: “Long Long, you’re still young, and you’re pretty too, Big Auntie’s not worried about you. But Zhou Ya’s already almost thirty! They say ‘thirty and established’—if he hadn’t broken up with Keyun back then, Big Auntie might already be a grandmother by now…”

Fang Long froze, a stirring of something restless rising in her chest.

She frowned slightly, glanced left and right, and seeing no sign of Zhou Ya, lowered her voice to ask Ma Huimin: “Auntie, why did Zhou Ya and Sister Keyun actually break up back then?”

Ma Huimin said: “What else could it be? It was me and your uncle dragging him down.”

The town hospital wasn’t big, several departments on the same floor. In the waiting area, a few small kids were using the long benches as props, playing hide-and-seek.

Ma Huimin kept watching the children, her tone regretful: “Back then all of Zhou Ya’s savings were spent on the two of us. Keyun’s family thought Zhou Ya was too poor, didn’t want them to keep being together.”

“…Just because of money?”

“Yeah, what else could it be?” Ma Huimin looked at her, puzzled.

Fang Long pressed her lips together and fell silent.

A few years back, not long after Zeng Keyun and Zhou Ya broke up, Fang Long had run into Zeng Keyun shopping at the supermarket.

She and Zeng Keyun weren’t close enough to walk arm-in-arm together, but greeting each other or sitting down to chat wasn’t a problem. That day, with no other customers around, she’d pulled Zeng Keyun aside for a few words.

Fang Long still remembered—Zeng Keyun had said back then that she and Zhou Ya broke up because Zhou Ya’s heart wasn’t in it with her.

At the time, Fang Long had been righteously indignant, even cursing Zhou Ya on Zeng Keyun’s behalf, saying he acted all principled on the surface, but was really just a rotten watermelon full of bad juice!