Over the next few days, the two continued their cold war.

Chen An could only take one day off. The second day after school, he had to stay at school with his advisor to work through Olympiad problems. Once a person gets busy, there’s no time even to dwell on frustrations or cold wars. He spun around like a top, and in the blink of an eye, it was departure day.

The night before leaving, Chen An sent a text message to Cheng Lele: “I’m going to Jilin for the competition tomorrow. Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

Cheng Lele didn’t reply.

She was pondering something else. It had snowed all day today, and the world had changed appearance, wrapped in silver. In front of the courtyard, separated by a narrow walkway, was a simple bike shed. Several centimeters of thick snow had accumulated on the shed roof, like a pure wool blanket, strangely tempting one to mess it up.

Late that night, Cheng Lele wrapped a down jacket over her pajamas and came to the pomegranate tree. The pomegranate tree had many branches but not many leaves, with several large branches suspended in the air above the shed roof. Cheng Lele spat into her hands, leaped upward with a jump, and snow from the tree rustled down onto her. Cheng Lele didn’t care and nimbly scrambled up with agile movements. Before long, she was perched on one of the branches, moving slowly toward the simple shed like walking a tightrope.

When she reached above the shed, she broke off a small branch and tiptoed to the far left end.

The plastic roof wasn’t sturdy, so she didn’t dare make too much noise. By the clear moonlight, she lay on the snow and carved out large characters. After finishing one, she had to smooth out the footprints in pursuit of aesthetic appeal.

Finally, the four characters were complete.

Cheng Lele admired her masterpiece with satisfaction. Returning to the tree to look down, “Little Brother Will Win” seemed a bit thin, so she went back and added a heart.

She returned to the tree again, glanced at little brother’s window, imagined the angle, and felt she’d done it perfectly.

She knew little brother had a habit—whenever he got up, he would first go pull open the curtains.

As soon as he opened the curtains, he would discover the surprise she’d prepared for him.

Hehehe… Cheng Lele thought, I’ve gone this far, you can’t possibly stay angry at me.

Cheng Lele had planned it quite well, but when climbing down the tree, out of nowhere came a feral cat with two fluorescent green eyes gleaming in the white snow, startling her. In that moment of distraction, she jumped down and sprained her ankle.

Cheng Lele had never failed at climbing trees before—this time was pure carelessness. Probably her luck had been bad lately—if it wasn’t being chased by local dogs, it was being scared by feral cats. Cheng Lele thought about asking Chen Xiaomei to go buy a fortune-turning bead to wear.

She limped into the house to search for the medicine box, pulled out some Yunnan Baiyao and sprayed some on, then carelessly went back to her room to sleep. She dozed groggily until after five o’clock when pain woke her. Turning on the light, she saw her ankle was twice the size it had been when first sprained.

She had no choice but to wake Ye Xiaomei. Cheng Dong was cooperating with the province in tracking down a cross-regional murder case and hadn’t been home much these past few days—only Ye Xiaomei was home.

Ye Xiaomei was completely baffled and asked: “How did you do this in the middle of the night?”

Cheng Lele rubbed her nose: “When I stood up from the toilet, that’s when I sprained it.”

Ye Xiaomei was dubious: “You can sprain it doing that? I’ll go get An’an to come down and carry you to the community entrance to get a taxi.”

Cheng Lele said: “Little brother has to go to the competition. Let him sleep a bit more to rest up. Mom, just help me—I can hop there.”

If little brother saw her like this, he’d worry again. What if he didn’t test well?

Ye Xiaomei looked at her helplessly: “You only have your little brother in your heart. If he gets recommended to Tsinghua or Peking University, what are you planning to study?”

“I heard there’s a Beida Jade Bird Vocational and Technical College in Beijing. I could get into that one.”

While putting on her coat, Ye Xiaomei scolded: “Real promising. Why don’t you say you’ll go scrub people’s backs at Tsinghua Pool?”

Out the door, Ye Xiaomei supported her, and the two half-hopped, half-supported each other to the community entrance. The several hundred meters took more than ten minutes, and the cold wind blew them both speechless.

“Should I call in sick for you?” Ye Xiaomei asked sitting in the car.

“Mom, we start winter break today.”

“Oh, right. This wind blew my brain stupid.”

At the hospital, after taking X-rays, the doctor on duty said it was a minor fracture that only needed conservative treatment, no cast fixation necessary. He prescribed Yunnan Baiyao and painkillers, told her to ice it for one day, apply heat for two days, and be careful not to bear weight on it.

Cheng Lele took the painkillers and rested in the lobby to let them take effect. The medication hadn’t kicked in yet, and the pain made her eyes red and moist.

Ye Xiaomei said: “Seeing you like this, I can’t bear it. Should I have An’an come keep you company?”

The Cheng family had raised Chen An like their own son, raising him to sixteen or seventeen years old. Ye Xiaomei, like Cheng Lele, couldn’t face things independently. Whenever something happened, she thought of relying on the pillar of the family. Cheng Dong’s work was special in nature—his phone was off now—so the person she could think of was Chen An.

“If you can’t bear it, can little brother bear it? Besides, what use would he be if he came?” After a cry of pain, Cheng Lele, breaking out in a full-body sweat, blocked the idea.

Ye Xiaomei was just talking. She knew Chen An had to leave early for winter camp—no need to distract him.

She got a cup of warm water from the hallway and handed it to her daughter, saying: “I rushed to knit a sweater for An’an. I originally wanted to give it to him this morning to wear there. By the time we get back, he’ll probably have already left.”

“What about my sweater?”

Ye Xiaomei’s eyes went sideways: “When you earn a chance at a competition, I’ll knit you ten.”