Sun Tingting’s description of how Wen Wen hit Yu Jiuqi was generally accurate, but there were some discrepancies in certain details. First of all, it wasn’t Wen Wen who led Yu Jiuqi to the art studio—it was Yu Jiuqi who brought her there.

It’s just that when they arrived, Yu Jiuqi had no idea Tingting was a student at the studio. She thought Wen Wen only wanted to find Zhu Duomei, and Zhu Duomei normally paid no attention to Wen Wen at all. Among the entire family, the only person she had any contact with was Xiao Jiu.

Zhu Duomei was an art teacher at a very famous art exam preparation institution in Shicheng. Almost half of the art students who got into key art academies from Shicheng every year were tutored by her. She was demanding and strict in teaching, with an eccentric personality. Though clearly a tall, slender artistic beauty, she had a fierce love for buying mink coats, drinking alcohol, reading web novels, and quarreling with her mother every few days.

Zhu Duomei’s mother was Meng Huihong. She was Meng Huihong’s child from her first marriage, Ge Fan’s half-sister from the same mother, Yu Kaixuan’s stepdaughter, and a marginal member of the “Wild Cool Awesome Elite Gathering” family group chat.

Because her parents had traveled around performing opera in her early years and left Zhu Duomei with her deaf-mute grandmother, she’d suffered some humiliating hardships. Even after her parents returned later, she was like a cold-blooded wolf cub who recognized no one. After her grandmother died, she lived freely on her own.

Although Meng Huihong wouldn’t admit it, her later decision to settle in Shicheng with Ge Fan was partly to get closer to her daughter. But Zhu Duomei gave her no face whatsoever. They could flip the table after just a few words when they met. Even the high-EQ peacemaker Ge Fan had no way to handle his sister. However, Xiao Jiu could communicate with her.

Speaking of which, Yu Jiuqi didn’t understand why Zhu Duomei treated her differently. She thought it might be because she had affinity, wasn’t aggressive, and had never tried to heal Zhu Duomei’s pain or bestow sympathy on her.

After all, speaking of it, everyone in this family, to varying degrees, carried scars on them they didn’t want to show others.

Yu Jiuqi received Wen Wen’s call for help during work in the morning. She said a friend’s child wanted to study art and asked Xiao Jiu to take her to Zhu Duomei’s studio to ask about it. Xiao Jiu looked at the time and said she could take an hour and a half break at noon. Wen Wen said that would be enough.

At noon, Wen Wen took a taxi to pick her up. On the road, Xiao Jiu learned that Wen Wen had contacted Zhu Duomei beforehand. To curry favor, she’d even catered to her interests by sharing several popular web novels, inviting her to drink—she was just short of buying her mink—but Zhu Duomei had completely ignored her.

Xiao Jiu sent Zhu Duomei a message explaining the situation. Soon, she replied.

Yu Jiuqi turned to Wen Wen beside her and said: “Sister says she’s at the studio. She told us to come over.”

Wen Wen’s eyes lit up. She raised her hand and pinched Xiao Jiu’s face: “Excellent! Still have to rely on my Jiu!”

“Mom, which friend’s child is it?”

“Oh, you don’t know them.”

Yu Jiuqi looked seriously at Wen Wen and saw her face showing irrepressible excitement. Even though her makeup wasn’t as refined as usual, the excited radiance covered up the fatigue from being up until midnight last night.

Actually, right then Yu Jiuqi suspected that going to find Zhu Duomei was just an excuse. She suspected that Wen Wen’s brief calm after leaving Grandma Sun’s hospital room yesterday was just a facade. She was still carrying the unwillingness and humiliation of having her scars torn open, planning to go find the culprit to make trouble.

But Xiao Jiu was too exhausted. After rushing around all day arguing her case, plus that secretive phone call with Sun Xi that had drained all her energy, after barely sleeping all night she could barely muster the spirit to go to work. She had no extra energy left to study the traces on her mom’s face to solve the case.

She was too tired.

On the way to Zhu Duomei’s studio, she turned her head to look out the window, emptying her mind to rest. She happened to see the winter open-air market.

As year-end approached, the streets became lively. Next to the roasted sweet potato stall was a row of frozen goods—frozen hairtail fish, frozen pears, frozen persimmons. At the end were scattered a few boxes of ice cream. The natural freezer at minus twenty degrees could freeze and preserve anything. Xiao Jiu suddenly blinked. Could grudges spanning more than twenty years also be frozen?

It seemed that every deep winter, such tearing had to happen again, with everyone suffering along with it.

As if whenever the winter wind blew, it could silently sweep over the distant grudges from the past, landing, taking root, drilling into the bone marrow.

The people involved could only be like those frozen goods, solidly frozen by grudges, enduring in the bitter cold, bearing it, half-dead waiting for spring.

But spring was so far away.

Xiao Jiu dozed off in the car for a while. When they arrived, Wen Wen woke her. She’d been to this art exam institution before and expertly led Wen Wen to Zhu Duomei’s studio on the second floor.

Zhu Duomei had just finished class. She had a small office here and invited them to drink her newly developed coffee flavor. Yu Jiuqi was just dizzy and confused, so she smiled and nodded, saying that sounds great, Teacher Zhu’s coffee must be delicious. Wen Wen had no interest in coffee. She greeted Zhu Duomei coolly and said she wanted to look around the studio.

At the time, no one anticipated what would happen in the studio, so they let her go. Zhu Duomei only glanced at the black lamb fur coat Wen Wen wore, lifted her eyelids and said indifferently: “Just don’t disturb the students.”

Wen Wen glanced at Zhu Duomei’s ash-gray mink velvet coat and nearly rolled her eyes, saying with a smile: “I’ll just take a look, wander around.”

Yu Jiuqi hooked her arm through Zhu Duomei’s, saying hurry up, sis, I’m dying for coffee, and pulled her to the office. After craning her neck waiting for more than ten minutes, Zhu Duomei fiddled with things on the small tea table and handed over a cup of dark brown liquid. Xiao Jiu quickly tasted it and nearly choked.

“Is this coffee or alcohol?”

“Coffee with alcohol.” Zhu Duomei crossed her arms and took a sip herself.

“What alcohol?”

“Rum, brandy—a bit of both. When sister entertains you, it’s definitely good stuff. Drink up.”

“You drink alcohol during work in broad daylight, Teacher Zhu?” Xiao Jiu laughed.

“This isn’t alcohol. This is Freedom Duomei Iced Americano.”

“Called what?”

“Freedom Duomei Iced Americano.”

“Ah…”

Xiao Jiu stared wide-eyed at Zhu Duomei. Not wanting to get drunk on a cup of coffee in broad daylight, she was just about to ask where my mom wandered off to when suddenly someone entered without knocking. It was a male student, looking nervously at Zhu Duomei.

“Teacher, people are fighting in the studio.”

“Who? This is really annoying every single day!” Zhu Duomei’s beautiful face instantly fell.

“I don’t know them. That woman is dressed like a mountain eagle.”

Xiao Jiu cried out, “Oh my, that’s my mom!” Then she put down that cup of Freedom Duomei Iced Americano, stood up, and hurriedly followed the male student out. After half a corridor, she heard two women arguing, one older and one younger, coming from the studio across the way.

Without even seeing them, just from the fragments of their argument, Yu Jiuqi knew who it was. Her heart was greatly alarmed, blaming herself for being careless.

As soon as she walked into the studio, she saw several crumpled, dirtied sketch drawings on the floor, two knocked-over chairs, and both sides of the battle glaring fiercely at each other. The focus of their argument naturally revolved around that exposé video, but the emphasis was different now.

Sun Tingting roared with tears in her eyes: “I already said I’ll have them delete the video right away. I’m also willing to apologize to you. Isn’t that enough? What else do you want? You clearly knew those were my paintings, but you used them like rags to wipe your shoes!”

Wen Wen leaned against a table, looking at her blandly: “Whether the video is deleted or not doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t need your apology either. I’m just asking you—is that highly-liked comment yours? Who told you to post it?”

“What highly-liked comment?” Tingting lowered her head, seeming guilty. “I don’t know. I only mentioned Sun Yuwen. I didn’t mention that other person. Someone dug it up. Besides, digging up that person isn’t hard. Who doesn’t know the mastermind was that serial…”

Wen Wen shot over a fierce glare, like a bloodthirsty mother leopard. Tingting instantly swallowed back those three terrible words.

But although those three words weren’t spoken aloud, they lingered and circled before everyone who knew the truth, instantly making the atmosphere even more frigid, even carrying a tragic air.

Wen Wen had lost the spirited energy from her earlier troublemaking. Her expression was grave, staring at Tingting. Yu Jiuqi was just about to open her mouth to say something conciliatory when she suddenly heard her crisply mention someone.

“Did your brother tell you to post it?”

“No!” Tingting glared at her furiously with clenched fists. “It has nothing to do with my brother at all!”

“Then why did he suddenly run away? What’s he afraid of?”

“I want to ask you! My brother had a perfectly good long vacation he hadn’t finished, but after going to some strawberry farm, he suddenly left the next day?”

Hearing “strawberry farm,” Yu Jiuqi’s mind buzzed. Her heart trembled. She silently prayed this was just Tingting speaking casually, that everyone would just listen casually, that no one would pay attention to this location. But when she stiffly turned her head, she abruptly met Wen Wen’s cold gaze.

Wen Wen stared at Yu Jiuqi and asked Tingting: “What strawberry farm?”

“I don’t know, just one in the eastern suburbs.” Tingting really was speaking casually. She immediately forgot about it, looking at Zhu Duomei with a tearful voice: “Teacher Zhu, this crazy woman destroyed my paintings!”

Zhu Duomei glared at each person in turn, cursing and shooing everyone out like chickens: “Go, go, go! Everyone hurry and leave! Get out!”

Yu Jiuqi’s heart was dead as ash, but she held on outwardly, forcing an ugly smile and looking at Wen Wen: “Mom, let’s…”

Before she finished speaking, Wen Wen casually picked up a glass bottle—a painting still life prop—from the table beside her and hurled it at Yu Jiuqi.

Xiao Jiu didn’t have time to dodge. More accurately, she didn’t plan to dodge. The glass bottle flew straight across two meters and smashed into her left temple. With a loud bang, it fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

Yu Jiuqi’s ears rang. She first covered her ears, then felt severe pain in her left temple. With a muffled groan, she suddenly lowered her head, closed her eyes, and fiercely gripped her brow, pressing hard. After the pain eased, she observed her surroundings. Seeing Wen Wen had already been driven out by Zhu Duomei, she also quickly chased after her.

Covering her head, she stumbled after Wen Wen to the entrance of the art exam institution, cursing herself all the way for not being careful enough, for making that fatal error from many years ago. Why didn’t she tear up that receipt from the picking farm, flush it away, or even eat it!

The night before, Wen Wen had just interrogated her at the jazz lounge, and she’d gotten careless the very next day! Too stupid!

She clearly knew that whenever matters involved Sun Xi, Wen Wen never trusted her. This wasn’t the first time she’d gone through her trash can. Why didn’t she learn her lesson!

A bone-chilling cold hit her head-on. The bitter cold froze her eyes painfully, but it also diluted the pain on her head. Xiao Jiu squinted and looked over, seeing Wen Wen in all black standing by the roadside waving to hail a taxi. She ran over in two quick steps.

At this point, she stopped pretending and explained directly: “Mom, that day I just wanted to make him leave. He shouldn’t have come back! I just went to persuade him to leave! Really, I was afraid you’d overthink it if I told you, so I didn’t say anything.”

Wen Wen suddenly turned around and looked at Xiao Jiu with disappointment: “Did I overthink it?”

Yu Jiuqi stood dazed, too guilty to speak.

“I overthought it?” Wen Wen snorted, exhaling a faint breath of mist. “You two have been in contact all along—am I overthinking that?”

Yu Jiuqi couldn’t answer.

So Wen Wen continued asking.

“In middle school he pursued you—was I overthinking that?”

“You two secretly dated, more than once—was I overthinking that?”

“I told you not to pay attention to him, but you still went with him to the New Year’s countdown—was I overthinking that?”

“If your father and I hadn’t stepped in back then, he almost abducted you, almost got you killed—was I overthinking that?”

Yu Jiuqi’s tears suddenly streamed down, her eyes panicked and helpless: “Mom, it wasn’t like that…”

Wen Wen coldly interrupted her, eyes completely bloodshot: “Nine years ago when your father and I did that, who do you think it was for? Wasn’t it for you?”

Yu Jiuqi lowered her head and cried out loud.

Wen Wen sniffed, scrutinizing her: “What’s your relationship now? Are you together?”

Yu Jiuqi kept her head down, shaking it vigorously.

“Is he still pursuing you?”

Shaking her head forcefully.

“Do you like him?”

Shaking her head even more forcefully.

But Wen Wen showed no signs of relaxation. She said tensely: “Yu Jiuqi, you know this—I will absolutely, absolutely never forgive anyone from their family. Do you think they’re innocent? Their family causing all this trouble at this time—what are their intentions? Tomorrow is what day? You know, right?”

Yu Jiuqi was still crying with her head down. Hearing this, she paused, lifted her head, roughly wiped the tears and snot from her face, and said with a heavy nasal voice: “I know. Mom, I know.”

As she spoke, Xiao Jiu gently reached for Wen Wen’s hand, grasping two of her slender fingers, rubbing them, shaking them.

Wen Wen felt the cold temperature of Xiao Jiu’s hand and suddenly her eyes reddened instantly. A few tears fell pattering down. She turned her head to the side.

Then in an extremely soft voice, trembling, as if talking to herself, she said: “Then you know, you know what they did to Xiao Ya back then…”

“Mom! I know, I know, Mom.” Yu Jiuqi quickly interrupted her, unable to bear letting her continue. She gently rubbed her hand, looking at her face, but her gaze gradually became unfocused.

She looked unfocused at her mother before her, ravaged by hatred to the point of silent tears. Her peripheral vision took in the surrounding environment—the gray-white street, a few withered trees hung with holiday decorations, the icicles under the eaves of the small shop across the way, the snow pile beside them that had frozen solid. In a very short time, she took a shallow breath of dry, cold air, switched to another shell, surrendered her soul as well, and mechanically said words she’d said countless times before.

She knew how to say these words sincerely and movingly to be most effective.

She said: “Mom, how could I do something to betray Aunt Xiao Ya and Grandma?”

“If it weren’t for Aunt Xiao Ya and Grandma, you wouldn’t have picked me up back then.”

“If you hadn’t picked me up, I would have died by the river long ago.”

“I understand, Mom.”

“Sun Xi and I can only be enemies.”

……

In the afternoon, Yu Jiuqi returned to work at the bank. Although her head was swollen in a large area, her naturally voluminous and thick hair, combined with deliberately pulling her bun messily, made it invisible to outsiders.

She didn’t feel pain either. The entire afternoon, she was like a walking corpse, blocking out useless perceptions and emotions, using acting skills honed over years and months to continue playing that good girl Yu Xiao Jiu whom no one could find fault with.

Before getting off work, Yu Kaixuan called her. She probed with a couple sentences and discovered Yu Kaixuan knew nothing about today’s incident at the studio. It seemed Zhu Duomei hadn’t said anything. Yu Kaixuan was contacting her to ask if she’d prepared the offerings and paper money for tomorrow’s grave visit.

Tomorrow was the death anniversary of Aunt Xiao Ya and Grandma.

Xiao Jiu said not yet, she’d buy them after work. Yu Kaixuan said no need, I’ll buy them, but these things couldn’t be kept at Wen Du Water Park. His home was far from the cemetery. He said after buying them, he’d send them to Wen Wen’s house first, then drive over early tomorrow morning to take them together to the grave.

Xiao Jiu said okay, I’ll wait for you at home.

Yu Kaixuan came very late. His trunk was full of paper money, paper ingots, and paper-crafted gifts to burn. The back seat was also piled with fruit, pastries, and offerings. Father and daughter made trip after trip climbing to the sixth floor to deliver everything, placing it in the living room.

Wen Wen stayed in her room the whole time without coming out. Yu Kaixuan called out to her loudly. She didn’t respond. Xiao Jiu only said she was tired and sleeping. Yu Kaixuan looked at Xiao Jiu and nodded.

When leaving, Xiao Jiu walked her father downstairs. Yu Kaixuan pulled out two lollipops from his person, saying they were wedding candies from an old customer. He gave one to Xiao Jiu, ate one himself, then got in the car.

But he suddenly rolled down the window and called out to her.

“Jiu.”

Xiao Jiu turned back, looking at the half-lowered window.

Yu Kaixuan was silent for a moment, but only asked: “Work’s been going pretty well lately?”

“Pretty well.”

“If you have performance pressure, tell Dad.”

“Okay, I won’t be shy about it.”

“Things are good with you and your mom?”

“Pretty good.”

“If your mom gives you trouble again, you tell Dad too.”

“I know.”

“Jiu…”

“Hm?”

“Never mind. You go upstairs.”

Yu Kaixuan raised the window. Yu Jiuqi suddenly called out.

“Dad.”

Yu Kaixuan looked at her.

Xiao Jiu also looked at Dad. At that moment, she suddenly had so much she wanted to say, so many questions to ask. From living to dying, from responsibility to self, from love to hate, from gratitude to resentment—she wanted to throw at Dad all those things she couldn’t understand, couldn’t do, yet couldn’t let go of, all those people, all those oppressive questions that had tormented her for many years. She wanted to ask Dad, in the end, what way was right?

How should a person live to not be lonely?

What should one do to be truly happy?

But in the end, after wavering for a few seconds, she smiled brightly, putting on a standard Yu Xiao Jiu smile, and said: “You should eat less sugar, Dad. What did the doctor say during your checkup?”

Yu Kaixuan looked at his daughter, wanting to say something but couldn’t. He drove away directly.

Only after Dad’s car completely disappeared did Yu Jiuqi breathe a sigh of relief.

She stood dazed for a while. Then suddenly, she crouched down.

A few meters away across the road, behind a birch tree hung full of red, purple, and blue decorative lights, in the shadows, stood a broad-shouldered, long-legged man.

This was already his third cigarette. He took a drag, slowly exhaled, and looked steadily across the road.

Watching her fake smile, watching her space out, watching her crouch down, hugging her shoulders.

Watching her bury her head in her knees, gasping for breath.

Watching her back shake repeatedly, her hanging fingers trembling slightly.

He endured a while longer, until he heard faint crying.

He threw the cigarette butt hard on the ground. Sparks flew. He lifted his foot and ground it out forcefully.

He strode over.

Not enough—he started running.