The Wen household’s banquet carried on into the evening. When the feast finally dispersed, many servants came into the hall to clear up and tidy. The Wen family did not have quite enough hands of their own, so they had also hired some outside workers to help.

After Yan Qing and Shi Ting finished their meal, they strolled into the garden at the back. They had not noticed while indoors, but stepping outside now they discovered it had been snowing — a gentle, unhurried snowfall, soft and drifting, that had already laid a thin white layer over the ground.

The sky was not yet fully dark, still holding a last sliver of the setting sun’s glow that fell across the vast expanse of white, glimmering with a warm golden-white light.

Yan Qing had heard Wen Yan mention that quite a few plum trees had been planted in this back garden. She had come to the courtyard every day for several days now, night after night hoping to see the plum blossoms open — yet her luck had been poor. She had waited and longed night after night, and the plum trees had put out buds, but simply refused to bloom.

Shi Ting was dressed in a black cloak lined with fox-fur trim. The black boots on his feet left crunching footprints in the snow.

He pushed Yan Qing’s wheelchair deep into the garden, leaving two faint wheel tracks in the snow behind them.

“It’s snowing,” Yan Qing said, lifting her hand to catch the falling snowflakes in her palm, her face lit up with the delight of a child.

“You’re from Bei Di — what’s so unusual about seeing snow?” Shi Ting glanced at her with amusement.

In her previous life, Yan Qing had been from S City — a proper southern city where, though it did snow, such events were rare, perhaps once every several years, and even then only a light dusting. Moreover, because of her work, she had always been rushing around S City and never dared venture too far even during her days off. When she counted carefully, the number of times she had actually seen snow could be counted on one hand.

“Snow is so beautiful — who wouldn’t love it?” Yan Qing tilted her face upward, not even minding the snowflakes falling on her cheeks. She had long wanted to watch snow like this, and felt as though her entire being had been emptied and freed.

Before long, a few snowflakes settled on her eyebrows, making her look like a white-browed Taoist sage.

Shi Ting stepped in front of her. He looked at the smile at the corners of her lips and the stars reflected in her eyes, and he bent his head. A warm kiss fell upon her eyebrow, upon those snowflakes that melted the instant they were touched.

Yan Qing was startled. She gazed at this man appearing alongside the snowflakes — amid the white spirits swirling through the air, his face seemed to be wrapped in a soft glow as well.

Her eyes were so bright, reflecting the boundless white of the snow. His lips traveled down from her eyebrow, kissed the tip of her nose, and came to rest on the soft, dewy petal of her lips.

Snowflakes drifted all around them. Heaven and earth were hushed, the cold air pressing close — yet the trace of warmth he left on her lips grew ever hotter, warming the wintry snow, warming the one who held his heart.

After a while, Shi Ting finally drew away from her lips, as though reluctant to part.

“I heard from Ayan that this garden has plum blossoms. She waited quite a while without seeing them bloom. Shall we look around? With luck, we might find a few trees in flower.” Yan Qing’s cheeks were flushed pink — whether from the cold or from the kiss just now, she could not say.

“Let’s look, then.” Shi Ting pushed her deeper into the garden.

The garden was planted with many evergreen trees, their branches now holding a thick layer of white, green and white together in distinct, clean layers.

When they reached the heart of the garden, a flash of red suddenly fell upon Yan Qing’s eyes — conspicuous against the expanse of white all around.

“Plum blossoms — the plum blossoms have opened!” Yan Qing pointed at the corner of the wall in delighted surprise.

Indeed, beneath the grey-white tiles of the wall, several clusters of winter plum blossoms were vying to bloom.

The plum blossoms were a vivid red. The flowers were not large, but their fragrance could be caught from quite a distance.

“There are more over there,” Shi Ting said, pointing to another corner of the wall. “We came at just the right time — the plum blossoms your cousin waited so long to see have ended up delighting us instead.”

Yan Qing was also seeing so many plum blossoms for the first time — red, pink, and white. It was difficult to imagine that amid such icy, frozen conditions, flowers could still bloom with such proud dignity.

She could not help but exclaim, “A few branches of plum in the corner, blooming alone in the cold. From afar one knows it is not snow — the secret fragrance drifts this way.”

Shi Ting looked at her in surprise. “Miss Yan is truly a woman of talent — composing poetry just like that, so naturally.”

Yan Qing felt a little embarrassed. “I was only quoting.”

Seeing that snowflakes had fallen on her shoulders and her cheeks were rosy red, he said, “Shall we walk in the snow?”

“Yes, please.” Yan Qing had been hoping for exactly this.

Shi Ting let her take his hand and stand, stepping carefully with one foot onto the snow-covered ground.

Hearing the soft crunching beneath her, she felt a happiness she could barely contain inside.

She had never dared to hope that in this lifetime she might once again feel with her own feet the sound of snow. Yet here she was — she had done it.

Shi Ting, afraid she might fall, kept a careful hold on her all the way until they stood before the blooming plum blossoms.

“No wonder poets and scholars have always loved plum blossoms — they truly are lovely,” Yan Qing said, admiring them closely for a while. She felt that this trip to Tai Shan had been richly rewarding.

“Are you cold?” She was admiring the flowers, yet Shi Ting’s gaze had never left her face.

In his eyes, however vividly the plum blossoms bloomed, they could not compare to the slight furrow of her slender brows, the gentle touch of her red lips.

“Just a little.” Yan Qing had been playing with such contentment that it was only now, at his reminder, that the chill came pressing in.

Shi Ting drew her into his arms, wrapping her snugly inside his cloak. The two of them stood quietly in the white snow, beside the plum blossoms, until snow had settled on their hair and eyebrows alike.

She raised her fingers and gently brushed away the snowflakes resting on his brow, and he bowed his head and kissed her clear, glistening lips.

The sky gradually darkened. Afraid that Yan Qing might play too long and catch a chill, Shi Ting turned the wheelchair around and began heading back inside.

Just as they passed through the round arch gate of the garden, they saw Jin Shan striding quickly toward them, his expression urgent, as though something had happened.

“Young master.” Jin Shan spotted him and hurried forward. “Something has happened.”

“What’s wrong?” Yan Qing’s heart tightened. She spoke up before Shi Ting could, fearing it was related to Wen Xu and his daughter.

Jin Shan said: “Master Wen’s collection room has been robbed. A box of cigars and a box of pipe tobacco are missing.”

Shi Ting had toured the collection room with Wen Xu just the previous day and knew that all its items were treasured pieces — many of them were even out-of-print editions. That box of cigars in particular was exceptionally precious, essentially the crown jewel of Master Wen’s collection room.

“Let’s go take a look.”

Jin Shan led the way, and the group quickly reached Wen Xu’s collection room.

From a distance, Yan Qing could already hear Wen Yan’s voice from inside: “Father, the police have already been notified — the things will be found.”

All these items were the treasures of Wen Xu’s heart. If they were truly lost, Wen Xu would surely fall gravely ill — after all, they were things that could not be replaced with money.

“Uncle,” Yan Qing said as she entered. She saw Wen Xu sitting in a chair with a face full of worry, staring blankly at a spot in the room.

Shi Ting followed his gaze and saw an empty glass case. He recalled that it had held a box of out-of-print cigars and a box of fine pipe tobacco.

“Ah, Qingqing and Xingzhi have come.” Wen Xu looked up. Not wanting to make them worry on his account, he said, “It’s nothing — the police have already been notified.”

“Father,” Wen Yan’s eyes lit up. “Standing right in front of you is the Director of the Military Police Division.”

Only then did Wen Xu realize, and he quickly stood up. “Look at me — with someone this capable standing right before me, I didn’t even register it.”

Shi Ting said, “Uncle, don’t worry just yet. Tell me the specifics of the situation.”

Wen Xu nodded.

“After seeing off the last group of guests today, I wanted to come here and sit for a while. When I arrived, the front door was locked from the outside. I used my key to open the lock and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. It was only after I walked around the collection room that I realized a box of cigars and a box of tobacco were missing.”

Shi Ting walked over to the glass case where the cigars had been kept. “Was this glass case locked at the time?”

Wen Xu answered, “It was locked — I used my key to open it as well.”

In fact, one could see from the outside that the items inside were gone, but the anxious Wen Xu had instinctively opened the glass case anyway to confirm it once more — a natural human impulse.

There was a keyhole at the bottom of the glass case. Without a key, the only way to remove items from it would be to destroy the case itself. Yet the case was completely undamaged.

“Uncle, apart from you, are there any spare keys for this case?”

“No — this is a single complete set. There is only one, and I am the only one in the entire household who has it.”

Wen Yan explained from the side: “Father treasures these things deeply, so naturally he would not entrust them to anyone else. He handles the regular cleaning and tidying himself, and the keys never leave his person.”

Only one key, yet the items had vanished from the locked glass case — this was indeed peculiar.

Shi Ting asked someone to bring a magnifying glass and examined the glass case carefully.

“This glass case is newer — it must have been recently replaced.”

Wen Xu quickly nodded. “Half a month ago, this glass case caught fire unexpectedly. The glass only turned black from the burning — the items inside were not damaged — but I still had a new one custom-made.”

“The glass case caught fire?” Yan Qing frowned. “Glass is not flammable. Why would it catch fire out of nowhere?”

“I couldn’t figure it out either, so I had it replaced right away,” Wen Xu said, still unnerved at the memory.

Shi Ting asked, “Who had the new glass case custom-made?”

“It was my brother-in-law Mo Xiangrong. He said he knew someone who could not only have the finest quality glass custom-made, but could also have it completed in the shortest possible time.”

At the mention of Mo Xiangrong’s name, Shi Ting and Yan Qing exchanged a glance. Mo Yunhua, standing to the side, was already growing agitated.

Mo Yunhua said, “Master, Xiangrong only meant to help—”

Wen Xu glanced at her and showed a displeased expression. “I didn’t ask you to speak — keep quiet.”

After he finished speaking to Mo Yunhua, Shi Ting continued his questioning: “When the glass case was delivered, how many keys did you receive?”

“Two,” Wen Xu said with certainty.

“If someone had secretly kept a key for themselves when the glass case was being made, would you have had any way of knowing, Uncle?”

“That’s true — but the person who had it made wouldn’t have known what I intended to use the glass case for.”

“The maker might not have known, but someone else did.” Shi Ting had already formed a conclusion in his mind.

Wen Xu was startled. “Xingzhi, are you suspecting Xiangrong?”

Mo Yunhua, having been scolded into silence by Master Wen, did not dare to speak up lightly. Hearing this, her face flushed bright red with anxiety.

“This glass case has no hidden mechanism, and neither the case nor the lock shows any sign of having been damaged. Moreover, this lock is extremely precise — opening it requires a key and nothing else. Since only Uncle holds the key, the other person who holds one must be whoever made this case.”

Wen Xu hesitated. “Even if he kept a key for himself at the time, he doesn’t have a key to the front door — so he couldn’t get in anyway.”

“The front door is easy enough to deal with,” Shi Ting said. “Come over here and look.”