Winter break arrived quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the New Year was upon them.

On New Year’s Eve, her aunt planned to make dumplings in the afternoon. She was just about to head out to buy flour and filling when Lin Weixia thought of something and spoke up: “Auntie, let Gao Hang and me go.”

“Sure, and pick up whatever you feel like eating along the way.” Her aunt pulled a stack of bills from her wallet.

Gao Hang followed Lin Weixia out the door with a look of pure reluctance. The streets were bustling with people, large red lanterns hung high overhead, the weather was clear and bright, and the flower beds along the road were blooming with small, tender yellow flowers.

The siblings arrived at the market. Gao Hang complained about the weight of the groceries piling up in his arms: “Sis, every year we’ve always had pork dumplings. Now you’re buying beef and pork — I’ve noticed you’ve changed. When did you start getting fancy?”

Lin Weixia was holding a round, plump white radish and, upon hearing this, slid him a look. Gao Hang flinched and let out a conciliatory laugh: “Old sis, you can buy whatever you like.”

After the shopping was done, the family gathered around the table to make dumplings together, while her aunt’s husband took charge of the New Year’s Eve dinner. Night fell without anyone quite noticing, and just before the meal, Lin Weixia received a message from Ban Sheng.

Ban: 【Come out in a bit?】

Lin Weixia replied: 【Sure, let me finish eating first.】

After the New Year’s Eve dinner, her aunt gave each of the two kids a large red envelope. Gao Hang’s sharp eyes noticed that his sister’s envelope was thicker than last year’s, and he immediately expressed his grievances:

“Mom, your favoritism is a bit much, isn’t it?!”

His aunt promptly knocked him twice on the head and said with exasperation: “You have nerve to say anything! You spend all day either buying shoes or gaming equipment. Maybe just drop out of school and go work in a computer parts factory.”

“Your sister didn’t even buy herself new clothes this year, and she’s about to go to university — of course she should have some money for herself.”

Lin Weixia laughed at the sight of Gao Hang looking utterly put-upon. He truly had a talent for picking the wrong moments. After the red envelopes were given out, as was tradition, she had to sit with her aunt through the Spring Festival Gala before she could go out.

Halfway through the Gala, the phone in Lin Weixia’s pocket buzzed. She pulled it out to check — Ban Sheng was asking:

【Done yet?】

Ban: 【I’m downstairs.】

Lin Weixia’s lashes shifted. She glanced at her aunt, who had leaned back against the sofa and was mid-yawn, and started typing.

Xia: 【Almost. Once this comedy sketch ends, Auntie should be heading to bed.】

She chatted idly with Ban Sheng: 【Is your place lively for the New Year? My next-door neighbors have a lot of people over — the kids have been stomping on the floor all evening.】

It was a good while before Ban Sheng replied. His mood came through in the words — flat, low: 【It’s alright. Quite a few people. But none of them particularly want to see me.】

Her fingertip paused. Lin Weixia didn’t know what to say, so she sent him a sticker of a rabbit hugging another rabbit and squishing its face.

When the comedy sketch ended, her aunt shuffled off to her room, yawning the whole way. Lin Weixia let out a quiet breath of relief and quickly went to the kitchen for a thermal container, filling it with food and putting it in the microwave to heat.

The wait felt restless — Ban Sheng had been downstairs for nearly an hour and hadn’t once sent her a hurrying message.

The microwave beeped. Lin Weixia took out the container, put it in a bag, and was busy packing up when she suddenly caught a reflection in the clean stovetop — a figure behind her.

“Heheh.”

Lin Weixia’s heart lurched. She spun around to find Gao Hang’s face centimeters from hers and nearly jumped: “What are you doing?”

“Sis, want to go set off some firecrackers?”

Lin Weixia ignored him, picked up her green cloth bag, and walked out. As she passed him, she said mildly: “I stopped playing with those when I was five.”

Gao Hang considered himself thoroughly insulted.

When Lin Weixia came downstairs with the thermal container, she spotted Ban Sheng immediately — standing there with one hand in his pocket, smoking. He was leaning his head back against the wall, thin lips exhaling wisps of white smoke that curled slowly upward, the intermittent glow of the cigarette tracing out a face that was careless and unhurried.

That sinking heaviness was back around him.

After a moment, Ban Sheng stepped away from the wall and stood up straight by the roadside, waiting.

Lin Weixia noticed the low mood on him and thought to cheer him up. She set the container down to the side, crept up quietly behind him on her tiptoes, covered his eyes with one hand, and deliberately lowered her voice:

“Guess who?”

Ban Sheng raised an eyebrow, his voice low: “Weiwei?”

Lin Weixia’s face went blank. She instinctively lowered her hand and turned to leave. A hand caught her arm. Ban Sheng called after her:

“Weixia, I was joking.”

Lin Weixia pulled her arm back, about to say something properly, but Ban Sheng grabbed her wrist and held it firmly, looking straight at her — and she stumbled back two steps from the force.

She found herself pressed against the wall.

Ban Sheng’s gaze was intense. Lin Weixia felt the heat rise to her face and looked away, bracing herself. His presence pressed in on her, and that reckless, dangerously handsome face leaned close.

Her lashes trembled.

But Ban Sheng simply turned his face to the side and dropped his head onto her shoulder. He seemed deeply tired — his cheek gently nuzzling the soft, pale stretch of her neck. It tickled, and Lin Weixia instinctively wanted to pull away.

“Let me hold you for a bit,” Ban Sheng said, his voice low.

Lin Weixia went still immediately. She reached up and lightly touched the back of his neck — a gentle, soothing gesture. Ban Sheng, buried against her shoulder, let out a soft, quiet laugh, his voice warm and low:

“I knew it was you, just now.”

“How?” Lin Weixia asked.

Ban Sheng just laughed softly and didn’t answer. He breathed in the clean, sweet peach scent that drifted from her, and the restlessness inside him quietly settled.

The reason Ban Sheng knew it was Lin Weixia the moment she covered his eyes was simple — only Lin Weixia ever reached up to touch that spot at the back of his neck, just where his short hair ended.

It was his favorite place for her to touch.

The two of them stayed like that for a while before Ban Sheng finally let her go. He called a car.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Ning Chao stood in the draft of the corridor and smoked two cigarettes, then washed his hands and went back inside. The moment he pushed open the door, a disgruntled voice reached him:

“You really take forever to smoke one cigarette. Now I’m craving one too.”

Liu Sijia was wearing the smallest available hospital gown, hair twisted up into a bun, face bare, the aggressive edge she usually carried softened considerably.

Ning Chao let out a scoff, walked over to her, bent down to unfold the bedside table and set it up, then held out a meal container:

“Young lady, my mom sent food. I went down to get it for you.”

“Oh, then I’m in for a treat.”

Liu Sijia picked up two chopsticks and opened the container with bright anticipation. She sniffed it approvingly and started to eat. Ning Chao watched over her until she had made her way through most of the food, then passed her a tissue, his tone carrying genuine surprise:

“Not bad — you did pretty well today.”

The hospital room was completely quiet. Ning Chao turned on the television. He had not been watching long when his phone rang. Even though Ning Chao was standing with his back to her at the window to take the call, the successive sounds of the phone still reached her — probably his mother calling to tell him to come home.

After he finished his call and returned to the room, Liu Sijia faked a string of yawns, closed her tablet, and spoke to Ning Chao with heavy, sleep-clouded eyes:

“This lady is tired. Hurry up and get out.”

“Alright.”

The boy’s hands went into his jacket pockets, his dark brows and eyes cast downward as he moved toward the door, hand just reaching the handle.

Her chest tightened. Liu Sijia called out:

“Hey — Happy New Year.”

Ning Chao paused for a fraction of a second, looking mildly uncomfortable as he reached up and rubbed the back of his close-cropped head, and said quietly:

“Yeah. You too.”

Once she was sure Ning Chao had left, Liu Sijia couldn’t hold it back any longer. A wave of nausea rose up. She rushed into the bathroom, wrapped herself around the toilet, and stuck her fingers down her throat with practiced ease. The food she had just eaten came surging up, and she retched until her eyes streamed involuntarily.

When it was over, Liu Sijia got up and went to the window, looking down at the street below. In the distance she could see Ning Chao with a cigarette tucked between two fingers, walking along and — with one precise kick — sending a cola can straight into a trash bin.

“Childish,” Liu Sijia muttered under her breath.

That’s what she said — but Liu Sijia stood at that window for a long time, kept looking down, until Ning Chao’s figure disappeared around the corner of a tree.

The car drove along Nanjiang Bridge and past Qingzhou Bay. Lin Weixia looked out the window and saw the LED display at the top of the Pingye Building flashing Happy New Year, with a crowd gathered below waiting for the countdown.

The two of them walked up to the midway point of Yinye Mountain, where Ban Sheng chose an open clearing and stopped.

Lin Weixia stood on the mountainside. The entire glittering expanse of the city and the boundless sea not far beyond it spread before her eyes. A mountain wind came through, and she instinctively pulled her neck in against it.

They sat side by side on the ground, the mountain gusts sweeping through in steady waves. Ban Sheng pulled off his windbreaker and wrapped it around her, then produced a cup of Hong Kong-style Ovaltine he had picked up at the convenience store.

The Ovaltine was still piping hot in her hands. Lin Weixia took a sip and felt warmth spread through her chest.

She remembered the green thermal container beside her and opened the lid, asking warmly: “I brought dumplings from home — do you want to try some?”

A hand with clearly defined wrist bones settled on top of hers. Ban Sheng turned his head and gave a lazy smile:

“Go on, feed me.”

Lin Weixia snapped apart a pair of chopsticks and went for a plump, round dumpling in the container — and couldn’t get a grip on it no matter how she tried. A pair of hands settled naturally over hers, and Ban Sheng bent his head and ate one himself, chewing slowly before raising an eyebrow:

“Beef filling?”

“Yes, it happened to be the kind we made this year,” Lin Weixia replied.

Lin Weixia didn’t know whether Ban Sheng had sat down to a New Year’s Eve dinner at his own home that night.

But he ate every last one of the dumplings she had quietly brought him from hers.

After half an hour had passed, Lin Weixia sat there with the mountain wind cooling around her, still not sure why Ban Sheng had brought her here. She asked:

“Why did you bring me here?”

Ban Sheng bent his head, eyes fixed steadily on his phone. Lin Weixia caught a glimpse of the screen in his palm — a deep black star map, with coordinates appearing one by one.

“You’ll know in a bit,” Ban Sheng said.

Ban Sheng stood up, stayed on his feet for a moment, then sat back down. Lin Weixia held out her cup of Ovaltine: “Are you thirsty?”

The words had barely left her mouth before she remembered something and started to pull the drink back — but a long arm was already reaching out, and he claimed the hot drink for himself.

Ban Sheng held the cup up. The Ovaltine shifted in his grip, and he turned it naturally until it aligned with the spot where her lip print was faintly visible — and pressed his own lips there, perfectly and deliberately —

She had just drunk from that spot.

In an instant, Lin Weixia’s ears burned hot. She let out an involuntary sound: “Hey—”

But it was too late. Ban Sheng had already taken a sip, his Adam’s apple moving in a slow, unhurried glide.

He looked as though he had done nothing at all. But he had done everything.

The charged feeling hung in the mountain wind, in their breathing, in the gaze they held with each other.

A sharp crack broke the moment, startling them both. Ban Sheng looked away first. He turned his eyes to the sky and spoke slowly:

“Look.”

Lin Weixia turned at just the right moment, and what she saw stopped her breath. The Milky Way stretched endlessly overhead, and one after another, vivid red rose nebulae hung close and vivid, the stars glittering as though they were almost within reach.

A sight rarely seen. And he had brought her to it.

“One wish granted,” Ban Sheng said, tilting his face up to the sky.

“What?” Lin Weixia asked.

“To spend the New Year with you.”

Ban Sheng turned his head to look at her, his dark eyes focused and bright. Lin Weixia’s heart contracted softly, sinking into the warmth of his gaze.

In that moment, she only wished time would slow down.

Bang — bang — bang. In the distance, fireworks began to go off one after another. In an instant, fiery blossoms erupted across the sky. The new year had arrived.

“Happy New Year.”

“Happy New Year.”

Both of them said it at the same time, and then looked at each other and smiled.

Ban Sheng pointed toward the sky nearby: “Alright — for the new year, how about we each grant each other one wish?”

“Okay — you go first,” Lin Weixia said, watching him.

Ban Sheng stared at the sky for a moment, his voice quieting. He laughed at himself, self-deprecating: “I don’t think I’ve ever told you about my family.”

“My mom left when I was very young. She used to be a genuinely talented dancer. Maybe she got tired of married life and went to chase her dreams. Whatever the reason, she left suddenly — just dropped everything and walked out.”

Lin Weixia reached over and placed her hand on the back of his. Warmth passed between them. She asked gently: “Where is your mom now?”

“I don’t know. I’ve looked, but there’s been nothing — not a trace. Maybe she went to England or America. Maybe she’s still in the country somewhere — Beijing, Hong Kong.” Ban Sheng turned to look at Lin Weixia. For the first time, something quietly desolate showed in his eyes. His voice paused, then: “Would you come with me to look for her someday?”

Lin Weixia was still for a moment, then nodded: “Yes.”

Ban Sheng smiled faintly, as if to break through the melancholy that had settled. He squeezed her fingers, and that easy, unconcerned manner returned: “And you? What’s your wish?”

“After the university entrance exam, I want to get a surface piercing. Right here, at the collarbone.” Lin Weixia said it with complete seriousness.

Ban Sheng raised an eyebrow — he hadn’t expected his girl to have that kind of style. A quiet laugh escaped him: “What, scared of the pain so you’re dragging me along?”

“No.” Lin Weixia looked at him, and her voice paused for a beat. “I want to get matching ones.”

Their eyes met and held. Ban Sheng looked momentarily caught off guard — then a slow ease settled back over him, and a smile spread at the corner of his mouth:

“Oh. I would be more than happy to.”