In early February, every household began preparing for the New Year. The small county town had an even stronger festive atmosphere than big cities. When Huang Mao and Tiger heard that Xing Wu and Qing Ye were going to the county town to buy clothes, they tactlessly insisted on coming along, saying everyone should buy together.

Huang Mao and Tiger were truly like two peas in a pod – they even liked the same clothes. Each bought an identical blue down jacket, looking quite matching despite one being fat and one thin. Qing Ye chose a white fleece coat that was very cheap but looked warm and felt comfortable. However, Xing Wu didn’t feel the same way – one look at the coat and he thought it had Du Qiyan’s style written all over it, appearing very bulky.

Qing Ye smiled and said, “I’ll try it on for you to see.”

So she had the shopkeeper find her size and put it on. Strangely, the seemingly oversized bulky coat fit Qing Ye perfectly. Her fair, delicate features nestled in the white fluff made her look like an adorably cute snowman.

Xing Wu suppressed a smile at the corners of his mouth: “Let’s buy it.”

He paid and turned to leave, but Qing Ye held him back: “You should buy one too.”

“I’m not a kid.” Huang Mao and Tiger exchanged glances, feeling inexplicably targeted.

He asked Qing Ye if she wanted to buy some imported snacks, knowing there was a shop behind the mall – probably the only place in Anzi County that sold imported snacks. Qing Ye enthusiastically agreed to the mention of food.

So Xing Wu successfully diverted their attention and didn’t mention buying clothes again. But Qing Ye kept thinking about how he didn’t have new clothes for the New Year. Before the holiday, she told Xing Wu she was going to Shi Min’s house, but secretly went back to the county town and picked out a cool black coat for him. She thought it would look very handsome on someone with Xing Wu’s build. For the New Year, they could match in black and white – perfect. She planned to surprise him by giving it to him on New Year’s Eve morning.

The people of Zhazha Ting lived casually day-to-day, but they took New Year celebrations very seriously. Perhaps it was the only thing they treated with such ceremony all year.

In the days before the New Year, although Xing Wu was home every day, he wasn’t idle for a moment. Qing Ye would see him climbing outside to clean windows one minute, then dismantling and washing the range hood the next. Almost all the pre-New Year cleaning tasks fell to Xing Wu. Li Lanfang had also cleaned Xuandao somewhat, but Xing Wu thought she didn’t do a thorough enough job and sent her off to play mahjong instead.

Qing Ye went downstairs to look around and found that Li Lanfang’s efforts indeed looked like no cleaning had been done at all. For example, the messy items weren’t properly organized, just moved to different places to continue being messy. She didn’t understand what Li Lanfang had accomplished by spending all morning moving junk from left to right.

Even more frustrating was that Li Lanfang had used her ten-thousand-yuan Rimowa suitcase to dry salted fish. Well, with that fishy smell, she certainly couldn’t use it for clothes anymore.

No wonder Xing Wu couldn’t stand to watch. He usually didn’t bother with Li Lanfang’s mess, but before the New Year, he would still properly clean everything up.

Xing Wu’s grandmother had been very strange these days, occasionally making ghost-like calls from her room. Xing Wu had to check on her situation frequently, so Qing Ye took a cloth and helped him wipe the mirrors one by one.

When Xing Wu returned, Qing Ye had finished everything. He froze for a moment before striding over to her, snatching the cloth, and throwing it aside. He gripped her freezing red hands and said sternly, “Don’t do these things again. How will you write if you get chilblains?”

Qing Ye blinked and looked up at him: “I just saw you were too busy, and I don’t have much to review these days anyway.”

Xing Wu gave a faint smile: “Really want to help?”

Qing Ye nodded.

“Then help me finish my winter break homework.”

“…”

Over the past half year, Qing Ye’s biological clock had become fixed – even without an alarm, she would wake up precisely at 5:30 AM every day, never later than 6:30 AM even on weekends. It was as if there was a spring wound tight in her heart that never loosened.

But strangely, the day before New Year’s Eve, she slept until noon. Several times she tried to wake up but was too drowsy to open her eyes. In her confused state, she kept feeling like she was in her own home, her Beijing home. In her half-dream state, she could hear her mother’s voice directing the servants to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner. Many people were going up and down the stairs, and her father was at her door asking her mother, “Little Ye isn’t up yet?”

Mother laughed and said, “Your little lazy pig is sleeping like a baby.”

In the dream, Qing Ye’s lips curved slightly upward. She desperately wanted to open her eyes, to push open her room door, to hug her parents and shout “Happy New Year, give me my red envelope!”

But when she finally broke free from that invisible shackle and opened her eyes, above her was the yellowed ceiling, and in her peripheral vision she could see the floral curtains swaying. The sound of three-wheeled vehicles on the street came and went, along with people’s loud voices and spitting sounds. Qing Ye had a moment of confusion – for that second, she suddenly forgot where she was.

When she came to her senses, the pain of losing her parents once again engulfed her like a fierce flood, making her emotions suddenly plummet.

But these terrible feelings were abruptly interrupted by cursing from downstairs. She could hear Li Lanfang continuously spewing vulgar words – everything was as usual, and she seemed to have grown accustomed to it.

When she went downstairs after getting dressed and washing up, Li Lanfang’s cursing had amazingly not stopped, she hadn’t even taken a drink of water. Qing Ye couldn’t help thinking that if someone ever organized a cursing competition, Li Lanfang would take first place with her skills.

Xing Wu sat alone on the other side smoking, his brows slightly furrowed. Seeing Qing Ye come down, he glanced at her sideways and said, “Go eat.”

Instead of immediately going to the backyard, Qing Ye poured a glass of water and listened for a while, finally understanding the situation.

The reason for Li Lanfang’s street cursing was apparently that Xing Wu’s father hadn’t returned for the New Year and couldn’t be contacted. So Li Lanfang was cursing that he might as well die out there, saying everyone would have peace if he died, and similar things.

Xing Wu slowly turned his head toward the street outside. Regarding Li Lanfang’s curses, he remained expressionless, showing neither expectation nor disappointment, as if Li Lanfang was cursing a stranger.

He extinguished his cigarette and went to the backyard to reheat the food for Qing Ye. She mumbled, “How did I sleep until now? Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You were sleeping so soundly, I couldn’t bear to wake you. You usually don’t get enough sleep, it’s not bad to catch up a bit.”

Qing Ye thought again of that vivid dream, of her mother talking with her father outside her room. That sense of reality, as if she could see her parents just by pushing open a door, still lingered in her heart, causing her emotions to fluctuate greatly all day.

Even more annoying was that her eyelid kept twitching non-stop, showing no signs of stopping.

So during dinner, she suddenly raised her head and stared at Xing Wu. He sat across from her and looked back puzzled: “What?”

“Look at my eye.”

After looking for a few seconds, Xing Wu suddenly burst out laughing: “Why is it twitching?”

“…I don’t know either.”

In Qing Ye’s memory, she had experienced such uncontrollable twitching twice before. The first time was before her father took her to the hospital to see her mother for the last time, and the second time was when Uncle Sun suddenly came to school to tell her about her father’s arrest.

So when Qing Ye’s eyelid started twitching uncontrollably again, she was worried and couldn’t sit still all afternoon.

She even made a phone call asking Uncle Sun to check on her father no matter what. She wondered if something had happened to her father. Was he being bullied in there? Was he sick? The more she thought about it, the more worried she became. Plots from “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Prison Break” all came flooding into her mind.

Since the next day was New Year’s Eve, Uncle Sun would need to find a lawyer to visit her father. He didn’t want to keep troubling people during the holiday, as there would be many more favors to ask after the New Year.

But unable to resist Qing Ye’s persistent pleading, Uncle Sun still asked a lawyer to make the trip, and before evening told Qing Ye that her father was fine. He had even asked the lawyer to pass on a message to her, telling her to take good care of herself and wait for him to come out.

However, Qing Ye’s frantically twitching eyelid didn’t calm down even after this phone call.

Xing Wu saw her running up and down countless times, spending the whole afternoon like an ant on a hot pan, and finally couldn’t take it anymore. He told her to put on her coat and took her out for a walk.

Qing Ye asked back: “Why do we need to go out for a walk?”

“You seem to have a lot of energy, help you burn some off. Are you excited about New Year’s tomorrow?”

“…” Qing Ye couldn’t explain her strange emotions and could only go upstairs to put on her coat.

So Xing Wu took his motorcycle keys and waited directly at the door after mounting his bike. Qing Ye put on her fleece coat, shouldered her small bag, and came downstairs.

Sure enough, after leaving Xuandao, that uneasy feeling improved greatly. Sitting behind Xing Wu, wandering through the streets, once they left Zhazha Ting, she wrapped her arms around Xing Wu’s waist and rested her cheek against his back, murmuring: “Xing Wu.”

“Hmm?”

“Xing Wu.”

“Hmm.”

“Xing Wu.”

“…”

“I miss my mom…”

The sky was a blank white, as if thick clouds blocked the horizon, without a trace of blue. As the sun set, even the slightest light disappeared from the earth.

Xing Wu finally stopped the motorcycle, turning back to look at her, but Qing Ye just buried her face in his back, unusually quiet.

He simply got off the motorcycle, and turned around to look at her: “Then what should we do?”

Qing Ye buried her face in his chest and said in a muffled voice: “Just let me lean on you for a while. I can find a feeling of my mom in you.”

“…” Xing Wu looked down at her speechlessly, helplessly stroking her head.

“Why are you still like a child, crying because you miss your mom?”

“I’m not like this in front of others.”

Xing Wu fell silent. This time last year, she must have been at home in Beijing, with her parents beside her welcoming the New Year. But in just one short year, everything had changed for her. None of the family members who had accompanied her for years were by her side now. That feeling must be hard to bear.

Xing Wu gently stroked the back of her head and said, “I’ll take you somewhere.”

Qing Ye finally nuzzled against his chest and looked up at him: “Where?”

“You’ll know when we get there.”

So Xing Wu started the motorcycle again, passing through narrow, dark streets, and taking Qing Ye to a street she had never been to before. There were still many stalls there at night, and it was especially crowded with people buying fireworks and firecrackers.

Qing Ye hadn’t played with these things for many years. In her memory, her father would set off firecrackers with her during New Year when she was very young. Later, when fireworks were banned, she never saw these things again.

Xing Wu stopped the motorcycle and held her hand, leading her into the crowd. Many people from surrounding cities had specially driven over to buy fireworks. There were many varieties – all kinds of fireworks, rockets, and small firecrackers.

Xing Wu said to her: “What do you like to play with? Buy more to set off tomorrow. In our area, we always set off firecrackers before the New Year’s Eve dinner.”

So he directly took two strings of those red long firecrackers. Qing Ye was interested in those peculiar small items – butterfly-shaped ones, beetle-styled ones. She kept curiously asking the vendor what they looked like when set off.

The vendor told her these were five yuan each, she could take one of each she liked to try at home, they were very pretty.

So Qing Ye excitedly took a plastic bag and started selecting, while Xing Wu went directly to another stall, squatting down to negotiate prices with the vendor.

Soon he came back carrying a big box and paid for the small items Qing Ye had picked. Qing Ye asked him what he bought.

He smiled and said: “Guess.”

Qing Ye kept trying to peek inside the box while holding her plastic bag, but Xing Wu was too tall. He had the box on his shoulder and she couldn’t see even when jumping. So she anxiously said: “Let me see!”

Xing Wu just couldn’t resist when she spoke with that whining tone. He had recently discovered this was truly his weakness, and clearly, Qing Ye had discovered it too. Now whenever things didn’t go her way, she would use this trick, leaving him completely defenseless.

He brought down the box and showed her a glimpse. Qing Ye’s mouth immediately formed an “Oh”: “These are the kind that blooms in the sky, right? You have these for sale here?”

Xing Wu said with a half-smile: “That’s just what big cities don’t have. Only small places like ours dare to sell these things.”

Qing Ye was extremely excited, walking backward in front of Xing Wu: “Is it very expensive?”

“Not cheap.”

“Why buy it if it’s not cheap?”

“I have to invest something to leave you some memories of me, in case you forget me later.”

He was still smiling, looking playful, but Qing Ye suddenly stopped angrily in front of him, stood on tiptoes, and bit his lip, saying: “You know I won’t.”

Xing Wu raised his eyebrows, his voice mumbling in his throat: “Are my lips that fragrant? Why not bite them off and take them with you?”

A young couple with a child nearby looked at them and smiled. Xing Wu glanced at them from the corner of his eye and said to her: “People are laughing at you.”

Qing Ye immediately let go of him, looking awkwardly to the side. When she saw the mother covering her three-year-old son’s eyes, her face immediately turned red to the ears. She grabbed her plastic bag and kept walking forward, not daring to look back.

After a few steps, she suddenly stopped again, looking at an ice cream machine by the street. Xing Wu directly put his arm around her shoulder and said domineeringly: “Don’t even think about it.”

As a result, Qing Ye refused to move, giving him her pitiful look again: “Just one bite. I don’t care, if you don’t let me eat it I won’t go back with you.”

Xing Wu laughed at her shameless appearance: “Fine then, you stay here, I’ll go back first. Call me if anything happens.”

Then he really turned to leave, and Qing Ye immediately hugged his arm angrily: “You’re abusing me, treating me badly, not caring for me, won’t even let me eat a two-yuan ice cream, stingy, miserly, I’m going to post about this on social media.”

Xing Wu helplessly pulled out his arm and drew her neck close: “You’ve gotten quite bold, huh? What if your stomach hurts again tonight?”

“You’ll hold me while I sleep.”

Xing Wu laughed, realizing he had no way to deal with her.

So Xing Wu squatted beside the motorcycle lighting a cigarette, while Qing Ye contentedly rummaged through the plastic bag holding her ice cream. Then she took out a small butterfly and handed it to Xing Wu. He used his cigarette to light it and threw it aside. The butterfly immediately started spinning in place, flashing a ring of colorful fireworks, crackling and popping.

He turned his head to look at Qing Ye, who was jumping around like a child holding her ice cream. The brilliant light reflected on her fair face as if her whole person had been lit up, beautiful and moving. She watched the fireworks while Xing Wu watched her, both breaking into smiles.

The fireworks died out, the small butterfly becoming a blackened mass. Qing Ye started rummaging in the plastic bag again and took out a dragonfly to hand to Xing Wu. He lit it for her again, and as soon as the fireworks started, her big eyes immediately lit up with spirit. Strangely, it reminded Xing Wu of that fairy tale, The Little Match Girl, who could only see her mother’s image through the light of the matches, falling back into darkness when the light disappeared.

So Qing Ye kept handing him fireworks to light, but each firework could only last a brief ten seconds or so. He stopped accepting them and said to her: “Are you sure you want to use them all up before New Year’s even arrives?”

Only then did Qing Ye remember, hurriedly putting the fireworks back in the bag. She squatted in front of him pointing at his little angel: “I’ve always wanted to ask you, why did you put a Doraemon sticker on your motorcycle?”

Xing Wu stamped out his cigarette and turned his head to exhale the smoke, his gaze distant as he said: “I didn’t put it there. Once when I was about to go out, I saw my grandmother squatting beside the bike. I didn’t call out to her but squatted beside her and asked what she was doing. She told me ‘My grandson loves Doraemon the most.’ By then she already couldn’t recognize people, but she could still remember I loved Doraemon when I was little. It’s quite amazing, so I never tore it off.”

Qing Ye couldn’t help but recall her first day in Zhazha Ting when she saw a big boy with a blue fatty sticker on his motorcycle and looked down at it. She never expected such a heartbreaking story behind that sticker.

Every time she heard Xing Wu talk about his grandmother, she felt melancholic. In Xing Wu’s brief descriptions, Qing Ye could always see a very naughty little boy, disobedient and causing trouble everywhere, giving his family headaches and making his parents angry. But only his grandmother repeatedly tolerated him, accompanied him, and brought him through the seasons’ warmth and cold. Yet when he finally grew up, no longer naughty and troublesome, becoming sensible and capable, his grandmother could no longer recognize him. This feeling inevitably tugged at one’s heartstrings.

She lowered her head to finish her ice cream. Xing Wu looked at the tempting white on her lips, suddenly leaning in to capture her lips, his tongue tip curling to take away the ice cream from her lips. He rubbed her head: “Let’s go home.”

On the way back, Xing Wu was afraid the wind was too biting, so he didn’t ride fast. He let Qing Ye put her hands in his coat pockets. The warm temperature made Qing Ye drowsy as she leaned against his back. She closed her eyes and said to Xing Wu: “Sometimes I think it would be quite nice to just stay here and live life with you, having food when I open my mouth and clothes when I reach out my hands. That’s all there is to life.”

Xing Wu smiled and said: “You’ve become decadent.”

“Mm, I’ve decided to be decadent these few days during New Year’s, no studying, no practice problems, just pure play.”

“Whatever makes you happy.”

“Xing Wu.”

“Hmm?”

“Xing Wu.”

“Hmm.”

“Xing Wu.”

“…Missing mom again?”

“I’m getting sleepy.”

“Don’t sleep, you’ll get cold. We’re almost at Zhazha Ting.”

Just as he finished speaking, suddenly a fire truck came speeding from a distant street. Qing Ye raised her head to look, saying curiously: “During New Year’s, I hope no one’s house is on fire?”

“Who knows.”

Then two fire trucks quickly turned onto the street heading straight for Zhazha Ting. Xing Wu and Qing Ye both froze.

Qing Ye urged him: “Ride faster to go check, could it be someone we know?”

At the same time, Xing Wu had already increased his speed riding back. Just as they passed the corner store, the sky-high flames lit up the night brightly, with neighbors from Zhazha Ting standing on both sides of the street.

Someone saw Xing Wu return and shouted at him: “This is terrible, Wu Zi, your house is on fire!”

Qing Ye and Xing Wu simultaneously saw that familiar house being devoured by flames, thick smoke rolling, like an inferno.