Qing still took her clothes to change in the bathroom – she wasn’t comfortable enough to change in front of Xing Wu yet.

The house remained unchanged from yesterday. When they returned, Li Lanfang was busy in the kitchen, and Xing Guodong sat at Grandmother’s doorway smoking. Qing wondered how the three of them had squeezed into such a small room last night – before coming here, she couldn’t have imagined such a life.

Li Lanfang glanced toward the kitchen door and said: “You’re back?”

Xing Wu grunted in response and went inside to check on Grandmother. Qing followed him in. Grandmother still lay unconscious on the bed, appearing no different on the surface from before, but Xing Wu, who cared for her daily, must have noticed something wrong.

At noon, Li Lanfang brought the dishes into the room, placing them on a small folding tea table – the family’s first reunion meal of the new year.

During the meal, Qing quietly observed Xing Wu, wondering what matters he planned to handle after returning. Xing Guodong squatted at the doorway holding his bowl, while Li Lanfang sat on Grandmother’s bed.

Xing Wu removed the bones from the fish belly and gave the meat to Qing, telling her to eat well. Qing ate silently with her head down.

Although everyone was present today, the atmosphere wasn’t harmonious. Throughout the meal, hardly anyone spoke. Qing could sense that everyone had something weighing on their minds, making it feel like “the last supper.”

Sure enough, right after eating, Xing Wu leaned against the doorframe, lit a cigarette, and said to Li Lanfang: “Don’t clean up yet, let’s talk about how we’ll live from now on.”

Xing Guodong stood at the doorway with his arms crossed. Li Lanfang threw down her chopsticks. Qing looked up at them and consciously got up to leave the room.

Perhaps because of the recent disaster, no one had the heart to shovel the snow in the courtyard. Except for the area by the kitchen door, the heavy snow from two nights ago still lay piled everywhere.

Qing crouched in an empty corner and rolled some snow into a ball. As a child, she particularly loved untouched snow like this. Whenever it snowed heavily in Beijing, she would drag her father out to build snowmen, as if any winter without building a snowman would be wasted.

Xing Wu spoke with half-lowered eyes: “Since the house and barbershop are gone, and you can’t raise money, what do you plan to do?”

Li Lanfang sighed and kept her head down. She was just an uneducated middle-aged woman. When the family encountered such situations, she was completely at a loss. She couldn’t bring herself to swallow her pride and borrow money everywhere. Although she got along well with her mahjong friends usually, when it came to money, everyone avoided it. Having lived here her whole life, she understood this better than anyone. Besides, the current situation couldn’t be solved by borrowing a few thousand yuan.

Xing Wu looked at Xing Guodong, who glared and said: “Why are you looking at me? What can I do? I have to return to work in a few days.”

Xing Wu took a deep drag on his cigarette and nodded: “Then let’s do this – take your mother with you, I’ll take care of my mom myself.”

Xing Guodong and Li Lanfang were stunned. Even Qing in the distance raised her head to look at Xing Wu.

Xing Guodong said incredulously: “What nonsense are you talking about, boy?”

Xing Wu glanced at him coldly: “The one lying in bed is your mother. If you don’t take care of her, who will? You must support her, not me. I’ll only support my mother.”

“I’m still your father!” Xing Guodong’s thuggish manner emerged again.

Xing Wu just said mockingly: “You’re my father? What parental obligations have you fulfilled? Did you provide for my food and clothes? If you can name even one thing, I’ll acknowledge you as my foster father.”

The words “foster father” from his mouth sounded extremely harsh. By now, the shameful lie had been exposed, and Xing Wu had completely fallen out with Xing Guodong – there was no affection left to speak of.

Li Lanfang suddenly stood up from the bed, walked in front of Xing Wu, and said loudly: “Wu’er, what are you saying? You’re asking us to split up the family?”

Xing Wu turned his gaze to Li Lanfang: “If you don’t want to split up, that’s fine too. You can go with him and take care of Grandmother together. I don’t need you to take care of me anyway. But if he kicks you out, don’t come back expecting anything from me.”

Li Lanfang was so shocked her pupils trembled. Angry, she slapped Xing Wu’s shoulder, knocking the cigarette from between his fingers. Xing Wu looked down with a cold smile and stepped on the cigarette to extinguish it. He raised his head to look at Xing Guodong with calm eyes: “If you think Grandmother is too much trouble and don’t want to take care of her, that’s fine too. You can divorce my mother – put it in black and white so that from now on, you have nothing to do with anyone or anything in this family. Grandmother can stay here, and I can support her in your place until her last days. Otherwise, I’ll leave with Qing this afternoon, and how you all live afterward will have nothing to do with me.”

Qing looked away and bent down to roll her snowball bigger and bigger. As she had promised Xing Wu before coming, she stayed quiet while he handled his business, just waiting quietly in a corner of the courtyard.

She knew Xing Wu could never abandon Grandmother or trust Xing Guodong to care for her. She also knew that someone like Xing Guodong, who could barely support himself, would never be able to care for a semi-paralyzed elderly woman.

Xing Wu was precisely counting on this to force him to make a choice. Before, he could turn a blind eye and muddle through – when Xing Guodong came back for money, he took Li Lanfang’s money. One was willing to give, one was willing to take, and apart from occasionally having a big argument with Li Lanfang, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

But now it was different. If they planned to rebuild the house, Xing Wu wouldn’t let Xing Guodong have any chance to get involved with the house or anything else in the family in the future. He especially couldn’t allow any possibility of him touching Qing’s money. He had to completely sever ties with him before this to protect their family’s future life.

However, Li Lanfang and Xing Guodong didn’t know about their plans to build a house, so when Xing Wu suddenly proposed divorce, Li Lanfang cursed loudly, crying that Xing Wu was forcing her to die. Xing Wu just looked amusedly at his mother’s dramatic behavior and said lightly: “I’m not forcing you. Whether to divorce or not is your decision. If you don’t divorce, see if he’s willing to take you with him?”

This statement left Li Lanfang speechless. After so many years, she had seen through Xing Guodong. She had heard rumors about him having another woman outside, though she no longer wanted to investigate whether it was true or not. She knew better than anyone that relying on her son was better than relying on him, but being suddenly forced to make this choice was hard to accept – after all, they had been together for so many years.

Xing Wu slowly turned his head to look at Qing, who was busily working alone, having already built the body of a snowman and was now rolling his head, looking completely serious.

His years of resentment seemed to dissipate with her light steps. While watching Qing build the snowman, he said to them: “Think it over carefully. Give me an answer no later than the seventh day of the New Year.”

Then he strode over to Qing, helping her put the snowman’s head on its body, then went to the kitchen to get a carrot and threw it to her. Qing made two eyes and stuck the carrot in.

Xing Wu took out his phone and said to her: “Go stand over there, I’ll take a picture of you.”

So Qing stood behind the snowman, making a peace sign, smiling sweetly and warmly.

When they left the house, for some reason, they both felt relieved of a burden.

The purpose of Xing Wu’s visit was to persuade his parents to divorce. Though it seemed wrong to break up one’s own family during the New Year, it felt refreshingly cathartic – like finally cutting away a piece of long-rotted flesh.

Qing said with some concern: “Will your mom do anything rash?”

Xing Wu replied decisively: “No, she just acts pitiful in front of me. Once I’m gone, she won’t mistreat herself. Do you think she’s stupid? They should have split up long ago. If I don’t push her, she’ll never take this step.”

Qing thought this made sense. Although Li Lanfang complained about Xing Guodong all day, his presence or absence didn’t affect her much. She still played her mahjong and lived her life. She had just lived this way her whole life without thinking about change, or knowing how to change. But after this incident, with Xing Wu needing to plan for the family’s future life, some things were no longer up to her.

The streets were empty during the New Year, with all shops closed. Xing Wu had wanted to take Qing to buy some daily necessities, but with the heavy snow and no cars on the street, they could only walk back to the hotel.

Before evening, Xing Wu went out again and brought back an induction cooker from Huang Mao’s place. That night, they had a hotpot around the small table by the window. Though they had limited ingredients due to the circumstances, Qing was in high spirits and even persuaded Xing Wu to open two cans of beer to celebrate their first day of the new year.

Having seen Qing drunk and wild before, Xing Wu usually wouldn’t let her drink. But today, with just the two of them, he indulged her once – after all, if she got drunk, she would just fall asleep in his arms.

Qing’s face was always flushed when drinking. Just half a can in, her fair cheeks turned pink, and her speech became less coherent than usual, rambling about everything under the sun with Xing Wu.

Xing Wu didn’t like to drink slowly. He had already finished his can of beer, still looking completely unaffected as he helped Qing cook the food. Having eaten with him and his brothers many times, Qing had never seen Xing Wu drunk. Sometimes when they went wild, mixing beer with baijiu and drinking terrifyingly – even downing baijiu in one gulp. Like yesterday, when Huang Mao had to be carried home by Pang Hu. Though the others weren’t completely unconscious, they were all drunk. Only Xing Wu had never lost his composure.

She rested her chin on her hand, eyes slightly unfocused as she stared at him: “Hey, how much can you drink?”

Xing Wu placed some cooked meat in her bowl and smiled faintly: “Probably enough to match ten of you.”

Qing felt her drinking capacity had taken a massive hit, and immediately took another big gulp of beer in revenge.

She put down the beer can decisively, looked around, and sighed: “This is probably my most memorable New Year ever. Think how funny it’ll be when we look back years from now – huddled in a shabby hotel eating hotpot with only one, two, three, four… um… barely five dishes counting this bottle of fermented tofu. When I give my graduation speech at the most prestigious university, I’ll say I’m grateful to my most, most, most, most beloved boyfriend who sustained me with a five-dish hotpot…”

Xing Wu lowered his eyes and laughed, putting down his chopsticks: “Stop embarrassing me.”

Qing puffed up her chest and patted herself: “How could I embarrass you? I make you look good! Aren’t I your most beloved cutie?”

Mm, Xing Wu was pretty sure this cutie saying such things was drunk.

His gaze moved to the beer can beside her hand. He really wanted to grab it and finish it for her, but after a split second of consideration, he realized this action would probably make the cutie opposite him go crazy, and might seriously lead to endless questioning about why he took her beer. So he gave up on this idea and quietly got up to boil some water, then placed a cup of warm water in front of her.

In the end, Qing’s last mouthful of beer took as long as feeding fish – over an hour to finish. Xing Wu knew she probably couldn’t drink anymore but didn’t want to admit it and was trying to prove herself. So when she finally took that last sip, he felt even more relieved than she did.

Qing stretched and mumbled: “I want to sleep.”

Mm, Xing Wu was pretty sure she was about to lose consciousness.

He got up to clean everything up, and when he finished, sure enough, he saw Qing curled up in her chair hugging her knees with her eyes closed. He shook his head and carried her to bed, wiping her with a warm towel. Qing unconsciously pulled at her sweater collar, looking very uncomfortable.

Xing Wu had to move her into his arms and lift her sweater. Her round shoulders pressed tightly against him. Xing Wu looked down, his breathing instantly becoming hot. Due to the climate in Zhazha Pavilion, few girls were as fair-skinned as Qing. Her flawless skin was soft and delicate, and that innocent beauty between girl and woman gave Xing Wu an urge to plunder.

But she was drunk now – wouldn’t it be a bit beastly to take her like this?

Xing Wu steeled himself – out of sight, out of mind – and quickly tucked her into the blanket.

However, once that fire was lit in his heart, it was hard to fall asleep. He resigned himself to leaning against the headboard and looking at his phone for a while, but Qing beside him was a fatal test for him. His eyes kept unconsciously glancing at her as if even her very faint breathing was constantly challenging his willpower.

For someone his age who had just had his first taste and was in his prime, it was really hard to control the restlessness in his heart. Xing Wu felt he had encountered perhaps the greatest challenge of his life. He wasn’t Liu Xiahui who could remain unmoved with a beauty in his arms – he just felt that since she was drunk, it might make her uncomfortable if he did anything.

Qing wasn’t sleeping peacefully, tossing and turning and constantly kicking off the blanket. Xing Wu had to keep covering her up again and again.

After who knows how long, she finally settled down and stopped moving. Xing Wu focused on watching a match to distract himself. When the match ended and he turned his head, Qing was lying beside him with her big eyes quietly staring at him.

Xing Wu cursed and dropped his phone: “What’s this about? Are you sleepwalking or awake?”

“I wasn’t asleep.”

Xing Wu was amused by her serious answer – she had been like a pile of mud that couldn’t be woken up but still had the mysterious confidence to say she hadn’t been asleep.

The smile had barely appeared in his eyes when he heard Qing say: “Happy birthday.”

Xing Wu was stunned for a moment and immediately checked his phone – exactly midnight.

To be honest, he didn’t feel surprised so much as spooked. He had no idea how Qing, in such a drunk state, could suddenly become clear-headed right on time to wish him a happy birthday.

Qing looked at him from the corner of her eye, saying somewhat guiltily: “I had bought you a piece of clothing as a gift, but it burned…”

Xing Wu’s feelings became even more complicated. A woman lying beside him at midnight suddenly telling him she burned a piece of clothing for him? The desire that had been torturing him all night was suddenly completely doused. Why did he suddenly want to chant “Amitabha”?