The moment Zhou Wan heard Lu Xixiao’s voice, she felt chills run through her entire body from head to toe.

She turned her head to look.

The young man was still frowning, watching her without saying a word.

Seeing her not move, he finally clicked his tongue impatiently: “Come here.”

Zhou Wan didn’t know how long he had been standing there, or whether he had heard her conversation with Guo Xiangling.

His aura was intensely cold. Even after walking up to him, Zhou Wan didn’t dare speak first, keeping her head lowered in silence.

Lu Xixiao gripped her chin and lifted her face: “Running off everywhere, and now you’re giving me attitude.”

Zhou Wan was stunned for a moment, instinctively looking up at him.

That look was urgent and focused, with light in her eyes, as if containing unspoken words.

Lu Xixiao’s heart inexplicably softened at that look. His displeasure fading, he wrapped an arm around Zhou Wan’s shoulders and walked toward the exit, ignoring Guo Xiangling behind them.

The hospital was still crowded even late at night.

Various low-decibel but chaotic noises intermingled together.

Zhou Wan let him lead her quickly for several steps before remembering to explain: “I wasn’t running off, I just went to the bathroom and ran into her when I came out.”

“What did she say to you?” Lu Xixiao asked.

Zhou Wan remained silent.

Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow: “Did she bully you?”

“No.”

“Really?”

Zhou Wan didn’t dare look directly at him, keeping her eyes down as she tried to sound casual: “Didn’t you say I just act obedient? How could she bully me?”

Lu Xixiao chuckled, reaching up to roughly ruffle her hair: “So what were you two talking about just now?”

Zhou Wan paused, then spoke with lowered eyes: “She just asked me to convince you to go see your dad. Nothing else.”

Lu Xixiao made an “oh” sound, expressionless, then took off his jacket and put it around Zhou Wan: “Where’s your clothes?”

“I got them dirty earlier so I took them off.” Zhou Wan tried to refuse, “You wear it, I’m not cold.”

He didn’t bother arguing with Zhou Wan. Before she could put her arms through the sleeves, he directly zipped up the jacket, wrapping her up completely like a cape.

Zhou Wan looked up at him, blinking.

His eyelashes lowered as he looked at her in this state. After a while, he turned his head and smiled: “How tall are you?”

Zhou Wan wore his jacket with the hem nearly covering her knees. She puffed her cheeks and said: “One meter sixty.”

Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow: “Really?”

“…”

Zhou Wan put on a serious face and said firmly: “Yes.”

“How much do you weigh?”

“Last time I checked I was about 39 kilos, not sure about now.”

He frowned slightly: “Too thin.”

“It’s fine since I’m not very tall,” Zhou Wan said.

Back in the IV room, Zhou Wan tucked in her grandmother’s blanket and felt her forehead. It wasn’t as hot as before, and color had returned to her face.

“Lu Xixiao,” Zhou Wan said, “you should go home now.”

“It’s fine,” he said with a casual, bored expression. “Nothing to do at home anyway.”

Zhou Wan paused, saying nothing more.

Earlier she had carelessly hung the dirty jacket on the back of a chair, soup dripping onto the seat. Lu Xixiao grabbed some tissues and bent down to clean them.

“Let me do it,” Zhou Wan said.

He quickly cleaned it up and lifted the dirty jacket. Something slipped from the pocket.

Red and green base colors.

It was the Christmas card she had meant to give to Lu Xixiao.

Zhou Wan’s heart jumped. She quickly went to pick up the card but was too late – he had already picked it up, the thin card held between his fingers.

He wore a lazy smile, playful and frivolous as he drawled out each character: “To… Lu… Xi… xiao.”

Though it was just an ordinary Christmas card, when spoken in his magnetic voice, it somehow seemed like something improper.

Zhou Wan unconsciously blushed. “For me?” he smiled.

“…Mm.”

He opened it. Inside was written:

Lu Xixiao, Happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas.

Wishing you happiness every day, smooth sailing, and success in everything.

The handwriting was elegant, each stroke written with great care.

Lu Xixiao looked at it for a while, then smiled and said: “Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, you think one card is enough?”

“…”

Zhou Wan couldn’t help pouting: “You have so many cards in your desk drawer anyway, and you’ll get more tomorrow.”

Lu Xixiao seemed to freeze for a moment, then smiled even more deeply: “So those were cards.”

“…”

“I never looked at them.”

Realizing Lu Xixiao was explaining himself to her, Zhou Wan’s face grew even hotter.

She shouldn’t care so much about how many cards Lu Xixiao received or whether he read them.

But now her heart softened, becoming like a vessel filled with melting honey, making her whole being feel light and floaty.

“Oh,” Zhou Wan said flatly.

“If you don’t like it,” Lu Xixiao said lazily, “come to my classroom tomorrow and throw all those cards away yourself.”

Zhou Wan looked serious: “They’re people’s sincere feelings, it wouldn’t be right to throw them away.”

Lu Xixiao burst out laughing.

As if he’d heard an especially funny joke, his dark eyes held laughter as his shoulders shook. He nodded, teasing: “Yes, Teacher Zhou’s lesson is well taken.”

“…”

This was a mockery.

Like having her true feelings exposed, Zhou Wan looked at him with a red face.

In his laughing eyes she saw four words – “Keep pretending then.”

“…”

Having thoroughly enjoyed Zhou Wan’s flustered appearance, Lu Xixiao was finally satisfied. He stopped teasing her, waving the card between his fingers as he said: “Thank you, Teacher Zhou.”

Zhou Wan watched him carefully refold the card and put it in his pocket.

She finally couldn’t help lowering her head to smile.

After smiling, she suddenly remembered Guo Xiangling’s words earlier – “You like Lu Xixiao, don’t you?”

Zhou Wan finally understood why those girls, even knowing what kind of person Lu Xixiao was, knowing that playboys rarely change their ways, still insisted on running into that wall, even willing to crash until their heads split open before giving up.

Lu Xixiao just had that ability.

When he was intimate, he made you feel like the whole world was in your embrace, easily making your head spin.

Everything happened silently, but the prey had already fallen into the trap, killed from a thousand miles away.

But she couldn’t be like this.

Zhou Wan felt as if her soul had split in two.

One soul was attracted to him, happy or sad because of his every action and gesture; the other soul watched coldly from the side, observing all this inevitable happening, occasionally reminding her not to fall for his illusion of gentleness.

*

The IV room was filled with the smell of disinfectant mixed with various food smells brought in by patients’ families, creating an unpleasant combination.

Grandmother had finished three bags of IV fluid, with just one left.

Zhou Wan and Lu Xixiao went outside together to get some fresh air.

They stood by the railing of the hospital’s third-floor terrace. He rested his elbow on the railing, back slightly bent, casually leaning as he smoked, the smoke swirling before being blown away by the cold wind.

Like a richly colored poster, every frame was particularly beautiful.

“Lu Xixiao, my grandmother’s IV is almost done, but she’ll need more tomorrow. She’ll need to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. You should go home first.”

He spoke with the cigarette between his lips, making his voice muffled: “Mm.”

Zhou Wan gripped the cold railing with both hands, her hair tousled by the wind as she looked at the scenery opposite.

From this height, she could see the nearby pedestrian street, with its grey-white brick walls and staggered, aged rooftops.

The street was mostly filled with young people wearing Christmas-themed clothes.

Many vendors were selling beautifully packaged Christmas apples. Some stores were having Christmas promotions, with employees dressed as Santa Claus handing out flyers and candy on the street.

“When I was nine, it snowed on Christmas in Pingchuan City,” Zhou Wan said. “It was the earliest first snow I remember there.”

Lu Xixiao flicked his cigarette ash, trying to recall the past along with her words, but had no such memory.

He never celebrated Christmas, finding it pointless.

He smiled carelessly: “You remember it so clearly.”

“Mm, it was the last Christmas I spent with my father.”

Lu Xixiao paused, turning to look at her.

The young woman’s profile was fair and gentle, black hair curling around her neck, her bright black eyes gazing into the distance, tender and focused, with a hint of light in them.

“Lu Xixiao, did you believe in Santa Claus when you were little?” Zhou Wan asked softly.

“No.”

“I believed in Santa Claus until I was nine.”

Zhou Wan glanced at Lu Xixiao, meeting his gaze. She smiled, “Pretty silly, right? Still believing at nine years old.”

“Every Christmas I would make a wish, write it on paper, and put it in my stocking on Christmas Eve. My dad said Santa Claus would ride his reindeer-drawn sleigh to collect every child’s wishes, then fulfill the wishes of good children on Christmas night.”

“Sometimes wishes came true, sometimes they didn’t. I asked my dad why – was it because I wasn’t good enough?”

“My dad said it was because it hadn’t snowed that year, so Santa’s sleigh couldn’t come.”

Reaching this point, Zhou Wan smiled with curved eyes, “Thinking about it now, it’s amazing I believed such excuses.”

Lu Xixiao turned his head to look at her, listening intently.

It was clear that Zhou Wan had grown up surrounded by love.

She had been carefully protected, which was why, despite her intelligence, her childlike innocence had been preserved enough to believe such clumsy excuses.

“So when it snowed that Christmas, I was especially happy and excited, believing my wish would come true.”

Lu Xixiao asked: “What was your wish?”

“I wished for my dad’s cough to get better quickly.”

“Did it come true?”

“No,” Zhou Wan lowered her eyes. “After Christmas, his cough got worse and worse. Because he worried about the cost, he kept putting off going to the hospital. Later we found out it was lung cancer.”

Lu Xixiao remained silent for a moment, not asking for more details, but instead asked: “What about now?”

“What?”

He exhaled a cloud of smoke, his voice low and husky: “What’s your Christmas wish this year?”

Zhou Wan smiled: “I’m sixteen now, I’ve long known there’s no Santa Claus.”

“What if there was?” He turned his head, his gaze steady and determined in the night scene. “What would your wish be?”

Her biggest wish at that moment was for her grandmother to be healthy and live a long life.

But Zhou Wan knew such wishes were impossible to fulfill.

When she was little, if she made such intangible wishes – like growing five centimeters taller next year, or her parents getting along without fighting – they never came true.

But sometimes when she wished for something concrete, like a box of chocolates or a pretty new schoolbag, it would come true immediately.

Zhou Wan thought for a moment, then said casually: “Well… I want a bicycle.”

Lu Xixiao tapped off his cigarette ash, smiling: “Christmas only comes once a year and just a bicycle?”

*

After spending some time in the wind on the terrace, Lu Xixiao smoked two cigarettes, and they returned to the IV room.

Grandmother had finished all four IV bags but hadn’t woken up. She needed to stay for further observation, so Zhou Wan planned to spend the night at the hospital and told Lu Xixiao to go home first.

The streets late on Christmas Eve weren’t as quiet as usual.

Lu Xixiao walked alone down the street with an unlit cigarette between his lips.

The wind outlined his tall, striking figure even more distinctly, causing many passing girls to turn their heads to look at him repeatedly.

Reaching a crosswalk, the light was red. Lu Xixiao took out his phone and called Jiang Fan.

“Xiao,” a predictable noise came from his end, “didn’t you say you weren’t coming?”

“I’m not. Just need to ask you something,” he tilted his neck, watching the numbers jumping on the red light. “That place you mentioned for buying bicycles – where is it?”

“Why are you buying a bicycle?”

Lu Xixiao laughed: “Never mind that.”

“I’ll send you the shop owner’s WeChat in a bit, you can go buy it tomorrow.”

“Not possible today?”

“Come on, have you seen what time it is? At this hour, only the apple sellers are still awake.”

Lu Xixiao hung up, and soon Jiang Fan sent him the bike shop owner’s WeChat. He paused for a moment, didn’t add it, but instead opened navigation to search for nearby bike shops.

The crosswalk light turned from red to green and back again.

Lu Xixiao stood still in the same spot, many people coming and going around him.

Like a scene from a Wong Kar-wai film.

He called each bike shop one by one but received only closed-for-business responses.

This late, not a single bike shop was still open.

*

The next morning, Zhou Wan was woken by her grandmother.

“Wan Wan?” Grandmother squinted against the sunlight and white room, asking with furrowed brows, “Where is this?”

“Grandmother, you’re finally awake. You had a high fever yesterday, we’re in the hospital,” Zhou Wan held her hand. “Yesterday the doctor said they needed to see how you are today. If the fever’s gone down, just one more IV should do it. How are you feeling? Still uncomfortable?”

“High fever?”

Zhou Wan put on a serious face: “Yes, Grandmother, I’ve told you so many times – if you’re not feeling well, you must tell me. You can’t keep it to yourself. You suddenly fainted last night and we had to call an ambulance. You nearly scared me to death.”

Grandmother smiled with guilt and tenderness, stroking Zhou Wan’s hair: “I didn’t feel particularly unwell, thought it was just a normal cold.”

“Thank goodness you’re okay, otherwise I don’t know how I’d go on living.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Grandmother patted the back of her hand. “Our Wan Wan is so clever, you’ll get through anything life throws at you just fine.”

Zhou Wan leaned down, gently laying on her grandmother and hugging her, her cheek against her chest as she said softly: “I don’t care, you have to stay healthy and stay with me.”

“Alright, alright, grandmother will try her best,” Grandmother said with a smile.

Soon, the duty doctor came to take her temperature again. She still had a slight fever and would likely need IVs for two more days.

Grandmother, worried about the extra expense, tried to insist on going home after this bag finished, but Zhou Wan firmly refused. Finally, she gave in and agreed to stay one more day in the hospital.

At seven in the morning, after calling her head teacher to request leave, Zhou Wan prepared to go home to gather some toiletries to bring back.

The morning streets were already bustling with neatly dressed office workers and students hurrying about.

The trees along the road were covered in small colored lights, many of which had flickered out after the night.

Taking the bus home, at the stop outside the arcade, Zhou Wan had just gotten off when she saw one of the brothers who used to work the morning shift at the arcade, leaning against the advertisement board dozing, looking extremely tired.

Zhou Wan walked over and called out: “Brother, did you just get off work?”

“Zhou Wan?” He rubbed his eyes, then said, “Don’t mention it. Being a holiday, the arcade was so busy last night, turned the night shift into a morning shift.”

Zhou Wan smiled: “Your relief should be here now, right? Go home and get some good rest.”

“Yeah, I’ll die if I don’t sleep soon.” He paused, suddenly remembering something. “Oh right, someone won our arcade’s grand prize yesterday.”

Zhou Wan froze.

“It was a handsome guy, who came alone too. Must have been around four in the morning when he left. I was sleeping there when he woke me up to claim the prize,” the brother said. “Though it was strange – someone that good-looking spending the holiday alone.”

He seemed about to say more, but the bus came. He got up, said “goodbye” to Zhou Wan, and boarded the bus.

Even after the bus had driven away, Zhou Wan remained in a daze.

–“I’m sixteen now, I’ve long known there’s no Santa Claus.”

–“What if there was? What would your wish be?”

–“Well… I want a bicycle.”

–“Christmas only comes once a year, and just a bicycle?”

The way Lu Xixiao looked when saying these words seemed still before her eyes, his voice lingering in her ears.

A red glow at his fingertips had shrouded his features in the clamorous night and cigarette smoke, his gaze steady, lips curved in a casual smile, appearing so nonchalant.

That person… it couldn’t have been him, right?

He hated trouble so much, how could he spend until four in the morning on a bicycle?

Besides, he didn’t believe in Santa Claus at all and looked down on celebrating Christmas.

Zhou Wan kept telling herself this.

But her steps home grew faster and faster until she was running.

The cold wind whipped past her ears, sharp enough to strip flesh from bone.

She ran until she was out of breath, taking the stairs up to the third floor, her low ponytail completely coming loose to fall around her cheeks, like a little madwoman.

She stood at the third-floor landing, staring fixedly at the doorway.

A beautiful new bicycle stood at the entrance.

Zhou Wan’s vision kept being obscured by her white breath, blocking the bicycle from view before clearing again.

At this moment, Zhou Wan couldn’t take a single step.

It was as if a priceless treasure had appeared before her, and she was afraid getting any closer would break the spell.

After a long time, Zhou Wan finally slowly approached, walking to the bicycle’s side.

A note was clipped to the bell.

She opened it to see Lu Xixiao’s handwriting, bold and flowing.

–Wan Wan, Happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas.

Wan Wan.

Not Zhou Wan.