Lin Shuang’s interest in her new boyfriend was fading fast.

Guo Yuan was the rough, manly type, suited to a delicate, docile vegetarian girl — she found him a bit hard to digest, but hadn’t quite reached the point of being sick of him either. He’d become like chicken ribs: tasteless to eat, a pity to throw away.

“Boss, you haven’t gone out on a date in days,” an employee reminded her.

Lin Shuang had been holed up in the tea shop these past few days.

“It’s cold out. I can’t be bothered to move.”

Last night the wind had howled all night, rattling the windows. This morning she woke to find the autumn chill deepening, the cold wind bleak and desolate.

Zhou Zheng, on his way home after class, passed by the tea shop and saw Nana and Kevin putting up posters on the window. He couldn’t help but stop.

The shop’s air conditioning was set to a comfortable temperature, the space bright and pleasant, and combined with the sweet, rich scent of the tea drinks, walking in gave one a languid sense of ease.

Cheerful pop music played inside the shop. She was busy at the counter, chatting idly with him as she worked.

“Teacher Zhou, the temperature dropped a lot last night.” Lin Shuang looked at his thin two layers of clothing, his thin shoulders, the way he looked cold all over. “You’re wearing so little — aren’t you cold?”

“Not cold. I’m used to it.” He always dressed lightly in winter.

“When I went out today I saw the sidewalk covered in fallen leaves, and it suddenly reminded me — those two rows of old trees on the school’s main road, every time there’s a big autumn or winter wind, the fallen leaves pile up thick on the ground, like a colorful carpet.” Lin Shuang sighed wistfully. “When I was in school I loved stepping on them, hopping along, listening to the crunch of the dry leaves.”

The teenage Lin Shuang had been a sweetheart with an off-the-charts sweetness quota.

“This morning when I came into school, the janitor was already sweeping that road — filled up seven or eight trash bins full of leaves,” Zhou Zheng said with a smile. “The colors of the fallen leaves are beautiful, like an oil painting.”

“It’s strange — so many years have passed, and I don’t know why, but I suddenly thought of this.” Lin Shuang asked him, “Does Teacher Zhou ever suddenly remember things too?”

“Once I was going to get hot water at the water room, and the dormitory floor was icy — I slipped and fell, and my water bottle broke too.” He scratched his head. “Ever since then I’ve been extra careful walking in winter.”

“Poor Teacher Zhou.” She blinked at him.

“Are you still drinking lemon black tea? It’s gotten cold — how about switching to a hot drink instead? The oat milk tea’s been selling really well lately.”

“Could I get a hot lemon black tea?”

She shrugged. “Of course.”

He turned to look at the poster on the window. “I just passed by and saw them putting up posters — is the shop doing another event tomorrow?”

“Yes, member surprise day, with a raffle too — it was a last-minute idea. Cold drinks are about to go off the menu, so we’re pushing the autumn-winter warm drinks.”

“Surprise day? Must be some special, good day.”

“Something like that.”

Zhou Zheng raised his eyebrows with a faint smile. “Is it your birthday?”

“How did you know?” Lin Shuang was surprised.

“Just a random guess. Tomorrow is the Frost’s Descent solar term, and your name has the character ‘Shuang’ — frost — in it.”

“I guess you guessed right.” She smiled. “I have something to do tomorrow so I won’t be at the shop — if you all want to come by, I’ll have Nana and the others give the teachers free drinks.”

He nodded. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you.”

“Can I give you a small gift?” Zhou Zheng tucked both hands in his pockets and rocked slightly on his toes. “Just a small token.”

“No need.” She waved it off. “I don’t like celebrating birthdays — let’s just treat it as an ordinary day.”

“All right then.” Zhou Zheng looked a little regretful, and carefully pulled something out of his coat pocket. “Here, this is for you to play with.”

It was a small heart-shaped leaf, half withered and half still green, its veins clearly visible, lying in his palm.

“I found it in the janitor’s trash bin — I happened to see it as I passed by, and rinsed it off with water.”

Lin Shuang handed him his tea and, in the same motion, took the leaf and turned it over in her fingers. “It’s so pretty. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He picked up his lemon black tea and turned to leave.

* * *

Fu Min made a special trip into the city with Qi Shan in tow to have lunch with Lin Shuang. In the afternoon, Lin Shuang had a spa appointment at a beauty salon with Miao Cai, and in the evening, Guo Yuan arranged a birthday dinner for her.

The two of them had a fairly romantic candlelit dinner, and then Guo Yuan took her to a KTV to sing. The private room had already been decorated for a birthday, candles lit on the cake — when the door opened, the birthday cake was pushed in front of her, followed by a chorus of booming voices: “Happy birthday, sister-in-law!”

As expected — one day, when she walked out of some man’s bedroom after a tumble in the sheets, there’d probably be a row of shadow-brothers standing outside the door too, paying their respects.

A waiter carried in a steamer basket of small bowls of longevity noodles. Guo Yuan hadn’t gotten his fill at the candlelit dinner, so he ate Lin Shuang’s bowl too.

After the birthday song, Lin Shuang reluctantly ate a piece of cream cake, and the crowd, worked up with excitement, started chanting: “Kiss her! Kiss her!”

Lin Shuang waved a hand. “No, no.”

Guo Yuan, tall and broad, scooped Lin Shuang up sideways in one motion — the world spun, and by the time she’d registered what happened, she was already seated in the crook of his arm, and the man pressed a kiss straight onto her red lips.

The crowd screamed and cheered; the whistling nearly blew the roof off.

Lin Shuang tugged at her own skirt and reached over to pinch Guo Yuan’s arm.

“Give me some face in front of the brothers — I’ll kneel on a washboard when we get home,” the man whispered in her ear.

She climbed down off him and was pulled into his arms, where he kissed her cheek by way of comfort. Everyone sat on the sofas singing karaoke; the waitstaff hauled in several crates of liquor, and the band of brothers launched into their own little pub crawl — the atmosphere of her birthday party gradually shifted into the men’s showing-off session.

Lin Shuang’s looks were a rare sight, and paired with Guo Yuan’s presence, she’d become quite the topic of gossip at his workplace.

“Say what you want, but our brother Yuan’s the real deal — actually managed to win over a beauty like sister-in-law.”

“Brother Yuan, come on, give us some tips — what moves did you use to land her?”

Everyone kept egging him on eagerly. Guo Yuan, having had a few drinks, was floating a little. “What do you mean ‘win her over’ — I just crooked a finger and she came along obediently. The two of us hit it off like thunder meeting fire — instant match.”

“Brother Yuan, mighty and imposing!”

“Brother Yuan, a real man!”

Guo Yuan wrapped an arm around Lin Shuang’s waist, pressing an affectionate kiss to her cheek, his whole face full of smug contentment, as though he were embracing a magnificent trophy of conquest.

The men’s conversation drifted from the thirty-six stratagems of courting a girlfriend to the topic of wife and kids and a warm home — which sister-in-law was virtuous and gentle, dignified and generous yet considerate and tender, and skilled in the kitchen too, a model wife worth envying — the discussion grew lively and full of pride.

Bored out of her mind, Lin Shuang played with her phone, then finally switched it off and looked toward one of the brothers who’d already started puffing away on a cigarette. “Got a smoke? Give me one.”

“Sister-in-law smokes too?” Everyone froze for a second.

“Occasionally.”

She took the cigarette, but didn’t see a lighter anywhere. Her gaze swept the room, picked out one man, and she waved him over cheerfully. “Come here, hand me your cigarette.”

The man who’d been singled out gave an “ah” of surprise, walked forward a few steps, and — a little dazed — pinched his half-smoked cigarette between his fingers and handed it to Lin Shuang.

She bent forward at the waist, her figure swaying, leaning in a little closer, reaching to light her cigarette off the tip of his, her head bowed slightly, her long hair sliding off her shoulder, her red lips pressing to the cigarette, her lashes lowered halfway as she took a deep drag.

A spark of fire leapt across from the cigarette tip; Lin Shuang, satisfied, gave a flirtatious sidelong glance, and — teasing the startled face in front of her — arched her eyebrows playfully, smiled charmingly, and let curls of smoke drift slowly out from her red lips.

The smoke wafted onto the man’s reddening face.

The private room fell suddenly, briefly still.

Lin Shuang flashed the room a charming smile, then lazily nestled back into the silent Guo Yuan’s arms, smoking the cigarette with practiced ease.

The mood in the second half of the party felt somewhat stiff; the gathering wrapped up early. On the way back, Guo Yuan was noticeably quiet. “You shouldn’t have done that in front of them.”

“I was bored, just having a smoke, borrowing a light from someone, that’s all.” She stroked her cheek and smiled lightly, her bright eyes sparkling. “What’s there to be mad about?”

“How am I supposed to save face in front of the brothers now?”

“I was just having some fun with you — you didn’t actually take it seriously, did you?” Lin Shuang narrowed her eyes. “I just like novelty. I crook my finger and you come running; someone else crooks their finger and I’d trade you out for another man just as easily.”

The sudden romance ended just as abruptly as it began. Lin Shuang regained her sense of freshness, her mood excellent, radiant with it — and since the tea shop no longer needed much of her effort to run, she began spending time each day carefully doing her makeup and dressing herself up, entertaining herself.

The “camo-pattern big Jeep” that used to show up regularly suddenly stopped appearing outside the tea shop, as though a marker had simply expired. As the weather turned colder and outdoor activities dwindled, the number of customers sitting and chatting in the shop suddenly increased — not just girls, but quite a few boys too.

It was only belatedly that Lin Shuang realized she hadn’t seen Zhang Fan in quite a while — he no longer seemed to come by the tea shop to buy drinks for the female teachers.

One day she ran into him outside the school and, curious, asked: “Teacher Zhang, I haven’t seen much of you lately — has the revolution not yet succeeded, and the comrade has given up trying?”

“No, no.” Zhang Fan’s gaze drifted, and he stammered. “I’ve been taking students out for training camp lately, been a bit busy.”

Autumn easily brings on melancholy — for one thing, he kept losing ground with Xie Xiaomeng, and for another, he was troubled by Zhou Zheng giving up on himself. Between the two, he’d been feeling low, and lately hadn’t wanted to see Lin Shuang much, avoiding the tea shop rather noticeably.

Zhang Fan asked Lin Shuang: “Where’s Zhou Zheng? Did he come to your shop today?”

“No, and it’s a bit of a shame — Lanting came by the shop today too. If Teacher Zhou had been there, it would’ve made quite a scene.”

Lanting had been dropping by the tea shop whenever she had free time lately, but mostly just to hang out with friends — nothing more than that.

Lin Shuang could see it: Lanting still had lingering feelings for Zhou Zheng, but wouldn’t make the first move. If Zhou Zheng were willing to take a step forward, Lanting wouldn’t refuse him.

But alas, Teacher Zhou showed no sign of doing so.

Zhang Fan practically wanted to hand Lin Shuang a cigarette out of exasperation. “You think they’d be good together too, right? Lanting’s great, she and Zhou Zheng would really suit each other, ugh… boss, why don’t you do a good deed, play matchmaker, and give the two of them a chance to get back together.”

Lin Shuang raised an eyebrow. “Why me? You’re all treating me like I’m not even an outsider anymore.”

“Zhou Zheng listens to you.”

“How do you know he listens to me?” Lin Shuang shot back.

Zhang Fan stammered a bit. “He… he…”

He trailed off, unable to explain himself. “Ugh… he definitely listens to you.”

“Why should I bother with all that.” Lin Shuang looked up at the sky. “The way to live is to remember a few words — mind your own business, and just enjoy the show.”