Zhou Zheng had attended boarding schools in a small town for both elementary and middle school. The conditions had been fairly rough — school wasn’t just about studying, but also about learning to take care of yourself, facing a miniature society, and even doing labor, like pulling weeds on the sports field, or going to help teachers harvest rice during the busy farming season.

At first he’d always been quiet and withdrawn, dim and timid, with unremarkable grades, but in the end he always managed to quietly rise to the top. His teachers discovered that this child wasn’t dazzlingly clever, but he had a very high aptitude for understanding.

A mistake he’d made once, dressed up in a different guise, would still trip up many other children — but Zhou Zheng would never make the same mistake twice.

He tested from his township middle school into Beiquan High School, and his horizons and his life both changed. Then he went off to university, and came back to work in his hometown. Though it looked unremarkable from the outside, the path had, in truth, grown wider and better with every step.

For Zhou Zheng, if on a night of wind and snow he was willing to draw close to a warm lamp, if certain useless feelings really couldn’t be cut away, then in the end all he could do was openly admit it, work hard to ignore it, retreat to an appropriate distance, and wait for it to gradually dissolve into time.

Before the review session for final exams, the class held a class meeting, and egged on by the students, Zhou Zheng treated the whole class to milk tea.

The class phoned in an order for sixty cups of milk tea. During the break, Zhou Zheng led a few of the boys out to pick it up.

He greeted Lin Shuang.

“So it was you who ordered the milk tea.”

“Yes, an encouragement for their exams this term.”

Lin Shuang said, “Thank you.”

It was a big customer’s order — each cup wasn’t cheap, and paid in cash, it filled out the day’s revenue nicely.

“No need to thank me.”

He always carried a gentle sort of force about him, more forceful than mere refinement, and whatever he said or did never felt out of place.

Lin Shuang handed him a coupon. “This can be redeemed for ten hot drinks.”

“Thank you,” said Zhou Zheng, not accepting it. “I’ll come get it next time.”

High school coursework was demanding, but elementary school started winter break the earliest. With time on her hands, Lanting often came by to hang around Lin Shuang’s shop.

She and Xie Xiaomeng were close friends, but Xie Xiaomeng and Lin Shuang had only a shallow acquaintance — perhaps beautiful women were naturally exclusive of one another, or perhaps each secretly disapproved of the other’s conduct. Xie Xiaomeng often advised Lanting: “You’re too naive. Don’t get too close to Lin Shuang — she’s probably not as good as she seems.”

But Lanting liked Lin Shuang quite a lot. She’d once asked Lin Shuang to help her pick out clothes, and had even invited Lin Shuang to see a movie and get a meal together.

But Lin Shuang saw things clearly and didn’t want to casually wade into a three-way friendship — that sort of thing could be just as damaging as a three-way romance.

Besides, with the matter of Zhou Zheng lurking beneath the surface, being close with Lanting gave Lin Shuang a faint sense of unease.

Lanting had recently been repeatedly set up on blind dates arranged by her family. Once, the date had even been arranged to take place right at the milk tea shop.

From Lin Shuang’s outsider perspective, these blind-date prospects were actually quite well-matched to Lanting, both in family standing and otherwise.

Lanting picked through and rejected them all, never satisfied, until even Lin Shuang couldn’t help asking her: “What exactly are you looking for?”

“I can’t really say,” Lanting said, biting her lip in difficulty. “Someone suitable, I guess.”

Neither Lanting nor Zhou Zheng had looked back after their breakup — or rather, Lanting still held onto a thread of hope, waiting for Zhou Zheng to turn back, but Zhou Zheng had never turned around, and Lanting had come to quietly accept his attitude.

“Someone like Teacher Zhou?” Lin Shuang asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Lanting’s gaze turned distant.

“Why did you and Teacher Zhou break up, back then?”

“We weren’t suited to each other.” Lanting was silent for a long while, looking dejected. “Our personalities and our families weren’t a good match… my family didn’t agree at first, and there were a lot of things… and he wouldn’t bend either…”

Lanting’s parents both worked in government offices, in leadership positions, with fairly high standing. For Zhou Zheng to try to marry above his station would have cost him no small price.

It was the same logic as the blind dates Lin Shuang’s aunt arranged for her — however devastating her looks might be, because of her parents’ divorce and her father’s imprisonment, her aunt’s matchmaking had filtered out certain high-demand circles. After all, these days, being well-matched in family status was still the first consideration.

As the Spring Festival drew near, the holiday atmosphere grew ever thicker. Lin Shuang left Beiquan City, rushing to see her father before the New Year.

Each prison visit followed roughly the same routine. Father and daughter had, over many years, said and re-said all the things there were to say.

On the bus back to Beiquan City, Lin Shuang encountered a young girl.

The girl kept stealing glances at her, ten times, twenty times, her gaze practically boring a hole into her. Finally Lin Shuang couldn’t take it anymore and turned around: “It’s you — you’re Teacher Zhou’s little sister, aren’t you?”

She’d met Zhou Xue twice before and had some impression of the girl.

Her gaze wasn’t friendly.

Zhou Xue hadn’t expected such a coincidence — riding the same bus home as Lin Shuang.

“Yes, I’m Zhou Xue.” Zhou Xue pressed her lips together. “You… you’re the owner of the milk tea shop, right? What… what should I call you?”

Lin Shuang raised an eyebrow, a flicker of mischief passing through her mind. She ran her fingers through her hair and said with theatrical amusement: “Didn’t your brother tell you? That doesn’t seem right.”

“Are you and my brother close?” Zhou Xue’s brow furrowed sharply.

“Not really.” She said it indifferently, lowering her head to play with her phone. “But your brother’s a good person — he’s helped me out quite a bit.”

Zhou Xue’s face changed color, pale tinged with green, and she stammered without managing to get a word out.

“My brother… my brother he…”

Lin Shuang started playing a game, the sound effects turned up cheerfully loud, and eventually she even put on headphones.

The bus stopped near the gate of Beiquan High School, where Zhou Zheng was already waiting by the roadside for Zhou Xue.

“Brother Zheng.” Zhou Xue waved eagerly, even with a hint of grievance in her manner.

Zhou Zheng was startled, mildly surprised, when he saw Lin Shuang and Zhou Xue getting off the bus together.

The two of them went to get the luggage from the trunk, and Zhou Zheng helped, asking Lin Shuang: “Which one is yours?”

Lin Shuang pointed vaguely. “This one.”

“You… went to see your father?”

Lin Shuang gave a soft “Mm.”

He looked at her and asked gently: “Is everything all right?”

“It’s fine.”

Zhou Xue’s expression soured, her brows knitting, as she squeezed herself between the two of them and tugged at Zhou Zheng’s sleeve: “Brother, I’m hungry.”

She pulled at him impatiently: “Take me to eat.”

Zhou Zheng carried Lin Shuang’s suitcase, his gaze passing over Zhou Xue’s shoulder: “Should I carry this to your shop for you?”

“No need, I’ll manage myself.”

Zhou Zheng nodded and handed the suitcase over to her.

Once Lin Shuang had walked off, Zhou Zheng finally turned to attend to his little sister, patting Zhou Xue’s shoulder and saying gently: “Didn’t you say you’d go straight home? Why’d you come here again? Come on, let’s go eat.”

Zhou Xue’s expression remained sour, her shoulders stiffening as she turned to ask Zhou Zheng: “What’s her name? Brother, what’s your relationship with her?”

“It’s none of your business.” Zhou Zheng pushed her suitcase along, his expression mild. “Don’t ask.”

“I can’t even ask?”

He paused his steps. “Don’t get upset. I really don’t have anything going on with her — you don’t need to think too much about it.”

Zhou Zheng had a temper of his own too, though he rarely showed it — not soft, not hard. Over summer break the two siblings had already had one falling-out over this matter, and Zhou Zheng had brushed it aside lightly, without explaining much further to Zhou Xue.

A few days before the holiday, Fu Min called Lin Shuang: “Come spend New Year’s with me this year.”

“I don’t think so.” Lin Shuang declined. “The shop’s staff are all off for the Spring Festival, and I can’t leave the shop with no one watching it.”

“Not even for New Year’s Eve? You should at least come for dinner on New Year’s Eve.” Fu Min tried to persuade her. “Before, when you were out of town, you wouldn’t come back for New Year’s. Now that you’re right here at home…”

Lin Shuang was silent.

“You all go ahead and eat.”

“Then what are you planning to do? Are you really going to spend it alone?”

Lin Shuang had spent last New Year’s at her aunt’s place: “Auntie asked me to come to her place, invited me over for the reunion dinner.”

Fu Min was insistent: “Come to my place.”

Lin Shuang frowned. “I’ll see when the time comes. It’s just one meal — it’s the same wherever I eat it.”

Beiquan High School let out very late for break — the senior class didn’t close school until the twenty-ninth of the lunar year. The teachers had wrap-up work to do, and Zhou Zheng stayed busy until New Year’s Eve itself, getting all the school’s affairs arranged before heading to the supermarket and department store to stock up on tea, liquor, and other New Year’s goods.

He had too many things to carry back, so he arranged to travel back to the village with Shunzai. Shunzai was especially busy at year’s end too, driving his route for over ten hours a day; the two of them were rushing to get back in time for the reunion dinner.

The milk tea shop’s holiday business was decent, mostly delivery orders these past few days. Lin Shuang gave Nana and Kevin both the New Year holiday off and stayed to mind the shop herself.

Before leaving, Zhou Zheng stopped by the milk tea shop, bringing a thermos with him.

It was only on his last trip home that he’d discovered the little village shop sold a kind of instant milk tea powder. Zhou Zheng’s grandmother had bad teeth, and the old woman liked something sweet when the weather turned cold; Zhou Zheng had found a whole row of milk tea powder packets hanging up at home.

Zhou Zheng held the thermos out. “This is for my grandmother. I don’t let her drink much of the milk tea powder at home — she’s never tried this kind, so I thought I’d bring her a cup to try today.”

Lin Shuang was curled up in a chair watching a movie, sipping her own milk tea. She laughed when she heard this, got up, and went to the counter: “Grandma’s quite trendy — though this kind really shouldn’t be drunk too often either, it can raise your blood sugar.”

She took the thermos, filled it with a milk tea made with softly cooked oats and purple sticky rice, screwed the cap back on, and handed it to him.

“Thank you.”

It was already mid-afternoon. Zhou Zheng tucked the thermos into his bulging backpack: “What time are you closing up today?”

“Three or four, maybe.” Her smile was faint. “Earlier or later, either’s fine — depends how it goes.”

The movie on the projector screen had just begun, and a half-open bag of chips still sat on the table.

Zhou Zheng nodded. “I’ll head out then.”

“See you.”

“Happy New Year.”

“You too.”

He pushed the door open and left the shop.

An hour later, Shunzai came to pick Zhou Zheng up. The two of them loaded the New Year’s goods into the trunk, and the car sped off, racing past the gate of Beiquan High School.

The sky was dim, dusk approaching, and he saw that the milk tea shop’s lights were still on.

Zhou Zheng turned and called out to Shunzai: “Stop the car.”

“What’s wrong?”

He got out: “Take my stuff back for me, I’ll grab a taxi home later myself.”

“What are you doing?”

Zhou Zheng hesitated. “I’ll go back and check on the school.”

“………”

The sky slowly darkened, and the milk tea shop’s lights were still on.

Lin Shuang genuinely hadn’t been in the mood this year. In past Spring Festivals she’d always traveled abroad; this year she didn’t even have the energy for a trip, didn’t want to go anywhere to eat, and just wanted to stay quietly by herself.

She packed up the unsold milk tea and delivered it to the neighboring shops still open — even on New Year’s Eve, there were plenty of people still holding down their posts in life.

There were two more cups, which she took to the school’s security office. She knew the school guard too, who happened to be on duty tonight as well.

Someone was playing Chinese chess in the security office. Two men sat on small stools, the board set on a little table, a small heater beside them, and a plate of melon seeds and fruit on the floor.

His back was to her, fully absorbed in the board, setting down a piece.

“You… why are you here?”

Lin Shuang was somewhat surprised.

Zhou Zheng rubbed his nose and stood up.

The two of them stood on the empty road, faintly hearing the sound of firecrackers.

Zhou Zheng glanced at the time. “I called home already. I’ll head back in a bit.”

He asked: “Is the shop still not closed? The firecrackers have already started.”

Lin Shuang crossed her arms and said nothing.

He tucked his hands into his coat pockets, taking in the street scene before them: “Sorry… I didn’t mean to interfere with you…”

His voice was low: “I just worried about you being alone…”

He knew that feeling — outside, a thousand households lit with festive lights, while he was just one person, alone, like a fading note floating above the sound of laughter.

“You should hurry home.” Lin Shuang copied him, sliding her hands into her own pockets, her voice flat. “I have my own plans tonight.”

“All right.”

The two of them parted in the hazy night.

Lin Shuang walked a few steps toward the milk tea shop, then turned to glance back at the man waiting for his car by the roadside.

He wore a thin coat, unafraid of the cold, his shoulders and back slender, decent-looking, a high school teacher, and reasonably good as a person.

“Zhou Zheng.” She turned back.

“Mm?” Zhou Zheng looked up at her.

She lowered her head, picking at her freshly done nails, and said slowly: “Zhou Zheng, I’ve had some free time lately… do you want to play around with me, or, I suppose — do you want to try with me?”

She called it playing around, trying it out — not even a date, not even romance.

“I’m used to playing games — I don’t have much patience. Maybe a week or two, maybe a month or two, but it definitely won’t lead anywhere.”

“When it ends, let’s not drag our feet about it — clean and simple, okay?”

Like a game where the stakes were already locked in.

Zhou Zheng looked at her vivid, striking features, and was silent for a moment.

“Where are you spending New Year’s Eve tonight?”

“I ordered delivery.”

“Can I stay, and spend it with you?”

“Aren’t you going home?”

“Every year I spend New Year’s with my second uncle’s family. I can just call my grandmother.”

As if to say he and the girl he liked were together.

He accepted everything in front of him.

Before leaving him — stay by his side first.