On the same Wednesday, Ao Xing Agency’s Christmas advertisements began their overwhelming bombardment across social media platforms like Weibo, Douyin, and WeChat.
Cen Jin’s team was so busy they were nearly spinning in circles. Starting this week, almost everyone stayed at the company full-time to handle any urgent matters.
The Christmas atmosphere inside the company was equally intense. The ceiling was adorned with cedar branches, with hundreds of red and white Christmas balls suspended beneath, illuminated by a sea of starlights, creating a dazzling display.
Under the magnificent Christmas tree that stood over two meters tall, creative gifts prepared by company members were piled high—expensive and modest, elegant and quirky—for everyone to take as luck would have it. The pristine long table was covered with various desserts and pastries.
Cen Jin was still at her workstation, double-checking all the copies for the client’s official blog to ensure there were no mistakes.
Suddenly, a plate of roll cake garnished with mint leaves appeared before her eyes.
Cen Jin looked up to see Lu Qiqi wearing a Santa hat, her face beaming: “Time to eat! There’s going to be a performance soon.”
Cen Jin accepted the plate, using a fork to cut off a small piece, curious: “What kind of performance?”
Lu Qiqi pointed to a spot not far away: “The Yi Xiao student choir is here to sing Christmas songs. It’s our company tradition; we invite them every year.”
Cen Jin glanced over and sure enough, a group of children wearing white shirts, sweaters, and red-and-black checkered skirts or pants held hardcover songbooks, making final preparations before their performance. Boys and girls alike, they were arranged in three rows, standing in front of the company’s giant illuminated logo. Their faces were softly lit, appearing fair and innocent.
Lost in thought, Cen Jin was suddenly pulled up by the energetic Lu Qiqi and rushed over.
Many colleagues had already gathered there, chatting and mingling with drinks in hand.
Teddy, holding a glass of red wine, was talking with the Client Department Director when he spotted Cen Jin and Lu Qiqi. He raised his tulip glass toward them with a bright smile.
The Director also looked over, giving a slight nod.
Cen Jin returned a faint smile and continued working on her cake.
Soon after, the familiar prelude began.
The children broke into radiant smiles and sang in unison, their voices clear as warbling orioles:
“We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a Happy New Year”
Under the warm lights, Cen Jin smiled as she watched these young faces, gradually becoming lost in thought.
She wondered how Li Wu was doing.
She had planned to send a cake to his school for Christmas, but plans don’t always work out. They weren’t on speaking terms, and he’d left his phone at home, making it impossible to contact him even if she wanted to.
Never mind. During the time she’d brought Li Wu to Yi City, she’d shown him enough care and done her duty. If he didn’t appreciate it, so be it.
Looking at it another way, his focusing on his studies now was better than anything else.
Cen Jin sighed, pushing away these thoughts that only brought her frustration and helplessness whenever they arose.
“Time to dance!”
At some point, the student choir had finished, and more upbeat music with a strong rhythm now filled the hall.
Someone turned off the lights, plunging the environment into darkness with only the star lights twinkling overhead.
People screamed and laughed, and the normally orderly walkways instantly transformed into a chaotic dance floor.
Cen Jin set down her plate and linked arms with Lu Qiqi as they rushed into the crowd, swaying their hips and dancing freely, joyfully releasing the stress from their recent hard work.
—
Saturday afternoon, after the last class ended, Li Wu packed his bag and walked out of the classroom alone.
The holiday had just passed, and classroom windows were covered with Christmas-themed stickers of pine trees, gingerbread men, and bells. The class-duty students were kept behind to clean up.
The corridor was full of students running wild, with only Li Wu walking unhurriedly, like a solitary whale swimming alone.
Two female classmates were cleaning windows, and upon seeing Li Wu pass by, they looked at him several times before calling out loudly: “Li Wu!”
Li Wu turned around.
The short-haired girl raised her ruler and smiled: “The adhesive on these stickers is too strong, we can’t get them off. Could you help us?”
Li Wu looked at the mess on the window, nodded, and walked over.
The tall boy’s figure suddenly loomed over.
The short-haired girl moved aside, sharing a secretly delighted glance with her friend as she handed him the ruler.
Li Wu took it, leaned against the window, and carefully began scraping with the ruler’s edge. The boy’s knuckles were clean and slender, yet powerful. He frowned slightly, patiently removing the irritating adhesive bit by bit. The two girls watched, mesmerized.
When it was mostly done, the short-haired girl hurriedly offered a wrung-out cloth for the final cleanup.
The glass was spotless as new, and Li Wu said, “Done.”
The short-haired girl’s eyes curved in a smile: “Thank you!”
The girl with the ponytail stared at him and suddenly asked: “Li Wu, do you know our names?”
The short-haired girl blushed slightly and jabbed her with her elbow.
Li Wu paused briefly, his gaze resting on each of their faces: “Ke Shuang, Zheng Tian.”
Both girls’ lips curled up in unison. The short-haired Ke Shuang was especially delighted: “So you do know! I thought you never talked to us, figured you didn’t even remember our names.”
Li Wu lowered his eyes in silence.
As the atmosphere grew awkward and Li Wu was about to leave, Ke Shuang called out again: “Li Wu, have you looked at the apples we gave you the other day?”
Li Wu thought for a moment: “Not yet.”
“Ah…” Ke Shuang’s eyebrows drooped in disappointment, “Remember to look at them. You must look!”
“Mm.”
Back in his dormitory, Li Wu dug out the several apple gift boxes he’d received on Christmas Eve from his drawer.
Some were elegantly packaged, others were just individual apples with “Merry Christmas” carved into their skin.
Li Wu opened one of the pink ones, inside was a dark red Red Delicious apple with a palm-sized card of the same color scheme attached to its stem.
He detached the card and opened it, finding a small line of text inside:
“To Li Wu: Not everyone dislikes you. Hope you’re safe and happy.”
Li Wu stared at it for a moment, ran a hand through his hair, then closed the card and put it back in the box.
After sitting quietly for a while, he pulled out a workbook from his bookstand and began solving problems. After completing a short question, he habitually pulled back his sleeve to check the time. He would have been better off not looking—once he did, his entire being became restless and unable to focus on continuing to write.
After several failed attempts, the boy leaned back in despair, staring blankly at the pages.
Perhaps the words on the card had some placebo-like hallucinatory effect; some laughable, shameful delusions began to circle his mind again, like smoke that couldn’t be dispersed. The more he deliberately tried to ignore them, the more they permeated everything.
Li Wu began packing his bag and walked quickly toward the school gate. The branches cast grotesque shadows, and the wind was as sharp as ice, but he seemed completely oblivious.
Just going to take a look. There’s nothing wrong with just looking.
This one look lasted until deep into the night.
6:30.
7:30.
8:30.
9:00…
9:30…
Li Wu stood outside the main gate, motionless as a stone statue.
He had waited too long—from when the lights first came on until the stationery store across the street suddenly pulled down its folding door, from when crowds of people streamed past to when the streets became deserted. He waited so long that passersby gave him strange looks, so long that the security guard wrapped himself in a thick coat and came out to check: “Student, who are you waiting for? We need to close the gate. Are your parents coming? Can you not reach them?”
Li Wu’s black hair stirred in the wind as he remained oblivious.
The old man called out again loudly.
Only then did the youth seem to come alive, glancing at the guard. Seeing the concern on the old man’s face, he hurriedly muttered a “sorry” before turning back toward the school grounds.
As he turned, the fierce wind whipped at him, cutting to the bone, and Li Wu’s eyes suddenly became intensely red.
He struggled to swallow, trying to suppress his emotions as he raised his arm to roughly wipe his eyes in the darkness.
—
Early Monday morning, Cen Jin received another call from Teacher Zhang, saying Li Wu had been running a high fever since yesterday that wouldn’t break, and he needed to go to the hospital immediately.
Cen Jin sat up in bed, devastated as she pulled at her hair multiple times. She had just painstakingly finished this phase of company work, and now there were problems at Li Wu’s school again.
Chaos, turmoil, one after another, wave upon wave—Black December.
These words flashed through Cen Jin’s mind as she angrily brushed her teeth while rubbing her puffy eyelids.
Before leaving, Cen Jin folded the gray down jacket she’d bought last week, placed it in a shopping bag, and took it with her to the school.
Having received word that Li Wu was in the infirmary, Cen Jin didn’t go upstairs but asked a passing female student for directions.
When she arrived at the infirmary, the first thing she saw was the youth sitting beside the school nurse’s desk.
He sat silently in the folding chair, head slightly lowered, his lips pale. His illness made his eye sockets appear deeper, and his cheeks had returned to that somewhat gaunt state from when she first met him.
Cen Jin took a deep breath, withdrew her gaze, and walked over.
The school nurse saw her and quickly stood up, asking: “Are you Li Wu’s guardian?”
Li Wu glanced up at her, then hurriedly lowered his eyes again, his expression growing even worse.
“Yes,” Cen Jin maintained her composure, asking coldly: “What’s wrong with him?”
The woman’s completely unruffled reaction startled the nurse, who then pulled out an ear thermometer from among the scattered files on the desk and stuck it to Li Wu’s forehead: “The student said he wasn’t feeling well yesterday, came in this morning to check his temperature, it’s very high.”
During this time, Cen Jin still hadn’t cast half a glance at the boy sitting there.
With a beep, the nurse showed Cen Jin the reading: “39.7°C, he needs an IV. You should take him to the hospital right away.”
“Let’s go then.” Cen Jin put one hand back in her coat pocket, turning as if ready to leave.
But Li Wu remained sitting silently, whether from hesitation or embarrassment, as if only this chair could help him hide the shame of having just earnestly made promises one moment only to let someone down the next.
Cen Jin stood still for a moment before finally looking at Li Wu. She walked a few steps closer, pulled out the down jacket from the bag, and placed it on his legs: “Put this on, come with me to see the doctor.”
The fluffy, soft gray down jacket spread open in Li Wu’s arms. He paused for a moment before standing up to put it on.
The jacket was oversized and long, immediately enveloping Li Wu, warmth spreading throughout his body.
Cen Jin walked out, with Li Wu following close behind.
Under the vast sky, the woman and the youth walked along the wide road, one in front of the other.
They maintained a distance, like awkward young penguins trying to follow a proud white crane.
Cen Jin navigated to the nearest community hospital, silent the whole way.
It happened to be flu season, and the hospital was packed. Cen Jin asked for two masks at the service desk, giving one to Li Wu.
Li Wu accepted it and followed her example in putting it on. Cen Jin adjusted hers and fixed some stray hair near her ears before looking up at Li Wu.
Unexpectedly, their gazes met in mid-air.
The youth’s eyes were dark and moist, carrying a slight dampness from prolonged illness, pure enough to evoke sympathy.
Cen Jin’s heart twinged slightly as she looked away, letting out a very soft sigh.
She pointed to an empty chair in the waiting area, telling him to wait there while she went to queue for registration.
Li Wu obediently sat down, watching Cen Jin without blinking. The woman wore a short white cotton jacket and stood with her arms crossed. Though her expression was cold, she was strikingly beautiful and instantly recognizable in the crowd.
After a while, a middle-aged man tried to cut in line. Cen Jin said nothing, just tapping his shoulder, intending to stop him with a look.
The middle-aged man ignored her, refusing to move from his spot.
Cen Jin slightly raised her chin, pulling down her mask as if about to scold him. Seeing this, Li Wu suddenly stood up and quickly walked to her side, standing in front of her.
The tall youth’s gaze was bright and fierce, and with the crowd behind them also starting to collectively protest, the middle-aged man could only sheepishly leave the line and return to the back.
“What are you doing?” The woman pulled her mask back up.
Li Wu turned back, saying softly: “I was afraid he… would bully you.” The last three words were barely audible.
“Are you feeling better now?” Cen Jin’s expression was cold, slightly mocking.
Li Wu said nothing more.
“Go sit back down.” “Oh.”
After successfully registering and seeing the doctor, Cen Jin efficiently got the medicine and took Li Wu to the injection room.
The nurse crouched down to insert Li Wu’s IV, praising how easy it was to find this child’s veins.
Hearing this, Cen Jin glanced at his hand, noting the visible blue veins crisscrossing his skin.
But his hand was red from the cold. Cen Jin turned to dig in her bag and pulled out their company’s Christmas gift—a pure white hand warmer.
She turned it on and handed it to Li Wu: “Hold this, your hand will get cold during the IV.”
“Mm.” Li Wu took it, gripping it with his IV hand.
“Don’t squeeze too hard.”
“Mm.” He relaxed his fingers, holding them gently.
Cen Jin stopped looking at him and pulled out her laptop from her tote bag, setting it on her lap and focusing on browsing.
Li Wu peeked once, and saw the screen full of small English text, and his head felt even more painful and dizzy.
In the IV tube, clear medicine dripped down, flowing drop by drop.
Cen Jin began typing softly, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Li Wu had nothing to do and occasionally glanced at Cen Jin before finally succumbing to the fever’s assault, leaning back against the chair to rest his eyes.
After some time, Cen Jin looked up startled, checking the IV bag above, confirming it was only half empty. She let out a relieved breath and turned to observe Li Wu.
The youth was leaning back, his head resting on the chair, his Adam’s apple prominent, his eyelashes thick, appearing to have fallen asleep.
Seeing his facial flush had somewhat faded, Cen Jin stood up and reached out to feel his forehead.
Still very hot.
She exhaled in frustration and helplessness, sat back down, and continued working, her keyboard clicking away.
She completely failed to notice that the youth with closed eyes beside her had raised his hand to his forehead for a second, quickly lowered it, and then secretly raised the corners of his mouth in a smile.