The weather had been getting colder and colder recently.

Xu You had grown up in the south since childhood. Winter’s climate there was generally quite mild and humid. These past few days, Lincheng’s temperature had plummeted steeply, approaching below zero, making her somewhat unaccustomed.

When the seasons changed, she was especially prone to catching colds. Before going out in the morning, Chen Xiuyun wrapped a green scarf knitted from wide wool yarn around her and instructed, “Eat at the cafeteria at noon. The weather forecast says there will be sleet today. Be careful on the road.”

Xu You squatted in the entrance changing into her small boots. She nodded obediently. “I know, Mom.”

Snow was rarely seen in the south. Anyway, in Xu You’s memories from childhood until now, she had almost never seen scenes like those in books—’snow clearing, clouds fading, sunlight cold.’

Walking onto the street, a small layer of white broken snow had already spread over the rooftops and ground. When shoes stepped on it, there was a light crunching sound.

Xu You found it novel. Wearing fuzzy gloves, she scooped up a handful of snow. Holding an umbrella, all along the way she studied the shape of the snowflakes.

Walking all the way over, she felt vaguely that something was strange, but couldn’t say where the strangeness lay.

When she reached school, she discovered that today there were red vests on duty at the school gate.

The red vests were a group of first-year student council members who managed school discipline.

They held small notebooks in their hands, occasionally stopping passing students.

Xu You propped the umbrella with her shoulder, took down one side of her backpack, and lowered her head to search through a pile of books for her school badge.

After searching for a while, she didn’t find it.

She felt the gloves were in the way. After taking them off, she continued groping around.

After turning everything upside down, she still didn’t have it.

Xu You raised her head and thought for a while, secretly groaning inwardly. Yesterday she definitely hadn’t put the school badge in her backpack. She had left it in the classroom.

At this time, there were still more than ten minutes until class.

She was also afraid of having her name recorded and having points deducted from the class. So she could only pace in place, caught in a dilemma.

Just as she was fretting, a familiar teasing voice came from not far away:

“Yo, standing at the school gate all armed up like this—planning to bomb the school?”

Xu You suddenly raised her head and looked toward the source of the voice.

Xie Ci walked toward her.

Two other boys she didn’t recognize were following beside him.

“Xie Ci!”

Her eyes lit up. Finally seeing a classmate from the same class, she couldn’t care about anything else. Running forward two steps, she said, “Can you help me with something?”

Xie Ci took two steps back, hands inserted in his pockets, looking down to appraise her under the umbrella.

He didn’t speak.

Xu You felt uncomfortable being looked at like this and couldn’t help backing up two steps. “What are you looking at…?”

“I’m saying you…” He tilted his head, speaking with interest. “Why are you bundled up like a bear?”

Xu You: …….

The two boys beside him burst out laughing with a “puchi” sound.

Xie Ci glanced at them lightly.

One boy pursed his lips. “Brother Ci, your girlfriend?”

“What else?”

Another person said, “Even holding an umbrella. Sister-in-law is pretty amusing, huh?”

Xie Ci also laughed out loud. He cursed, “Fuck off.”

Xu You wore a hat on her head and was wrapped in a huge wool scarf that covered half her face. Her dark hair hung limply by her cheeks, leaving only a pair of glistening black eyes.

Just this little bit of snow, and she was still holding an umbrella. Looking from afar, it was really fucking hilarious.

“What about me?” Xu You didn’t know what had happened. Her weak voice came from within the scarf, staring somewhat gloomily at the person before her.

She herself hadn’t noticed that her current appearance was like a wronged little kitten.

In front of outsiders, it deflated, only daring to lose its temper at its owner, meowing and wailing, showing its fangs and claws to scare people.

Xie Ci said seemingly seriously, “All the way here, did you see anyone besides you holding an umbrella?”

Xu You froze for three seconds.

No wonder she felt like people kept looking at her today…

Xu You hurriedly put away her umbrella, a bit embarrassed. “Is this very strange… I thought everyone would use umbrellas when it snows.”

Her genuinely embarrassed appearance was really quite cute, making people unable to resist teasing her again and again.

So what Xie Ci had originally wanted to say became at his lips: “You’re really too strange, wifey. Good thing you ran into me ahead of time. Otherwise, when others see you entering school later, you’ll still be laughed at.”

“Can you stop calling me random things?”

Seeing that there wasn’t much time left, Xu You suddenly remembered she still didn’t have her school badge. She couldn’t help saying urgently, “By the way, can you go to the classroom and bring me my school badge from my desk? I can’t get in now. There are people at the gate recording names…”

Hearing this sentence, Xie Ci couldn’t help but laugh. “What do you need a school badge for?”

He reached out slightly, hooking her neck, and said in a low voice by her ear, “Call me ‘gege’ and I’ll take you in.”

“Act cute.” He paused and added.

At this time, there weren’t many students left at the school gate.

Xu You was anxious. This person really…

She backed up a step and hit his arm with the umbrella, saying very seriously, “I’m not in the mood to joke with you. We’re going to be late. Hurry up, hurry up. We’re really going to be late.”

Her tone was very urgent. She repeated it twice in succession.

Xie Ci finally stopped teasing her. Turning around and walking forward, he tossed out one sentence: “Who’s joking with you?”

Xu You followed behind Xie Ci, lowering her head with a guilty conscience like a thief, walking hastily past the school gate.

She didn’t know if everyone in the school recognized him or not.

As expected, the people on duty didn’t dare stop them.

After Xu You entered the school gate, she turned a corner and walked past the fountain. She broke into a wild run, racing toward the teaching building.

Xie Ci was left far behind. Before he could even shout out a sentence, she had already run far away.

—

The morning was half over. Outside, the snow fell more and more urgently.

Looking from afar, heaven and earth were both white.

The teaching building had heating. Inside the classroom it was warm. There was even a layer of water vapor on the glass windows.

The long break between classes was forty minutes. Plus the next period was PE class. Many people in class ran downstairs to have snowball fights.

Xu You lay on her desk and slept for a while. After waking up, she rubbed her eyes and found there was no one around her.

Zheng Xiaolin had a bad cold. She wasn’t feeling well. She just sat in her seat doing homework, not going down either.

Seeing Xu You had woken up, Zheng Xiaolin said to her, “You slept for so long. It’s almost time for the next class.”

Xu You took out the test paper that had just been reviewed in the last class along with her correction notebook. She yawned and opened the notebook. “It’s too cold outside. I feel like I need to hibernate and then turn into a little animal and curl up…”

“Pft.”

Zheng Xiaolin laughed out loud. “How are you so cute? You give me that kind of deadpan humor feeling from time to time…”

The longer she spent with Xu You, the more she discovered that this girl had a kind of earnest cuteness.

Sometimes when she suddenly said a sentence or two out of the blue, it could make people laugh nonstop.

“Why don’t you use air conditioning in winter?” Xu You copied down problems while chatting with Zheng Xiaolin. “I think it’s so strange. And this thing called heating radiators… really too magical…”

“You don’t have that there?” Zheng Xiaolin was looking at the magazine in her hands. She turned her head to ask, “Your area doesn’t have heating in winter?”

Xu You shook her head. “Before, when I heard other people mention heating, I always thought it meant air conditioning…”

“Pft…”

“Then when I got here, I learned that heating uses hot water and can go throughout the whole building.”

The two chatted about this and that for a while.

“By the way!” Zheng Xiaolin remembered something. “I heard that the list of students for our grade’s Class Zero seems to have come out, supposedly…”

“You’re definitely in it.”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you fill out a form before, the one asking about your intentions and such?” Zheng Xiaolin asked.

Xu You nodded.

“That’s it then. You’ll definitely enter Class Zero later.”

With the December monthly exam results coming out, according to No. 1 High School’s past practice, the students for the science key class had basically been settled. This class was calculated based on students’ grade rankings averaged from September to December.

This year the school was especially grand. They even invited a Taoist priest to perform rituals. After divining for a long time, they finally decided that this year’s science rocket class number would be zero.

This matter had been complained about in private for who knows how long.

Xu You’s December monthly exam results came out. She was still in the top few of the grade. If she chose science, there was no suspense—she would definitely enter the rocket class.

Zheng Xiaolin muttered to herself, “Sigh… I won’t be able to see you anymore after this. You’re the most meticulous and patient top student I’ve ever met at explaining problems…”

As she spoke, she coughed twice more.

“I can’t take it anymore. My throat hurts so much. I need to go ask the head teacher for leave…” Zheng Xiaolin gathered her books.

Xu You looked up at her. “Do you want me to go with you to the infirmary?”

Zheng Xiaolin waved her hand. “No need. I’m fine. I just want to go back and relax.”

—

Only two or three people remained in the classroom. Xu You didn’t have many wrong problems on her test paper. She finished correcting the wrong problems, then went to the reference materials to find similar types of problems and practiced a few.

The more she wrote, the more sweat appeared in her palms. The classroom was too hot. Xu You wore a thick down jacket. Because she was afraid of cold, she had also worn two sweaters. At this moment, she was really being suffocated to death.

Really getting herself hot enough to sweat in the middle of winter…

She didn’t dare take off her jacket, fearing she’d catch a cold. She just opened the zipper.

Writing and writing, she gradually stopped her pen and turned her head to look toward the window.

Xu You took off her scarf and left her seat, lying on the windowsill and opening a small crack.

Cool air drilled in. Breathing it into her lungs was very refreshing.

Her fingertips picked up a small pinch of snow from the window ledge. She brought it to the bottom of her nose to smell, then placed it on her finger pad to look at. Just amusing herself like this, she played with great enjoyment.

After playing there for who knows how long, suddenly a laugh sounded.

Xu You didn’t understand at first. She raised her head and looked behind her.

Xie Ci sat on a desk, legs stretched out straight. She didn’t know how long he’d been watching.

His jacket was tossed to the side. He wore just a gray low-collar sweater. The line from his chin to his collarbone was sharply defined.

Her face was very red from the heat. Looking at him, the two quietly gazed at each other for a while.

Xie Ci asked with a smile, “Never played with snow before?”

Xu You shook her head and walked around him back to her own seat.

Walking to her seat, she froze.

A miniature snowman was standing on her desk.

Shaped like a gourd, with two small twigs inserted as arms and legs. On the little snowman’s face, a sloppy smiley face had been carved out.

Xu You looked at this ugly little snowman for a few seconds.

“Did you make this?” She turned her head and asked Xie Ci.

He made no sound. Reaching out his hand, taking advantage of her unpreparedness, he placed it on her warm neck.

Cold and hot suddenly pressed together.

Xie Ci’s fingertips were like ice cubes.

He said lazily, “What else? I’m about to freeze my hands to death.”