Xie Jue rejected Lan Ningzhen’s request. Lan Ningzhen asked innocently, "Why won’t you call Anning?"
Because Anning belongs to another person!
On New Year’s Eve, after a steaming hot al, there wasn’t much else to do. The two of them were waiting to stay up late for the celebration. Apart from teasing Xie Jue, Lan Ningzhen didn’t have anything else to do, and she had initially thought it would be a simple matter to get him to call her Anning. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be so difficult. Xie Jue’s face had mostly healed after days of confinent in his room, but his mood had turned somber. After dinner, Lan Ningzhen noticed his lack of spirit and asked, in an attempt to cheer him up, "Want to go out to the courtyard and build a snowman?"
"It’s cold..." Xie Jue instinctively refused, but after thinking about the boredom of waiting indoors for the New Year celebration and feeling the stifling air in his room, he hesitated for a mont and eventually agreed to go out for a walk.
Lan Ningzhen treated the matter as if it were of utmost importance. Though she had been the one to suggest it, she prepared thoroughly. She dressed Xie Jue in the thickest clothes, placed gloves on him, and wrapped his face with a snow fox fur scarf, which was extraordinarily warm. She bundled him up so completely that he resembled a snow bear before allowing him to step outside. Even Xie Jue thought she was making a fuss over nothing, but he figured if he felt uncomfortable, he could just return indoors.
But Lan Ningzhen didn’t want his face to suffer another injury, so she took special care. The courtyard snow was piled so deeply that it reached knee height and made walking nearly impossible. Snow also blanketed the covered walkways, but the family of the caretaker physician swept the snow from these paths, so the accumulation was less severe there. Thick snow even rested atop the rooftops. As Xie Jue and Lan Ningzhen pushed open the door to step outside, a gust of wind blew past, causing the snow on the eaves to tumble down, carrying a fleeting sense of shattered beauty.
Lan Ningzhen pulled Xie Jue towards the easternmost part of the courtyard. Over there was a wind-blocking shed, and just beyond it was the physician’s pharmacy. The snow in this area was thick but not as exaggerated as in the rest of the courtyard—just right for building snown.
Though it was late at night, the night didn’t feel particularly dark, as the snow-covered courtyard bathed everything in brightness, like a soft silvery moonlight. Cheerfully, Lan Ningzhen began sculpting a snowman.
Xie Jue didn’t dampen the mood even a little, challenging her in a contest to see whose snowman turned out better. Building snown was a novelty for Xie Jue; though the Capital City also experienced heavy snowfall in winter, his older brother Xie Zhang had always been steady and reserved, not inclined to play in the snow—and neither had he. Xie Xun, however, loved it. Xie Jue, being solitary by nature, wasn’t interested in mingling with kids his own age in the Capital City. Xie Xun was different; he was also solitary, but his aloof deanor carried a kind of arrogance, as though he believed everyone but himself was foolish—a maddening quality that discouraged others from approaching. Consequently, he only enjoyed playing with his brothers.
When Xie Jue was young, Xie Xun often dragged him along to build snown. But back then, his fragile health ant that playing in the snow once would inevitably result in a sickness shortly thereafter.
Still, he genuinely enjoyed building snown and playing with his younger brother.
But his delicate body couldn’t keep up. Xie Xun was almost incorrigibly mischievous. If soone else’s older brother fell ill from playing, they’d likely be more considerate and avoid bringing them out to play again, sparing them from further suffering. Xie Xun wasn’t like that. Each ti Xie Jue recovered from an illness, Xie Xun would sneakily lure him outside again to build snown, never learning his lesson regardless of how many punishnts followed. Despite the reprimands, he remained passionate about coaxing his older brother into mischief.
One year, Xie Xun not only dragged Xie Jue along but also roped in Fang Chuning. The three of them spent an entire night in the courtyard building snown. Eventually, Xie Xun went off to check on his colt, leaving Xie Jue and Fang Chuning to play in the snow alone. They built snown and even climbed onto the rooftop, where Xie Xun kicked Fang Chuning off the roof, sending him plunging headfirst into a snowdrift.
Who would’ve thought, over a decade later, that such youthful joy could still be found!
This kind of joy was brought by Lan Ningzhen.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the snown were finished. Lan Ningzhen and he each built one, and they looked almost identical. Their faces, crafted with twigs to form features, bore a striking resemblance, as though they were twins.
"It would be wonderful to make a painting of this," Lan Ningzhen said wistfully, lanting how this beautiful mont couldn’t be preserved forever. Xie Jue, however, was lost in his thoughts. His emotions surged as he gazed at the lively and spirited Lan Ningzhen, his expression a turmoil of complexity.
"Why can you always be so happy?" Xie Jue asked, confused. He couldn’t understand how she could be perpetually optimistic, always smiling, holding out hopeful expectations for everything.
"Because you’re here with !" Delicate snowflakes drifted past her eyes. Through her pupils, Xie Jue saw a reflection of himself, akin to a snowman. How could soone as cold as him bring her such joy?
He did not understand!
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