When he woke up again, snowflakes were falling outside the window.
During winter, when it snows, the outdoors is quieter than inside.
All sounds seem to melt into the snow-covered mountains, and even the flow of time feels frozen. After waking up, one could zone out for a moment and then drift back to sleep, only to find that barely half an hour has passed.
When snow falls in Hongcheng, the city feels even older. Gray-black water drips steadily from the drainpipes, muddy ice piles up on both sides of the street, and the snow’s pristine whiteness is sliced and swallowed by the narrow eaves of the houses, making everything feel even more cramped.
When Jiang Wang went downstairs after changing his clothes, he found Ji Linqiu’s mother leaning against the carved columns, watching the snow.
The old country house was made of wood, with small, indistinct animal figures perched on the upturned eaves. The brackets supporting the roof were old and in disrepair, wedged a little deeper by a few long nails.
Chen Danhong, getting on in years, couldn’t get used to wearing light down jackets. Only the weight of thick cotton clothing made her feel warm.
In the back kitchen, smoke from cooking continuously wafted into the air. Her daughter, taking a moment to breathe from her busy work, stood with her mother, both gazing at the distant mountains.
“The glutinous rice balls are already steaming.”
Chen Danhong responded with a hum, tucking her hands into her cotton sleeves. She relaxed for a brief moment but soon began to worry again.
“Snow on the 29th or 30th of the lunar month is fine, but I hope it doesn’t snow on New Year’s Day.”
She seemed to be pleading with the heavens, muttering to the cold, empty wind.
“Snow on New Year’s Day is bad luck, please don’t snow.”
Ji Changxia had been living in the city for so long that she’d forgotten such farming proverbs. She glanced at the snow indifferently, then started worrying about whether the child might get cold playing outside. She went back inside to make a phone call.
Jiang Wang, standing on the staircase, witnessed the entire scene.
Once the heavy snow fell, these two women seemed, for just a fleeting moment, to break free from their predetermined roles.
He was momentarily confused.
Does everyone go through this—escaping, if only briefly, again and again, over the course of years or even decades, constantly wearing themselves down?
Ji Linqiu had already gone out early in the morning with his father to visit neighbors.
Though he was naturally quiet and reserved, he had remembered something Jiang Wang said on his first day in Zhou Town and, as if repaying a debt, followed a strict order to visit one household after another.
Though tomorrow was New Year’s Eve, such visits were mainly a gesture of respect and filial piety from the younger generation. The specific day didn’t matter much.
Ji Guoshen, who had been pruning the plum branches in the courtyard that morning, was stunned when Ji Linqiu asked about it, as if he had brought the wrong son home.
Ji Linqiu thought his father hadn’t heard him clearly.
“Just tell me who I should visit first, and whether I should bow or kneel. I’ll make my way through the households.”
In the end, he had returned to take care of his parents in the village. He didn’t mind the formality of it all and wasn’t offended by the idea of bowing.
Ji Guoshen, unsure why his son had suddenly come around, felt like the stubborn streak in him—so resistant in the past that it might have shattered if forced—was now being carefully tended to.
Awkwardly, he said, “It’s already good that you’ve come back. There’s no need to go out of your way to pay New Year’s visits.”
Sensing his words weren’t enough, he called over Chen Danhong to add, “Next year, you don’t have to come back either. Otherwise, people will keep inviting you to drink, making you uncomfortable.”
“It’s fine, your mom and I will spend the New Year with your sister, and that’s good enough,” Ji Linqiu’s mother added with a sheepish smile. “Just remember to visit us from time to time.”
Ji Linqiu’s sudden return for New Year’s fulfilled a long-held wish of theirs, so much so that the two elderly parents, almost like children, acted a bit deferential, eager to keep him happy.
Seeing their expressions, Ji Linqiu was reminded of the children he taught, feeling a little uneasy. He quickly agreed, explaining that he was just going out for a walk and would visit the elders along the way.
Chen Danhong, eager for this outcome, displayed a look of relief. “Go take him for a stroll. Your second uncle has been talking about him for so long, saying how much he misses the kid!”
Ji Linqiu’s father led Ji Linqiu out the door, still finding it hard to believe how calmly his son was following behind him.
“Let’s go.” Ji Linqiu reached out to support him. “Hold on to me, the road is slippery.”
The older relatives were all surprised and delighted when they saw the younger generation arriving for greetings. Aunts and grandmothers smiled so broadly that they couldn’t stop, stuffing Ji Linqiu’s arms with cakes and red envelopes, still treating him like a teenager.
“You were the most diligent student in the village back then, and now my grandson is in elementary school. We tell him every day to learn from you — your Brother Linqiu who went to college in Beijing!”
Ji Guoshen, bringing his son around to see relatives, finally felt like he had a reliable and filial son. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he was visibly more relaxed, smiling more easily.
Ji Linqiu spent the entire morning visiting seven or eight households with his father. Each one felt both familiar and strange, as they waited for Ji Linqiu’s father to remind him how to address each elder. He then called out to “Uncle,” “Aunt,” “Grandma,” all the way through.
As for whether the “Grandaunt” was an aunt or a grandma, by the end, it was still unclear.
Everyone who saw him greeted him with wide smiles, inevitably saying something like, “I held you so many times when you were little” or “Do you remember catching fish with me in the river when you were a kid?”
Of course, he didn’t remember.
Ji Linqiu smiled and responded all the way through, but when he looked at those elderly faces, he had no matching memories to recall.
He politely declined all the red envelopes but passively accepted several rolls of brown sugar pastries. Following his father from house to house, sitting for a while and then moving to the next stop, he felt somewhat touched.
Why were these strangers, these elderly relatives with distant blood ties, still holding on to memories of his childhood?
Perhaps it was because they had been stuck in the mountains for too long.
While the younger generation grew up and left one after another, these elders continued their lives by the well and fields, pulling each other along yet also holding each other back, ultimately guarding old memories as they aged alone.
Ji Linqiu suddenly lost touch with his own emotions again.
He knew he was far removed from these relatives, and today was just a brief acknowledgment, smiling and offering a “Happy New Year.”
Once he returned to Hongcheng or Yuhan, the faces of these aunts and uncles would quickly fade from memory.
Yet somehow, he suddenly began to understand them.
The female relatives, upon seeing Ji Linqiu, looked at him with both affection and tenderness. The elderly women would gently touch his cheek with their wrinkled hands, as if they couldn’t believe that the baby from all those years ago had grown so big.
But the male relatives felt compelled to offer their opinions, never hesitating to act like father figures to everyone around.
Ji Guoshen, being of lower rank in the family among certain relatives, could only accompany the conversation with polite smiles, all the while worried that his son might get upset.
“I heard you’re dating several girlfriends at once now?” The most senior relative, Fourth Grandpa, spoke up after a drag on his pipe. “When are you planning to get married?”
“Your dad’s getting old. You should hurry up and let him hold a grandchild.”
Without waiting for Ji Linqiu to reply, the old man tapped his cane, straightened up a bit, and continued, “Since you have good conditions, you can choose a girl with a stable job and good family background to marry.”
He thought for a moment, then generously added, “Marrying a foreign girl is fine too, that’d bring honor to our village.”
The gathered relatives burst into laughter.
Ji Linqiu smiled and responded courteously, while inwardly wondering what Jiang Wang would do in this situation.
Jiang Wang, with his slick talk, could outdo him in charming the elders, likely making them all beam with delight.
Then, in true stealthy fashion, he’d subtly bring about change, moving his parents to the provincial capital, introducing them to groups of elderly folks for square dancing, calligraphy, and card games.
Over time, as new social circles formed, he’d slowly guide them away from the little mountain village.
No arguments, not a word of conflict.
No one noticed Ji Linqiu zoning out. Seeing him being agreeable and easygoing, the conversation eventually circled back to the main topic.
“Linqiu,” another uncle added, “when you get married, try to keep the bride price low to ease the burden on your parents.”
Ji Guoshen hurriedly chimed in to smooth things over, “There’s no need to intentionally reduce it. If Linqiu finds a girl he likes, we have some savings and should be able to manage it.”
“Well, that’s up to you,” the uncle said seriously. “But the bride’s dowry has to follow our customs. You can’t afford to be thin-skinned right now, otherwise, how will you raise kids in the future, right?”
A group of elders gave advice here and there, and before they knew it, time had flown by.
When they returned home for lunch, it was already noon.
Jiang Wang had just finished a call with Peng Xingwang, confirming everything was going well with the kid.
On the other end of the phone, it was a noisy scene, with firecrackers and fireworks constantly going off.
“Big Brother! Happy New Year!! Make sure you also say hi to Teacher Ji for me!!!”
The kid was shouting at the top of his lungs: “I’m still setting off fireworks! My dad bought me some ‘two-stage bombs’!!!”
Jiang Wang couldn’t hear anything clearly, so he shouted back, “Bought—what—?”
“Two-stage bombs!!!”
“Go play!” Jiang Wang couldn’t be bothered and yelled, “Watch your hands!! Don’t blow yourself up!!”
“Got it!!”
As soon as the call ended, Ji Linqiu came in from the west side, holding a bunch of wild camellia flowers, each blossom large and vibrant.
Jiang Wang hurried to find a glass soda bottle, stuffed the uneven flower stems in, and poured in some water—giving the arrangement a very British oil painting vibe.
Boss Jiang, casually helping arrange the flowers, spoke rather bluntly: “This afternoon, we’re going to visit that dumbass.”
Ji Linqiu was still adjusting the leaves, glanced at him, and then realized what he meant. “We’re going there on purpose?”
“Yeah, no time like the present,” Jiang Wang pinched the edge of a petal, looking mischievous. “Besides, it’s the end of the year. You really want to drag this nonsense into the next one?”
At the thought of seeing that person again, Ji Linqiu instinctively felt disgusted.
“How about we just let it go,” he muttered to himself. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
“If thinking about it still makes you sick, that means it’s not over yet.” Jiang Wang glanced at him. “What’s that guy’s name?”
“Shi Hao, in his forties.”
Shi Hao had a distant connection with the Ji family, barely related, but because he could drink and loved to brag, he got along well with a group of men in the village.
When Ji Linqiu was in his early twenties, he went to a neighbor’s house for a meal with his parents and ended up sitting at the same table as Shi Hao. During the meal, he switched seats with his younger sister.
Shi Hao, drunk and rowdy, slapped his hand down and gave a hard squeeze, only to realize something was off when he felt the difference. He looked up in shock, which caused everyone at the table to burst into laughter.
Even now, thinking about it still made Ji Linqiu feel nauseated.
After hearing the whole story, Jiang Wang’s expression turned serious. “We have to go.”
“Do you know where he lives?”
“Mn.”
“Good,” Jiang Wang turned to go back inside. “Give me a minute.”
Ji Linqiu thought he was going to grab a weapon and quickly stopped him. “What are you going to get?”
“Nothing much, just changing into something fancy and slicking my hair back. Maybe even a tie.”
“This good fellow,” Ji Linqiu, both angry and amused, laughed. “What, are you going to a blind date?”
With his street-smarts and experience, Jiang Wang narrowed his eyes, his voice soft but dangerous.
“When we face this idiot, you don’t need to say a thing. Just stand there and be my background.”
