January the second. The twenty-fourth of the twelfth lunar month, and the day the south keeps Minor New Year.

The house was lively from first thing in the morning — not on account of Xu Ye being home, but because his aunt had brought Wang Yuxin over early.

Old Zhang and her sister started in on family talk the moment they saw each other, with Old Xu putting a word in from the side now and then. Xu Ye was still flat out asleep at this point, and with nothing else to do Wang Yuxin crept into his room several times over. Seeing him asleep she didn't dare wake him, but she was in and out often enough that he had been awake for a while already.

Seeing signs of life out of him, Wang Yuxin hurried over, showed her two small pointed teeth and laughed. "Xu Ye-gege, my mom says we're all doing Minor New Year at your house today."

"I know."

Xu Ye rubbed his temples and reached for the jacket lying on the covers. His trousers had gone off the bed onto the floor, so he set her to work at once. "See where they went."

Wang Yuxin walked briskly around to the other side of the bed and handed them to him.

Once he was dressed Xu Ye went out and called a greeting to his aunt, washed up in the bathroom, and then sat down at the dining table to eat his breakfast with his phone in his other hand.

Wang Yuxin stayed at his elbow like a little tagalong, exactly as she had when she was small, and got her questions in wherever there was a gap. "Xu Ye-gege, Auntie says you took Qingqing-jiejie up Mount Lu a few days ago?"

"Mm."

"Was it fun?"

"Pretty fun."

"Did it snow a lot up on the mountain?"

"Mm."

"I saw you and Qingqing-jiejie have both changed your profile pictures. Where's that picture from?"

"Somebody drew it."

"Oh. Then—"

"Stop right there." Xu Ye gave her a flat look and said irritably, "Don't go on and…