The snow came and went all night.

By morning there was a thin layer of it settled on the eaves.

Outside the sliding door, a perfect picture of deep winter.

Inside the sliding door, full spring.

Chen Qingqing had slept the night leaning on Xu Ye's shoulder. Perhaps the air conditioning in the room had been turned up too high, because there was still a faint flush on her face.

Xu Ye pulled the covers tighter. One arm was still around her shoulders; with the other he reached over to the nightstand, felt for his watch and checked the time.

Thinking about having to set off for Jiangzhou at noon, he couldn't quite bear it, but he called her anyway, twice. "Qingqing~"

Chen Qingqing made a small coaxing sound and settled further into him instead.

There was nothing Xu Ye could do about it. He picked up his phone and sent Qin Zhiwei a message. "Brother Wei, I might be a bit late getting over."

Then he sent one to Zhang Xinzhou. "After checkout at noon, arrange cars to take them all back. And tell them to post in the company group chat when they get home."

Qin Zhiwei replied fast.

Zhang Xinzhou didn't reply for a long time, which presumably meant he was still asleep — after Xu Ye left last night he had stayed and put away a fair amount more.

Xu Ye put the phone down and went back to sleep for a while.

When he opened his eyes again it was nine thirty. He got out of bed carefully, tucked the covers around Chen Qingqing, then bent down to pick his pajamas up off the floor and put them on. He went into the bathroom first and spent five minutes washing his face and brushing his teeth, then got the luggage roughly packed, and only then went over to the bed, laid a hand on Chen Qingqing's forehead and said gently, "It's nearly ten. Time to get up."

Chen Qingqing pushed her lips out and mumbled something indistinct. "Don't want to~"

"Come on. If we don't…