When Lin Wenxi returned home, his father Lin Ziwei did not welcome him. Instead, he scolded him for pushing himself forward during the Freshmen Contests.

“I won the first prize with my own ability! Every parent wants his or her child to excel at something, but why do you always get upset when I win a prize?” Lin Wenxi retorted angrily. He went into his room and shut the door.

Shortly afterwards, his mother Huang Xiya went into his room and grabbed his hand, trying to have a heart-to-heart talk with him. “Most judges of the poem writing contest know your father. He’s worried that they showed partiality to you and deliberately gave you a high score. I’ve read all the poems. I have to say that you deserve your prize. Your father is just worried that you get too proud and…”

“And so-and-so will accuse him of letting his son enjoy some privileges. Is that what you want to say? Why don’t you just send me to a university in another city, in another province or even abroad. By doing so, you don’t need to worry about these things anymore.” Lin Wenxi interjected impatiently.

“My dear, you’re still a child. You don’t understand,” Huang Xiya said sadly.

“Yes, I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything. If you always treated me as a child, I wouldn’t know anything. But you never treat me as a child. You’ve disciplined me strictly since I went to the elementary school. Am I really your child?” Lin Wenxi said bitterly.

“Wenxi!” Huang Xiya anxiously rubbed her forehead. After a moment of silence, two lines of tears rolled down her face.

Lin Wenxi was well aware that his mother was not a mentally vulnerable person. He really had no idea what made her cry. He thought about it over and over but still failed to think of an explanation. He had no choice but to remain silent. He always felt suffocated at home.

He did not know when his mother left his room or when he fell asleep. He dreamed about that person. In his dream, that person shouted from a distance, “Attention. At ease.” He felt as if he was covered with mud again and carried a backpack.

A few days later, Lin Wenxi’s parents discussed returning to their village for the Chinese New Year.

As most of his relatives in the village still remembered Lin Wenxi as a very naughty boy, they did not like him very much. Because of his parents, they would usually pretend to like him, but Lin Wenxi did not like such false display of affection at all. He had not come back to his village for the festival for six years on the excuse of being busy with his studies. When he stayed in the county alone, his parents would invite Hong Xuan and his family to accompany him or to send him to Hong Xuan’s home.

Upon receiving his transcript from this university, he was dejected since he failed two exams. In the meantime, he felt pleased since now he had a reason to stay in the county during the festival.

He told his parents, “I failed two exams, so I have to stay at home to study and can’t accompany you to the village during the next week.” Lin Ziwei was irritated upon hearing that and wanted to beat his son up. The next moment he remembered that his wife kept crying for no reason at night recently. To avoid upsetting his wife, he just reproached his son and asked Hong Xuan to take care of Lin Wenxi before his departure. Despite that, Lin Ziwei and Huang Xiya still felt worried.

Lin Wenxi quickly realized how worried his parents were.

His mother had filled the refrigerator with all kinds of milk, bread and other nutritional supplements. They were all inexpensive high-quality products that she had carefully picked out and bought from the supermarket. His father had put up a poster in his room. There was a slogan on it— “You’ll Be Given an Important Task.” Lin Wenxi looked up at the slogan and felt that this was really unnecessary. When he was about to take it off, he somehow thought of what Zhao Yuan had said about himself back in the psychology class. He smiled and looked at the slogan in a daze.

Hong Xuan was Lin Ziwei’s bodyguard and driver now. He had once been a subordinate under Lin Ziwei back in the army. He had a wide forehead, thick eyebrows and a big nose. He always looked solemn and authoritive. Unlike Lin Ziwei, who seldom did exercises after leaving the army and looked somewhat fat now, Hong Xuan practiced kung fu every day after work and looked slim and muscular. He was a hard-working man and had managed to suppress many street thugs for Lin Ziwei. When Lin Ziwei and his wife did not have time to take care of their son, they would send Lin Wenxi to Hong Xuan’s home. Over the past decade, Hong Xuan had often taken Lin Wenxi to do exercise, and Lin Wenxi had considered him as a relative and someone like his father. Lin Wenxi respected and feared Hong Xuan.

Compared to Lin Ziwei, Hong Xuan did not discipline Lin Wenxi very strictly. As such, when staying together with Hong Xuan, Lin Wenxi dared to do something that he did not dare to do in front of his father. Nevetheless, once he went too far, Hong Xuan would punish him by forcing him to do more exercises. Because of Homg Xuan’s help, Lin Wenxi was basically in good health albeit not exceptionally strong.

When Hong Xuan came to take care of Lin Wenxi, he just cooked for him and urged him to study. Sometimes he would watch TV, but most of the time, he would practice kung wu in the yard. Hong Xuan was not good at studying at all, and he often asked Lin Wenxi to help his own daughter Hong Yan doing her homework.

One day, his wife was sick, and her daughter was in grade 12 and busy with her studies. Given this, he asked a leave and told Lin Wenxi to take care of himself for one day.

After Hong Xuan’s departure, Lin Wenxi excitedly rolled in his bed as he was free now. After a while, he felt a little lost as he did not know what to do. He did not have any friends here except Hong Yan. What he did not know was that his parents liked Hong Yan very much and even planned to ask him to marry this pretty and nice girl when he grew up.

Lin Wenxi gave Hong Yan a call and then went to her home on the excuse of visiting her sick mother. To his surprise, Hong Yan’s mother, who was sick, managed to prepare an exceedingly good lunch for him and then called Lin Ziwei to express her gratitude. He had never expected that he would bring so much trouble for Hong Yan’s mother. After helping Hong Yan finishing her homework, he went home alone.

When he reached the door of his home, he searched his whole body but still could not find the keys. He recalled that Hong Xuan did not take the keys away with himself either. He thought that he had probably left the keys at home.

Lin Wenxi and his family had lived in this old-fashioned courtyard since they had moved into the county 7 years ago. Although it was located in a prosperous area in the eastern part of the county, it was simply decorated and did not look like a living place of a high-rank official. None of their neighbors knew that this place was the home of the former director of the education bureau of Yangzi County.

Now Lin Ziwei was the deputy mayor of the city, but he did not move into the city. He still lived in this courtyard in Yangzi County, as this county was his hometown and located just on the edge of the city. Hong Xuan would drive him to and from work every day, and once he was too busy, he could sleep in his office. He chose to stay in Yangzi County for another reason. This county had many famous schools, such as Zhenbei Middle School and High School, South City Middle School and High School, West City Middle School and High School and East City Middle School and High School.

As such, Lin Ziwei would rather continue living in Yangzi County than move into the city.

The facilities in the courtyard looked simple, but in fact, they had been carefully designed and upgraded by relevant departments five years ago when Lin Ziwei had become the deputy mayor of the city. Given this, Lin Wenxi knew that it was impossible for him to break into this courtyard now.

He walked back toward Hong Xuan’s home, but when he got only half way, he decided to go to Xuezi Bridge. He had to cross this bridge to go to Zhenbei High School and return home each day when he was a high school student. Because of the impending Chinese New Year, most of the vendors had returned to their hometown. This bridge looked empty now. As it had just rained, the bridge was somewhat muddy.

Lin Wenxi stood on the bridge in the wind and looked down at the quietly flowing Yangzi River. He thought gleefully, “I’m finally free today.” He decided to take a walk in the county.

About one hour later, he reached Zhegui Bridge in the south of the city. If he continued to travel southward, he would see many villages. Many villagers gathered around the bridge and sold local specialities to earn some money for the Chinese New Year.

Lin Wenxi bought a mountain apple from an old man and gave the man’s grandson two sweets. That little boy smiled cheerfully and gave him an orange-colored crab apple in return. Lin Wenxi took a bite of the crab apple and liked its sweet and sour taste very much.

Somehow he thought of Zhang Dong again. He clearly remembered how Zhang Dong had trained him and managed to make him laugh out loud.

Zhang Dong’s words still rang in his ears. He touched his neck and thought, “Zhang Dong really meant it when he asked me to kill him. He’s a hard-working soldier. Zhang Dong, why is it you? Why do you suddenly come back into my life after all these years? Why did you do that to me years ago?” Lin Wenxi still hated his own body, but he did not hate it so much as before. He remembered Zhang Dong’s words. “You’re not dirty. The dirty person is me.”

For the first time in recent 6 years, Lin Wenxi had walked down that lane again. When he reached Binhe Road and looked at his home from a distance, it began to snow.

Snowflakes began falling down, and this world would soon look pure and white. Upon seeing the snowflakes, Lin Wenxi thought of his childhood playmate Fangfang, but he could not remember his face clearly now. He wondered, “Where’s Fangfang? What is he doing now? Does it snow in his hometown? Will he think of me? He’s probably 20 years old now. Does he go a university?”

He walked back to Zhegui Bridge and stood on the bridge alone in the snow.

Someone pointed at him and teased, “Does that guy want to jump into the river now? Doesn’t he know that he won’t get drowned to death by doing so? He’ll get frozen to death.” Lin Wenxi heard it but still remained unmoved.

“Hey, bro, are you really planning to jump into the river?” Someone approached him and asked. Lin Wenxi just wanted to spend some time alone and did not want to be disturbed. He turned around and smiled at the person.

When he was about to leave, he heard someone in the crowd calling his name. A tipsy guy ran to him and grabbed his hand. He shivered and seemed to sober up upon seeing Lin Wenxi’s face.

“Zhao Yuan!” Lin Wenxi said, and his nose was twitching.