Chapter 51

Song Ruichi's voice sounded so wronged, as if he had been badly bullied by Xu Er, which made Xu Er feel wronged as well, and he couldn't help thinking that he really was a jerk.

"I didn't abandon you," Xu Er turned around, patted Song Ruichi on the head to comfort him, "I want you, I really, really want you."

Song Ruichi pulled Xu Er's hand over and kissed the palm of it.

The two of them just stood there watching the snow for a while longer.

"Are we going to keep watching like this?" Xu Er asked.

Song Ruichi replied, "Have you seen enough?"

Xu Er clicked his tongue: "I was pretty excited at first, but after watching for a while, it gets a bit dull."

As if to echo these words, Xu Er let out a huge yawn right after finishing them.

Song Ruichi asked, "Sleepy?"

Xu Er answered, "A little bit."

Song Ruichi asked, "Hungry?"

Xu Er answered, "Not hungry."

Song Ruichi said, "Let's sleep, we'll talk when we wake up."

Xu Er smiled and said, "Okay."

"We'll talk when we wake up" was a phrase that suited this trip of theirs remarkably well.

Their main theme for this trip was to arrange nothing at all, doing whatever came to mind.

Right now, what came to mind was sleeping.

Then let's sleep.

They had eaten a little something on the plane, so there was no need to worry about lunch at the moment.

With the curtains drawn, the two sleepyheads tumbled into the bed and fell fast asleep.

That bad habit of Xu Er's—where whatever he encountered easily turned into a dream—led this afternoon nap straight into a dream about the so-called Friday night.

However, who knows what this dream was supposed to mean, but the one weeping bitterly turned out to be Xu Er. He was sitting on the sofa in Song Ruichi's house, holding Soso, crying his eyes out, and telling Song Ruichi that he couldn't abandon him.

When he woke up, Xu Er was completely speechless, and he didn't dare mention it either, afraid that Song Ruichi would actually make him cry for real.

For some reason, he just felt that Song Ruichi was the kind of person who would do something like that.

This sleep was a massive, recharging nap, and it felt unimaginably comfortable.

After getting up, Xu Er's very first task was to pull back the curtains.

Then he let out another gasp of awe.

The snow had gotten much lighter, but having fallen for so long, a glance outside revealed a completely white world.

It was simply too gorgeous. This country bumpkin from the southern part of the country was once again awestruck and started snapping pictures wildly.

"Look," Xu Er said, putting away his phone after taking the photos. "None of them are holding umbrellas."

Turning his head, Song Ruichi placed a hat right on top of Xu Er's head. "People generally don't hold umbrellas when it snows."

"Is that so? Good thing I saw, otherwise I would have gone out with an umbrella," Xu Er asked Song Ruichi, "What happens if you use an umbrella?"

"Nothing much," Song Ruichi replied. "It just makes it instantly obvious that you're a southerner."

Xu Er burst out laughing: "Time to gawk at the southerner!"

The purpose of this journey had already been achieved; anything they did from here on out would simply be icing on the cake.

After a brief wash-up and some tidying, they headed out to eat a steaming hot mutton hotpot.

Once their eyes were satisfied, their mouths needed to be satisfied as well.

They changed their clothes and stepped outside.

Fully rested, they felt much clearer-headed and more spirited. Inside the elevator, Xu Er began humming a tune, idly glancing at the hotel services listed next to the floor numbers.

And that was how he saw it.

"Hot springs."

Xu Er turned his head to lock eyes with Song Ruichi, and both of them saw two words mirrored in each other's eyes: Let's go.

This kind of telepathic harmony couldn't possibly be any better; Song Ruichi was truly his ultimate soulmate.

So as soon as they stepped out of the elevator, Song Ruichi called the front desk to reserve a hot spring session for the evening.

The mutton hotpot restaurant wasn't far, less than a ten-minute taxi ride away.

In the middle of the afternoon, the restaurant wasn't crowded, and the two of them leisurely enjoyed a hearty meal.

By the time they came out, the sky was already starting to darken, and lights were twinkling on in various places. Xu Er's stomach was stuffed, so they decided to walk a stretch first without any destination in mind—just walking wherever their feet took them, and hailing a cab back to the hotel whenever they got tired.

The snow had stopped, and the accumulated snow on the pathways had been swept aside. Everything in sight was blanketed in pristine white, looking truly breathtaking.

Many of the architectural styles here were different from those in City A, so Xu Er chatted curiously with Song Ruichi the entire way, taking charge of asking questions while Song Ruichi took charge of providing the answers.

"You're practically a northerner," Xu Er remarked halfway through, marveling, "How do you know so much about this?"

Song Ruichi explained, "I worked in City E once, and it happened to be during winter."

Xu Er let out an "oh" of realization: "You're a man of rich and varied experiences, Teacher Song."

Walking a bit further, they came across an open plaza.

There were some trees bordering the open space. Looking at the snow piled high on the branches, Xu Er was reminded of some short videos he had scrolled through previously.

"Come, come, come," Xu Er pointed at the trees over there. "Help me film one."

He trotted over to the base of a tree, first shaking the trunk with his hands, and then giving it a kick with his foot.

In his imagination, the snow on the tree would fall upon him in a gorgeous, rustling cascade. To his surprise, with that kick, a massive chunk of snow went *thud* and dropped straight down.

Xu Er even had his arms spread wide and his pose locked in, only to be completely engulfed by the block of snow, leaving his mind blank from the impact.

Song Ruichi, who was recording the video, burst out laughing.

Xu Er: "..."

With his entire head covered in snow, Xu Er muttered, "That turned out a bit different from what I had in mind."

Brushing the snow off his body, Xu Er trotted back to Song Ruichi's side and saw that Song Ruichi was admiring the video he had just filmed.

Once wasn't enough; he dragged the progress bar back to those few seconds when the snow block fell and replayed it several times.

"Is it really that funny?" Xu Er started laughing at himself.

Instead of answering whether it was funny or not, Song Ruichi leaned over and planted a kiss right on Xu Er's lips.

Startled, Xu Er hopped backward right next to Song Ruichi, wrapped his arms around Song Ruichi's arm, and looked around warily.

This guy really loved launching surprise sneak attacks outdoors.

With more accumulated snow all around and such a large open space, the moment Song Ruichi put his phone away, a mischievous thought crossed Xu Er's mind. He suddenly crouched down, packed a snowball, took a few steps back, and hurled the snowball right at Song Ruichi.

With a soft *thwack*, it hit its mark.

"Hahaha," Xu Er laughed out loud.

Song Ruichi had snow on him now too. He patted it off and simply said, "Little Xu Er."

As Song Ruichi crouched down, Xu Er hurriedly bolted while scrambling down to grab a handful of snow.

The moment he straightened up, he took a snowball straight from Song Ruichi. Lacking the time to pack a proper one, he blindly threw whatever loose snow he had at Song Ruichi.

For the next one, Song Ruichi landed a direct hit right on the forehead of Xu Er, who was just rising to his feet.

The impact made Xu Er squeeze his eyes shut as he blindly lobbed his ready snowball forward.

Only, this throw went terribly astray, striking a passerby instead.

Xu Er brushed the snow off his face, realized what happened, and hurried over to apologize.

Yet before the apology in his mouth could be fully uttered, the passerby suddenly squatted down, packed a snowball of his own, and hurled it right back at Xu Er.

The passerby looked like a high school student, carrying a backpack as if he were just getting out of cram school.

Xu Er was momentarily stunned by the counterattack, but reality didn't grant him time to daze because he saw this classmate squatting down to pack yet another snowball.

Before the student could stand up, however, a snowball from Song Ruichi had already struck him square in the chest.

A full-blown snowball fight broke out instantly.

Xu Er quickly crouched back down to manufacture ammunition.

Soon enough, it wasn't just this student; one after another, other students joined in on the fun.

The scene descended into utter chaos. In less than a few minutes, passing friends and the children of nearby street-shop owners had turned the open plaza into a packed gathering.

Everyone was mixed together in a free-for-all with no teams, launching snowballs at whoever happened to be closest.

Screams and cheers rose and fell in waves. Xu Er darted here and there, sometimes grabbing Song Ruichi and sometimes using Song Ruichi as a human shield.

Gradually, as everyone grew tired of the snowball fight, they shifted over to a slope beside the open plaza to go sledding.

Trailing one after another, groups of seven or eight squatted down in a human chain, relying on the ice coating the ground to slide down the slope together, laughing with unbridled joy.

The lively commotion lasted until the city's streetlights illuminated the entire area, and only when it was time for the younger kids' dinner hours did they reluctantly disperse.

When he finally returned to Song Ruichi's side, Xu Er was panting slightly, his hat listing crookedly to one side.

"Did you have fun?" Song Ruichi asked.

Xu Er nodded vigorously. "So much fun!"

Song Ruichi had recorded plenty of videos of him, and on the walk back, Xu Er picked a couple to watch.

In the videos, he was either laughing or cracking up.

It was hard to imagine that he would play like this with a group of complete strangers.

It felt truly magical to have been drawn into the moment so unconsciously.

Song Ruichi's Moments feed had new posts of Xu Er: one of him fighting in the snowball battle, one of him sliding down the icy slope, and a rather tragic photo of him covered entirely in snow after kicking the tree.

The caption read: "A dose of happiness."

"Is this my happiness or your happiness?" Xu Er asked upon seeing it.

Song Ruichi replied, "I'm happy too."

Xu Er protested, "You didn't even play with us."

Song Ruichi said, "I was acting as your humble, unsung photographer."

Xu Er zoomed in on the pictures, and he had to admit, "These photos are great. Even though I was laughing like that, you managed to capture such wonderful expressions."

Song Ruichi retorted, "Look who took them."

Xu Er shot a sidelong glance at Song Ruichi: "Oh, oh, oh, and who might that be?"

Song Ruichi wrapped his arms around Xu Er and hooked his chin up with a finger: "Who?"

Xu Er puffed out his chest proudly: "My boyfriend."

Song Ruichi's eyes curved into crescent moons, and he planted a loud *mwah* right on Xu Er's cheek.

It was yet another completely unguarded ambush, except this time, there was an audience.

They heard a girl screeching "Ahhhhh!" from behind and to their side.

Turning around, they saw the girl excitedly sprinting back toward her group of friends.

After a quick, animated discussion where the girls played rock-paper-scissors, another girl who lost the game came trotting over.

Xu Er recognized this little clique; they were the ones who had participated in the snowball fight and the slope-sliding earlier.

They could be considered comrades who had briefly fought side by side.

"Sorry to bother you," the girl said, looking intensely embarrassed as she rushed through what she wanted to say. "May I boldly ask, are you two a couple? Ah, it's totally fine if you don't want to say, sorry to disturb you, really, sorry!"

Xu Er turned to look at Song Ruichi, who signaled with his eyes for Xu Er to handle it.

So Xu Er answered, "Yes."

The girl shrieked "Ahhh!" again as she dashed back to her little group.

And then the entire circle of friends erupted into a collective chorus of "Ahhhhhh!"

"I told you so, I told you!"

"Ahhh, I'm so excited!"

...

For some inexplicable reason, Xu Er felt a warm wave of happiness brought on by the blessings of complete strangers.

Yet as happy as he was, continuing to walk the same path felt a bit awkward.

So the two of them hailed a taxi right then and there to return to the hotel.

Back at the hotel meant hot springs time.

Even though they claimed to have had no agenda, today's schedule had been filled to the brim.

The hot springs were located right downstairs, accessible via a dedicated elevator. Soon enough, after changing into bathrobes in their room, they could head straight down.

Another brand-new experience awaited them.

"I've never soaked in a hot spring before," Xu Er told Song Ruichi inside the descending elevator, before asking, "Can you swim?"

Song Ruichi replied, "Yes."

Xu Er admitted, "I can't swim."

Song Ruichi promised, "I'll take you when summer comes."

Speaking of swimming...

"This summer, Chen Nan and I went river rafting," Xu Er gestured with his hands. "By the end of the rafting trip, everyone started splashing water at each other. Things got way too rowdy, and I got pulled into the water by the enemy."

Song Ruichi prompted, "And then?"

"After swallowing a few mouthfuls of water, Chen Nan fished me out," Xu Er recounted. "Those few seconds were terrifying, I really thought I was going to die."

Song Ruichi patted the top of Xu Er's head gently: "I'll teach you next summer."