The First Snowflake

Beneath a dust-powdered window, the bus was packed and noisy. In the cramped interior, the handrails were slick with grime, and the seats were stained with brown, sticky filth. Passengers—a crying infant, a squalling child, an adult shouting into a phone on speaker—made a din that threatened to lift the roof.

The driver, in the throes of road rage, cursed at the farm vehicles flouting traffic rules around him, while bangs and thuds erupted from every direction.

Passengers had long grown numb: those seated bowed their heads over phones with sound on, while standees pressed together chatted loudly.

One person alone stood motionless at the exit door, arms crossed. Apart from the patch of floor beneath her feet, she touched nothing else in the bus.

A woman in a snow-white dress on a rural bus drew a few glances when passengers paid their fares—none had seen such a fair-skinned, beautiful girl around here.

Shen Qiancheng deeply regretted the decision she'd made at the airport. When the staff said there were no direct flights to Liao Family Village, she should have cut her losses then. Instead, she insisted on going.

The navigation showed the bus stop was a kilometer away. She recalled her journey: first a taxi to the bus station, then a morning on a coach reeking of cheap leather and eye-stinging gasoline, jolting so much she felt carsick by the time she reached the town.

At the town, navigation indicated a bus, but she waited an hour at the stop without seeing one.

A vendor woman pushing a cart of white strips kept studying Shen Qiancheng, thinking the girl was truly lovely—delicate skin, a pristine white dress, so graceful.

She waited quietly like she was expecting a bus, under this blazing sun, for a whole hour.

The vendor fiddled with her wares and, with good intentions, said, "Young miss, are you waiting for the bus? That stop sign doesn't count. You have to wait at that turn up ahead. The bus doesn't turn down here; it goes straight over the bridge."

The road ahead was an intersection. A farm vehicle passed, kicking up a meter-tall cloud of dust. Shen Qiancheng frowned as a surge of irritation flared like fire, consuming her reason.

She turned, smiled sweetly at the vendor, and snapped, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

The vendor saw Shen Qiancheng's face up close and instinctively thought she was stunning. She hadn't expected her kind advice to be met with such resentment, so she shot back, "Oh, you young miss, where's your manners..."

Shen Qiancheng ignored her, slung her backpack on, and walked forward reluctantly.

She was already here, after all.

Past the intersection lay a bridge. If not for a large ditch, she wouldn't have realized the flat, ground-level stretch was a bridge.

Nearby, vendors in straw hats sold fruit in the shade.

Shen Qiancheng glanced at the withered apples pockmarked with wormholes and turned away in disgust, focusing on waiting.

Another half hour passed...

She sighed and walked to a fruit stand.

"How much for your apples per catty?"

The vendor, a middle-aged woman, had little business and was idly sizing up where this pretty girl had come from. When the girl approached to ask the price, her face lit up.

She held up three fingers. "Three yuan a catty."

Shen Qiancheng paused, hand reaching for an apple. Three-yuan apples—could they even be edible?

The vendor saw her hesitate and, clenching her teeth, said, "Five for two catties!"

Shen Qiancheng was convinced: these apples were poison, not for her. She could buy them for Liao Xue.

"Fine, give me two catties. By the way, do you know when the bus comes?"

Her phone's navigation showed no schedule for this route, only that such a bus existed.

Shen Qiancheng didn't stop the vendor from stuffing worm-eaten, withered, ugly apples into a plastic bag as she asked casually.

The vendor pointed to the digital scale reading and replied offhand, "Someone's getting married today. The buses are all chartered for the wedding parties."

Chartered... to take people?!

Standing under the blazing sun, outside the shade, Shen Qiancheng blinked and felt the urge to start a bus company right here.

In the end, she boarded the bus carrying a bag of rotten apples. Out the window, rows of poplar trees flashed by, the cracked asphalt road was a pothole-riddled mess, and every jolt set her heart and the apples bouncing in the plastic bag—her heart leaping wildly in her chest.

"Liao Xue!" Gritting her teeth, Shen Qiancheng pulled out an apple and snapped it in half.

When she got off the bus, breathing air tinged with mud, a wave of nausea surged in her chest. She had to lean against a tree, heaving dryly for a long while, but nothing came up. Her head spun, and even the tree shadows blurred double.

She pulled out her phone to check navigation. It said Liao Family Village was halfway up this mountain, and she simply had no strength to climb.

The robotic voice urged on: "Go straight ahead. Go straight ahead."

Standing at the roadside, staring at the ditch before her, Shen Qiancheng couldn't believe jumping in here would lead straight to Liao Family Village—this wasn't Alice in Wonderland.

Frustrated, she switched off her phone and saw her own haggard, pale face in the dark screen, fueling her anger.

When had she ever suffered like this? The first time she saw Liao Xue, she'd slap her hard, then kick her legs off.

With that thought, she raised her foot and kicked the big tree beside her. Before she regained her balance, a hand landed on her shoulder.

Villages like this were full of ruffians and old bachelors. Shen Qiancheng's heart leaped into her throat. In a flash, she grabbed the hand, pivoted, and threw the person over her shoulder to the ground.

Why so light?

She looked back to see a dark, grimy figure curled on the ground, thick, yellowed, straw-like hair covering its face, impossible to make out.

It was indeed a person. Shen Qiancheng stepped back. "Who are you? Why'd you pat my shoulder?"

The figure trembled, shrimp-curled, and beneath it came intermittent sobs.

Shen Qiancheng put her hands on her hips. "Trying to extort me? Not a chance!"

The sobbing didn't stop. Shen Qiancheng, condescendingly, bent down to push aside the hair—but saw only a pale, pointed chin before her hand was shoved away.

A voice, thin as a mosquito's buzz, squeezed out: "I'm fine."

Shen Qiancheng watched the figure wobble to his feet—thin, yellowed hair, pale clothes, and above the unevenly chopped hair, a chin sharp as an awl.

Her heart gave a slight stir. She asked, uneasily, "You sure you're fine? No need for a hospital? Don't come after me later if something goes wrong."

The only reply was a faint voice: "Everyone in Liao Family Village is good. We don't extort people. I... we're all really glad you came."

The stumbling words rolled around in the person's mouth like a scalding dumpling.

People of Liao Family Village—welcoming her?!

"Do you know me?" Shen Qiancheng asked, wary.

"No, no."

Shen Qiancheng put her hands on her hips. "Then why are you so happy?"

"I... I... I asked the Village Chief to come and fetch you," he said, then turned to show Shen Qiancheng the vehicle behind him.

It was Shen Qiancheng's first time seeing a three-wheeled vehicle—and a convertible, at that. The back had no seats.

Sensing her shock, the person said, embarrassed, "It's the best vehicle in our village. I put a stool in the back..."

Shen Qiancheng was thunderstruck. She watched him pull out from the truck bed something that didn't look like it could serve as a seat. Then he glanced at her, took off his coat, folded it with the clean side out, and laid it over the stool.

"Please bear with it. Once we're in the village, it'll be fine."

Shen Qiancheng doubted it would be fine even in the village...

She highly suspected this person's purpose here was not to pick her up.

But if he brought her up the mountain by mistake, that wasn't her taking advantage.

She couldn't be bothered to argue. She raised her leg to board.

"How am I supposed to get on? Can't you help me?"

Liao Xue hurried over to support her, telling her to step up.

Good thing Shen Qiancheng's legs were long enough—she hopped and swung herself aboard.

"Why aren't you driving?" Shen Qiancheng sat down on the stool and put her hands on her hips.

Liao Xue sat in front, turned the key, and with a sharp click, the engine started.

The silence on the road grated on her, so Shen Qiancheng got straight to the point: "Hey, is there a girl in your village named Liao Xue?"

The hum of the three-wheeler stopped. The wind coiled around them, heading up the mountain.

The person turned around. "I... I am Liao Xue."

Shen Qiancheng didn't catch the excitement and hope in Liao Xue's voice. Instead, she lifted Liao Xue's thick hair and saw a pair of round, clear eyes—eyes just like Shen Ya's.

Abruptly, Shen Qiancheng's heart was struck hard, and even her breathing became vivid and distinct.

If Liao Xue weren't there, Shen Qiancheng would have burst out laughing.

What a coincidence. What a coincidence.

After living such good years, and about to be reclaimed by the Shen family, how could you take every lucky break?

Liao Xue, the one who'll bring you to heel is here.

Liao Xue cautiously watched the shifting expressions on Shen Qiancheng's face—first shock, then malice, finally schadenfreude.

She felt that strangely beautiful girl was looking at her as if something were off.

Feeling uneasy under Shen Qiancheng's grinning gaze, she couldn't help asking, "Is there... a problem?"

Shen Qiancheng snapped back, sneering, "Nothing. Just wanted to give you some apples. If you dare refuse, I'm leaving right now."

Liao Xue didn't understand why Shen Qiancheng, chin raised so proudly, wanted to give her apples. Maybe that's how city people were.

The three-wheeler continued at a leisurely pace on the dusty dirt road, meeting no one else along the way.

"Hey, Liao Xue, can you not steer into potholes? You're shaking me to death."

Looking at the dirt path winding up to the mountainside, Liao Xue explained, "It rained heavily a few days ago..."

Shen Qiancheng glanced up at the midday sun and, hand on her back, said, "Oh, this car's too uncomfortable. Take off your hat and give it to me as padding."

A straw hat, rough and burred, was handed over. It felt like it would scratch her bottom. Taken aback, Shen Qiancheng pushed it back.

Her gaze swept the roadside and lit on a small flower. Eyes bright, she said, "Stop, stop! That flower's so pretty. Pick it for me."

Liao Xue skillfully parked at the roadside, got off, bent into the low shrubs, snapped off a few tiny blossoms, and handed them to Shen Qiancheng. "These are evening primroses, quite common."

Shen Qiancheng thought: What? Am I ignorant?

"Of course I know these are evening primroses." She sniffed them. "Nothing special."

"You're so clever, knowing everything," Liao Xue applauded.

Was she mocking me? Shen Qiancheng looked at Liao Xue's sincere face in disbelief.

You're pretty clever too. You've got a real temper.

Shen Qiancheng's eyes twinkled. "The ride's too bumpy. Get out and push."

She bet no one in the world was that agreeable. Come on, fight with me.

Shen Qiancheng plotted silently, but Liao Xue sighed, pulled the key from the ignition, rolled up her sleeves, and began pushing the cart.

Shen Qiancheng gaped at Liao Xue's slender arms, like lotus roots, and her willow-thin frame. How could she push this heavy cart and her weight?

Sensing Shen Qiancheng's gaze on the back of her head, Liao Xue turned and smiled, the meaning clear: don't worry.

"Why are you looking at me? Want me to get off and push?"

Liao Xue hastily shook her head. "No, no. It's almost there."

Shen Qiancheng perched on the three-wheeler, sitting on Liao Xue's coat, holding the evening primroses Liao Xue had picked, with a straw hat Liao Xue insisted on placing on her head. At a crawl, they reached the village entrance.

Shen Qiancheng saw the banner erected before her and heard the gongs and drums; she froze.

—WELCOME SHEN CORPORATION LEADERS TO LIAO FAMILY VILLAGE FOR INSPECTION.

So it was Shi Jianren's doing. Shen Qiancheng, who was taking another's place, felt not a flicker of guilt.

Shi Jianren must be in chaos, having neither sent someone else nor canceled the notice. He was clearly overwhelmed and had forgotten all about it.

There was no turning back. Shen Qiancheng was helped off the vehicle by Liao Xue and brought to the Village Chief.

The Village Chief was over sixty with dark, weathered skin, wearing a blue cap.

"Welcome, welcome. We've been waiting eagerly, and here you are. May I ask your surname?"

Shen Qiancheng laughed along. This much enthusiasm was overwhelming.

"I'm Shen. Shen Tianqing. Tian as in sky, qing as in clear."

"President Shen, we've prepared humble dishes. Please don't mind."

Shen Qiancheng felt a chill run down her spine. She followed the crowd inside, smiling along with the Village Chief.

"We're counting on your inspection to help us build a school."

Never had Shen Qiancheng felt such embarrassment and mortification. She echoed, "Of course, of course."

Amid the harmonious atmosphere, a voice cut through like a thunderbolt.

"You little tramp! I've been looking for you all day. So you know your way back? Why didn't you die out there!"