About half an hour later, the painkillers took effect, relieving Xue Jing's pain and driving away the ghostly memories that haunted him.

When Jinzi rushed out of the elevator, Xue Jing had already returned to his gentle and refined state, with a graceful figure, a calm expression, and even the strands of hair on his head were neat and fluffy.

After relaying the doctor's words verbatim to Jinzi, Xue Jing stopped eavesdropping on his trivial conversations with his parents-in-law and immediately returned home from the hospital.

The road was still that desolate asphalt road. Compared to the hustle and bustle of the daytime, the late night in Suicheng was eerily empty. At a glance, the streets were deserted, much like a makeshift ghost movie set.

On the way back, Xue Jing drove very slowly, not only because the ground was covered with muddy snowmelt, but also because he had to suppress the itch rising in his throat from time to time.

Before he got together with Ha Yue, Xue Jing hated snowy days and also hated going to the hospital.

Every year when it's about to snow in Jicheng, he tries every possible way to prevent himself from getting sick, but it's no use. No matter how many layers he wears, he still gets seriously ill. He coughs, has a fever, and suffers endless nightmares when he loses control of his mind.

He had experienced the same nightmare countless times, feeling no different from being boiled alive. From childhood to adolescence, the snow had become a deep-seated anguish for him.

Until he reached adulthood, Ha Yue gave him a feeling that was even more worthy of being cherished on the first snow day.

From then on, the boy put on armor made of flowers and pretended to be a mature and gentle adult. On every snowy day, he preferred to think of Ha Yue's face, Ha Yue's voice, and her warmth and gentleness that had a lot of layers.

Even if the flowers have expired, withered and faded, it's still a face that abandoned him. Even if she's not by his side, he can still feel a sense of comfort knowing that she's still alive.

The ultimate parting in this world is never the word "breakup," but the separation by death.

But at this moment, after seeing those patients hovering on the brink of death, he became particularly bothered by the word "breakup".

They're both still alive and breathing, so why can't they try again?

The car was parked in the alley. Xue Jing turned off the engine but did not get out of the car immediately. Outside the car window, a warm yellow light was faintly lit in the darkness of Ha Yue's courtyard, which seemed to be the kitchen.

He held his phone between his slender, white fingers, opened the WeChat interface, ignored all the red notifications, found Ha Yue in the pinned message, typed a line, deleted it, and repeated this process over and over again.

Tonight's message was really hard to write; it required more thought and consideration than any of his previous works.

He was carefully considering what to say so as not to be offensive.

All the sentence arrangements failed. Xue Jing seemed to have suddenly lost the ability to command words. He hesitated for more than ten minutes, repeatedly tried to write a few sentences, and predicted whether the other party would refuse to reply. But in the end, only a very meaningless greeting remained in the dialog box: "Are you asleep?"

It's 3:10 a.m., she should be asleep by now, right?

It's impolite to disturb someone late at night, as waking a sleeping lady is impolite. Ha Yue wasn't usually a heavy sleeper and often got up early to put on makeup, but he wasn't sure if his lack of morning grumpiness could be faked.

But he still wanted to take the risk and say goodnight to Ha Yue, even if she didn't reply.

He coughed again. The car, which had been warm just moments before, was now completely cold, and even his knees were starting to ache and tighten from the cold. He closed his eyes briefly, took a deep breath, and before opening the car door, Xue Jing gently pressed send with his thumb.

With an echo, at the same time, Ha Yue on the screen also sent him four words.

Are you hungry right now?

Unbeknownst to Xue Jing, Ha Yue had also stayed up all night.

Her earlier warning to Xue Jing at the market was not out of annoyance, but from the bottom of her heart.

In recent days, community grid workers have been spreading information about epidemic prevention policies in residents' WeChat groups. In addition to undergoing the first batch of nucleic acid screenings for all residents in Suicheng, businesses in commercial establishments must undergo daily testing in order to open for business.

Panic gripped the community, and residents who had gotten wind of the situation began frantically buying up emergency supplies in supermarkets and stores.

Even Ha Yue's convenience store was completely sold out within a week; tissues, instant noodles, snacks, and drinks were all gone and couldn't be restocked.

During the emergency, caregivers were hard to find. The last caregiver who was willing to come to Ha Yue's home to take care of her dementia patient during this special period, after communicating with her on WeChat, asked for 6,000 yuan per month. This salary did not include her personal food expenses and triple pay for holidays.

In the past two years, despite Chunni Convenience Store achieving record-breaking sales under Ha Yue's diligent management, its size is still limited. All told, Ha Yue's monthly gross profit is less than six thousand yuan. After deducting utilities and losses, the net profit is only five thousand yuan.

She divided the money in two: three thousand yuan was deposited into a fixed deposit account, and two thousand yuan was used for the daily living expenses of the mother and daughter.

If you hire a caregiver, you will not only be unable to save money each month, but you will also have to spend a lot more than your total income.

Ha Yue doesn't have much savings.

The money difference payment also has an expiration date. What will she and her mother do when they run out of money? Will they really have to go begging on the streets?

Therefore, hiring a caregiver is not an option for the time being.

Immediately afterward, Ha Yue began to roughly consider whether she should sell the convenience store soon. After all, she was taking care of her mother herself, which didn't cost her any money. In addition, selling the convenience store could earn her fifty or sixty thousand yuan, which would at least give her some extra disposable income for food.

The mother and daughter don't spend too much money on food. She has no loans and can minimize expenses to prolong the time she can support her mother.

We'll have to deal with the future later.

After closing the shop this afternoon, Ha Yue brought back several boxes of the shop's remaining supplies, intending to distribute them to Jin Zi and Xue Jing.

However, for the past month, the pickup truck that used to park steadily in front of Ha Yue's house every day has not been there.

Xue Jing, who usually stays at home these days, seems to have gone out.

At first, she didn't mind, thinking that Xue Jing had some new social engagements at the Cultural Bureau. But after eating and feeding the pigs, Ha Yue still didn't see his car when she walked to the gate of the courtyard, and she started to have some doubts.

Light snow was falling from the sky, and the road conditions were poor. Xue Jing wouldn't be so reckless as to drive fast in this kind of weather, would he?

I scrolled through my WeChat Moments, and it seems no one mentioned a multi-vehicle collision on the streets of Suicheng today. Although the snow was heavy, it wasn't winter yet, and the snow on the ground wouldn't amount to much.

Adding to her worries about the boxes of supplies, Ha Yue, still with her hair wet after showering, ran to the door to look out again. She went back and forth to the door several times until the TV series Zhao Chunni usually watched had ended.

The TV screen went black, and the house fell silent again. The pigs, the goose, and Zhao Chunni were all asleep, and even the moon hid behind thick clouds.

But as time passed, the noise in Ha Yue's head grew louder and louder. Even the ticking of the clock in the living room was amplified dozens of times. She naturally thought of calling Xue Jing at one point, but as time dragged on and past midnight, when she opened her eyes and picked up her phone again, she had already lost the purpose of contacting him under the pretext of delivering supplies.

At this point, around midnight, asking her ex-boyfriend why he didn't come home all night would make her checking up on him seem very ambiguous.

If she asked herself honestly, would she still have feelings for Xue Jing? The answer is yes.

A person's charm is inseparable from appearance, knowledge, and wealth. At this stage, Xue Jing is at the level of a heartthrob in these external conditions, and is even more outstanding than when he was in school.

She is a heterosexual who is determined to choose a partner from a lower social class; she does not abstain from men and become a nun.

It's a real shame that Ha Yue's opinion on whether she and the "perfect" Xue Jing have a future remains unchanged.

She felt deeply apologetic and offered encouragement to Xue Jing; it was a genuine expression of support.

She had her dreams, but when she woke up, she knew that cheerleaders should stand in the crowd and cheer for the stars on stage. She could never try to climb into the spotlight again and willingly endure the humiliation from fate.

Her life was pretty much over; she could see the end from the beginning. But Xue Jing's life wasn't like that.

Therefore, even the most intense feelings of excitement are meaningless. She doesn't want to be a burden to her partner, especially since that person is one of the few she has ever loved in her life.

So what if her heart is beating fast? She can just bear it and it will pass, just like she had endured her childhood, her adolescence, and these past few years. She has already admitted that she is not the dazzling leading lady of this world, but just a willow catkin occasionally blown into the sky by the wind. The highlight of her life ended the year she graduated from university.

Perhaps she is atoning for her sins now, because she once disobeyed her mother's decision on the college application form.

But if she could live her life again, would she choose not to board that green train to Jicheng?

Ha Yue was uncertain. Because at the end of that train, she had once met a 19-year-old Xue Jing, and at that time, she had truly experienced a brief but dazzling brilliance in her first love.

Waves of emotion surged through her chest. Ha Yue lay calmly on the single bed with her eyes closed, her hands clasped together over her chest, letting the nameless sadness rush from her head to her toes with her blood.

For the past two years, she has often felt that this small bed is neither too big nor too small, like a single coffin that Hera could use to carry her to her death.

Every night before falling asleep, she would think that if she never opened her eyes again tomorrow, it wouldn't be so bad, so she always hoped to end the day quickly with sleep.

But today, she wasn't thinking about that; her mind was filled with Xue Jing.

Just then, a commotion came from outside the door. Supporting her numb body, she staggered out of bed, put on her down jacket, and wearily pushed open the gate to her yard.

Outside the door, Jinzi was comforting her mother, telling her that Xiaoyu was doing well and that she could visit her at the hospital the next morning.

As soon as Ha Yue came out, Aunt Siqin turned her back and started wiping away tears. Jinzi rushed to the hospital to relieve Xue Jing, and after a few hurried words, she handed over the task of comforting her mother to Ha Yue, and then hurriedly left again with some clothes that Xiao Yu needed for the hospital.

Ha Yue was already feeling uneasy, and after hearing about Xiao Yu's news, her lips went dry, and her heart didn't settle down; instead, it pounded even harder.

Five minutes later, after settling Aunt Siqin in and heating up a cup of milk for her, Ha Yue came out of the neighbor's house, locked the front door, and returned home. She couldn't calm down and lay back in bed, pacing back and forth in her room.

She gripped her down jacket tightly with her fingers, her slippers still stained with snow and dirt. Besides feeling relieved for Xiaoyu's narrow escape, she couldn't ignore her worry for Xue Jing.

It's getting really cold today. I hope Xue Jing won't be dressed too lightly and go to the hospital to watch over the patients again.

He caught a cold and started coughing, unable to sleep all night. He must be out of his mind, insisting on staying in Suicheng and making himself miserable.

He's such a picky eater, he stayed in the hospital all night, surely he didn't eat a single thing?

There are no good doctors here to treat a rotten stomach, and if it's left untreated, the ulcers will definitely recur. He used to get so engrossed in writing that he wouldn't eat, no wonder his stomach was never healthy.

When faced with her ex-boyfriend's advances, Ha Yue can pretend to be dead without any problem.

But Ha Yue couldn't bring herself to be heartless towards a new neighbor who would voluntarily stay up until midnight at the hospital for someone she barely knew. She couldn't bear to watch Xue Jing suffer.

After pacing around the house a few times, her body moving before her mind, Ha Yue hadn't even figured out what she was going to do when she walked to the kitchen, turned on the overhead light, and put on an apron.

She turned to the side, grabbed a handful of almonds from the cupboard, scooped out a small half bowl of rice from the rice container, and threw them into cold water to soak. Having decided on her staple food, she opened the refrigerator, looked at the several plates of leftover dishes full of spices, sighed, picked up the cleaver on the cutting board, sharpened it a few times under the rice bowl, and walked straight to the goose pen in the corner of the yard.

At 3:10, the goose meat, which had been bled and plucked, had been chopped into small pieces with a cleaver and lay neatly in the hot pot, being roasted to a warm, brownish color.

Almonds and rice are ground into very small particles by a high-speed blender, cooked into a thick porridge, and then stored in the inner layer of an insulated container.

Almonds can relieve asthma, and warm soup is easier to digest than rice. Last time we had congee hot pot, Xue Jing only drank the congee.

Inside the trash can were processed entrails and goose feathers. Ha Yue expressionlessly and quickly cleaned up the blood splattered in the sink. She was quick and ruthless when killing geese in the kitchen, and she was just as efficient when cleaning up the crime scene.

Before seasoning the goose meat, add white wine to the pressure cooker and pressure cook it once. The last step is to sprinkle fine green scallions on the finished product as a garnish. The sharp blade is like a toy for Ha Yue, rotating up and down in the palm. The scallions are all the same size, like copied and pasted graphics.

Just as the meal was ready, the sound of a car turning off came from outside the courtyard; it was Xue Jing.

Ha Yue raised her hand and closed the top of the insulated box, wiped her hands on her apron, and then took out her phone.

Scrolling down through dozens of chat windows to "X", Ha Yue hesitated for a moment looking at his profile picture, without typing anything.

The food was ready, but she began to wonder if it was appropriate to deliver it to her ex-boyfriend so late at night, especially after he had clearly expressed his feelings for her. She didn't want him to misunderstand again that they had a future together.

The knife she used to kill the goose was probably no longer sharp, but if she sharpened it again, the edges would likely curl.

She stood in the kitchen for a few minutes until the two geese that remained in the yard suddenly cried out in surprise. Only then did Ha Yue put her head down and start typing.

Well, since we've already slaughtered it, we can't just waste the ingredients.

These are Xupu geese that she has painstakingly fed for several months. They have a moderate amount of fat and a smooth, tender texture. In addition, they are often free-range by the stream at the foot of the mountain in the summer and eat only organic food, which is very nutritious.

It's just delivering a meal. She and her neighbors have been giving each other food often for the past two years. It doesn't mean that eating her goose means they have to repay her with their bodies.

Don't overthink it, it's just friendly interaction between ordinary neighbors.