31. Freezing point
Friday morning brought a sudden and unexpected drop in temperature. The little snowflake icon on the weather forecast turned overnight into a blue cold wave warning covering half of northern China.
Yi Yi woke up promptly at five o'clock as usual. The sky outside the window was a somber, leaden gray, and the wind howled through the gaps in the buildings. She got up, changed into her workout clothes, and went to the living room, where she found Zhuang Jia also up, standing by the window looking outside.
"Still running today?" he asked, turning his head slightly, his brows furrowed.
"Okay." Yi Yi bent down to tie her shoelaces, her voice calm. "I'll come back after the run, I won't get cold."
Yi Yi paused in tying her shoelaces and looked up at him. Zhuang Jia's eyes held a complex mix of emotions she couldn't decipher: concern, worry, and perhaps even a hint of...helplessness. She didn't refuse, taking the shoelace and wrapping it around her neck. The wool clung to her skin, with the slightly stiff feel characteristic of new fabric, but it was undeniably warm.
"Thank you," she said politely, as if accepting the kindness of an ordinary colleague.
The scarf was nice, but his good intentions seemed unable to penetrate the invisible, self-protective shell that surrounded her.
Pushing open the door, a biting wind cut like a knife into her face. Yi pulled her scarf up high and plunged into the gray morning light. The neighborhood was almost deserted; withered leaves swirled on the ground in the wind. Every step she took was more strenuous than usual; the cold air stung her lungs. But she gritted her teeth and maintained her pace. This physical pain, ironically, allowed her to temporarily forget the broader, more hollow chill in her heart.
After running five kilometers, all the heat in her body seemed to have been used up, and her fingertips were numb with cold. She slowly walked home, and at the entrance of her building, she saw a dirty stray cat curled up in the corner of the steps, trying to shrink its small body into the deeper shadows to avoid the cold. The two stared at each other for a moment, and Yi hesitated for a moment before turning around and going upstairs. A few minutes later, she took a small bowl of warm water and broke off half a sausage that she had eaten for breakfast at home, placing it in the corner. The cat watched her warily, and only after she stepped back a few paces did it quickly step forward and wolf down the food.
Yi Yi didn't look again and turned to go upstairs. A very soft spot in her heart seemed to be gently touched by the cat's cowering appearance.
When she got home, Zhuang Jia and Kai Kai were already sitting at the table eating breakfast. Steaming hot millet porridge, fried eggs, and whole-wheat bread she had baked the day before. It was an ordinary scene, but at that moment, it gave her a strange sense of detachment.
"It's cold outside, isn't it? Have some porridge to warm up," Zhuang Jia said, getting up to serve her a bowl.
"Thank you." Yi Yi took it, the steam warming her face. She sipped it slowly; the porridge was warm, soothing her from her esophagus all the way to her stomach. But this warmth seemed to remain only on a physical level.
She listened to that line over and over again. The clear female voice carried a hint of gentle concern, but because it was detached from the specific context, it sounded particularly hollow and formulaic. Just like... just like when Zhuang Jia gave her the scarf and served her porridge. The actions were caring, the objects were warm, but the emotions conveyed were as if viewed through frosted glass, blurry and distorted.
She stared blankly at the footage for a long time, her fingers hovering over the mouse, unsure how to cut. That cold, helpless feeling returned, even more intense than when she was running in the cold wind.
Just then, her phone vibrated urgently; it was Ding Xiaojuan.
"Xiao Juan?"
"Yi Yi, can you come out now? Or..." Ding Xiaojuan's voice sounded unusually tense, even trembling, completely losing her usual composure.
"What happened?" Yi Yi's heart skipped a beat.
“Gao Sheng’s mother… my mother-in-law, she fell and might have broken a bone. I’m on my way to the hospital now. Haha is at school. Gao Sheng is in a meeting in the suburbs and it will take him at least two hours to get back… I need to do some paperwork here, and I might need to get X-rays taken. It’s a bit difficult for me to be alone…”
"Which hospital? I'm coming right away." Yi Yi immediately shut down her computer and grabbed her coat and bag.
"Emergency room at the Third Municipal Hospital. Thank you, Yi Yi."
"Don't say that, I'm coming right now."
On the way to the hospital in a taxi, Yi Yi's heart was pounding. Ding Xiaojuan's rare panic made her realize the seriousness of the situation. For Ding Xiaojuan, her mother-in-law was not just an elderly woman who helped take care of the children, but also the most stable and warmest emotional bond and support in her and Gao Sheng's newly pieced-together family.
Arriving at the emergency room, she found it chaotic and noisy. The smell of disinfectant mixed with various other unidentified odors assaulted her senses. She immediately spotted Ding Xiaojuan standing in front of the triage desk, her back straight, but her slightly trembling hands betrayed her helplessness. She was anxiously talking to a nurse, clutching her mother-in-law's medical insurance card and medical record tightly in her hands.
"Xiao Juan!" Yi Yi walked over quickly.
Ding Xiaojuan turned around and saw her. Her tense face relaxed for a moment, and her eyes immediately reddened, but she quickly suppressed it. "Yi Yi, you're here. I just had an X-ray. I have a hip fracture and need to be admitted to the hospital immediately. I might need surgery... The doctor is writing the prescription, I..." She spoke quickly, and her logic was still there, but the tremor in her voice was unmistakable.
"Don't rush, give me the form, I'll go pay the fees and complete the formalities. You stay with Auntie." Yi Yi decisively took the form from her hand. "Where is Auntie now?"
“In the third observation room, the nurse was watching her. She was in a lot of pain, but she was afraid I would worry, so she kept enduring it…” Ding Xiaojuan’s voice choked up as she said this.
Yi patted her arm: "Leave it to me. You go and keep Auntie company and tell her that Gao Sheng is on his way and that everything will be alright."
When she finished the formalities and returned to the observation room with the hospital admission slip, Gao Sheng had also arrived. He was squatting by the bedside, holding his mother's hand tightly and whispering something. His mother-in-law was lying on the mobile hospital bed, her face pale and her forehead covered in cold sweat, but when she saw Yi Yi come in, she tried to force a smile.
"Auntie, it's alright, everything's taken care of. We'll take you to your ward right away," Yi Yi said softly as she stepped forward.
"I'm so sorry to trouble you, Xiao Yi... Sigh, my old bones are no good anymore, I'm just causing you trouble..." The old woman's voice was weak and apologetic.
"Please don't say that."
Standing behind Gao Sheng, Ding Xiaojuan watched her husband and mother-in-law clasp hands, then glanced at Yi Yi, who was running around with slightly disheveled hair. Her carefully maintained composure finally cracked. She turned her face away and quickly wiped her eyes.
After settling his mother-in-law in and finalizing the preliminary treatment plan (the surgical plan would be decided after a specialist consultation the following day), Gao Sheng left the hired caregiver behind. It was nearly noon. Gao Sheng insisted on staying at the hospital, telling Ding Xiaojuan and Yi Yi to go back and rest first, and to also prepare some things for Haha to bring over that evening.
Stepping out of the inpatient building, a gust of cold wind made Ding Xiaojuan shiver. Yi Yi took off her scarf (the one Zhuang Jia had given her) and wrapped it around Ding Xiaojuan's neck without a word.
"You yourself..."
“I’m dressed warmly. Your face is all pale.” Yi Yi hailed a taxi and shoved Ding Xiaojuan inside.
In the car, Ding Xiaojuan leaned against the window, silent for a long time. Suddenly, she whispered, "Yi Yi, I was just... really scared." Not scared of trouble, not scared of hardship, but scared that the old man who supported her like a pillar of strength, allowing her to pursue her career without worries, might really collapse.
“Auntie will be fine, medical conditions are good now.” Yi Yi held her cold hand.
“That’s not what I meant.” Ding Xiaojuan turned her head, her eyes red and showing a rare vulnerability. “I suddenly realized that I seem to have… always taken my mother-in-law’s sacrifices for granted. I thought she was healthy, capable, and willing to help us. I was busy with my career and balancing my family relationships, as if everything was under my control and in my plan. But today, when she collapsed, I realized how fragile my so-called ‘stable rear’ was. And I may not be as strong as I thought, as… dependent on others.”
She took a deep breath: "Gao Sheng was holding Mom's hand just now, and his hand was shaking. I've never seen him like that before. He always thinks he's the pillar of the family, working hard outside, and that with me and Mom at home, he'll have nothing to worry about. But today, the pillar hasn't collapsed yet, but the foundation wobbled, and we all panicked."
Yi Yi listened quietly, offering no words of comfort, only tightening her grip on Ding Xiaojuan's hand. She understood Ding Xiaojuan's feelings. That kind of "stability" built on the health and sacrifices of others, once cracked, brings double the panic.
“I used to think that being in complete control was the only way to be safe,” Ding Xiaojuan said with a wry smile. “But today I realized that the truly important parts of life, such as health and family, are not entirely ‘controllable’. All we can do is cherish what we have while we have it, and support each other when we might lose it.”
The taxi stopped at the entrance of Ding Xiaojuan's residential compound. Before getting out of the car, Ding Xiaojuan hugged Yi Yi tightly.
Thank you. I'm so grateful to have you here today.
"Of course." Yi patted her back. "If you need me to bring you dinner or pick you up tonight, just call me anytime."
Watching Ding Xiaojuan's slightly tired but now upright figure walk into the residential area, Yi Yi stood in the cold wind, not leaving immediately. Her neck felt empty and a little cold. But in her heart, because of the sudden flurry of activity and companionship just now, she felt a strange, long-lost sense of peace.
It turns out that when helping others cope with specific difficulties, one's own abstract and immense pain temporarily takes a backseat. It turns out that genuine connections and support between people can generate a warm power, even in the most chaotic and helpless moments, to ward off the cold winds of the outside world.
She slowly walked home. On the way, she passed the corner where the stray cat had been that morning. The water and food in the bowl were gone. The cat was nowhere to be seen either.
Perhaps it has found a warmer, safer place.
Perhaps it's just temporarily gone.
That's life, isn't it? There are unexpected falls, frantic attempts to stay afloat, silent companionship, and aimless wandering. When you're cold to the extreme, you might crave warmth; when you've been lonely for too long, you might rediscover the preciousness of connection.
Back home, the house was warm and quiet enough to hear my own heartbeat. The scarf Zhuang Jia had given me that morning was no longer around my neck, but the stiff warmth it provided still seemed to linger.
She walked to the computer and reopened the unfinished editing assignment. Looking at the line, "It's getting cold, remember to wear more clothes," she suddenly had a new idea.
The 30-second short film is complete. There is no explicit narrative, no cheap sentimentality. There is only a cold visual, an empty reminder, and at the end, that faint yet real human breath and silent companionship.
She clicked save. The still, icy water in her heart seemed to have been stirred by a small pebble, creating a barely perceptible ripple.
The sky outside the window remained gloomy and cold. But on this afternoon, after experiencing the panic of others and having extended a helping hand herself, Yi Yi felt that the cold no longer seemed so unbearable.
Below freezing point, there may not be only solidification. It could also be the beginning of another form of slow flow.
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