When Zhaozhao returned home, he was empty. He went around in the room where Shen Ce had stayed for one night, replaced the sheets, and washed all the quilts and bedspreads that he had hidden in the cabinet. Locked the door, wiped the floor, brushed the tub, tried to open the window. It's cold in winter, think about it.

The thesis in the Spanish class was not completed. She said good night to her aunt and locked herself in the study.

No lights, open the document first.

His finger was hanging on the lamp switch, and there was no movement, because he saw an unfamiliar revision in the document. All from Shen Ce. He wrote two lines before the big paragraph, to the effect that his Spanish was limited to listening and speaking, and that he could handle reading, but was not good at writing.

A few sentences, in Chinese:

China has thousands of years of history, and has long analyzed human nature. Today, many arguments are clichés.

There was a sage in the Warring States Period, who was proud of his talents but had a family with four walls. His wife said: "I don't care about the poor and the lowly, and I don't care about the wealth."

Why do you say "asking"? The reason why people are human is that they have "desire", and when they have desires, they will gain and lose hearts. No one can completely forget the gains and losses. A gentleman takes this as a constraint and corrects himself all his life.

A gentleman is strict with himself, but generous with others.

Emperor Shun often introspected, and it has been long since ancient times.

Tang You Han Yu, once on the gentleman: "It is also important to blame yourself for Zhou, and to treat others lightly."

When they see themselves, they are faulty and inadequate; they are tolerant towards others, and they will sincerely appreciate when they see a bright spot. Hypocrites are on the contrary, often self-sufficient and self-satisfied; they do not see the advantages of others, but have many shortcomings.

In the Song and Ming Dynasties, the literati inherited the words of their predecessors and obtained: be strict with oneself and be lenient toward others. circulated so far.

On this point alone, I, Huaxia, have always had a unified view since the Five Emperors and taught future generations.

A gentleman is not slack and guards against jealousy.

Laziness makes people trapped in a square inch, sitting at the bottom of a well, and jealousy makes people talk hateful and behave erratically.

The evils of jealousy are: jealousy, jealousy, and jealousy. Because of jealousy, he is mean, foolish, and then framed by others. Human nature has many weaknesses that cannot be eradicated and can only be controlled by oneself. Jealousy is a very aggressive type. Excessive jealousy can make people vicious. They are well aware of the harm, always restrain themselves, and fight with themselves for life.

...

Shen Ce turned to the way of doing things: "Hang Feng, be humble, and commit yourself to the lower places". It reminded her that she once described him as a famous blade under the sand in her heart, which just matched this paragraph.

He talked about "shouhe Tibetan" and quoted the art of war: those who are good at defending are hidden under the nine places.

Zhaozhao smiled at the computer, and the second half of the sentence was: Good attackers move above the nine heavens.

Shen Ce is more suitable for the latter sentence.

She was in the dark, reading the whole book, lost in an unreal illusion.

If he was in the frost and snow on Mount Lu, with a pavilion on the water, he took off his cloak, draped it over his body, leaned on the thickly padded seat, and talked to her. And she snuggled by the charcoal fire, looking at him from the fire. He rewarded snow, she rewarded him.

She was awakened by the alarm clock, and she was in a trance by the bedside, and her consciousness kept walking tens of thousands of miles with the landscape on the wallpaper. The dream is too chaotic, sometimes words, sometimes him. Shen Ce's phone call followed, and she slid into the quilt: "I'm sure you're going to land, and you didn't get out of bed when you woke up."

On the other end of the phone, there was a noisy outside voice from Macau Airport, in Cantonese, English and Chinese.

"When you say that, do you want me to fly back again?" he said.

She said "um".

She thought of him lying on top of her in those few days. She looked at the ceiling and saw the outline of his face and her own hands.

Technological development is not good either, and the world is at two ends in the blink of an eye. From last night, she found that she was not familiar with him. After several days of rubbing her ears and temples, Shen Ceyu only showed a corner of the mountain. The more vast a person's spiritual world is, the more attracted her. She got to know him a little more, and she fell into an inch. She thought that she could not fall in love with him any more... she could be overthrown immediately.

"I've seen what you wrote."

"Let's talk about it," he said, "a few words."

"It's a good job of self-deprecating," she said softly.

He laughed: "Mock, mock. Only when there is ridicule, can there be a solution."

The two whispered, as if he was away on a business trip and would be back soon, no one showed any sadness.

Previously, because of Shen Ce's presence, my mother didn't want to disturb the siblings' relationship, so she didn't say much, and asked her to think about the divorce for a few more days. A week after Shen Ce left, she talked to her mother on the phone. After the phone was connected, the mother and daughter were relatively silent for a while, and the mother smiled first: "What mother, what daughter. I wanted to give you a shortcut, but it seems that you don't need it."

Zhaozhao's heart fell on these words, and she finally said in a nasal voice, "Thank you, Mom."

At the beginning, my mother also insisted on her own way, insisted on divorce, gave up the equity obtained from the marriage, and left with her three-year-old self. In the year of ancestor worship, Zhaozhao saw the huge relatives for the first time, and he felt fresh, but he did not understand that Shen Baoying, who was in the ashes of that year, was nirvana and climbed to the top again.

"What kind of person?" Mom asked with a smile.

"It's... the same person as brother."

Zhaozhao refused to speak. She and Shen Ce had an agreement that there should not be any disturbance during his treatment. Wait for the two to see each other again, and then find a time to make it public. There are priorities, and it is the only important thing that Shen Ce can restore health now.

As she had guessed earlier, her mother conveyed her grandfather's meaning, that she could not give the talents she taught so hard to outsiders, and that Zhaozhao should work for the Shen family after completing her studies. Naturally, she had no objection and gave her mother a satisfactory answer.

Shen Ce's situation was good and bad, and when it was good, he could accompany her on the phone for a week. When it's bad, don't recognize her.

In order to keep herself from falling into a hopeless emotional quagmire, Zhaozhao first followed the steps of her tutor and attended various courses during her application for a master's degree. She majored in finance at university and chose financial analysis for her master's degree, which is a one-year program. I want to finish reading, and then go home and do things. Her mother doesn't ask her what she learns, it's all accumulation. When she asked her to dance ballet, she never thought of training her as a dancer. She wanted to cultivate her resilience and temperament, so she made a joke about it: "Learn ballet. It’s not in vain, look, you will never be hunched over when you walk. If you’re happy, you can take two steps to help yourself.”

Unfortunately, life cannot be planned, and there are always variables.

The date of meeting was pushed from half a year to one year, and the midsummer of the next year passed, from autumn to winter.

In the next year, Zhaozhao returned to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year. Uncle Shen was ill from Shen Ce and worried all day long. It was not like he flew everywhere for business in the past, and stayed in the small building where Shen Ce lived the most to take care of his body. My mother takes care of the long house and lives in Hong Kong and Macau.

The people in the long house are thin, and few people are not seen during the Chinese New Year.

"Uncle and I are the only ones left in the long room," Uncle Shen smiled and sighed, "Uncle has a child, and he is celibate. As for me, I only have one son, Shen Ce..." Unfortunately, he fell ill.

Zhaozhao did not speak. My mother mentioned that Uncle Shen often said this year that it was difficult to have a long house, and he was afraid of breaking the blood inheritance.

"It's best for your boyfriend to join the family." Uncle Shen talked to her seriously, but he still asked her about her personal affairs. "If you can have the surname Shen, we can have more people in the long room."

"Isn't my brother much better?" Zhaozhao comforted Uncle Shen softly, "In Chinese New Year, you have to say auspicious words and think about auspicious things."

"It's hard for my father to tell exactly how he's doing now. Shen Yan and he are both ambitious children. Together, they never tell the truth to me," Uncle Shen brought the red envelope sealed on the desk and said warmly, "Bring your boyfriend back next year?"

Zhaozhao didn't have to say anything, he lowered his head and smiled, his eyelashes drooping, hiding the suspicious sadness.

Not only did she want to enjoy the family, she also wanted to do her part for Shen Ce to accompany her filial piety: "Okay, next year."

The characters inscribed in gold are "Family Reunion", and Zhaozhao looked at his fingers in surprise with the gold powder on the corner of the red envelope on his finger.

"This was written by your brother, and Shen Yan brought it to me two months ago." Uncle Shen explained.

She couldn't take her eyes away for a long time, and she really realized that "the words are like faces".

His calligraphy is majestic, full of sharpness, and it seems to be able to scratch his hands to the touch, which is actually not suitable for warm words such as "family reunion". Shen Ce once wrote in that passage: "The enemy of ordinary people is others, and the enemy of a gentleman is oneself."

For Shen Ce, perhaps the biggest enemy is his excessive sharpness. His life's work should be hiding and closing.

On New Year's Eve, she went to see the flower house.

This flower house has been renovated. It was similar to Macau a few years ago, but now it has two completely different styles. In Macau, there are glass walls, all-white wooden frames, and a maze layout with tall and blinding green plants, reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz.

The flower house here is rebuilt with wooden materials in the style of her home in Montreal. There are plants that are not afraid of the cold on the roof of the outer wall, and there are pots hanging by the window. All over green, wrapped around the roof and glass windows.

She can imagine that when spring and summer are replaced with seasonal plants, it will be full of flowers. Flowers wrap the house, and the house grows flowers.

The gardener wants to go home to keep the year old. Before leaving, he pointed out that Epiphyllum will bloom in the next few days, and Lily of the Valley said that this plant likes the cold, so don't do the wrong thing with kindness and move in.

After sunset, the moonlight fades.

The water in the swimming pool on the top floor was drained before the fall, leaving the bottom of the pool with ash. She has lived in Montreal for a long time, and is used to the extremely cold and often snowy climate. Looking at the dark clouds next to the moon, she is still thinking, will it rain in the deep winter?

Before the thought disappeared, the raindrops fell on the bridge of her nose, and then on the upper lip...

She hid in the conservatory looking for a clean towel everywhere, but she couldn't find an umbrella. Mom and Uncle Shen both slept. This place is the farthest from the elevator. It's not worth running back when the rain is heavy. There is nothing left or right, want to wait for the rain to light.

When it was quietest, the phone in the teahouse rang.

Zhaozhao's heart was thumping and thumping, and when the second sound came, she grabbed the microphone.

There was also thunder in the receiver.

"I didn't answer the phone, I guessed that you were hiding in the flower room."

Zhaozhao's hand gripped the wet paper ball, and the grip became smaller and smaller, like a constricted heart. It has been two months since the last call, and it was still last year, before the New Year's Eve, when he said that he would go to Montreal to celebrate the New Year. Then things took a turn for the worse...

"As soon as the Spring Festival is over, it will be our Chinese New Year," he asked. "What's your wish?"

A flash passed, followed by thunder.

"I... have a brother, and I want him to be safe." Year after year, her mood kept changing, and her obsession with him remained undiminished, but she began to understand his mood. She wants to be with him, she can do nothing, not fall in love, or be a couple, her only wish is to see him more and accompany him.

"Any more?"

"Let me think about it," she digs her fingernails into her palm, restraining her tone, "I still want to spend his twenty-sixth birthday with him."

"He was born in early summer, and there are still a few months left. Wouldn't it be too long to wait?"

"It's nothing," she said softly, holding back tears, "I've been waiting for him too much."

"Okay, I see," he said. "Just in time, I haven't had any free time recently." He said that he was busy with official business.

"I know..."

The two held the receiver and both laughed.

"New Year's Eve, you have to abide by the New Year's rules," he said, "Remember to wear red, pomegranate red dress is the best."

"It's New Year's Eve today, and I'm afraid it's too late to buy a dress now," and whether it's cold in winter, she asked, "Where are the rules? I've never heard of it."

She heard him laugh, her intuition was wrong, and she thought, maybe it was alluding to the servant of the pomegranate skirt.

In front of her is the bright red tiger thorn plum, and behind her right is the bright yellow strelitzia with a touch of blue. The teahouse has the most daffodils, and the daffodils bloom best during the Spring Festival. It seems that seeing daffodils in the Spring Festival every year is considered a new year...

Zhaozhao wanted to find a red like pomegranate flower, but he didn't: "Your flower room is so beautiful, I can't bear to leave."

"Really?" he asked.

Zhaozhao was still enjoying the flowers, as if he was with him.

He suddenly said, "Then stay there and wait for me."

...

These words were particularly deafening, and in the sound of the rain outside the window, the human body could not feel the truth.Her body was faster than she was conscious, she stood up abruptly, and slammed her legs on the tea table.The tea set collided, and Shen Ce knew.

"You don't have to come out, it's raining," he continued, and came from the microphone, "wait for me to find an umbrella."

The sentences are true, but in the past year, the two have made countless appointments, and they have all been cancelled... "Brother, you are not allowed to lie to me during the New Year."

"I won't lie to you," he laughed. "Where are the umbrellas at home?"