Chapter Twenty-Three: A Battle Fought for You Alone to Win

In the small courtyard, Su Jingluo, clad in little more than thin garments, sat in the snow, busily rolling snowballs. Beside her, Ruihuan held out a coat, trying to drape it over Su Jingluo’s shoulders. Each time it was placed, she would toss it off; again and again, the cycle repeated.

Nearby, Yunbai was crying, his tears streaming down his face like raindrops on a pear blossom. His little cheeks were red from the cold as he tried to pull Su Jingluo to her feet. But his slight frame was no match for even Su Jingluo’s frailness; he simply could not lift her.

Just as Xiao Jingxuan entered, three snowballs came flying at him in quick succession. He dodged them with a swift movement, easily evading the attack. Su Jingluo, clearly dissatisfied with her missed throws, kept picking up more snowballs and hurling them his way.

For the first time, Yunbai seemed like a child—frightened and lost. When he caught sight of Xiao Jingxuan, he rushed over as if fleeing for his life, clinging to Xiao Jingxuan’s leg and bursting into fresh sobs.

“Bad father, please save mother. I don’t know what’s wrong with her—she keeps calling me ‘big brother,’” Yunbai wailed, rubbing his nose as he spoke.

“Big brother, move aside! I’m fighting a monster here!” Before Xiao Jingxuan could scold Yunbai for his nonsense, Su Jingluo chimed in, replaying the whole scene. Xiao Jingxuan frowned—was this another one of her tricks, or had she truly lost her senses?

He picked Yunbai up and carried him to where Su Jingluo was. She raised another snowball high in her hand, but seeing the villain holding her beloved “big brother” Yunbai, she couldn’t bring herself to throw it, and her frustration was plain.

“Put big brother down!” she demanded.

“You put the snowball down!” he retorted.

“You first—put big brother down!”

“You first—put the snowball down!”

Back and forth they went…

Zhuo Yue’an and Ruihuan suddenly recalled an old saying: people who belong together always find the same roof.

No one knew how long the standoff lasted. Su Jingluo’s arm, still holding the snowball aloft, began to tremble. To keep holding it up was exhausting, but to lower it would be a blow to her pride. She felt wronged, and her eyes reddened with unshed, stubborn tears. Her small lips pouted unconsciously.

It was the first time Xiao Jingxuan had ever seen her like this; his heart clenched painfully, as if squeezed tightly in someone’s grasp.

Gently, he set Yunbai down. Instantly—smack!—the snowball in Su Jingluo’s hand exploded against Xiao Jingxuan’s face. Delighted, Su Jingluo burst into peals of laughter. Xiao Jingxuan, far from angry, shrugged off his cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. She tried to shrug it off, feeling constrained, but he held it tightly around her. With a turn, he tucked her under his arm as if she were a rolled-up quilt.

Then, with his left hand, Xiao Jingxuan unconsciously picked Yunbai up again—a reflex he didn’t fully understand, perhaps born of a fear that something might happen to these two. He did not know when he had grown so vulnerable, so anxious.

Inside, Xiao Jingxuan placed Su Jingluo on the bed. Like a fish out of water, she wriggled and squirmed, unable to settle down.

“Jingluo, Jingluo, be good, rest a while. Tomorrow the snow will stop, and when it does, I’ll take you out for a snowball fight. You can hit me, I won’t fight back—how about that?” Xiao Jingxuan soothed her softly, pressing her gently to keep her still.

“No, I want to play a snowball fight where you don’t fight back—right now!” Su Jingluo insisted, flipping nimbly as she protested. If Xiao Jingxuan hadn’t felt how cold her whole body was, he might have suspected she was feigning madness for revenge.

“Yunbai, Ruihuan, you both know medicine—do you have any way to calm her down, let her sleep, without harming her?” Admitting defeat, Xiao Jingxuan turned to the two for help.

Yunbai’s eyes lit up. He rummaged in his pouch for a long while, then, growing anxious, upended its contents onto the floor. Zhuo Yue’an was startled—the pile contained everything from snakes and scorpions to insects, ants, minerals, herbs, and stones. Strangely, all the living creatures lay motionless, as if in a dormant state. The strange, terrifying collection made Zhuo Yue’an shudder and rub his arms in lingering unease.