A Day During Winter Vacation

This was a story from some day in the past, during winter vacation.

That small northern city had just passed the New Year, but as a border town, its already sparse population had largely returned home for the holiday. In temperatures nearing minus thirty degrees Celsius,

it still looked somewhat deserted beneath its blanket of snow, no different from usual.

If there had to be a difference, there were more red firecracker scraps in the snowbanks by the roadside.

Then there was the residential complex near the edge of the city. The official living in the villa next door had not yet been locked up for eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, and smoking.

Under the winter sun that only looked warm and bright,

the doors of two apartments facing each other in one building stood open. Both neighboring families looked ready to leave. A somewhat tall, thin man supported someone beside him whose legs and feet were inconvenient.

Before leaving, the woman, who had been dawdling a little, picked up her bag and instructed the two "left-behind children" in the apartment:

"Xiao Ran, there are still leftovers from last night in the fridge. Just heat them up for lunch, you and Fang Ran. Don't stay home all day either. You two can go somewhere and have some fun together. We're leaving, then."

Quietly watching the woman chase after the other two, who had already gone downstairs, the slender girl in a soft white sweater closed the door.

Then she looked at the figure standing by his bedroom door, who had heard it too.

His hair had grown a little long, and his indifferent eyes made him look like someone who did not like talking.

"Did you hear that? Aunt Fang told us to go out."

Her slender legs beneath black skinny