Snow Mist Envelops All

Duan Rong wore a conical hat and stood motionless in the snow.

After a while, dense snowflakes began drifting down once more from the bleak, leaden layers of cloud overhead...

Before long, the honeycomb-like pits Qian'er had peed into the snow by the wall were covered by the falling flakes.

Duan Rong sighed. His figure suddenly vanished like a ghost, and in the next instant, he reappeared atop the roof. He looked up at the sky filled with drifting snowflakes, then sat cross-legged on the roof again.

Snowflakes fell soundlessly into the courtyard, and the footprints he had left in the snow soon vanished as well.

More than two hours later, dusk fell.

Zhu Xiaoqi lifted the curtain and walked out. She turned and glanced at Duan Rong on the roof. She did not know whether it was an illusion, but she felt that Duan Rong's position seemed to have shifted. Yet seeing him as immovable as a mountain, with snow piled atop his conical hat and cloak, she felt it must have been her imagination.

Zhu Xiaoqi did not dwell on it. Lowering her head, she trudged through the snow, one foot deep and one foot shallow, toward the kitchen to cook.

The snowy day was bitterly cold. After dinner, the Lü Family Estate fell utterly silent. Within that profound stillness, even the sound of falling snow seemed faintly audible.

Duan Rong sat cross-legged there, his ears twitching from time to time. The faint sound of snow falling seemed to have caught his attention...

More than two hours passed. The heavy snow began to lighten, and the sound of falling snow became even finer, even lighter, nearly impossible to hear...

Duan Rong used his ears to catch that infinitesimal sound. Gradually, the snow stopped, and that sound vanished completely