Wuzhou.
It was nearly dusk.
At Yan Medical Hall, amid the steady stream of patients, Yan Lingyun had just finished giving someone acupuncture and sat down to rest.
It was bitterly cold, colder than in previous years, nearly freezing. When she got up that morning, the water in her washbasin had iced over.
For the first time in years, she had put on the thick padded coat she had worn during her stint in the countryside, wrapping herself up tightly.
"Auntie, cold!"
Hearing this, Yan Lingyun gathered her niece into her arms, rubbed the little girl's hands, red from the cold, and tucked them beneath her arms to warm them. She breathed out a couple of warm breaths and glanced outside.
Traffic flowed past outside. It was the end of the workday, and the air rang with bicycle bells. Everyone breathed white mist, chilled to the bone. Previous years had been cold too, but the temperature had only dropped to around ten degrees at the lowest. Who would have thought it would be so cold this year?
"Hm?"
But Yan Lingyun's eyes suddenly shifted. She spotted a woman in black walking among the people hunched against the cold.
Everyone else had their head lowered. This woman alone walked with her head held high, calm and unhurried.
From a distance, she could see the woman's ethereal bearing, narrow eyes, dark hair, and delicate brows as faint as wisps of smoke. She was tall yet graceful, and wore her hair short.
Her short hair fluttered in the wind, making her stand out all the more.
The young woman seemed not to feel the cold. With the proud spirit of a plum blossom, she was like a winter plum blooming in the depths of winter.
So beautiful.
It was not her looks that