The snow was light, like tiny, scattered pear-blossom petals, drifting down all night. When the door opened in the morning, a thin layer covered the ground, and the air held the sharp chill of snow.
The two children, Zongzhi and Run'er, were delighted. This was their first time seeing snow outside Chen Family Cove, and it seemed a little different. Was the snow in Shanyin whiter? Besides, today they were going by boat with Uncle Chou to Shan County to visit Master Andao, a long journey by water.
The servants at the Commandery Post Station were sweeping the snow with brooms. The temperature had not yet fallen below freezing, and the snow melted easily. As they swept, the thin covering turned to water and seeped into the soil, dry from the long drought. Run'er cried, "What a pity, what a pity!" She asked the servants to stop sweeping, wanting to leave footprints in the snow. After walking out a string of them, she looked back and giggled.
Ran Sheng stood nearby, watching the petite Run'er and her delicate footprints, like a string of beads, with a little envy in his heart. Run'er was still a child, while he no longer was. The pastoral scenery of Chen Family Cove remained as warm as ever: the stern little teacher, the shouts of recitation in the fortified manor, the clamorous cicadas, the mist rising from distant Mingsheng Lake... These were Ran Sheng's most treasured memories.
After breakfast at the Commandery Post Station, Chen Caozhi took Zongzhi and Run'er, along with Xiao Chan, Rain Swallow, Huang Xiaotong, Jing Nu, and two Chen Clan private soldiers, nine people in all, aboard a large black-awning boat thirty-eight feet long on Li Creek south of Shanyin. It was an official boat belonging to the Commandery Office, with