"Are you steady?"
"Yes, steady."
"Then I'm jumping."
"Go ahead."
The alley wasn’t wide, and a few old men sat outside the door playing chess. It was the time when people were getting off work, and the sound of bicycle bells echoed in the narrow space, startling a large flock of birds from the trees.
Zhang Qi and Shao Xue were steadying a table, on top of which stood a chair, and on the chair stood a person. Zheng Su Nian bent down to check the height, took a long step, and landed firmly on the ground.
An aunt from the neighborhood committee looked up at them and said, “Well done, Su Nian always paints the best.”
No one knew why the blackboard was nailed so high, and every time they had to draw a poster, they had to climb up and down. This time the theme was to welcome the Olympics, and Shao Xue counted on her fingers, feeling that it seemed quite far away.
"Six years to go," she said, looking at the little figures in red scarves that Zheng Su Nian had drawn. "I’ll already be in college by then."
"You think six years is short?" the aunt, having finished bossing them around, started shooing them away. "It’ll be over in the blink of an eye."
Zheng Su Nian had just finished the board, and his hands and face were covered in chalk dust. As they walked home for dinner, Shao Xue sighed, "Art really runs in the family! Aunt Jin's expertise is in copying ancient paintings, and Su Nian’s casual drawings are better than anyone else’s."
"That’s not necessarily true," Zhang Qi deliberately teased. "Your dad restores clocks, but you’re practically an electronics killer. Just think of how many remote controls and alarm clocks we’ve fixed for you over the years."
Zheng Su Nian interrupted him, "Watch what you say, or next time she won’t help you forge your signature on your test."
Shao Xue's handwriting was mature, and more than once she’d helped Zhang Qi, who got poor grades, fake his parents' signature on his tests. Realizing this, Zhang Qi hurried over to give Shao Xue a shoulder massage. "Hey, Xiao Xue, I was just joking! I’ve got a new report card that just came in..."
"Ha!" Shao Xue, holding this against him, shrugged off his hand and darted into her house.
The alley was lined with two walls, behind which stretched houses of countless families. Shao Xue, Zheng Su Nian, and Zhang Qi were all born and raised here.
In truth, they weren’t the only kids of their age in the alley, but their parents all worked as restorers in the cultural relics department of the Forbidden City. Their parents had been colleagues and neighbors for decades, so it was hard for the three of them not to be close.
The year this story takes place, Shao Xue was in eighth grade, Zhang Qi in ninth, and Zheng Su Nian had just started his first year at a prestigious high school. Technically, Zheng Su Nian and Zhang Qi were born the same year, but Su Nian’s mother, Jin Ning, was too lazy to take care of him, so she sent him to kindergarten a year early.
Jin Ning was no ordinary woman.
Zheng Su Nian's house was closest to the entrance of the alley. When he walked in, he immediately saw his father, Zheng Jin, sweating profusely as he came out of the kitchen.
"Dad," Zheng Su Nian didn’t need to think to know what his mother was up to. "You’re really something—master of both the living room and the kitchen."
"Shut up," Zheng Jin glared at him. "Go call your mother for dinner."
Zheng Su Nian grabbed a towel by the door, dusted off the chalk from his clothes, and headed to the bedroom. He opened the door to find Jin Ning holding a roll of toilet paper, her eyes red as she turned to look at him.
His mother was beautiful, something all her colleagues agreed on. Sometimes Zheng Jin would boast to his son, reminiscing about how, when she first started in the restoration department, she was so stunning that she outshone all the other women, making every eligible young man at work restless. Zheng Su Nian, unimpressed, would point at their bookshelf full of romance dramas and ask, "Then why does she spend all day watching these soap operas now?"
That year, Zheng Su Nian was fifteen, and every time there was a parent-teacher meeting, his teachers would praise him, saying, "Look at your mother—so beautiful, she studied abroad, and she’s so graceful. No wonder she raised such an outstanding son."
Zheng Su Nian would smile outwardly but think to himself, I’m this good because of my own hard work...
The TV was playing Autumn in My Heart, and Zheng Su Nian couldn’t stand the tearful melodrama. With a jab, he turned off the screen.
"Mum, dinner’s ready."
Jin Ning let out a soft "Oh," composed herself for a moment, and followed her son—who was handsome but hardly raised by her—to the living room for dinner. She hadn’t even wiped away her tears yet when she grabbed Zheng Jin’s arm and said, “The TV’s got a double image again.”
Zheng Jin, like Shao Xue’s father, was in the restoration department, specializing in clock repair, but they could fix all kinds of household appliances. With a direct order from his wife, Zheng Jin had no choice but to say, "Let’s eat first, I’ll fix it after."
...
Meanwhile, Shao Xue was sitting at a dinner table, struggling to eat.
"Mum, I’m not trying to be difficult," she put down her chopsticks, "but if we’re not great cooks, why don’t we just stick to the basics? Dad and I can bear it, but why do you insist on experimenting?"
Yu Dong Ge glanced at Shao Hua, who immediately took her side, “I think it’s fine, it’s just you who’s hard to please.”
"You’re both cut from the same cloth."
"Don’t misuse idioms," Yu Dong Ge snapped, tapping her daughter’s head with her chopsticks. "If you’re not eating, get lost—this house doesn’t need your complaints."
Shao Xue jumped up at once. “Su Nian said they’re having ribs tonight, so I’m going there—”
"Sit down!" Yu Dong Ge's eyebrows shot up. "You’re getting older, and you still stick to Su Nian all the time. My colleagues keep asking me if my daughter’s already married off."
"Su Nian’s a good kid," Shao Hua, having let his guard down, said absentmindedly, "I think it’s a good match."
"Talking nonsense in front of the child—can’t even keep your mouth shut while eating."
Seeing Yu Dong Ge about to lose her temper, both father and daughter quickly sat down quietly, eating Yu Dong Ge's latest experimental dish without another word.
Yu Dong Ge also worked in cultural relic restoration, heading the textiles restoration group. She spent her workdays constantly battling with needles and thread, and all her patience was reserved for the fabric relics. When she got home, however, her temper flared easily. Shao Xue had little appetite, ate a bit of rice, and went out to play with Zhang Qi and Su Nian, leaving her mother sighing at home.
“It was better when she was little,” Yu Dong Ge complained. “Quietly nestled in my arms, not always thinking about running outside.”
“Well, she has to grow up. You can tell from a young age what a person will be like. She’s been a handful since she was a child; how can you expect her to be obedient now?”
Yu Dong Ge fell silent, placing her chopsticks on the table, seemingly lost in thought.
On the day Shao Xue was born, Beijing was hit by a heavy snowfall. When Shao Hua got the news, he was in the clock restoration room, removing rust from an ancient clock dating back to the Kangxi era. The gilded decorations on the clock had weathered into patches of verdigris. He was so engrossed in his work that he didn’t even hear the footsteps approaching from outside.
Jin Ning burst into the room, covered in snow, nearly making Shao Hua drop his file. She was still catching her breath, and in between gasps, she stammered, “Shao... Shao Hua, Dong Ge has given birth.”
The little one couldn’t wait any longer and arrived a whole week early. Everyone thought the child would be weak, but she turned out to be more lively than any other newborn. When she was a month old, Jin Ning and Zheng Jin brought Zheng Su Nian to visit Shao Hua’s home. They found the little girl staring intently at Su Nian, grabbing his finger and refusing to let go.
“Your daughter likes my son, huh?” Jin Ning, only twenty-five or twenty-six at the time, boasted happily to Yu Dong Ge, only to be met with an eye-roll from Master Sun Qirui from the porcelain department.
“Everyone likes your Su Nian. You’ve already arranged five betrothals for him.”
Zheng Jin quickly pulled his wife away, changing the subject: “Hey, Shao Hua, have you picked a name yet?”
“Not yet,” said Shao Hua, a new father who was both delighted and confused at all times. “There are no elders in my family. I was hoping Master Sun could pick a name for her.”
The old man was clearly interested in the task. “What a coincidence! I already thought of one before I came—your daughter was born in the snow, so let’s call her Shao Xue.”
“Well, that’s pretty casual,” Jin Ning couldn’t help but comment. “My master named Su Nian. Looks like you’ve lost this round.”
“Shao Xue is a good name,” Yu Dong Ge, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up. She gently touched her daughter’s cheek, her face full of the tenderness of a new mother. “Snow is a wonderful thing. An abundant snow foretells a good harvest. Let’s call her Shao Xue.”
Names always carry good wishes. In their hearts, Shao Xue’s parents envisioned her as pure and graceful like snow, hoping to raise a refined young lady. But Shao Xue’s snow wasn’t the serene, poetic kind. She was the type of snow that engaged in snowball fights, stuffing snowballs down Zhang Qi’s collar. So much so that all the restoration department staff knew Yu Dong Ge’s famous phrase: “After ten months of pregnancy, I gave birth to my nemesis.”
“This is what it means to be a parent,” Yu Dong Ge sighed as she snapped back from her memories. “You pour your heart and soul into raising your little enemy.”
Outside, a racket erupted as Shao Xue, Zhang Qi, and Zheng Su Nian started horsing around again. A few parents, while washing dishes, occasionally stuck their heads out to check if their kids were getting too rowdy.
Their story was just beginning.
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