Alice in the Land of Steam

The two stood under the eaves admiring the snow.

The street stretched into the distance, its cobblestones already filled with snow. Gloria's gaze followed the street, seeing a thick layer of white snow piled on the roof tiles, tiny icicles hanging from the edges, gleaming brightly in the dim light. The window sills were the same; each window frame was edged with a fuzzy white trim, like a scarf. In the ditch at the street corner, the not-yet-melted snow drifted slowly with the current, gathering and dispersing on the surface, gathering and dispersing again.

The streets were nearly deserted, save for an elderly night watchman who shakily lit the streetlights with an oil lamp, casting a warm glow on the snow. Gloria thought Linville was beautiful, quiet as a painting. Perhaps only a sorrowful city like those in paintings would shed its cold exterior and reveal a touch of warmth to outsiders?
"I wonder how things are at home?" she suddenly thought, and said it naturally.

As a wandering soul in this mortal world, she had no true home, but longing always changes with time. Now, her hometown was not far away, so close that she felt she could see it with just a glance. She recalled the time she spent in the ancient castle, seemingly smelling the fragrance of spring flowers, basking in the summer sun, and seeing the grapevines bearing fruit in autumn, with townspeople busily harvesting the fruit among the trellises. Only her memories of winter were vague; she only remembered sitting by the fireplace in the castle, listening to Lady Lena describe the outside world. She said that heavy snow had sealed off the forests, the flowers and plants had withered and faded, the birds and beasts had fallen into slumber, and people no longer went out to work, but stayed at home, enjoying a moment of warmth, just like her.

She longed to see it for herself, but she never had the chance. Neither her parents, Lady Lena, nor the maids who served her allowed her to leave the castle or go out on her own during the cold winter. The only person she could rely on was Bai Ye, but every winter, Bai Ye would become lazy and listless, as if he were hibernating.

"There's nothing to see." She scoffed after hearing Gloria's wish: "It's just snowing."

Yes, for Bai Ye, who had wandered the world for many years, the snow every year was the same, so there was nothing to see, right? At that time, Gloria unconditionally believed everything about Bai Ye and let go of that thought. Later, when she left her hometown and wandered alone around the world, she did see all kinds of snow, and just as Bai Ye said, they were all the same. Whether it was the snowflakes drifting in Renweiting or the swirling snow on the Alps, they were all equally white, cold, and fleeting.

Having seen so much, she no longer felt the same deep emotion. But it wasn't until today, until she saw the snow in Linwell City, that Gloria realized that perhaps she had never truly forgotten it. After all, the snow in her hometown and the snow in other places cannot be generalized. Bai Ye never considered that castle her home. To her, it was just a temporary stop in her life, something that would come and go quickly, just like always.

But she didn't know that the other soul within her, a soul born here, a soul that seemed merely an appendage to her life, a soul that would never disobey her, actually possessed its own small but precious emotions. She didn't know, so she casually brushed off Gloria's request, and Gloria, too trusting of Bai Ye, believed her words were absolutely correct, and therefore didn't try to verify them.

Is the wish that was missed years ago because of a casual remark by Bai Ye actually a chance for fate to make amends today?
The girl turned to look at Ling, only to find the young man gazing intently at the snow-covered city, silent for a long time. Gloria followed his gaze and saw only the familiar rooftops, window sills, and canals, everything just as before, quietly enveloped in white snow. She didn't understand why Ling was so absorbed in the scene, so she didn't ask, simply standing quietly beside him, keeping him company as he watched the snow.

After a long while, the young man slowly withdrew his gaze, let out a long breath, and his breath swirled into a grayish-white mist in the low winter temperature.

Gloria couldn't help but laugh when she saw this.

"That's strange," she asked. "Linger, aren't you from Linville? You should be used to snow, right? Why are you staring at it so intently, just like me?"

Ling replied, "I've just never seen black snow before."

In the young man's eyes, everything was pitch black. The snow fell on the streets like coal ash, on the rooftops like coke, in the ditches like decaying grass, but on the elderly night watchman, it dyed his white hair black again. The heavy, dense snow was like a thick, heavy oil painting; the streetlights could barely illuminate the area around their poles, and beyond that, the snow-covered ground was plunged back into darkness, as if the light was being slowly devoured by something. The old man walked unsteadily in the snow, needing to brush the snowflakes off his coat and trousers from time to time to remove the inky blackness and reveal their original colors.

Gloria thought Ling was joking with her, so she laughed along, then stood on tiptoe and patted the young man's shoulder hard, as if to convey "I believe you".

“But actually,” she kindly reminded her, “there is no such thing as black snow in the world.”

Lin Ge glanced at her: "So what color is the snow you see now?"

"You're joking with me again, Linger," Gloria said with a grin. "Snow is white, of course. What other color could it be?"

"Is it really white?" Lin Ge asked repeatedly.

"It is indeed white."

"Pure white?"

“Pure white.” Gloria nodded with certainty. “Whiter than cotton candy and clouds.”

That's wrong too. The young man couldn't help but think that if there were no black snow in the world, then there certainly couldn't be pure white snow either, because real snow is actually gray and a bit dirty.

Lin Ge already had some guesses in his mind, but he couldn't prove them yet.

At that moment, Gloria exclaimed as if waking from a dream, "Ah!"

"I have to go," she said lightly. "Bai Ye and Lady Lena are still waiting for me!"

I think Bai Ye doesn't really want you to go. Lin Ge thought to himself, but didn't say it aloud. He just asked her, "Are you still going even though it's snowing so heavily?"

“Of course,” Gloria replied matter-of-factly. “I won’t be stumped by something so trivial.”

After she finished speaking, she stepped out from under the eaves, her figure disappearing into the vast snow. White snowflakes landed on her shoulders and hair, which she saw as light debris, but under the gaze of the person behind her, they were black ashes.

Ling stood under the eaves, watching her walk down the street, watching her footprints leave a clear trail in the black snow. The footprints grew from large to small, from dark to light, until the farthest one was almost completely covered by fresh snow, at which point he slowly turned his gaze away. The elderly night watchman had vanished sometime during the night, and the street was completely empty, without a single person in sight.

Only black snow continued to fall.

……

The garden was in a state of desolation.

Bai Ye stood at the end of the cobblestone path, looking up at the gray sky. He saw black snowflakes falling silently, so densely it resembled an endless funeral. His usually indifferent brows furrowed slightly. The snow weighed down the withered rose vines, bending and breaking their already dying branches. The black snow filled every crevice of the flowerbed, like cinders dumped onto a once-white carpet. Even the deep green shrub wall was stained a dirty color, like the walls of a steel jungle, truly resembling a dark, bottomless labyrinth.

Its owner once hoped that this maze would become the castle's strongest defense, keeping out all unwelcome guests. Unfortunately, when it actually became a maze, the owner no longer liked it.

Bai Ye indifferently withdrew her gaze and looked down at the tips of her boots. The surface of her shoes was speckled with black, as if someone had splashed ink on them. She lightly stomped her foot, and the black specks fell away, revealing the original color underneath, but soon new black specks fell and covered them again.

How filthy.

She thought expressionlessly that she had never seen such a filthy snowfall, which was a desecration of this dream.

“I already told that guy,” she said, as if explaining to someone, or perhaps talking to herself, “It’s just snowing, there’s nothing much to see anyway.”

She heard light footsteps behind her, accompanied by the rustling of her skirt against the dry branches. Bai Ye didn't turn around; she knew who it was.

"Then why did you come?"
.
Mrs. Lena's voice remained calm, unconcerned that the snow had destroyed her garden, which she had painstakingly cultivated for years, because she knew it was all temporary, neither lasting forever nor disappearing anytime soon. Therefore, there was nothing to worry about, except for herself, a patient so stubbornly determined to defy everything in the world.

Sigh, dealing with patients like this is always the most troublesome, but what can I do? I'm her attending physician, and since I've accepted the master's consultation fee, I have to take good care of her.

Lady Lena strolled leisurely to Bai Ye's side, offering him the hand warmer. Bai Ye didn't take it, so she didn't insist. She stood there holding the hand warmer, turning her head to look at his indifferent face. "If you dislike the snow, why not stay in the warm room like me, warming yourself by the fire, reading, and enjoying some snacks? Wouldn't that be quite pleasant? If you're still thinking about my tea party, then wait a while until everything is back to normal before we continue. I think this snow will stop soon, because..."

Because the snow in reality will stop soon too.

Bai Ye understood her unspoken meaning. Even without Lady Lena's prompting, she knew perfectly well—more than anyone else—the origin of the snow. This was precisely why she was even more agitated. On one hand, her meticulously crafted dream had been easily invaded by forces of reality, which greatly displeased the Mindful Queen who considered dreams her private domain. On the other hand, she understood the essence of this snow even better than she understood the essence of dreams. If the essence of dreams is the echo of the soul, then could snow capable of invading a dream truly be just ordinary snow?

It is a fragment of emotion, and only emotion can freely travel between reality and dreams without hindrance.

The question is, why did a heavy snowfall suddenly fall in reality, a snowfall formed from emotions? Why are these fragments of emotion all a decadent black? Bai Ye is certain that this is related to the actions of Alice and the others, but where on earth did they go to encounter such a strange thing?

Of course, travelers' adventures are always colorful, and encountering strange things is nothing new; in fact, it's quite commonplace. But why at this particular time? Why precisely at the most crucial, the most important, the moment when mistakes are unacceptable…

A snowflake landed in Bai Ye's palm, instantly melting into a tiny drop of water from her body heat. The drop rolled across her fair skin, leaving a faint gray mark. She shook her hand away in disgust, pulled it back into her sleeve, and said coldly to Mrs. Lena, "I have never been interested in your tea party, Mrs. Lena."

That's really heartbreaking.

Lady Lena, holding the hand warmer in both hands, asked with a smile, "But if it weren't for spending afternoon tea with me, why have you been waiting here, Bai Ye? Ah, I see. Since you weren't waiting for me, there must be someone more important, right? Because you kept saying she was annoying, telling her not to come to you until she had thought things through, and always complaining about her weakness, escapism, and indecisiveness... I thought you hated her..."

"Stop talking!" Bai Ye rudely interrupted Lady Lena.

The latter's face showed a mocking expression. Bai Ye could give this attending physician, who had been helping her wholeheartedly, a bad look, but she couldn't really do anything. So she withdrew her gaze and walked back with a sour face.

"Aren't we going to wait?" Mrs. Lena asked.

"I'm not waiting anymore," she replied irritably. "With this much snow, unless that little idiot has lost his mind, he won't come looking for me..."

Before the words were finished, hurried footsteps suddenly came from the dark maze. The person seemed to be running, looking quite anxious. Even their breath carried the chill of the wind and dispersed the thin mist after the snow.

Bai Ye's words came to an abrupt halt. She turned and met Lady Lena's enigmatic smile, realizing then: if it were that idiot, he would indeed do something only an idiot would do. (End of Chapter)