Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

Zhang Qian huddled inside her coat, her head bowed, her long blue hair obscuring half her face.

She stared at the neon lights rushing past the car window, her eyes vacant and somewhat disheveled.

"Why the long face?" Bai Li glanced at her, then reached out and closed the car window more tightly.

"What's wrong? Did those guys bully you too much? You look so unhappy. They didn't really bully you."

Upon hearing the word "bullying," Zhang Qian's body trembled very slightly.

She didn't immediately refute, but instead lowered her head even further, her fingers digging tightly into the hem of her clothes.

After a while, she seemed to squeeze out a sound from her throat:

"No... Big brothers, you're all doing well."

Bai Li raised an eyebrow.

This reaction is wrong.

Normally, this woman would have taken advantage of the situation, either by acting coquettishly and pleading her innocence, or by using the opportunity to ask for favors.

This silence and avoidance often means that something sore spot has been touched.

It seems this little blue-haired guy has quite a story to tell.

Bai Li didn't delve into this topic; some wounds don't need to be reopened in public.

He leaned back, his tone deliberately casual:

"Alright, stop picking your fingers. What do you want to eat?"

Zhang Qian paused for a moment, then looked up, her eyes filled with confusion.

"what?"

"What?!" Bai Li took out her phone and looked at the nearby shopping district. "It's so cold, let's have hot pot. Let's warm ourselves up."

"Hot pot..." Zhang Qian murmured, repeating herself, the gloomy look in her eyes brightening slightly.

"Don't want to eat that? Then let's choose something else."

"Eat! I want to eat!" Zhang Qian nodded quickly, as if afraid that Bai Li would change his mind.

The two got off the car at a nearby Chongqing hot pot restaurant.

The shop was steaming hot, filled with the aroma of butter and chili.

Bai Li found a corner seat and handed the menu to Zhang Qian: "Order whatever you like, don't try to save me money."

Zhang Qian held the menu, her hands trembling slightly as she looked at the plates of meat that cost tens of yuan.

In the past, when I went out to eat with those so-called "partners," we would only eat a spicy hot pot that cost a dozen yuan or so, maybe with an extra sausage.

"Then... shall I order some tripe?" she asked Bai Li tentatively.

"Order." Bai Li took another menu and wrote with a flourish: "Duck intestines, beef aorta, fatty beef, shrimp paste, one of each. And a pitcher of plum juice."

Looking at the table laden with dishes and the bubbling red oil in the hot pot, Zhang Qian felt the chill that had seeped into her bones finally dissipate a little.

She picked up a slice of blanched tripe and stuffed it into her mouth, gasping for breath from the spiciness, her eyes reddening.

"Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you." Bai Li poured her a glass of plum juice.

Zhang Qian held the cup, looking at the man opposite her through the rising steam.

He barely touched his chopsticks, just slowly and methodically rinsing the vegetables in the broth, occasionally glancing up at her with a calm expression.

There was no lewd desire to strip her naked, nor the disdain of looking at trash.

"Big brother." Zhang Qian sniffed, her voice very soft.

"Um?"

"This coat is so warm." She touched the lamb wool coat she was wearing.

"Of course, it's several hundred."

"No..." Zhang Qian shook her head, looked into Bai Li's eyes, and said seriously, "I mean, I know why Tingting and the others are so attached to you now."

Bai Li smiled, didn't reply, and put a piece of beef into her bowl:

"Why so much emotion when you're just eating my flesh?"

I broke out in a light sweat after eating the meal.

After paying the bill and stepping outside, the cold wind dissipated much of the warmth.

The streets were sparsely populated, with only a few cars occasionally whizzing by.

"Alright, we've finished eating." Bai Li tightened his coat collar and looked at Zhang Qian. "Since you're all home, I'll head back too. You should go home early as well."

Zhang Qian stood under the streetlight, her shadow stretched long.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she swallowed it back.

"Um... big brother, why don't you go first?" Zhang Qian forced a smile, her hands in her pockets. "I still need to go over there to buy some things, I'll be back in a bit."

"Okay." Bai Li didn't think much of it. "Then I'm leaving. This area is chaotic at night, so be careful."

"Okay, big brother, bye-bye." Zhang Qian waved.

Bai Li turned around and started walking towards home.

Walk about 100 meters and turn a street corner.

Bai Li slowed down.

He frowned, feeling that something was amiss.

Zhang Qian's smile just now was uglier than crying.

Besides, where can you buy things this late at night?

He stood there for a few seconds, then sighed.

"I really owe you one."

Bai Li turned around and walked back.

Returning to where they had parted ways, he saw a group of people crouching under a lamppost in the distance.

Zhang Qian didn't go shopping at all.

She was like a puppy abandoned by its owner, squatting on the curb with her knees drawn up to her chest, curled up into a small ball, her head buried in her arms, motionless.

The winter night wind blew like a knife, and although her thick sheepskin coat couldn't keep out the bone-chilling cold.

Bai Li walked over and stood in front of her.

The tall figure blocked the light from the street lamp, casting a shadow.

Zhang Qian felt the light dimming, her body shrank abruptly, and without looking up, she cried out in a tearful voice:

"Get away from me!! Don't bother me!"

"She has quite a temper."

A familiar voice came from above.

Zhang Qian froze and suddenly raised her head.

Bai Li looked down at her, his hands in his coat pockets, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Didn't you say you were going to buy things and go home? Are you just sitting here like a mushroom?"

Seeing Bai leave and then return, Zhang Qian's carefully constructed defenses completely collapsed.

Her lips trembled, and large tears streamed down her face, ruining her makeup. She looked both comical and pitiful.

"Big brother..."

"Speak." Bai Li crouched down, his gaze level with hers. "Why don't you go home?"

Zhang Qian bit her lip hard until she tasted blood.

She looked at Bai Li and finally revealed the secret that she had kept in her heart for so long.

"I have no home."

"Li Jiaxin has a grandmother, while Lin Xiaoshuang and Chen Tingting have grandfathers or younger brothers."

Zhang Qian hastily wiped away her tears, her voice hoarse:

"My dad was a gambler who sold the house and ran away. My mom remarried, and my stepfather... he looked at me strangely, so I ran away."

"I've been out here for three years, and they haven't even called me once."

She looked up at Bai Li with despair: "Brother, nobody in this world wants me. If I go back now, there won't even be anyone to open the door."

The cold wind howled, whipping up the withered leaves on the ground.

Bai Li looked at the girl in front of him who was crying her eyes out.

The blue-haired delinquent girl who was always full of witty banter and shrewd calculations was gone, leaving only a homeless, pathetic creature.

"If you have nowhere to go, just say you have nowhere to go. Why are you putting on this melodramatic show?"

Bai Li stood up and extended one hand: "Get up."

Zhang Qian stared blankly at that hand, long and clean, a warmth she longed for but dared not touch.

"Where...where to?"

"Where do you want to go?" Bai Li said irritably. "Do you want to just sit here and freeze into an icicle all night, or are you coming with me?"

Zhang Qian sniffed and carefully placed her hand in Bai Li's palm.

My cold hand was enveloped in warmth.

Bai Li pulled her up from the ground with a single effort.

Zhang Qian's legs went numb from squatting for so long, and she stumbled, bumping directly into Bai Li's arms.

"What? You're already throwing yourself at me before we even get there?" Bai Li teased her as he helped her up, but his hand held her arm firmly.

"Big brother..." Zhang Qian buried her face in his cashmere coat, greedily inhaling the faint scent of tobacco on him: "Where do you usually... stay?"

"I usually live in Shanghai, but I've quit my job and gone home." Bai Li glanced in the general direction. "Let's go to their place. Anyway, that room has been booked for a month; it's a waste not to stay."