Mud beads

On the day the final exams ended, Chang'an had its first snowfall.

The snow wasn't heavy; it fell on the asphalt road outside the school gate and melted into a layer of dampness in the blink of an eye. The heating in the teaching building was on full blast, and the glass windows were fogged up. The girls were still wearing short skirts and long stockings as usual, and glimpses of white legs swayed past in the corridors. Winter, in this school, only stayed outside the gate and couldn't go inside.

Yu Zhu walked at the back of the crowd with her schoolbag on her back.

Her palms were sweaty. The last exam was politics, and the teacher said that she would get points for writing even a little bit. She wrote frantically without stopping, and the test paper was covered with dense writing on both sides.

After the exam, someone threw their pen on the table and shouted "Long live winter vacation!" Song Keyi and several girls huddled together looking at photos of ski suits and discussing different accessories from various brands. Xu Jiayan tossed his pencil case into his backpack and turned to look at Yu Zhu.

"Yu Zhu, how did the exam go?"

Yu Zhu lowered her head and zipped up her backpack: "I don't know."

"You don't know either," he laughed. "You're so boring."

Someone nearby chimed in, "He's a gold medalist, he's just being modest."

Song Keyi looked up, chuckled softly, and continued scrolling through her phone.

Yu Zhu didn't reply. She had gotten used to not arguing or defending herself. Although she was still often ridiculed and teased, the humor of these incidents had been greatly diminished because of her silence and her "voluntary revelation" of her background in the essay competition.

After all, no ridicule can be more cruel than the fate depicted in her articles.

Now, she occasionally receives some unexpected acts of kindness.

Moth

The school gate was full of cars picking up children after school.

The students walked out of the year-round temperature-controlled school building and, in no time at all, slipped into the warm and comfortable carriage. Some tossed their backpacks onto the passenger seat as soon as they opened the door, while others, seeing their parents from afar, began to complain about how terrible today's English listening test was.

Yu Zhu walked to the small gate of the junior high school section, swiped her card, and went out.

She continued to take the subway as always.

The subway was crowded, with wet umbrellas and damp coats huddled together, creating a pungent, musty smell from the body heat. Yu Zhu gripped the handrail, her body swaying with the carriage, her mind still preoccupied with changing the answer to a math multiple-choice question from A to C.

When I got back to the Yue family home, it was just getting dark.

Aunt Wang was simmering soup in the kitchen, steam rising from the rim of the clay pot, bubbling away. Yu Zhu changed into her slippers, greeted Aunt Wang, and, as usual, went to wash her hands with her schoolbag on her back. The hot water rinsed over the back of her hands, and her skin, exposed to the north wind, quickly turned red.

Aunt Wang peeked into the kitchen: "Finished the exam?"

Yu Zhu nodded.

"That's good, you can relax now." Aunt Wang, wearing thick heat-resistant gloves, brought out the soup bowl. "By the way, next Saturday is the young master's birthday. He's going to the old man's for lunch, and some of his classmates will be coming over tonight."

Yu Zhu stopped wiping her hands.

"Is it the young master's birthday?"

"Yes, it's like this every year," Aunt Wang said. "We eat dinner, play for a while, and sometimes it goes on until midnight. If you're not used to it, just go upstairs, it's fine."

"Okay." Yu Zhu nodded, turned around, and walked upstairs with her schoolbag on her back. Her feelings were a little complicated.

Birthday. She's never celebrated one.

Yu Zhaozu celebrates his birthday every year. Liu Guizhen goes to town to buy a small cake, white cream and red jam. As soon as the plastic box is opened, the sweet aroma fills the room. In the evening, everyone gathers around a table. Yu Zhaozu sits in the middle, blowing out the candles. She sits opposite him, watching his face glow red in the candlelight.

Cutting the cake was Yu Zhu's most anticipated part. She would secretly pray that her slice would have some extra patterns or decorations. Although she always ended up with a plain, unadorned corner piece.

But it's Koshima Toru's birthday. She should give him a present.

The moment this thought popped into her head, it was as if someone were pulling a thread out of her chest cavity, thinning it with each pull, making her heart tighten with each thought.

She owes Toru Koshima a lot, and her birthday is a chance to repay some of it.

But she had no money.

Aunt Wang had given her a card, and money would be deposited into it every month. The card was kept at the very back of her desk drawer, hidden away with her ID and student card. When Aunt Wang first showed her how to use it, she was shocked by the number in the account. Those numbers were enormous; she couldn't even imagine them.

She only dares to spend money on necessities.

She bought study materials, topped up her meal card, and purchased activity materials for practical classes. For every expense, she would write down the date, amount, and purpose in her notebook. She wrote neatly, as if afraid someone might come and check the accounts someday.

Therefore, she cannot use the Echi family's money to buy gifts for Echima Toru.

That doesn't count as a gift.

That night, she went to bed early for the first time in a long time, turned on her phone, and typed "male birthday gift" into the search bar. After typing it, she added three words before it: "cheap".

A bunch of things popped up on the screen: keychains, mugs, scarves, handmade photo albums, and pens that cost a few dozen yuan. The pictures were all neatly taken, and the captions emphasized "heartfelt sentiments." Yu Zhu scrolled down through them one by one, her fingers moving slower and slower.

These things are not worthy of Toru Kojima.

Toru Koshima had an extreme pursuit of perfection in every household item. Even his drinking glasses filled an entire cabinet in the kitchen. Some were so exquisite that you couldn't even tell the difference unless you looked closely.

Since coming to the city, she has gradually come to realize that poverty is often accompanied by ugliness.

Moth

On Echizen Toru's birthday, the Echizen family started getting busy from the morning.

The ingredients needed for the evening were delivered before dawn, and the kitchen began preparing them in the morning. A white tablecloth covered the long table next to the dining room, and the silverware was polished to a shine. The oven ran non-stop, occasionally beeping to signal the end of the time.

Echizen Toru left home at noon and hadn't returned by evening.

Yu Zhu changed into a dress that Aunt Wang had bought for her. It was a well-tailored light gray cotton dress, with a white cardigan over it, and no other decorations. She styled her hair into a high bun like a self-media blogger, revealing her smooth forehead. But after styling it, she felt it was too deliberate, and in the end, she tied it into her familiar low ponytail.

The person in the mirror was still thin, but looked healthier than when they first arrived. Their skin also seemed fairer, making their eyes appear even darker.

She was walking down the stairs when the doorbell rang.

Tetsuya Echizen and his friends came in together.

He wore a black turtleneck sweater over a dark gray short jacket, and his hair was damp with snow. Ji Yong walked to his left, wearing a down vest over a sweatshirt, a baseball cap askew on her head, and carrying a huge gift box. She complained of being starving as soon as she entered. Song Ban followed behind, wearing silver-rimmed glasses and having delicate features. He carried a long, thin box in his arms.

The last to enter was the girl who always had long, wavy hair. Today, she wore a camel-colored cashmere coat, her jet-black hair pulled back loosely, and the pearls dangling from her earlobes shimmered with each change of angle. She rarely wore heavy makeup; her skin was so white it seemed to glow, and she exuded a clean, radiant, and expensive aura. Her elegance wasn't sharp; it was as if she had been nurtured by the finest things since childhood, needing no ostentatious display to prove it.

Ji Yong's eyes lit up when she saw Yu Zhu on the stairs, and she spoke first.

"Whose child is this? Is she your cousin?"