The crowd attending the wedding had already begun following Fangyuan into the hotel. The leftover ribbons fluttering in the snow were so eye-catching that they kept reminding us of the scenes we had just witnessed.
Not far away, Jian Wei and Yan Yan had never gotten out of the car, nor had they greeted Mi Cai and me. They had left the hotel before us, and I didn’t want to figure out what it meant when people we knew chose not to say hello after seeing us, because none of us were having an easy time at the moment.
The snow kept falling heavily, and in some places, it had already accumulated. Finally, I said to Mi Cai beside me, “Let’s go. It’s time we returned to Xuzhou and started our new life… Let everything in Suzhou come to an end.”
Mi Cai looked once more toward the hotel before nodding. I put my arm around her shoulder, and together we walked against the snow toward the car, which had not yet turned off its engine. As the car started, the city seemed to shrink into rooftops falling behind us, covered and cleansed by the heavy snowfall.
…While driving along the city’s edge, the square where Mi Cai and I often found happiness suddenly appeared in our view. We realized only now that we had almost overlooked it. Yet this place had genuinely carried our hopes and happiness, a place where we were real, where we learned understanding and flexibility…
Perhaps sharing my feelings, Mi Cai gradually slowed the car and finally pulled over by the roadside. We exchanged glances, and I smiled and asked, “Want to go have a look?”
“Mm, let’s take a walk.”
…
The square was full of people due to the heavy snowfall, mostly children, who were already on their winter vacation. The snowflakes danced like their moods, and the children shouted joyfully, as if all their visible troubles had been left behind at school, locked away in a cage.
Suddenly, a snowball flew out of nowhere and hit my arm. Then a boy with a loud voice shouted at the other children, “Guys, hit that fraud with snowballs! The day before yesterday, he tricked us into listening to him sing and promised us race cars to play with, but we waited all day for nothing and our hearts turned cold… Pelt him with snowballs!”
The children’s emotions were instantly stirred up. They quickly gathered the meager snow on the ground into snowballs and threw them at me. Mi Cai was caught in the crossfire too, hit by several snowballs. I hugged Mi Cai protectively and pleaded, “Guys, let’s talk this over… I really had something important to do yesterday!”
“Where’s the race car? Without it, talking is useless! Keep pelting him, guys…” The leader shouted at me like a martial arts master.
Finally, provoked, I rushed straight to the older child, grabbed him, and held him up while addressing the other kids, “Your leader is in my hands. If you want him to live, you all better behave yourselves…”
The older child struggled as he said, “Don’t worry about me, I’ve already cultivated an indestructible body. You can pelt him to death, but you can’t kill me!”
The children regained their confidence and quickly rolled more snowballs. This time, however, their target was Mi Cai. Dodging, Mi Cai took shelter behind me and scolded, “How come you can get into trouble with just a bunch of kids?”
“How did I know they would take that so seriously…” I said, holding the older boy who claimed to have an indestructible body in front of me. Some snowballs hit Mi Cai and me, while others struck the older boy. Indeed, he was tough, silently enduring the snowballs flying at him with his body and head.
The adults around us had already grown accustomed to our playful fighting with the children and were watching with smiles, as if watching a performance!
…
Eventually, outnumbered, Mi Cai and I were defeated. We squatted by the fountain, hands on our ears, accepting the children’s judgment. The leader, with a solemn expression, questioned me, “Do you realize your mistake now?”
I quickly replied, “Big brother, I was wrong… I shouldn’t have stood you up!!”
Mi Cai couldn’t help but laugh… only to be scolded by the older boy, “You, girl, no laughing! We weren’t going to mess with you originally. It’s just that you stood with him, and standing with him makes you his gang!”
Mi Cai mimicked my tone and replied, “Big brother, I’m innocent… It was him who stood you up, not me. I was just standing by his side idly!”
“Don’t argue!” The older boy shot Mi Cai a glance and then reached out his hand toward me, demanding, “Where’s the race car? Without it, we won’t forgive you!”
“Big brother, we’re in a hurry to get going. We’ll bring them next time we come to Suzhou. I promise this time…”
“No way! We want to play now. Give us one hour, and we’ll let you go. I promise too…” As soon as the older boy finished speaking, he received support from the others, surrounding Mi Cai and me even more tightly.
First, Mi Cai whispered to me, “The race cars are in the car. Maybe we should just bring them out for the kids to play with for a while. I’m getting overwhelmed…” Suddenly, she loudly cried out, “Oh my god… Who can save us!”
Mi Cai’s wish quickly came true. We saw Wei Xiao and Yazi arrive at the square with a group of children they often played with, forming a “Seven Wolves” formation. Without asking for the truth, they simply pushed the children surrounding us aside, making space for Mi Cai and me to “escape.”
After hastily saying a few words to Wei Xiao and Yazi, Mi Cai and I held each other’s hands and ran out of the square with a sense of urgency. Then we got into the car, catching our breath while laughing at each other… In fact, we could have escaped anytime—we were just playing along with the kids, because all this joy came from this square… but now, it was time for us to leave!
Outside the car window, the group of children did not chase after us. They were now negotiating with Wei Xiao, who seemed to have borrowed from Yazi the gas-powered race car that Mi Cai had given him and lent it to the group of children. Thus, the two groups of kids quickly became friends again, playing happily together.
But this scene brought tears to Mi Cai’s eyes, and my nose also tingled. Because this city, which had filled us with weariness, on the day of our departure, gave us this gift in such a way, awakening our beautiful memories of it. It had not given us only pain after all!
Perhaps one day, when we recall the happiness here, we will revisit this place. But now, we must return to Xuzhou. The heavy snowfall made our journey destined to be no easy task. Mi Cai and I wanted to arrive in Xuzhou before dark because we longed to receive our parents’ forgiveness sooner, then gather as a family to eat hotpot and drink a little wine… thus beginning our new life!
The car had already started. Wei Xiao and Yazi waved at us from afar, but merely 50 meters later, we could no longer see their figures clearly through the snowfall. The whole city became blurred, but I believed that from this blur, the northern horizon would stretch into brightness…
Farewell, Suzhou!
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