At the end of December that same year, a cold wave arrived.
The news had already been reporting since the previous week that there would be heavy snowfall. Coincidentally, Gaoxin No. 1 Primary School had already gone on winter break, so there was no need to pick Huojia up from school. On Thursday night, Huojia, who often played in the yard digging in the dirt, excitedly ran back into the living room and tugged at Qin Shui, signing, “Mom! It’s snowing!”
She turned on the lights in the yard, and the family of three went out to admire the snowflakes for a while. In just half an hour, the snow fell heavier and heavier, and Qin Shui carried her daughter back inside from outdoors, still wrapped in her down jacket and scarf.
Qin Sheng figured that by morning, it would either be icy or covered in snow. He made arrangements in the work group chat, telling the master who lived closest to the factory that if the snow stopped by morning, he should go in to be on duty, and if it didn’t stop, they would take the day off first.
This was the first snowfall of the year. At the beginning, it was mostly icy pellets, and Huojia’s hair got wet. The little girl came over holding a can of chocolate biscuits and handed it to Qin Sheng, silently signaling for him to help her twist it open.
“You and Mom went to the supermarket today?” he asked while opening the can.
Huojia’s attention was entirely on the biscuits. She cleverly glanced back toward the direction of the stairs, hopping anxiously. “Hurry up and open it! Mom will come in a moment!”
Qin Sheng only took out two for her. Huojia stuffed them into her mouth as if she had struck gold and chewed happily. He resealed the rest and put the can back in the highest kitchen cabinet.
“We went to the supermarket,” Huojia finally answered after finishing eating. “Mom bought a lot of things. We won’t go again for a while. The supermarket is very crowded.”
The father and daughter came out of the kitchen one after the other. After washing up, Qin Shui came downstairs with a face mask on and quickly noticed Huojia sneaking along behind Qin Sheng, wiping her hands on her father’s pants.
She casually turned off the ceiling light in the living room, leaving only two wall lamps on, and sat down on the sofa. Huojia habitually snuggled up to her and called “Mom.” Seeing the chocolate smeared on her teeth and that she hadn’t wiped her mouth, Qin Shui immediately knew Qin Sheng had secretly fed her snacks.
“Did you not eat enough dinner?” she asked in sign language. “You’ll need to brush your teeth again later.”
Huojia lowered her head obediently and turned to watch TV. Qin Shui reached out and pulled her into a hug, then spoke to Qin Sheng in warning. “Next time, don’t just give her whatever she wants to eat. Once that can of biscuits is opened, it won’t keep. It was meant for her to share with her little friends. If you leave it, the texture won’t be good anymore.”
Qin Sheng quickly begged for mercy. “Good wife, I was wrong. I’ll buy a new one then. Let her eat this can for breakfast tomorrow.”
His love for his daughter had no bottom line. If Qin Shui hadn’t noticed, Qin Sheng definitely wouldn’t have exposed Huojia’s sneaky snacking. Over time, she would form a habit, and her teeth would suffer.
“Mom,” Huojia signed in small movements. “I want to sleep with you tonight.”
Qin Shui nodded in agreement. “Mom will stay with you until you fall asleep, then leave, okay?”
“No! I just want you to sleep with me, and not leave at night either!”
Qin Sheng, who was watching TV, was unhappy. “Then who am I supposed to sleep with? Did you secretly watch horror movies on TV again during the day? You were caught last time and still haven’t learned your lesson.”
Huojia went over and pushed him, protesting, “I’m sleeping with my mom for one night only! You’re always competing with me!”
Qin Sheng declared that next time he would never give her snacks again and would not buy her shoes either. Huojia only cared about the moment and stubbornly said she did not want them. She just wanted Mom to sleep with her.
Actually, Dad’s guess was correct. When she went to play at the neighboring child’s house during the day, several of them secretly found a very scary movie to watch on TV. This had become popular among them recently. Huojia no longer remembered the name of that movie, but she still remembered the scenes inside. She did not dare lie in bed alone and was afraid of everything, including under the bed, the wardrobe, the desk, and the toy cabinet.
Qin Shui also knew that there had to be a reason for this sudden request, so she had Qin Sheng put on Wreck-It Ralph for her. Let children watch something happy, change their mood, and then they will not be so scared.
Huojia looked a bit like Vanellope, cute and clever, occasionally mischievous, but she was an obedient and well-behaved child. She especially liked this animated film. The more she watched, the happier she became. But it was not until the ending song finished that she realized she really had to go to sleep, and Mom still had not agreed to sleep with her.
Every time she thought that Mom would leave after she fell asleep, she would get insomnia and could not sleep no matter what. And if she suddenly woke up at night and faced complete darkness, she would be even more afraid to go look for Mom.
But the movie she watched today was really too scary. It was acted by a group of foreigners. Huojia deeply regretted watching it out of curiosity. Now she did not even dare go brush her teeth by herself.
Thinking of this, she suddenly burst into tears.
Qin Sheng was just turning off the TV when her wail startled him fully awake. He quickly asked, “Why are you crying? It’s time to sleep. You can watch it again tomorrow.”
Seeing her cry, Qin Shui, who was washing rags in the kitchen, simply signed to Qin Sheng, “Go set up that little tent in her room and let her sleep in our bedroom.”
Huojia usually loved crawling into that tent the most and loved showing it off to her friends. Qin Sheng understood immediately, picked her up from the sofa, and carried her upstairs.
He held his daughter by the glass door of the second-floor terrace and looked at the snow. In just a few hours, the outside was already covered in silver, like pear blossoms in full bloom. Huojia wrapped her arms around her father’s neck, pressed her face against Qin Sheng’s, and sobbed softly while looking out the window.
Qin Shui stepped forward and patted her bottom, asking, “Did you play some scary game again? Your courage is so small, yet you still like playing.”
The three of them returned to the master bedroom. Qin Shui closed the door and took Huojia to brush her teeth a second time. Qin Sheng prepared the quilt, pillow, and her beloved fries-shaped cushion and spread them out inside her little tent.
“Satisfied now?” He leaned against the bathroom doorframe, crossed his arms, and said to Huojia, “If you scare yourself again next time, don’t come looking for us.”
Huojia hurriedly rinsed her mouth. Her eyes were no longer red, and she ducked straight into the tent. Sitting on the fries cushion, she sweetly said to Qin Sheng, “Thank you, Dad.”
Qin Sheng squatted down, lifted the quilt for her, settled his precious daughter in, and affectionately rubbed her cheek with his palm. After dimming the lights, he sat by the tent and waited for her to fall asleep.
She had not taken a nap during the day. After lunch, she went to the supermarket with Qin Shui, then played too much in the afternoon and even watched horror movies with her friends to torment herself. She had very little energy left. After crying just now and finally gaining a sense of security, she turned over and fell asleep within ten minutes.
Qin Shui lay down softly on the bed, able to see her daughter’s condition as soon as she opened her eyes. She was even sleepier than Huojia. Qin Sheng turned off the bedside lamp, hugged her from behind, sniffing and kissing her. Knowing he would not dare do anything tonight, Qin Shui simply turned over and rested into his arms, peacefully falling asleep.
At a little past three in the morning, the doorbell rang.
Qin Shui could not hear it and continued sleeping soundly. Huojia was the first to be awakened. Dazed, she called out for Mom, then cried in fright. Qin Sheng swiftly turned on the light, bent down, and carried his daughter onto the bed. He went into the hallway to answer the doorbell. His movement woke Qin Shui. Huojia lay beside her mother, sobbing in a half-dream state.
Qin Shui quickly held and comforted her. Huojia soon fell back asleep. Qin Shui got up nervously and asked, “What happened?”
“A neighbor brought their child and rang the doorbell,” Qin Sheng signed. “I’ll go down and take a look.”
Qin Shui carefully looked at Huojia, who was sleeping soundly, then wrapped herself in a blanket and followed him downstairs to open the door. The neighboring couple was older than them, nearly fifty. The man was named Su Zheng, and the woman was named Shi Qinglan. They ran a building materials business in the city and were better off financially, but their family life was not very harmonious.
This Mr. Su often drank while socializing for business. After coming home, he had a habit of drunken rampages and beating his wife. Their eldest daughter had just gotten into university this year and went to another city. She did not come back at all during winter break. At home, there was only their younger son left, two years older than Huojia, who was in third grade at Gaoxin No. 1 Primary School.
When Qin Sheng saw that she had brought the child, he could basically guess what was going on. Su Zheng had gone on destructive rampages at home several times before, and Shi Qinglan had come to Qin Shui for help. In this area, only they were willing to help, and only Qin Sheng could restrain her husband.
“I’m really sorry to knock so late, Qin Sheng, Qin Shui,” she said, pushing Su Yiqi toward the doorway. “Could you let Qiqi stay at your place for a while?”
The snow outside was thick. The child was wearing thin pajama pants on his lower half and holding his own pillow. Qin Shui reached out and welcomed Qiqi inside, asking, “Sister, do you want to come in too?”
Shi Qinglan refused. “I have to hurry back. Otherwise, things at home will be ruined again. Let Qiqi sleep here first. Sorry to trouble you, sister. I’ll come pick him up tomorrow morning.”
Of course, the child did not want to stay overnight, but he was also frightened and would rather stay in a quiet place. Qin Shui took Qiqi into the first-floor guest room, helped him change clothes, and made the bed. Qin Sheng, meanwhile, casually put on his coat, took his keys, and very straightforwardly pointed toward the yard gate.
“Let’s go. We’ll take a look.”
This was not the first time such a thing had happened. Although Qin Sheng was annoyed, he understood Shi Qinglan’s situation. He gently closed the front door behind him and asked, “Did you notify the property management?”
“The property staff are already there. I didn’t want to bother you, but the manager couldn’t stop him. When I went to stop it myself, I got beaten. There was no other way…”
Qin Sheng did not want to meddle in this family’s private affairs. Each time, he could not really solve anything either, only stopping Su Zheng from beating his wife. Over time, it had some effect, and Shi Qinglan often came to ask for help. This time, it was even in the middle of the night, waking both Qin Shui and Huojia. It was truly exhausting.
Unable to hide his fatigue, he said, “Sister Shi, next time, if it doesn’t work, just call the police. Us going over doesn’t really help.”
Shi Qinglan smiled apologetically. With such heavy snow outside tonight, Su Zheng and that group of low-quality drinking buddies were having a gathering at home. Not only had they vomited all over the bathroom, but they also got excited and smashed tables and broke cups, disturbing the residents on the south side. Those neighbors directly called the on-duty property manager.
It was no surprise that the manager’s attempts to persuade them failed. There were many drinking buddies who outnumbered him. They shoved the staff a few times. When Shi Qinglan went to break it up, her forearms were covered in bruises from being beaten.
After entering the house, Qin Sheng first greeted the property manager, who was holding a phone and said the police had already been called. Su Zheng looked half-conscious, sitting on the sofa, drinking tea with two men wearing dark-colored long underwear. The dining table in the living room was a mess, and broken beer bottles were scattered on the floor by the staircase.
With the floor heating warming everything, the house was filled with the smell of alcohol and vomit. Seeing that they were no longer making trouble, Qin Sheng said to Shi Qinglan, “Since the police have already been called, I’ll head back first. You can come pick Qiqi up a bit later tomorrow. Let him play with Huojia a little more.”
Su Zheng in the living room suddenly stood upright and staggered upstairs. Afraid he would fall headfirst, Shi Qinglan went in to help him. Qin Sheng thought she was worrying unnecessarily. If he fell, it might even sober him up. Two birds with one stone.
Suddenly, there was a dull thud and shouting upstairs. Qin Sheng and the property manager went upstairs one after the other. Shi Qinglan was lying on the carpet at the door of the secondary bedroom, blood flowing from the back of her head.
Su Zheng shouted loudly, “Where’s Qiqi?”
The property manager impatiently dialed 120 again. Su Zheng went up to snatch his phone, pointing and cursing at him. “Where did you people take my son?”
The two started arguing. Afraid he would shove the innocent property manager down the stairs, Qin Sheng stepped forward in two strides, pinned him back into the master bedroom, and locked the door from the outside.
“Are you okay?”
The manager asked while helping Shi Qinglan downstairs. The police car was already parked at the community entrance. After confirming by phone, the security guard came up with the police. They first learned the basic situation from Shi Qinglan, then directed the drunk men in the living room to put on clothes and get into the car, taking them to the police station to sober up.
Back at home, after confirming that both children were asleep, Qin Shui saw the flashing lights of the police car from the living room door. Afraid of further complications, she put on her down jacket and hurried over, witnessing two nurses treating Shi Qinglan’s wound in the yard and carrying her into the ambulance.
Two police officers took photos inside the house, while two went upstairs to bring the heavily drunk Su Zheng down, preparing to take him back to the station as well. Qin Shui happened to run into them face to face and quickly stepped aside, then jogged inside to find Qin Sheng.
“What happened?” she asked. “Why did an ambulance come too?”
Qin Sheng made a calming sign and stepped forward to hold her. The property manager kept apologizing. “Sister Qin Shui, you should go back and rest. This was already within property management’s responsibility. We even troubled the residents to help. Thank you, Brother Qin.”
Qin Sheng smiled. “No problem. Thanks for your hard work. We’ll head back now.”
He led Qin Shui home and signed to explain, “Su Zheng hit someone again. The property manager was right by the stairs, and I was afraid he’d push him down, so I locked that bastard in the bedroom.”
Qin Shui locked the yard gate and sighed. “How can someone end up with a person like that, running into things like this?”
“Shi Qinglan has already reported to the police. Su Yiqi has no one to take care of him for now, so he’ll stay at our place temporarily.”
The two of them went inside and took off their coats. Qin Sheng did a quick wash-up, then went upstairs first to check on his daughter. Qin Shui turned off the lights, locked the doors, settled Qiqi properly, and returned to the bedroom full of helpless resignation.
Huojia was sleeping in the middle of the bed, her hair in a mess, scattered across Qin Sheng’s pillow. He gently smoothed his daughter’s soft, fine hair and motioned for Qin Shui to rest. She signed with a sigh, “This is so annoying. In this cold weather, isn’t he just needlessly tormenting his wife and child?”
Qin Sheng, however, did not take it too seriously. “One willing to beat, one willing to take it. Shi Qinglan should’ve knocked him out with a wine bottle or just kicked them all out. If they froze to death, they’d deserve it.”
“That’s just angry talk. How could it be that easy? For middle-aged couples like them, whose business is doing fairly well, divorce isn’t easy either. They can only muddle through.”
He laughed. “But aren’t we the same type of couple? The shop will also keep doing well in the future. This has nothing to do with business. It’s more about the people themselves.”
Qin Shui signed, “In any case, Qiqi and his sister are both pitiful.”
“Yeah…” Qin Sheng lowered his head and kissed Huojia’s hair, then soothed Qin Shui’s bare shoulder and said softly, “Good wife, go to sleep. I still have to go to the shop tomorrow.”
Qin Shui leaned in to kiss him and turned off the bedside lamp.
Early the next morning, Qin Shui received a message from Shi Qinglan on WeChat. She still needed to stay in the hospital for observation for a while. It was nothing serious, but she could not take care of Su Yiqi for the time being and had to trouble her again.
With a companion staying overnight at home, the most excited one was Huojia. The little girl did not care about what had happened the night before. She only knew that Qiqi was here, which meant she could watch TV and eat biscuits, and Mom would not scold her.
Qin Sheng went out to buy soy milk. Qin Shui fried egg burgers for the children. Huojia ran around the table holding food, almost slipping, but Qin Sheng quickly grabbed her up in time.
The snow outside still had not stopped, but road conditions in the city were fairly good. After breakfast, Qin Sheng went to the car factory. In rainy and snowy weather, there were usually more vehicles sent in for repairs. The on-duty mechanics were overwhelmed. Engineer Yang had gone to Shenzhen to visit his grandchild and would not be back in the city until the New Year.
Taking care of two children was exhausting. Qin Sheng and Qin Shui fought their battles on different fronts all day. On his way home from work, Qin Sheng stopped by a restaurant to buy several dishes and did not let Qin Shui cook dinner.
The chocolate biscuits Huojia had secretly eaten the night before were almost gone. Su Yiqi was a fairly sturdy little boy, tiger-headed and tiger-brained, with a good appetite. Qin Sheng could tell that the child did not want to go home and wanted to stay another night.
At six thirty in the evening, the family started dinner on time. Huojia loved Kung Pao chicken and prawns in tomato sauce the most. She ate two big bowls of rice and still wanted more, but Qin Shui refused. Her usual limit was two bowls. She had already eaten so many snacks in the afternoon. If she ate another bowl of rice, she would definitely complain of a stomachache at night.
Even though there was one extra person at home, there was barely any food left over after dinner. Qin Shui happily cleared the dishes and let Qin Sheng take the children to the living room to play games.
A little after eight o’clock, Shi Qinglan returned from the hospital.
Huojia went to open the door and announced to the house, “Dad! Su Yiqi’s mom is here to pick him up!”
The little girl was very thoughtful. She brought slippers for the aunt, then ran to the kitchen to get a bottle of soda water and handed it to Shi Qinglan. Qin Shui ushered her to sit on the sofa and looked at the wound under her hat. A patch of hair had been shaved off, and white gauze was wrapped around it.
Qin Sheng asked, “Sister Shi, how did things go on the police side?”
“It was classified as disturbing public order and provoking trouble. They let him go after he sobered up. My injury is being kept separately as evidence of domestic violence.” She put her hat back on. “Thank you for helping take care of Qiqi. I’ve already found a lawyer for what comes next. Once the property is divided, I’ll have him get lost.”
Qin Shui motioned for Huojia to take Qiqi upstairs to play. She was a little surprised by Shi Qinglan’s sudden resolve. Qin Sheng did not follow her words, instead advising, “Go back and talk it through properly. Let him calm down. At the very least, your safety and the children’s safety must be ensured.”
Shi Qinglan said to Qin Shui, “I know my limits. Thank you, sister, and thank you, Qin Sheng. This will probably be the last time I trouble you. If he dares go crazy again after this, I’ll directly call the police or take it to court.”
“Sister, it’s okay. If you really can’t manage, we can also help look after Qiqi temporarily. There’s no such thing as a first time or a last time.”
Qin Sheng brought Huojia and Qiqi downstairs. After Shi Qinglan checked her son’s belongings, he escorted the mother and son outside.
Huojia waved at Shi Qinglan. “Goodbye, Auntie!”
“Goodbye, Huojia.”
She added, “It’s cold. Go back inside quickly.”
After the neighbors walked away, Qin Shui turned her face and smiled at Qin Sheng, signing to him, “You still say one willing to beat, one willing to take? It’s just that the timing wasn’t right before. At least now she’s considering divorce. I hope everything goes smoothly. A husband like that isn’t worth keeping.”
Huojia hurriedly cut in, “You two can’t get divorced!”
Qin Sheng picked her up and carried her back inside, pinching his daughter’s cheeks as he lectured her, “Dad wants to roll you up into a ball and stuff you into his pocket. How could I ever bear to be separated from your mom?”
Qin Shui slapped both his and Huojia’s bottoms at the same time and made a “be quiet” gesture at the two of them.
The little girl’s laughter rang out clear and crisp. She wriggled in her father’s arms and tightly held onto Qin Shui’s fingers.