Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Early the next morning, Cui Shao left with Qingshan.

With two people suddenly gone, the house felt rather lonely. I wasn’t sure if Cui Shao had said something to Cui Zishu before leaving, but she had spent the last few days holed up in her room.

My younger brother and I had nothing to do, so we decided to build another snow cat. It was a happy accident; since we couldn’t manage a lion, a cat would do just fine.

I rolled several snowballs. The large one became the body, and a smaller one served as the head. Then came the limbs and ears, and I even made the tail into a round little ball. My brother teased me, saying it didn’t look like a cat but more like the fermented rice dumplings he loved to eat.

Naturally, I disagreed. I pointed at the round cat’s facial features and insisted it looked just like him.

“Nonsense! That’s a cat, and I’m a person!”

As he spoke, he hurled a snowball at me. I ducked, and the snowball smacked right into the round cat’s head, coating its face in fresh snow.

I clutched my stomach, laughing. “Now the ‘Brother Cat’ has turned into a rice dumpling!”

In my momentary lapse of caution, I was caught off guard. My brother shoved a handful of snow right into my mouth. I wasn’t one to take things lying down, so after spitting it out, I rolled a large ball and threw it back.

Back and forth we went, the game escalating into a full-blown battle.

My brother and I shouted things like “Take this!” and “Prepare to die!” and “Just you wait!” having the time of our lives. Cui Zishu was clearly displeased; she poked her head out of the window and told us to shut up.

But before she could finish her sentence, a snowball smacked her right in the face.

“Sorry, my hand slipped… Sister, look at her! Doesn’t she look more like a rice dumpling than the snow cat? Do you want to join us?”

Cui Zishu was stunned. She forgot to even wipe the snow off her face. It took a moment for the snow to melt and slide off, revealing her slightly flushed face.

“This is outrageous!”

She stormed out, intending to kick the snow cat my brother and I had built, but she was struck by another of his snowballs. She wobbled and actually ended up sitting flat on the ground.

It dawned on me then-she had never been in a snowball fight before.

“When my brother gets back, I’m going to have him divorce you!”

Her answer was another snowball from my brother. His aim was true, landing it right in Cui Zishu’s mouth. She didn’t even know to spit it out, just sitting there in a daze until her eyes began to redden.

“Now that Brother and Qingshan are gone, you’re both bullying me!”

Cui Zishu’s breathing was ragged, but with snow in her mouth, her words were muffled. It must have been freezing to swallow that.

She grabbed two handfuls of snow and threw them blindly. My brother was still in high spirits and didn’t realize she was genuinely upset; he thought she was joining the fight and immediately rolled another one to throw back.

Cui Zishu grew fierce. Instead of just throwing loose snow, she started packing it into balls the way my brother did. One of her shots actually managed to hit him in the leg.

My brother laughed loudly and rolled two snowballs at once.

Sitting on the ground made Cui Zishu too easy a target. After being hit a few more times, she scrambled up. She began tracking my brother’s movements while constantly rolling snowballs, eventually driving him into a corner where he couldn’t fight back.

When one of her snowballs finally hit me, she looked at me triumphantly, ignoring the snow clinging to her clothes. She was usually obsessed with cleanliness, especially since she was wearing the only Shu brocade dress she had left-a garment she normally cherished dearly.

“Neither of you is a match for me!”

Well, in that case, I wouldn’t hold back. I reached down to grab some snow, but my hand brushed against something soft that gave off a faint fragrance.

I brushed the snow away to find an elegant sachet embroidered with a pair of twin lotuses on a single stalk.

Back when I was with the Chen Family, I had seen many of these. Usually, they were bought by maidservants for their lovers or vice versa. Most were embroidered with mandarin ducks, and the fabric and needlework were never this exquisite; the patterns were usually bolder and coarser.

Before I could react, Cui Zishu snatched it away.

“That’s mine! Don’t touch it!”