"Ritsuko, why have you been standing at the door for so long, is anyone coming?" After a long time of Ritsuko walking in, Mrs. Nangong walked out of the dining hall with some worry, only to see Ritsuko standing quietly at the door, she looked at the wind and snow, but it was empty in the wind and snow.

"Mother? How did you get out? Ritsuko came back to her senses, closed the door softly, and turned around with a smile.

"I saw that you haven't come back for a long time, and I was a little worried, so I came out to take a look."

"Don't worry, it's a new neighbor next door who came over and said hello." Ritsuko hid the hand that had clenched the hairpin behind her, and inexplicably, she didn't really want Mrs. Nangong to see this hairpin now.

"New neighbor, is it really a burly man?"

"It's me wrong." Ritsuko lowered her eyes and shook her head, "It looks like a scholar, and the footprints are so deep, it should be because of the heavy bag." ”

"Is he also the one who is going to take the exam?"

"I don't know...... It's just my guess, a scholar will definitely keep his books with him, and his bags will become heavier, which is also a reasonable thing. ”

"That empty house has been uninhabited for so many years, and it will be difficult for him to clean it alone, Ritsuko, shall we go and help him?"

Ritsuko stopped Mrs. Nangong, who immediately wanted to go down the hallway to change her shoes, "Don't be, mother, I also mentioned it to him just now, and he has refused, I guess I don't want to trouble people I don't know, mother, just let him go, it's not polite to bother others rashly." ”

“…… That's right, you're right, it's the mother's impulsiveness. ”

"That mother...... I'm going back to the back room to read first? ”

"Okay, okay, go back quickly, my mother steamed japonica rice, and I will make rice cakes later, it may be a little noisy, will it disturb you to read?"

"It's okay mother, you're busy with you, don't care about me, do you need me to help you?"

"You, you've helped your mother enough, leave more time to do what you want to do."

"Mother......" Ritsuko suddenly felt that her eyes were a little moist, and she couldn't help but take a big step forward, just like when she was a child, and threw herself into Mrs. Nangong's arms, "You are the best mother in the world." ”

"Such a big person, why do you still like to be coquettish so much." Mrs. Nangong gently patted Ritsuko's back, and she was a little emotional for a while, Ritsuko, who was a little one not long ago, had grown taller than herself in the blink of an eye.

The snow was getting heavier and heavier, and the window was already hazy and silvery, and the outline of the stone steps could no longer be seen.

Ritsuko's room was at the closest location to the stone steps, and from the window, it should have been an empty house on the other side of the stone steps, but who would have expected that it was accidentally obscured by the high wall on the side of the stone steps, and only a little blue roof could be seen.

Because he forgot to close the window before going out, the wind swept the snowflakes into the room, blowing the book on the table and turning the pages wantonly, and the snowflakes turned into snow water, dripping on the table, and wet everywhere.

Even the window panels were blown by the wind and knocked on the wall outside.

Ritsuko was startled, and quickly grabbed the rice paper that was about to fly out of the window, closed the window, and blocked the wind out of the window.

It's just this wet table with books......

There didn't seem to be any cloth to wipe down at the moment, so Ritsuko had to use the rice paper in her hand, which was so crumpled that she could no longer use it to write, smeared it on the table and threw it aside.

The wet book had been put aside by her, and she took a new book from the shelf again and spread it out on the table, but this book had not been turned a page for a long time.

Ritsuko sat quietly at the table, her eyes fixed on the book in front of her, but her mind was no longer in the book.

She took out the white hosta that Wen Jinnian gave her from her sleeve pocket, and raised it slightly towards the window, there was no cumbersome ornamentation on the hairpin, and the jade color revealed a hint of milky white, and the slightly cold touch hinted that the price of Ritsuko's hairpin was expensive.

The figure of the scholar in Tsing Yi who shrunk and rubbed his hands and stomped his feet in the cold once again appeared in his mind, and the appearance when he handed him the hairpin with a smile, like a spring breeze in April, tickling people's hearts.

The snow seemed to be lighter, and Ritsuko looked out the window again, and the footprints on the stone steps had long since been re-covered with thick snow, and the rubble on the roof was also full of white, and Snow Ridge was like a clean child, with only the only white left.

Ritsuko put the hairpin back into the small wooden box that Wen Jinnian sent with her, and locked it into a larger-looking wooden box on the bookshelf, and what was placed in it were the most precious things she had since she was a child.

She put the key back under the empty vase on the edge of the bookshelf just for decoration.

"Ritsuko?" Mrs. Nangong stopped what she was doing and watched Ritsuko trot past the door of the dining hall in confusion.

"Mother, I'll go out for a while and come back soon!"

"It's snowing outside, remember to bring an umbrella, and be sure to pay attention to safety when you go out!"

"Got it, mother!" As the door slammed shut, Ritsuko's voice had disappeared from the entryway.

There were only three or two flakes of snow left outside, and the wind had calmed down, and there was no longer the howling of Fang Cai.

Ritsuko stood under the eaves, opened the oil-paper umbrella, and shook her body uncontrollably, "It's really cold......"

She turned her head to look at the house on the other side, with only the roof exposed, shrunk up, faced the snow, and walked out quickly.