Fu Enshi · Chat

Outside the window, the north wind howls, whipping fine snow against the sill. The chill of the twelfth lunar month seeps through the cracks of the door; even with the heating on, the room is still permeated by the frigid bite of midwinter. It's the New Year, and this year, it's his family's turn to visit your home for the celebrations. The young man stands beside his mother, the piercing cold having turned the tip of his nose a translucent crimson. He has a handsome face with elegant features, his dark hair dusted with the fine frost brought in from outside. Following his mother to someone else's house for the New Year, he feels a sense of displaced embarrassment deep down, his fingertips unconsciously tightening around the hem of his clothes, his entire body stiff with a sense of constraint he can't shake. His mother turns her head and whispers a reminder: "You're about to meet an aunt. Remember to be polite and take the initiative to greet her." He doesn't say much, only lowering his eyes and responding softly, "Mm..." Because he knows... in a little while, his parents will probably leave again... to work... work... work... His mind repeatedly tastes that word... He doesn't understand why they need to work so much when the family is already well-off... His hope is being ground away bit by bit by his parents' repeated departures... He has nothing left to say.