Chapter One Snowflake

  The sky is clear, with a few white clouds floating in the azure sky, sometimes they are very close together, and sometimes they are slightly separated.

  Wen Chunyi sat in the courtyard, her small hands supporting her face, with a bored expression, gazing blankly at the few clouds floating in the sky. From behind the "Snowflake" pavilion, a boy's head popped out, he looked around the courtyard, saw no one else, and called out softly. Wen Chunyi hastily lowered her head, and suddenly everything before her eyes became blurry, she could only turn her head to look over in the direction of the sound. Two young women immediately came out of the room, as they looked on, the boy walked out with a serious expression, his small face stern, saying: "No discipline, letting Miss stay alone in the courtyard."

  Two women looked at the boy with a smile in their eyes, their faces serious and solemn, listening to his lecture, responding with "yes". The two women's performance was satisfactory to the boy. He smiled and looked at the girl who was wiping her eyes, saying with some reproach: "Xue Duo, I told you not to idle around all day, looking up at the sky with your neck stretched out. Even if you look every day, every moment, the sky won't drop a flower for you to wear. Look, haven't your eyes become blurry from staring, and you can't see people clearly?" Chunyi's vision gradually cleared up, and she looked at the boy standing in front of her, who seemed like a small adult.

  She had to obediently call out: "Brother." Her voice, with a childish sweetness, still sounded too stiff. The boy heard her call and immediately smiled happily, stretching out his hand to say: "Xue Duo, come, brother will take you out to play." The two women heard the boy's words and quickly pulled the girl away, the older woman smiling at the boy said: "Thirteen Young Master, have you written your characters today?" The boy withdrew his outstretched hand, angrily saying to the woman: "Zhang family mother, Liu family mother, what are you blocking? What does writing characters have to do with anything? Does brother need to report to you?"

  "Is it necessary for you to be so defensive? I'm taking my own sister out for a walk. Move aside quickly." Wen Chunyi looked up at the angry expression on Wen Xiuyuan's face, then glanced at the woman blocking her way, and finally lowered her eyes quietly. The young woman took a step forward, speaking in a serious tone: "Thirteenth Master, it's such a big sun outside, Eighteenth Miss's body is weak, she can't withstand the strong sunlight." However, Wen family's Thirteenth Master, Wen Xiuyuan, was not one to listen and obey. Upon hearing this, he looked at her with disdain and said: "Liu Mama, she's always basking in the sun in the courtyard, it hasn't harmed her. I'm taking her to play under the shade of trees outside."

  "Can you scare my sister to death in just a moment? Get out of the way, don't waste Master's time. I'll be back soon and have important things to attend to. You two stay here in the courtyard and wait, whoever dares to go forward and spread rumors, beware, I'll deal with your family when I return." The two women were people who had come out from beside Old Lady Wen two years ago, they couldn't just be intimidated by a child like that. They exchanged a glance with each other, neither of them backing down. The older woman followed up with some words of dissuasion, saying: "Young Master, you are the master of the house, if you want to deal with our brothers, then they must have done something wrong."

  That's the blessing of our family, to get the guidance of the thirteenth master. We must take good care of Miss Eighteen, it's what we do as servants, being diligent to our masters." Wen Chunyi raised her eyes and looked at the expressions of the two women, she secretly sighed in her heart, the people who came out from the side of the legitimate grandmother were not ordinary people, this was implied in their words, that their own children were not wrong, and as masters, they couldn't find fault arbitrarily. Wen Chunyi reached out to pull the sleeve of the woman from the Zhang family, when she lowered her head, she whispered: "Zhang Mama, Liu Mama, let's take a break."

  Two women looked down at her small appearance and expression, and their hearts softened. It was the first time in two years that she had made a request to go out with them. Eighteen Miss, also a pitiful person, since the incident two years ago, she no longer had that unique cleverness and energy. Sometimes looking at her was like looking at a wooden or clay sculpture. Usually, she stayed quietly in the courtyard, not like children of the same age who would make a fuss about going out to play. In these two years, among the many masters of the Wen family, except for the parents, Fourth Master and his wife, only Eighth Miss and Thirteenth Young Master, her elder brother and sister, still remembered that there was such a little person.

  Two women, both with children at home, sighed in their hearts that this young lady was born with a pair of good eyes like her grandmother's, but lacked the vitality. However, Xun Xiuyu, although young, had already learned to read people's faces due to his parents' status in the mansion. He immediately noticed the change in the women's expressions and smiled as he stretched out his hand to pull Xun Chunyi over, saying: "Aunt Zhang, Aunt Liu, what I just said was intentionally meant to scare you. As a master, how could I bother with trivial matters with those below me? I'll take the young lady outside to pick some nice leaves." Xun Xiuyu pulled Xun Chunyi out quickly, and the two women followed for a couple of steps, chasing after them and saying: "Thirteenth Master, slow down a bit, Eighteenth Miss can't withstand such pulling and tugging."

  The two siblings turned around the courtyard twice, then exited through a side door and slipped into a corner under a tree outside. The younger brother and sister sat down together. After looking around for a while, Wen Xiuyu turned back to see Wen Chunyi's calm face and frowned, saying: "Xue'er, I think you're getting stupid from being cooped up in the courtyard every day. I'll tell Mother that Sister should take you out to play with Sixteen and Seventeen." Wen Chunyi suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and spoke calmly: "Brother, Mother said my body is weak and I need to stay at home for two more years before I can go out and play with my sisters."

  When Xiu Yu heard her say a long string of words, she immediately let out a sigh of relief. He took out his handkerchief from his pocket and casually wiped the mud off his hands. Then he stretched out his hand and gently touched her forehead, just like an adult would do. Smiling, he said: "Xue Duo, you're not stupid after all, that's great! The 12th brother said that only idiots speak with three characters at a time and never exceed four characters. You usually don't talk, but when you do, you only say three characters, which makes me anxious, fearing that you'll become an idiot." Xiu Yu looked at him with a speechless expression for a long while before saying: "Don't call me Xue Duo outside, you should call me Chun Yi. That's the name given by our ancestors, and we must remember it with gratitude."

  Wen Xiuyu's face was gloomy, and he lowered his head, unable to figure out why his grandfather had given his sister, born in winter, a spring-like name. Wen Xiuyu knew that there were many things that adults understood but children did not. He wanted to ask, but was afraid that the adults would think him too young to answer such questions. He thought he could only wait until he grew up to understand the origin of his sister's name. For now, he remembered clearly that his sister had mentioned that she had given their younger sister a nickname "Snowflake" when she was born. When they were all together as a family, his sister never called her younger sister by her full name, but like him, called her "Snowflake".