If anyone else had said this, even now, Xu Changqing would have told them they were just speaking with hindsight. But this was her mother. She listened in silence, smiled, and after a moment's thought, nodded again.
The snowflakes were falling thicker and faster, and with the mountain wind blowing hard, it was hardly the place for a quiet chat. Xu Changqing linked her arm through her mother's and started walking.
Clearly, her mother hadn't had her say yet. As they neared a fork in the road, one path of which was the shortcut home, her mother pulled her straight ahead without a second glance.
Continuing straight would take them to where the Bai family lived—to her uncles' homes. But was it really alright for them to go empty-handed? After all, her mother had only just arrived home herself.
