Chinese people's obsession with New Year and the inconsolable sadness of not being able to go home for New Year is like something ingrained in their bones. Whether one cares or not, one's mood will still change along with the increasingly festive scenes around them.

Children running around in red padded jackets setting off firecrackers, the smell of gunpowder in the icy air, people hurrying home, crowds in the market shopping for New Year goods, all sorts of news reports on the Spring Festival travel rush on TV, those few "New Year special" songs playing everywhere...Everything seems to be shouting in unison, it's New Year!

Only now did Jiang Cheng suddenly realize, New Year is coming.

Previously he didn't feel much about New Year, just eating and drinking, visiting relatives, playing with classmates every day. His only feeling was that the break was over before he had enough fun, why couldn't the winter break be as long as the summer break?

But now he felt somewhat lost.

New Year is here.

How to spend it?

Where to go?

...Should he even celebrate?

"We usually spend New Year in the shop," on the way back after eating the buns, Gu Fei said, "Er Miao likes spending New Year in the shop, it's convenient for her to go in and out setting off firecrackers."

"Isn't she afraid of the noise from the firecrackers?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"No, she quite enjoys it. Whenever someone sets off firecrackers, she'll zoom over on her skateboard," Gu Fei smiled, "Last year her hair got singed in one spot."

Jiang Cheng laughed for a long time.

"Spend it with me this year," Gu Fei said, "I'll cook, you come over to eat, then we can go set off firecrackers together, after that you can go back and study."

"Okay." Jiang Cheng nodded.

"If you feel it's not lively enough, you can call Li Yan and Liu Fan to come," Gu Fei said, "Anyway we'll just loiter at home after eating, unable to sit still."

"Do you prefer it more lively?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"I don't really care," Gu Fei said. "In previous years for New Year's... it was just me and Er Miao. My mom would usually go out after eating."

"Oh," Jiang Cheng thought for a moment. "Then call them over to liven things up together. Er Miao would probably be happy right?"

"Alright, but first, if they come over," Gu Fei smiled looking at him, "you go home and study yourself at night. I'll definitely get dragged into playing all night."

"No problem." Jiang Cheng rode his bike closer and patted Gu Fei's shoulder.

Gu Fei basically hadn't gone out messing around with Li Yan and the others this semester. He had been revolving around Jiang Cheng every day. Jiang Cheng felt that if Pan Zhi got a girlfriend someday and disappeared, he would definitely be unhappy.

After considering New Year's that night, Jiang Cheng went back to his usual study schedule. He didn't feel anything special as winter break arrived. He didn't feel anything as make-up classes continued seamlessly from end of last semester. He admired his own resolve as a good student.

Gu Fei spent about 4-5 days a week at his place. After finishing homework and a late snack, he would sleep first. But these past two days, he had been leaning against the headboard playing on his phone.

"Playing mindless games?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"No, no time for games. Li Yan's already almost 20 levels higher than me. Gets more awesome every day and sends me screenshots when he's free," Gu Fei said.  

"You're so busy huh?" Jiang Cheng glanced at him.

"Yep," Gu Fei nodded seriously. "Accompanying my boyfriend studying every day. I moved up over 50 spots in the rankings last exam. Old Xu even choked up talking to me the other day."

"Actually you..." Jiang Cheng didn't finish his sentence and lowered his head to keep doing practice questions.

Actually, if you tried a little, your grades wouldn't be bad. But saying that might give Gu Fei ideas, so he forcibly swallowed the words.

"You can sleep first, don't have to wait for me." Jiang Cheng said.

"I'm not waiting for you," Gu Fei held his phone up to Jiang Cheng's face. "I'm looking up recipes."

"For New Year's Eve dinner?" Jiang Cheng looked.

"Yeah," Gu Fei kept scrolling on his phone. "Previous years, my mom would just cook something simple in a pot, then make some dumplings. Sometimes she was too lazy to wrap them and just bought frozen ones from a store. Let's do it proper this year since it's our first New Year's together."

Jiang Cheng smiled, "Will you be cooking?"

"Don't you have confidence in me?" Gu Fei asked.

"Oh," Jiang Cheng glanced at the empty snack bowl still on the table, today's snack was four-happiness meatballs, fist-sized and five in total, "Not bad, just...can you look up some vegetarian recipes?"

"What's good about vegetarian food, don't you love meat?" Gu Fei said.

"Little Student Gu," Jiang Cheng sighed, "I've started quite liking vegetables recently, leafy greens are good, non-leafy ones work too, cabbage is fine as well."

"Okay," Gu Fei said, "We'll have stewed cabbage for tomorrow's snack then."

"......I won't complain if you add some meat in moderation." Jiang Cheng sighed again.

"Didn't you say you wanted vegetarian food?" Gu Fei said.

"Do you only have all-meat and all-veg options?" Jiang Cheng was speechless, "Fine, I want dishes with a meat and veg combo!"

"That's called meat and veg dishes." Gu Fei corrected him.

Jiang Cheng pointed at him without saying anything, then lowered his head to continue studying.

The winter break make-up classes continued until the 28th day of the 12th lunar month, giving everyone one day off, as Old Xu said, it was to give everyone time to go home and clean up, accompany parents to shop for New Year goods.

Early morning, Jiang Cheng was woken up by Gu Fei.

"Where are we going?" Jiang Cheng asked groggily.

"Grocery shopping." Gu Fei said while getting dressed, and pulled Jiang Cheng's blanket off.

"No, weren't you running to the supermarket whenever you had time the past few days?" Jiang Cheng pulled his blanket back on properly, "I was even worried you'd buy out the whole supermarket, still not done shopping?"

"That's different," Gu Fei leaned against the headboard smiling, "Don't you want to experience the delightful process of shopping for New Year goods together with your boyfriend?"

".....Psycho," Jiang Cheng laughed, "Fine, I'm getting up."

The New Year atmosphere was already very strong on the 28th. As Jiang Cheng was getting up to wash up, he could already hear voices and laughter outside, and...arguments, louder and livelier than usual.

As he brushed his teeth, he walked to the window and looked outside.

On the snowy ground were several ugly snowmen with buckets overturned on their heads, a group of kids were running around and roughhousing noisily. One kid was shouting and crying while scolding someone, two people were standing by the roadside yelling at each other, an old man and an old lady.

A year had gone by.

Jiang Cheng suddenly felt somewhat emotional, looking at the messy scenes downstairs. For the first time, he didn't feel annoyed by the disorder.

Also for the first time, he felt a completely different sensation about New Year. He was actually really looking forward to the annoying activities of crowded supermarkets, scrambling for New Year goods, and long queues for payment.