It was snowing when Sean He came out of the hospital. Chilly snowflakes and piercing wind were blowing on his face. Only then did he realize the advent of winter.

The winter in Beijing was really cold. He tidied his scarf blankly, pinching several crumpled laboratory test reports in his hand. His heart was even colder than this winter.

He stood under the bus stop board with his fingers frozen pale, not knowing when the bus would come. He took out the phone as usual and dialed a number. There was no answer. He continued dialing, over and over again. However, there was no answer still at the long last.

He crumpled the reports up into a ball and threw them into the dustbin.

The bus finally arrived after more than half an hour. There were few people on it. He pressed his forehead against the window and dialed the number once again. Someone took it finally this time.

"It's snowing today. It's winter." And it had been fourteen years, he thought. He said with a slow and placid voice while the tears were creeping over his face.

William Jiang made a no-talk gesture to his toy boy beside him, feeling Sean He was really annoying to talk like charades every day. "What's up? I'm working overtime."

"Will you come back for dinner tonight? You haven't been home for a long time." Sean rubbed the plain silver ring on the ring finger of his right hand over and over again, watching the tears dripping on the back of his hand.

William felt that Sean was weird at this time, which was an intuition. After all, they had been together for 14 years. "what's wrong with you?"

Sean did not answer, but asked again patiently: " Will you come back tonight? We should eat dumplings onthe snowy days. I'll make dumplings for you."

"I cannot be back really." William started to be a little irritable. The insipid tone and attitude of Sean spoiled all his appetite. "Don't do it yourself. I'll let Song to bring you some. I'll hang up. I'm really busy."

The busy tone on the phone made Sean's heart ache seriously. He put the phone back to his pocket stiffly as if the slow forward button on him was pressed.

How could a company owner be so busy that he didn't even have time to go home for dinner?

William had the other man. How could he be unaware?

Four years ago, William started to cheat on him. Sean did realize it as a sensitive and clever man, but he just turned a blind eye. He was not indifferent but just afraid. He was afraid that once it was got out on the table, the superficial harmony between them would be broken. It was not the impetuous love on adolescence driven by excessive hormone but his pay and habit during more than 10 years. He was used to tolerate William.

Sean cheated himself he couldn't catch a whiff of women's perfume on the man's body, couldn't see the lipstick marks on the man's shirt collar, and couldn't see through the man's lame excuses about why he didn't come home. The man, who he loved the most.

They used to love each other so much. Why did they become this way then? They had even got over the first few years of their srenuou struggle.

Arriving at the station, Sean got off the car, still looking gentle and unassuming, except the red eyes and pale face.

He didn't buy any food as he had lost almost all his appetite. He had tried his best to beg William to go home this day, as he really did not know whether they could be together to eat dumplings at the first snowy night next year.

Assistant Song came very quickly, wearing a suit. It seemed that he came out from the company just now. He carried a box of food and called him

Mr. He reverently.

Sean waved his hands with embarrassment. " You only have to deal with the matters on your work. You needn't run errands for William ."

Assistant Song smiled: "It's my duty as an assistannt. It's toilsome but also well-paid." He left after another short chitchat with Sean.

Sean sat beside the round table after his leaving, watching the small box of dumplings motionlessly.

In the previous thirteen years, this table was surrounded by two people. The table was covered with flour and stuffing in the previuos ten years and Wiliam always accompanied him to make dumplings, putting a lot of candy and coins into them childishly. He always complained that the dumplings with good fortune were all took by Sean. The fewer dumplings they made, the less chance he had to take those lucky ones.

Sean took the tissue to wipe the frequent nosebleed, as was his wont. He finally understood why he would get such a disease. He had given all his fortune to William. He fished out each dumpling with good fortune to William, so he was not blessed at all.

He only ate four dumplings in the box, as the Chinese idiom went " The four seasons of peace", Sean thought in a trance. He was in a daze and he had a low fever. The emotional pressure made him fagged out. Everything would be fine after a sleep. The heartache would end at long last as time went by.