Another month has passed.
Winter has now arrived in earnest.
On December 25th, the weather was especially cold.
William arrived earlier than Ellie. He filled both of their thermos cups with hot water in advance, then took out the warm baby from his pocket, tore it open, stuck it on the paper, and put it in his pocket waiting for it to heat up.
He watched Ellie enter the classroom.
She was wearing a white down jacket, with a caramel-colored scarf around her neck, her small face buried in the scarf, only a pair of almond eyes exposed.
William stood up to let her in, watched her sit down in her seat, and then took off her scarf and gloves.
Ellie reached for the thermos cup and found it was full again. She unscrewed the lid, took a sip, and then smiled at William.
William said to her, "Stretch out your hand, Little Teacher."
Ellie obediently stretched out her hand and presented it to him.
William placed two warm warm babies in her palm and said, "Keep them in your pocket to warm your hands."
"But what about you?"
William smiled, touched her fingertips with the back of his hand, and said, "I'm not cold."
His fingertips were warm.
Ellie took out a beautifully wrapped apple from her bag and handed it to William, saying, "Tonight is Christmas Eve."
William smiled and said, "Thank you, Little Teacher."
Then William watched her take out several more and place them in her drawer. He asked, "Who are these for?"
Ellie pointed at each apple and said, "This one is for Aria, this one for Sarah, this one for Daniel, and this one for Hao Ming."
William looked at those and then at his own, thinking his was the best wrapped.
He had prepared only one apple, which was because he couldn't find any nice-looking paper yesterday, and he never celebrated this trivial holiday before, so he didn't know how to wrap an apple.
He took out the apple from his bag and handed it to Ellie, saying, "Merry Christmas Eve, Little Teacher."
"You too."
Daniel and Hao Ming came in laughing and joking. He looked at the apple in Ellie's hand and said, "Ellie, who gave you this ugly apple? Why is it wrapped so ugly? Hahahahahaha."
William said, "Ugly?"
Daniel said, "Ugly, William, don't you think it's ugly?"
William: "…"
Ellie paused and said, "This apple is from William."
Daniel: "…"
He was silent for a while, then he said, "Look at the color scheme, look at the ribbon, how high-end and elegant, I was blind just now."
William: "…"
Ellie took out two apples from her drawer and handed them to Daniel, saying, "For you and Hao Ming."
Daniel didn't dare to look at William's expression. He took the two beautifully wrapped apples from Ellie and said, "Thank you, Ellie."
He chose one in his favorite color and handed the other to Hao Ming, saying, "From Ellie."
Hao Ming said to Ellie, "Thank you, Ellie."
The second period in the morning.
"Snow!"
During the math class, someone shouted, and everyone started looking outside.
White, willow catkin-like snowflakes began to fall.
Mr. Johnson stopped writing on the blackboard and looked outside. It was really snowing. He said, "You can go out and have a look, hurry back soon."
As soon as he said this, the students from class 17 all rushed out.
William looked at Ellie and said, "Want to go have a look?"
"Sure."
The two were at the back door. William and Ellie went out and watched the falling snowflakes.
Ellie reached out her hand to catch the falling snowflakes. The snow melted as soon as it touched her hand, feeling a bit cool.
She smiled with her eyes curved, and William stood by her side, watching her and laughed along.
"Class is starting, class is starting, hurry up and come in."
After watching the snow, the students in the class all rushed back into the classroom.
After a class passed, it was already covered with a white layer of snow outside.
William came in from outside, his hands tightly closed, and said to Ellie, "Guess what's in my hand?"
Ellie shook her head.
William opened his hands, revealing a clump of snow-white first snow, which was about to melt in his palm.
Ellie reached out and poked the clump of snow, feeling a bit cool on her fingertips.
It doesn't snow often in city B. The last time she saw snow was several years ago.
William said, "The snow is not heavy. If it snows heavily, we can build a snowman."
"I haven't built a snowman in many years."
"If it snows heavily this year, let's build a snowman together."
Ellie said, "Okay."
The snow quickly melted in the palm of her hand.
She looked at William's slightly red fingertips from the cold, then took out her own gloves from the drawer, saying, "Your hands are all red from the cold, wear gloves to warm up."
Her gloves were milky white and furry.
William took her gloves, couldn't help but laugh. He compared them on his hands, then said to Ellie, "Little Teacher, your gloves are too small."
Ellie looked at them, her gloves looked overly small in his hands.
She took the gloves from him, suddenly remembered the warm baby in her pocket, took it out, placed it in William's palm, and said, "One for each."
"Okay."
...
Sarah was waiting at the door of class 17 with a small box after the third period. She said to the person by the window, "Call Ellie."
Seeing Ellie come out, she handed her the thing in her hand, saying, "It's for you."
Ellie took the thing from her hand, hugged it to her chest, and then handed her the apple, saying, "I was just about to go give you something."
Sarah took the thing from her hand and said, "Thank you."
Ellie smiled at her sweetly.
Sarah looked at her and said, "It's cold outside, go inside."
"Okay."
Sarah left after giving the gift.
Ellie opened the small box to find various flavors of lollipops inside.
Aria also prepared oranges for her.
...
"Could you please call William for me?"
Daniel heard this, looked at the thing in the girl's hand, and said, "Classmate, William doesn't accept things from others."
The girl regretfully looked inside and said, "Okay."
Daniel just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard a boy say, "Classmate, could you please call Ellie?"
He looked inside and said, "Ellie is not here."
The boy handed the thing to Daniel and said, "Please pass this on to Ellie. It's from someone at No.17 Middle School."
Daniel held the thing in his hand, hesitating, not knowing if he could take it for her.
The boy added, "If you mention No.17 Middle School, she should know."
Hearing this, Daniel thought they must know each other. He took the thing and said, "Okay."