He looked up at the window. Outside, the cold wind was howling, and the snow was falling even harder. Ryan Bennett had no desire to go out for a meal, so he simply went to the kitchen, opened the fridge, took out a pack of frozen dumplings and put them in the pot. Then he peeled a few cloves of garlic, crushed them in a mortar, added sesame oil, vinegar, and other seasonings, and when the dumplings were cooked, he ate them while they were hot.

"Ding-ling-ling..."

Ryan Bennett had just finished eating and tidied up the dishes, ready to continue sorting through his grandfather's letters to see if he could find anything valuable, when the phone at home rang.

"Hey, blockhead? You’re really something! Been home for two days and didn’t even let your buddy know. Come to my shop later, let’s have a drink tonight, and then I’ll take you to the sauna for a good steam. This damn weather could freeze a person to death."

Ryan Bennett had just picked up the phone, not even put it to his ear yet, when he heard the yelling from the receiver. No need to ask, it was definitely Charles Miller. Every time he called, he shouted. Last year when Ryan Bennett came home, Charles Miller called and his mom answered, and later dragged him home and scolded him for half a day.

Charles Miller's mother and Ryan Bennett's mother were colleagues. From third grade all the way through high school, Ryan Bennett and Charles Miller were always in the same class. One was impulsive and competitive, the other calm and steady. No one expected the two of them to get along so well. The elders of both families never treated the other as outsiders, and if they made mistakes, they got punished just the same. When they were kids, Ryan Bennett often got disciplined by Charles Miller's dad, but whenever they met, he still called him godfather, and he often freeloaded meals at Charles Miller's house.

Charles Miller's dad transferred from the army to work at the Pengcheng Public Security Bureau when Charles Miller was eight. Growing up in the army compound, Charles Miller's personality was a lot like his father's—whenever there was a dispute, he usually settled it with his fists. He was far more interested in the arcade down the street than in studying.

Strangely enough, from elementary to high school, Charles Miller and Ryan Bennett were almost inseparable. Ryan Bennett spent just as much time playing as Charles Miller, but his grades were always among the top in the class, never dropping out of the top three. Charles Miller, on the other hand, often got third place too—just counting from the bottom. He only finished high school because his family forced him. Looking at their relationship, the saying "one takes on the color of one's company" isn’t always true.

After graduating high school, Charles Miller's dad found him several jobs, but he never stuck with any of them—either he couldn’t stand the boss or got into fights with colleagues. Later, when the Pengcheng Flower and Bird Market was rebuilt, Charles Miller, who had loved raising dogs and cats since he was a kid, convinced his family to buy a storefront there. He became his own boss, selling pets—cats, dogs, crickets, turtles, you name it. After a few years, he’d made quite a bit of money, strutting around every day with a cell phone and driving a second-hand Toyota. No one would guess he was just a pet dealer.

In recent years, gambling on cricket fights had become popular in places like Zhonghai and Zhejiang. Charles Miller went to rural Shandong to collect a lot of crickets. A few months ago, when he delivered goods to Zhonghai, he even crashed for a few days at Ryan Bennett's rental, which was cool in summer and warm in winter. As he put it, "It’s not that your buddy can’t afford a hotel, but when you’re at your brother’s place, why stay anywhere else?"

...

After hanging up, Ryan Bennett left a note for his mom, put on the wool hat his sister knitted, tucked a pack of Zhonghai cigarettes into his coat, locked the door, and went out. Because of the heavy snow, there were a lot of people taking taxis, and Ryan Bennett couldn’t get one after waiting by the roadside for ages. So he opened his umbrella and strolled slowly toward the Flower and Bird Market. It wasn’t far anyway—just a ten-minute walk.

As the New Year approached, even though it was snowing heavily outside, there were still quite a few pedestrians on the street. Walking and looking around, he soon arrived at the street where the Flower and Bird Market was located.

The Pengcheng Flower and Bird Market was connected to the antique market, divided into several sections: pets, birds, flowers, antiques, jade, calligraphy and paintings, books, stamps, and so on. The more established merchants either rented or bought shops, while some hobbyists set up stalls in the aisles on both sides of the shops. They just had to pay a small management fee to the market office each day.

Ryan Bennett had been here a few times before, and every time it was packed and lively, sometimes so crowded you could barely move. But it had been snowing for days, so most of the small vendors hadn’t come out. Only a few people with good connections had set up stalls under the eaves of some shops, and everyone else was inside keeping warm. It was much quieter than usual.

When he reached Charles Miller's pet shop, Ryan Bennett saw an old lady standing at the door. She looked to be in her fifties, dressed simply but very clean, holding a floral cloth bundle in her hand, with a trace of worry on her face. Ryan Bennett didn’t pay much attention, pushed open the glass door, and went inside.

Charles Miller's pet shop was about twenty square meters. When he bought it, it only cost seventy or eighty thousand yuan, but now, if he wanted to sell, people would fight to pay three hundred thousand. That’s just in four or five years—shows how much property prices have soared.

There were only a few cages sparsely placed in the pet shop, all empty. With the New Year coming and the heavy snow, he probably wasn’t in the mood for business. There was a stove burning inside, and the temperature was at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees. As soon as Ryan Bennett entered, he immediately felt his frozen face start to warm up.