Diamonds in the Palm of Your Hand

Shen Zhiyi is known in the financial world as the “Ice Queen.” At thirty, she owns the trillion-yuan business empire Zhiyi Group and is used to measuring relationships by contract clauses. To her, love is “the highest-risk, least worthwhile investment.” Then, after an accident, she meets Wen Yan on a snowy night in the suburbs.

He volunteers at a nearby hospice, wearing an old cotton coat washed pale with age. He is crouched in the snow, building a shelter for stray cats. His fingertips are red with cold, yet his movements are gentle. Shen Zhiyi’s limited-edition sports car is stuck in a snowbank. She steps out in ten-centimeter heels and says in her usual icy tone, “Get my car out. Name your price.”

The man looks up, flecks of snow on his eyelashes, his eyes as pure as untouched snow. “I can help push your car, but I don’t need money. The stove at the grandmother’s house next door has gone out. I have to go light it for her first.”

Later, she sees him in the hospital corridor, reading poetry to an elderly person at the end of their life, his voice as light as a feather; she sees him give his own