Stars Fall

"Don't tell anyone, I came from the stars." While observing meteors on a summer night, I caught a falling girl. There was light like the Milky Way in her hair, but she said she wanted to be an ordinary high school student. "Why choose me?" "Because," she leaned close to my ear, "you are the first to wish for a lover on a shooting star." Secrets become bonds and the stars become codes. Until the night when the comet approaches again, she begins to become transparent. "What about the ordinary daily life we ​​promised?" I squeezed her hand that was gradually disappearing. She just smiled: "But my stars have already fallen into your eyes." --- "Stars Falling" Volume One: Blue Light and Secrets It is written in the prologue that Halley's Comet visits once every seventy-six years, and the next time it passes over Baimang City is at the end of a summer when it is said to rain. But Hu Wei was lying on the cold observation platform of the school observatory at the moment, with the smell of rust and old book pages lingering on the tip of his nose. Looking out through the lens tube of the old refractor telescope, he only saw an extremely familiar night sky that was dyed turbid orange by the city lights. Not to mention comets, even the Big Dipper appears to be dying. On the notebook open by his legs, the words "observation record" were written neatly, but the bottom was blank, except for a crookedly drawn meteor with a long tail in the corner. She stared at the small pattern for a while, feeling her cheeks a little hot, as if she had been burned by some distant and childish wish. In fact, she shouldn't be on duty tonight. But when her roommates were chattering and discussing which newly opened escape room to go to, the overly lively and terrestrial happiness made her subconsciously take a step back. When the president of the Astronomical Society patted her on the shoulder and said, "Hu Wei, the weather is good tonight, I'll leave the station to you," she didn't refuse. It's quiet here, too high, away from the crowd, like a small, safe hanging nest. Although most of the time, quiet also means doing nothing. She took off her glasses that slid down to the tip of her nose and rubbed her eyebrows. The vision blurred into a hazy patch of light. Maybe it's time to go back before the dormitory gate is closed. As soon as this thought came to her mind, a strong and inexplicable tiredness swept over her. It was as if the soft black hands of the night itself were gently pressing down on my eyelids. Hu Wei fell asleep. He was curled up in a corner of the platform, his notebook slipped from his hand, and his glasses were tilted up. She didn't know how long passed, maybe only a few minutes, maybe a century, when she was awakened by a strange feeling. Not sound, not light. It's the "feeling" of silence itself being suddenly broken. Immediately afterwards, in the corner of the vision, or in the lingering vision left inside the closed eyelids, an extremely bright and extremely fast blue suddenly flashed through! It's not the fleeting white line of a shooting star, but a more condensed and dazzling light with a texture like liquid metal. It tore through the dirty orange in the telescope lens, like a dagger tempered by ice, piercing straight towards... Hu Wei sat up suddenly, his heart beating in his chest. She rushed to the telescope and hurriedly adjusted the angle, her fingertips were cold. The lens barrel rotates randomly, sweeping across the blurry building shadows, the silent tree canopy, and the river of car lights flowing on the highway in the distance. No, nothing. The night sky returned to its permanent, lazy calm, as if the thrilling blue just now was just an overly clear nightmare while she was sleeping. But it felt so real. It was so true that her spine was still tingling slightly. She took off her glasses and blinked hard, trying to clear away the remaining glare. Then, by some strange coincidence, she held onto the railing of the platform and leaned forward to look down. The observatory was built on the edge of the hill behind the school. Below it was a neglected slope, covered with shrubs and weeds half as tall as a man. It was dark at night, like the undulating back of a beast. In the middle of that chaotic darkness, it seemed... Something was different. A shadow darker than the surrounding night? No, it's a softer outline, slightly sunken, with a faint glimmer of... An unextinguished blue light on the edge? Like falling embers. Hu Wei held his breath. Is it an illusion? Is it an hallucination caused by looking through a telescope for too long? Or some bastard student climbed over the wall from the back hill and fell down? "Hey——!" She shouted down, her voice dry and dry, and it was immediately blown away by the night wind. No response. Only the chirping of insects suddenly became louder. Reason told her that she should call school security immediately, or at least ask someone to go down and take a look. But her feet were already moving, and she fumbled to find the entrance to the iron ladder on the side. The cold metal touched the palm of her hand, one level, two levels. She descended very fast, almost stumbling, and the faint blue light in her head floated in front of her like a will-o'-the-wisp. The weeds scratched across my calves, causing tiny stings and itches. She walked towards the direction in her memory, one step at a time, the light beam of the mobile phone flashlight split the darkness and shook violently. Found it. It's not a drunk student or a broken instrument. Is a person. A young girl. Lying on his side in the grass, the grass blades under him fell in all directions, forming an irregular circle, as if they were gently pressed out by something invisible. She was wearing... Very strange clothes, a bit like some kind of simplified, futuristic uniform. The material looked very special. Even under the yellowish light of the flashlight, it glowed with a flowing shimmer like mother-of-pearl. But now the clothes were torn in places and stained with grass clippings and dirt. The strangest thing was her hair. It is very long and scattered on the grass blades. It is not pure black. At the edge of the flashlight light, it actually reflects extremely fine, stardust-like fragments of light, as if a small piece of the Milky Way has been crushed and sprinkled inside. Hu Wei froze in place, his blood seemed to freeze. Who is she? How come? Did you get hurt? Countless questions exploded, but my throat seemed to be blocked and I couldn't pronounce a single syllable. She trembled and squatted down, tentatively reaching for the other person's breath with her fingers. Warm. Smooth. Almost at the same moment, the girl's eyelashes trembled and she opened her eyes. Hu Wei was caught off guard and met a pair of eyes. The color of the pupils was hard to see clearly in the dark, but the faint light from the mobile phone screen reflected there, which was astonishingly clear, but there seemed to be hidden in the depths... A distant nebula that was slowly rotating. There is no confusion like just waking up, only an almost empty and penetrating clarity. The girl's eyes fell on Hu Wei's face and paused for about two or three seconds. Then, she blinked, and the nebula disappeared, replaced by a kind of... Curiosity? In other words, it was a look that confirmed something. She moved, as if she wanted to sit up, but her brows immediately furrowed and she let out a low hiss. "You... Don't move!" Hu Wei finally found his voice, which was so hoarse, "Are you injured? I, I'll call an ambulance, and the campus police..." "No." The voice was very soft, but it had a strange and unmistakable texture, like the gentle impact of cold jade stones. Hu Wei was stunned. The girl looked up at her, the night wind blowing her shimmering hair. She suddenly curled up her lips and smiled. That smile was beautiful, but it made Hu Wei feel inexplicably palpitated, as if something unrealistic and huge was peering through this smile at this ordinary night. "Don't call anyone." The girl repeated, her tone as calm as stating a fact, "Help me." "B-but..." "Please." Those three words were light and airy, but seemed to carry some kind of weight, falling on Hu Wei's heart. She looked at the hand stretched out by the other party - the fingers were long, the nails were neatly trimmed, the wrist bones were prominent, and the skin was white and somewhat transparent in the night. A mixture of fear, confusion, and some indescribable impulse seized her. By some strange coincidence, she took hold of that hand. It's slightly cool to the touch, but it's definitely human temperature. Hu Wei tried his best to get the girl out of the grass, almost half dragging and half hugging her. The other person looked thin, but the weight he leaned against was more substantial than expected. They stumbled away from the slope, and Hu Wei's heart was beating wildly, partly because of physical exertion and partly because of this extremely weird encounter. She didn't even dare to look back at the "landing point". Where to go? Not possible in dormitories. It was impossible to explain why he brought a man of unknown origin, strangely dressed, and injured back so late. Hostel? Registration is required. Finally, she remembered the all-night convenience store near the back door of the school. There was a small cubicle upstairs for night shift clerks to rest. The owner of the store was an easy-to-talk uncle. He used to buy food for the astronomical club after they returned from observing all night, and he even lent him a place to heat instant noodles for them. Along the way, the girl was very quiet, leaning most of her weight on Hu Wei, and only occasionally gasped lightly. Hu Wei didn't dare to ask any more questions. His mind was in a mess. Only the blue light splitting the night sky and the strange shimmer of the man's hair in front of him kept flashing back. The fluorescent sign of the convenience store lit up in the night, making it look a little lonely. Hu Wei helped the girl go up the small staircase on the side and knocked on the door of the compartment. Fortunately, the uncle was not asleep yet and was reading the newspaper with his reading glasses on. He was visibly surprised when he saw Hu Wei supporting a pale girl with a "unique look". "Classmate, this is..." "Uncle, this is me... My cousin," Hu Wei said in a hurry, tongue-tied, "You came to see me. I accidentally fell down on the way and my foot seems to be twisted. I can't go back to the dormitory. Can I... Let you rest here for a while? Just for a while, we will leave at dawn." She felt her cheeks were burning, and this lie was full of loopholes. The uncle's eyes moved between the two of them, especially lingering on the girl's clothes and hair for a moment. Finally, he sighed and stepped aside: "Come in. There is a small bed over there. There is hot water in the thermos bottle. Do you need medicinal oil?" "No, no, thank you, uncle!" Hu Wei thanked her hurriedly and helped the girl into the small but clean space, almost as if she was running away. After closing the door, blocking out the faint music coming from the convenience store outside, the world suddenly became quiet. Only an energy-saving lamp overhead made a faint buzzing sound. Hu Wei helped the girl to the bedside and sat down. He leaned against the door panel, his legs feeling a little weak. Only then did she have the opportunity to look at the other person carefully. Looking closer, the girl's appearance becomes clearer. The facial features are unrealistically exquisite, the skin is delicate, and the color of the lips is very light. The texture of the clothes was really strange. It was neither cloth nor leather. In the damaged areas, you could see... The intact skin underneath? No blood. Just some slight rub redness. Did she really just "fall down"? "You..." Hu Wei licked his dry lips, "Who are you? How... How did you get from there..." The girl raised her eyes, and her eyes looked clearer under the light. She did not answer directly, but tilted her head slightly, as if listening to some distant voice or feeling the air in this small room. Then, she sighed softly, with a deep tiredness that was inconsistent with her appearance. There was even a trace of... Relief? "Stars?" Hu Wei heard himself murmuring, his voice as soft as a whisper. Once this ridiculous idea comes up, it can no longer be suppressed. That blue light, the strange way of appearing, the starlight in the hair, and this feeling that is beyond common sense. When the girl heard this, she suddenly smiled again. There was something else in the smile this time, like naughtiness, or some kind of deep, unspeakable secret. She hooked her fingers at Hu Wei. As if being pulled by an invisible thread, Hu Wei involuntarily moved a small step forward and bent down. The girl came closer, and her warm breath brushed against Hu Wei's ear, bringing a slight itch. Then, she lowered her voice and said clearly, word by word, at a volume that only the two of them could hear: "Don't tell anyone." The breath penetrates into the ears, carrying a refreshing smell, like the starry sky after rain. Hu Wei froze, straightened up suddenly, looked at the other party with wide eyes, and his face turned red. The girl had already leaned back on the bed, her expression restored to that empty calmness, as if the slightly mischievous whisper had never happened. She looked around this simple cubicle, her eyes swept over the cheap landscape paintings on the wall, the old table piled with miscellaneous items, and finally landed on Hu Wei's surprised face. "Of course." A voice answered. Hu Wei was shocked and realized that those words were addressed to him. When? He clearly didn't speak! The girl - Du Xingling, the name suddenly popped up in her mind, as if it had existed for a long time - she had already sat up straight at some point, and the previous fragility and fatigue receded like the tide, replaced by a restrained but not negligible sense of existence. She even patted the bed next to her and motioned for Hu Wei to sit down. Hu Wei didn't move, his fingers digging at the edge of the door panel unconsciously. Du Xingling didn't mind, and continued to talk to himself, with a tone as calm as if he was discussing the weather: "It's something couples do." "What...?!" Hu Wei's face was so red that he was about to explode, and his ears were ringing. "Don't, don't be like this!" She waved her hands in a panic, speaking incoherently, "What kind of couple... What are you talking about? Who are you? That light just now was..." There are so many questions stuck in my throat that I can't even ask a single one. She felt like she was going crazy. Everything tonight was off the rails and running in an incomprehensible direction. Du Xingling watched her hurriedly in silence, the nebula-like glimmer in her eyes faintly flowing again. She didn't explain or answer any questions. She just watched like that until Hu Wei gradually stopped his meaningless movements under her gaze, and his breathing became slightly rapid due to excitement. The only sounds left in the cubicle were the buzzing of energy-saving lamps and the gentle breathing of the two of them. Then, Du Xingling blinked very slowly. The long and dense eyelashes drooped down and then lifted up again. "I'm tired." She said, her voice filled with real tiredness again, her body relaxed slightly, and she leaned against the wall, "I need to rest." "But..." "You made a wish, right?" Du Xingling interrupted her, her eyes half-closed, and her voice became softer and softer, as if it was blending into the air, "Toward the shooting star." Hu Wei was struck by lightning and froze in place. The crooked shooting star pattern in the corner of the notebook, that shameless wish that has never been spoken to anyone, and has almost been forgotten even by myself... "Go to sleep." Du Xingling finally said, the syllables were blurred and almost breathy, "Let's talk tomorrow..." She seemed to really fall into a deep sleep instantly, and her breathing became even and long. Hu Wei was left alone, standing by the door, under the cold light of cheap energy-saving lamps, his heart beating heavily in his chest, one after another. The night outside the window was as thick as ink, swallowing up the blue light not long ago and swallowing up all the answers. Only the lingering star-like glimmer in her hair flickered on the forehead of the sleeping girl. Like a silent prophecy, like a long story, the first punctuation point was written hastily and fatefully. Concept: Very, very sweet.