Taking Shelter from the Rain

🌦️ For publication updates, see Weibo @Zi Zi Ting “Who do you think of on rainy days?” At Christmas in 2018, the evening study session at Tingnan No. 1 High School was unexpectedly interrupted by a power outage. In the dimness, the classroom suddenly erupted in cheers. The boys in the back row fell into chaos. Someone tossed a paper airplane folded from an exam sheet, taking the chance to cause trouble. Figures crowded together, their outlines blurred. As Lin Shuyu reached the classroom door, she suddenly heard someone call his name in a cheerful voice. “Xie Yizhou.” Back then, Xie Yizhou was the most talked-about star among them all. The paper airplane landed by her feet. In the darkness, Lin Shuyu looked up and unexpectedly met his gaze. Just like the day he took shelter from the rain beneath the eaves. Before graduation, Lin Shuyu quietly slipped that exam sheet into a book and returned it to him. At the bottom of the page, she wrote: Good luck with graduation, and may your future be bright. Xie Yizhou, do you still remember that rainstorm? With their shoulders pressed close beneath damp school uniforms, that was the closest she had ever been to him. ** Lin Shuyu had no idea they would meet again. As always, the man was the center of attention. With his high brow and thin eyelids, he blocked her path, a lazy, roguish smile playing at the corner of his lips as he teased, “She’s got a cold. Leave her alone.” Then, without asking, he slipped a throat lozenge into her hand. Her heart fizzed like a soft mass of bubbles rising in soda. Lin Shuyu blinked, suddenly remembering the friend her brother had mentioned. Twenty minutes later, with terrible traffic and one red light after another, Xie Yizhou tapped the steering wheel and turned to ask, as if something had just occurred to him, “You’re moving in next week?” Their eyes met, and the air fell silent. She heard him pause, then add, “Your brother asked me to ask.” Later, amid torrential rain and muddy ground, with the car broken down, the signal poor, and everything in a sorry state, nobody asked him to help. Xie Yizhou simply appeared and held her. His back soaked in the rain, his heartbeat heavy against her, he asked, “Lin Shuyu, can’t you tell by now?” I like you. I never meant to hide it. Every rainy day bears witness to how much I like you. Please add my upcoming novel, Cold Island, to your collection Ten years ago, at the orphanage, Chi Ling quietly made a wish to Ying Chao. She wanted a family. Later, Chi Ling was adopted and lost her only friend. Her wish became seeing Ying Chao again. Only one person scoffed at all of this. Her adoptive brother, the arrogant, spoiled real young master of the family, Chen Jinhuai. At midnight on Chi Ling’s birthday, he leaned against the doorway and watched her close her eyes in earnest. He had a handsome face, but his words were venomous. “You’re still thinking about someone who forgot you long ago? Chi Ling, can’t you have a little self-respect?” Chi Ling said nothing. * The day she reunited with Ying Chao was utterly ordinary. A breeze through the window stirred the pale blue curtains. The boy lay quietly on his desk, his right hand resting against his neck, hanging loosely at his side. Chi Ling suddenly froze. She knew that hand, or, more precisely, she recognized the scar. That same night, a familiar, aloof figure appeared in Chi Ling’s bedroom. Chen Jinhuai sat sunk into the sofa with one leg crossed, looking up at her expressionlessly. Back then, Chi Ling never imagined that Chen Jinhuai would feel such powerful emotions for her, or be so possessive of her. “Come here.” “Close your eyes.” “Keep your voice down, little sister.” “Like this. I’ll teach you.” So many secrets grew unseen in the darkness of rainy nights. Later, so much changed, but she stubbornly kept calling him “Brother.” He clamped a hand over her mouth, his hoarse voice striking her in the chest. “Can you even tell who you’re dreaming about?” “I’m the one who’s been by your side for ten years.” * Chen Jinhuai was a difficult person to understand. Chi Ling could never figure him out. He had fought for her and stood up for her. He could be cruel to her and kind to her, as if he were the only one in the world allowed to bully her. One year, Chen Jinhuai casually remarked, “Chi Ling, where do you get all those tears? My little sister can have anything she wants.” Yet he was the one who made her cry more than anyone. He would never allow her to like Ying Chao. In the third year after leaving Chen Jinhuai, everyone said they could never meet again or make up. They were like a vine, and pulling them apart had been an ugly business. A letter from an old friend said: Chen Jinhuai must have forgotten you by now. What no one else knew was that Chi Ling had received a text from an unknown number “Come back. I’ll give you one more chance.” Theme: Keep moving forward