Umbrella

Jiang Ye and I met on campus during the rainy season. That afternoon, I hurried to the classroom with a stack of books in my arms, and bumped into him around the corner - he had just finished playing, his white jersey stained with sweat, the basketball hit the ground with a thud, and rolled to my feet. When I raised my eyes, the water droplets from his hair fell into my collar, bringing with it the unique heat of a young man. He apologized hurriedly, and the sunlight passed through the gaps in the rain clouds, casting tiny shadows on his eyelashes. This scene became the first anchor point of my youth. He shook the umbrella in his hand and said with a smile: "The weather forecast says it will rain all day long. My 'human barometer' promises to be more accurate than the broadcast. I will lend you shelter from the rain next time." I blushed and ran away, but I didn't see him looking at my back and stroking the umbrella ribs with his fingertips. Whispering under the umbrella Later on rainy days, that umbrella really became our secret base. The sycamore leaves rustled outside the umbrella. He quietly tilted the umbrella toward me. His right shoulder was wrinkled by the rain, but he smiled and said, "This is symmetrical." We stepped on the pool of water and watched the two people in the reflection slowly get closer. He said he wanted to take the exam to a city with a sea. After graduation, he took me to watch the tide at four in the morning. I counted the buttons on his school uniform and said I would walk with him like this every rainy day. The rain was wrapped in the wind, rubbing the boy's warm breath and Jay Chou's "Sunny Day" in the headphones into the moist air. I thought this would last forever, but I didn't notice that his hand holding the umbrella handle would occasionally tremble slightly because of pain. Farewell in the shower The accident came without warning. The night before Jiang Ye transferred to another school, a heavy rain pounded against the window. I held the iron box containing the postcards from the coastal city prepared for him and ran across three streets. The rain poured into my canvas shoes, and the chill climbed up from the soles of my feet. Pushing open the door of his house, in the dark living room, his mother was packing her luggage with red eyes, while he was huddled in the corner of the sofa, with blood stains on his shirt collar. When he saw me, he hurriedly hid the medicine bottle under his pillow. I trembled and opened the tin box. Before the waves on the postcard could come into his eyes, he said hoarsely: "Don't wait. I'm going to a far away place and I won't come back." Under the rain, I walked back with the tin box in my arms. Every step I took was like stepping on broken glass. Those unspoken "Don't go" were swallowed up by the heavy rain. Late encounter at the airport Years later, at the airport, I was dragging my suitcase through the security check when I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure out of the corner of my eye. Jiang Ye was wearing a neatly tailored suit, but he couldn't hide his thinness. He also saw me, and his pupils shrank suddenly. After a long silence, he took out an iron box from the inner pocket of his suit - it was the same one I gave him back then. The edges of the postcard were burred. He said: "I was diagnosed with a serious illness that year, so I was afraid of dragging you down, so I deliberately said I was leaving... In the past few years, I have been treating diseases in a seaside city and watching the tides every day, but around me..." I looked at the guilt and nostalgia in his eyes, and my tears suddenly went out of control. But when he tentatively stretched out his hand, I avoided it - not because he didn't forgive me, but because the time that was torn apart by the heavy rain could no longer regain its original shape. The boarding announcement sounded, and he said "take care" with red eyes. When I turned around, tears fell on the security check table, and he whispered softly: "Jiangye, look, it's raining again, but our umbrellas can't be held up anymore." Behind him, his sigh mixed with the noise of the airport, dissipated in the rain that was too late, and our story, in the end, became a wet regret in each other's lives that will never dry out. Intention: Farewell