Silence under the umbrella

Jiang Yile was organizing his Chinese notes for the next class. He looked up at the words and met several pairs of inquiring eyes. He smiled helplessly and said frankly, "Aside from necessary words like 'um,' 'ok,' and 'thank you,' he hardly said anything else to me."

This is the truth.

Apart from the few sentences they had to say during the English group exercise, and the almost inaudible "hmm" he said when she introduced herself earlier, Gu Nanxiao really didn't have much communication with her, and they didn't even make eye contact.

"What a weird guy."

Everyone reached a unanimous conclusion.

There seemed to be a mixture of disappointment, confusion and a hint of slight annoyance at being rejected in his tone.

As his deskmate, Jiang Yile's feelings were the most direct and complex.

He was like an island shrouded in a thick, cold, damp mist that lingered all year round.

You can vaguely see the island's cold and graceful outline, and feel the weight and attraction of its existence, but you cannot get close to the coastline, nor can you tell whether the scenery inside is desolate or hides unknown treasures that may be amazing or sad.

Everything about him seemed so contradictory.

Gu Nanxiao is undoubtedly intelligent, but this intelligence is wrapped in a hard shell.

His wealthy family background and eccentric behavior, his handsome appearance and gloomy temperament all form a sharp contrast.

He himself is a walking contradiction.

This contradiction, in addition to her initial curiosity, gradually gave rise to a subtle but growing desire to explore that she herself had not even clearly noticed.

She began to unconsciously notice some of his little habits.

For example, when he was engrossed in reading, his slender, bony index finger would unconsciously and rhythmically tap the edge of the page; for example, when he was thinking about a difficult problem, he liked to use the pen cap to support his well-defined jaw with a blank look; for example, he would occasionally look out the window with an unfocused gaze, and at that moment, the cold, hard sense of isolation on his body would weaken a little, replaced by a faint sense of fatigue, as if he had carried too many worries and had nowhere to go, like a lonely bird that was tired of flying but could not find a habitat.

These subtle discoveries, like scattered pearls, were quietly picked up by her and kept in her heart.

Time passed quietly among the piles of test papers and endless review, and Friday came in the blink of an eye.

The sky had been a little gloomy since the day before, and by Friday afternoon, the lead-gray clouds were pressing down even more heavily, as if they were within reach, making it hard to breathe.

The air was filled with the thick earthy smell and stuffiness that was unique to the time before a rainstorm, and it was so sticky that it could not be dissolved.

The last class is English.

Teacher Yang is explaining a reading comprehension passage about climate change and extreme weather.

Suddenly, a dazzling flash of lightning flashed outside the window, splitting the dark sky like a sharp sword.

A few seconds later, dull thunder rolled in, like the roar of a giant beast, breaking the silence of the classroom.

Immediately afterwards, without any warning, raindrops as big as beans fell down with a crackling sound.

What started out as sparse, tentative bursts soon became a continuous mass, as dense as a waterfall, madly and mercilessly washing over the glass windows, making a deafening, continuous roar.

The sky and the earth were instantly covered by a thick white curtain of water. The teaching buildings and playgrounds in the distance became blurred, as if blending into the gray background.

"Wow, it's raining so hard!"

"Oh no! I don't have an umbrella! What should I do?"

"I didn't bring any either! The weather forecast didn't say there would be heavy rain today!"

There was a small commotion in the classroom, and the students looked out the window worriedly, and anxiety began to spread.

The originally focused classroom atmosphere was disrupted by the sudden rainstorm.

The English teacher raised her voice, trying to maintain order in the classroom: "Students, please be quiet and listen carefully. Maybe it will get quieter later, or even stop by the end of the class."

Her voice seemed a little weak against the background of the loud rain.

But God did not seem to hear this faint prayer. The rain showed no sign of slowing down. Instead, it fell harder and harder, as if it wanted to pour out all the power that had been accumulated for a long time at once.

The school bell rang on time amidst this symphony of heavy rain. Most of the students who usually couldn't wait to rush out of the classroom were now crowded at the door and in the corridor, looking at the scene outside the door that was like a water curtain cave with pouring rain, with worried brows and a lot of discussions.

"Oh no, oh no! I didn't bring an umbrella!" Zhou Xiaowei looked at the rain outside the window, which was like a bursting dam in the sky, wailed, and shook Jiang Yile's arm vigorously, "Lele, did you bring it? Look quickly! Are we going to be trapped in school?"

Jiang Yile lowered his head and carefully looked through the side pockets and various compartments of his backpack, shaking his head helplessly: "It was still cloudy when I left this morning, and there was no sign of rain at all."

A hint of anxiety also rose in her heart.

Unlike other students, she cannot get wet in the rain easily. This is something her doctor and parents have repeatedly reminded her of and reminded her of every day.

Her heart is more fragile than that of ordinary people, and her physical condition has not been good since childhood. A seemingly ordinary cold or fever may trigger a chain reaction, leading to serious consequences that require hospitalization.

On such a rainy day, being soaked all over and the sudden drop in temperature was undoubtedly a huge risk for her and could easily lead to serious consequences.

"It's over, it's over," Zhou Xiaowei said with a sad face, as pale as an eggplant hit by frost. "How am I going to get back? I'll be soaked if I run back! I'll definitely catch a cold tomorrow! And the rain is so heavy, I can't even run!"

The students in the classroom who didn't bring umbrellas were discussing countermeasures.

Some planned to wait until the rain subsided before leaving, some prepared to call their parents to pick them up, and a few boys were ready to sprint through the rain to the bus stop or the small shop at the school gate to take shelter, shouting bold words like "Youth is about getting caught in a heavy rain."

Jiang Yile looked out the window at the heavy rain that showed no signs of abating but was getting more intense, and frowned slightly.

She couldn't take the risk.

Waiting seems to be the safest option.

"Xiaowei, go ahead and see if your parents can come pick you up, or go with a classmate who's going the same way and has an umbrella." Jiang Yile said to Zhou Xiaowei, trying to sound calm. "I'll wait a little longer to see if the rain will stop."

She didn't want to drag her friends down because of her special situation.

"So what are you going to do?"

Zhou Xiaowei asked worriedly, she knew Jiang Yile's body couldn't stand the rain.

"I'm fine. The classroom is quite safe. I'll just do some homework and see what happens."

Jiang Yile smiled, telling her not to worry, but the smile seemed forced.

Zhou Xiaowei hesitated for a moment, and happened to see a familiar girl from the next class coming over with an umbrella and calling her. She reminded Jiang Yile to "be careful" and "call me anytime", and then rushed into the rain with the girl.

The people in the classroom gradually left, and the noise faded away. In the end, only she and... Gu Nanxiao, who was sitting against the wall at the back and also did not leave, were left.

He hadn't known when he put on a pair of black headphones that looked like they had good sound insulation. He was looking down at the screen of his mobile phone, his fingers sliding occasionally. He didn't seem to be in a hurry and was completely immersed in his own world, oblivious to the chaos and the sound of rain in the outside world.

The sky was getting darker and darker under the cover of heavy rain. It was only five o'clock in the afternoon, but it seemed like dusk.

There was no light in the classroom, and the light was dim. Only the occasional, dazzling white lightning flashed outside the window, bringing a moment of light, illuminating the empty tables and chairs and two silent figures, each occupying a corner, outlining a strange silhouette.

The noisy sound of rain, pattering and never stopping, fills my ears, which makes this small place seem particularly quiet, a silence that is almost stagnant and carries a subtle tension.

Jiang Yile withdrew her worried gaze from the window and took out the physics paper that had stuck her from her schoolbag. She planned to use this time to study the last big question again, trying to dispel the uneasiness in her heart and the indescribable awkwardness caused by the presence of the person next to her.

The pen tip moved across the paper, making a slight friction sound, but it was almost negligible against the backdrop of the loud, almost drowning sound of rain.

She could clearly hear her own breathing, and... the extremely faint sound of music leaking out of the headphones from behind her. It seemed to be some soothing and sad piano music, intermittent, like a sigh from a distant place.

She forced herself to concentrate on the complex physics formulas and graphs, but at this moment she felt a familiar, slight pain in her stomach.

At first she didn't think much of it, thinking it was because she ate too quickly at lunch, or maybe it was just a minor spasm caused by anxiety.

But after a while, the cramping pain did not disappear. Instead, it tended to intensify and turned into a persistent, dull, and disturbing colic, as if an invisible hand was gently squeezing my stomach.

Jiang Yile's face turned slightly pale. He put down his pen and reached for the medicine box in the side pocket of his schoolbag, but found nothing.

Her heart sank as she remembered that she had taken the last pill yesterday. She had planned to buy some at the pharmacy on the way home from school today, but was trapped at school by the sudden heavy rain.

I have to go home and take medicine.

The familiar, gradually becoming clearer feeling of colic reminded her that this was not something that could be easily overcome by endurance.

She looked out the window at the pouring rain that showed no sign of abating, then looked at the time. It was almost half past five.

The rain showed no sign of stopping. If I waited any longer, not only would my stomachache get worse, but it would also be completely dark, and it would be even more troublesome and dangerous to go home alone on a rainy night.

After hesitating for a moment and weighing the pros and cons, Jiang Yile finally zipped up his school uniform jacket, put his schoolbag on his head, took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind, and prepared to rush into the rain and run to the bus stop a few hundred meters away.

She calculated the distance, hoping to get on the bus before she got completely soaked.

As soon as she ran to the door of the teaching building, a cold gust of wind mixed with icy, pebble-like rain blew in her face, like a basin of ice-cold water poured over her head. She couldn't help but shiver violently, and instantly got goose bumps all over her body, and her teeth began to chatter.

The rain was heavier, heavier, and colder than she had imagined.

The backpack on her head was soaked almost instantly and became extremely heavy. The cold rain flowed down her hair into her neck, blurring her vision. Her school uniform jacket also quickly became soaked and stuck to her body, causing her extreme discomfort.

Just as she gritted her teeth, endured the discomfort in her stomach and the shivering from the cold, and was about to step into the endless rain, a slender, bony, fair-skinned hand reached out from the side, holding a black, sturdy-looking long-handled umbrella.

The next second, the umbrella opened above her head with a "swish", steadily and firmly isolating the cold, dense, falling rain, creating a small dry and safe space for her, temporarily blocking out the noisy and violent world.