Buy one get one half price if it rains, want to add something to your order? ...

Lin Shiren pressed her index finger hard against her forearm, and a sharp pain surged from the wound, bringing her back to her senses.

"QR code for receiving payments." The cold voice repeated itself, each word ringing in the ears.

Zhou Lin had just returned from Switzerland. After several days of intense IPHO competition, he hadn't eaten or slept well. He was finally adjusting to the time difference at home in the afternoon, and had only slept for a few hours when he was woken up by a series of urgent calls. He was in a grumpy state of mind when he woke up and didn't want to talk.

He stood in front of her, his gaze half-lowered. Beneath his neat short hair were a pair of deep, unfathomable black eyes. His phone was laid out in front of her, still in the motion of transferring money, and the veins on his pale, thin wrists were clearly visible.

Lin Shiren's palms were sweating as he gripped his phone. Under his gaze, he forced himself to swipe open the screen and swallowed hard, saying, "Thank you."

The money arrived in her account instantly, and she immediately turned away from him. Zhou Lin lifted his eyelids, and the idiom "crossing the river and then dismantling the bridge" perfectly came to mind.

Then, footsteps moved toward the door.

Lin Shiren's ears were perked up, and her gaze kept sneaking over there. Zhou Lin suddenly turned around in her direction. The movement was so quick that when their eyes met, the expression on her face was extremely rich.

Panic, guilt, and disdain for not having time to collect it.

Zhou Lin stopped where he was, holding the cola, and raised an eyebrow.

Their scrutinizing gaze was unbridled.

At that moment, there was complete silence; the air seemed to thin. Lin Shiren's joints felt like rusty old metal, creaking and groaning with the slightest movement. He even stammered, "Um, it seems there's a discount promotion..."

What nonsense are you spouting?

She really wanted to beat herself up; her mouth was dry. But facing Zhou Lin's questioning gaze, she calmly pointed to the banner next to her and said, "Well, the discounts are pretty good."

Zhou Lin's expression remained unchanged: "Discount?"

No way!

Don't pay attention to what she says.

Isn't the prize money for the competition a lot?

What terrified Lin Shiren even more was that he actually came back, his attention completely drawn to the poster, his eyes displaying the focus of a top student facing a competition problem. One second, two seconds, three seconds—how long was he going to stare at it? She pinched her thigh to remind herself not to show any weakness.

Her facial muscles were about to cramp when Zhou Lin finally finished studying the discount information. His gaze returned to her, a half-smile playing on his lips: "Second item half price, want to add something to your order?"

"..."

Lin Shih-ren: ?

The evening breeze was humid and hot, and beautiful fiery clouds floated on the horizon.

It was rush hour, with school and get off work hours in full swing, and traffic was slow and cars were honking loudly.

Zhou Lin waited for a ride-hailing car at the entrance of the convenience store, his phone hanging to his ear. He found it hard to be polite to the person on the other end of the phone who was disturbing his sleep: "You don't do anything that involves people."

The person on the other end clearly lacked self-awareness and continued to chatter incessantly. Zhou Lin couldn't stand it anymore and snorted, "Send me the address."

After hanging up the phone, he heard the sound of an automatic door opening and closing behind him, and he turned his head to look.

The girl who had just come out looked a bit dejected, probably because she hadn't managed to get enough points to reach the minimum order amount. She didn't greet him and kept walking without even glancing at him.

In the sweltering air, Zhou Lin pulled the tab of his Coke with one hand. With a "click," bubbles rose to the surface. He drank it without a care in the world, his Adam's apple bobbing.

The golden rays of the sunset fell on the back of the girl's neck. She had gone from walking to running, and her speed was getting faster and faster. The hem of her skirt was billowing in a large arc, and her two slender legs were crossing quickly. The little rabbit charm on her schoolbag was swinging back and forth, as if there was some raging beast behind her.

She was completely unaware that the broth from the oden had spilled all the way.

Zhou Lin watched the figure disappear from sight and chuckled to himself.

...

Perhaps due to his extremely poor physical condition, when Lin Shih-jen opened the door to his home, his heart felt like it was about to jump out of his chest. He didn't even have the strength to change his shoes, and after throwing down his schoolbag, he collapsed onto the sofa.

The feeling of near death finally passed; my heartbeat slowed, and my breathing became even, but my mind was still a mess.

In her mind, high school students should focus on their studies, and even if they are in a relationship, it's mostly in the innocent stage. But what she just saw shattered that image of a good student. Even if she was naive, she knew what "buying a condom" and "address" meant, while Zhou Lin's expression was calm and his process was very professional, as if he had been on dates at least a hundred times.

And they even had the audacity to ask her if she wanted to add other items to her order?!

She cursed him a hundred and eighty times in her heart, then applied iodine to her wound. Staring at the wound on her arm, another layer of worry crept into her heart: would Zhou Lin recognize her after returning to school?

At nine o'clock in the evening, the door lock made a sound, the key clicked onto the shoe cabinet, and the living room light turned on. At that time, Lin Shiren was sitting at his desk doing his homework.

When she is thinking hard, her ears automatically block out noise, so Xin Xiaomei had to call her twice before she heard anything.

Xin Xiaomei is the head nurse of the inpatient department at Huaicheng Central Hospital. She works long hours every day, almost like a high school senior. Lin Shiren often wonders what the point of going to university really is. If she's been working herself to the bone for so many years and her life is still as busy and tiring as Xin Xiaomei's, then she might as well just become a beast of burden now, since they'll end up the same way anyway.

She was still changing her shoes in the living room when her voice rang out: "Qiaoqiao, what did you eat for dinner?"

Qiaoqiao is her nickname. Xin Xiaomei only calls her that when she's in a good mood; normally, she just calls her "Lin Shiren".

"I forgot to eat."

She ran too fast in the evening and the oden was ruined halfway there. When she got home, she had some wild thoughts and really forgot about eating.

The sound of slippers approached from afar, followed by a tap on the head. Xin Xiaomei, hands on her hips, glared at her: "What's wrong with you? Didn't I tell you to order takeout? You really should go to our hospital to get checked out. You know how high the incidence of stomach cancer is these days."

Lin Shih-ren turned his head away from her, his gaze remaining fixed on the exam paper.

After Xin Xiaomei finished reading, she left the bedroom. The sound of the range hood running came from the kitchen. She wrinkled her nose and complained in a low voice, "Takeout food is still pre-cooked. You'll get cancer just the same if you eat it."

Twenty minutes later, Xin Xiaomei came in again. She had changed into her home clothes and was carrying a bowl of egg noodles. She slammed it on the table and said, "I really owe you this."

I didn't notice it when I was doing the problems, but now that the aroma is wafting into my nose, my empty stomach immediately starts rumbling.

Lin Shiren silently put away the test paper, then picked up her chopsticks and began to eat. Her eating movements were delicate. Xin Xiaomei, sitting on the edge of the bed, watched for a while and then asked, "What happened to your arm?"

"I was bumped into."

"What happened? Who is this person? Did they apologize to you?"

"No." Caught off guard by the question, she instinctively told the truth, and immediately regretted it.

"Yo!"

Xin Xiaomei pouted, "You're only good at bullying your own family, just like your father."

Every time the father and daughter were scolded, it was like a buy-one-get-one-free deal. Lin Shiren was already used to it, so he gave up arguing, and only the sound of chewing remained in the air.

Xin Xiaomei has severe mysophobia. She frowned at the messy desk and got up to tidy it up: "Did you receive this month's child support?"

"Got it, the money is on your bedside table."

"Tell him to transfer money to you next time, instead of always giving cash. I'm so busy with work, and I still have to go to the bank to deposit money."

Xin Xiaomei and Lin Zhiyuan's marriage ended seven years ago.

After the two cleanly divided their assets and custody, their WeChat conversations were reduced to purely monetary transactions. Perhaps dissatisfied with Xin Xiaomei's complacent, indifferent attitude towards child support, and her failure to follow up after receiving payment, Lin Zhiyuan suddenly demanded to see Lin Shiren once a month and personally hand over child support payments, starting when Lin Shiren entered high school. Xin Xiaomei scoffed at this, but she remained relatively dignified, offering only occasional sarcastic remarks and not hindering Lin Zhiyuan's haphazard paternal love.

Lin Shiren tied her long hair up and took a sip of soup from her bowl. She looked at her and said, "Mom, I saw your schedule. You're on the early shift the day after tomorrow, right?"

Xin Xiaomei didn't stop what she was doing, stuffing the scattered pens back into the pen holder: "What's wrong?"

"It's my birthday."

After she finished speaking, Xin Xiaomei looked at her, and Lin Shiren put down her chopsticks, looked away, and gazed out the window.

Today is the fifteenth of the lunar month, and the full moon hangs there like a jade plate, radiating a bluish glow.

“That day happens to be Sunday, and school is closed for half a day. I already asked my dad yesterday, and he's free that day. Could you have a meal with me?”

After seven or eight minutes of silence, Xin Xiaomei finally finished cleaning the table. She tied a knot in the trash bag and wiped the sweat from her forehead: "Don't choose hot pot, I've been feeling hot lately."

It was late at night. The bedroom curtains were fluttering in the wind, and the moonlight shone on the wrought iron railings above the bed.

Lin Shih-ren rolled around on the bed seven or eight times before finally calming his wildly beating heart. He was in such a good mood that he couldn't stop smiling.

For someone as assertive as Xin Xiaomei, saying "No" is faster than a rocket.

If you don't refuse, that means you agree.

Lin Shiren stared at the pitch-black ceiling, her mind racing. For some reason, she thought of Zhou Lin again. She took out her phone from under her pillow and used her alternate account to visit his Weibo homepage.

Zhou Lin's latest update was a week ago, consisting of only a landscape photo without any caption. Judging from the location, it was in Switzerland, likely taken during the IPHO competition. A few familiar IDs left comments, mostly praising the scenery and the competition without any substance.

The comment on the sixth floor reads: "What happened to Schrödinger?"

Schrödinger is Zhou Lin's cat, a blue-golden shaded cat that has appeared in his Weibo posts many times, so Lin Shiren is quite familiar with it. Lin Shiren is even more familiar with the profile picture and nickname of the person who left the comment; it belongs to Xu Yiqiao, another prominent figure at Huiwen High School.

If Zhou Lin's reputation as the school's heartthrob was earned through word of mouth, then Xu Yiqiao's title as the school's beauty queen was won with a high number of votes from male surveys. School beauties and heartthrobs often have a natural chemistry, and she was generous, cheerful, and popular with girls. Rumors of a romance between her and Zhou Lin had been circulating since their first year of high school.

Lin Shih-jen suddenly channeled Sherlock Holmes, propped herself up on her arms, and clicked into Hsu Yi-chiao's homepage.

Xu Yiqiao posts frequently on Weibo, mostly videos of her playing the piano. Her latest post, published at 6:47 PM, discusses the piece "Today is Sunny," with the caption: "Listening to this song makes homework faster!"

Lin Shiren scrolled back to the previous video for comparison; the camera angle and the small potted plant on the piano matched. Since Xu Yiqiao was home, then Zhou Lin wasn't with her...

Xu Yiqiao's Weibo posts all get a lot of likes, and unsurprisingly, Shen Xuqing left a comment: "It's great, I've added it to my playlist."

The playlist was like an encrypted diary in a sense. Her mind involuntarily drifted back to the rainy night two years ago, when she had also listened to Shen Xuqing's playlist.

It had only been a short time since the start of my first year of high school, and I couldn't remember how many times I'd had a cold war with Xin Xiaomei. The weather forecast predicted heavy rain and disasters, and she deliberately didn't bring an umbrella to school.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, a torrential downpour began, and it quickly became dark. The Education Bureau announced that all primary and secondary schools in the city would dismiss students early. The school buildings were empty; everyone had left. She leaned against the window and watched the rain for a while. The security guard came up with his keys and asked her why she hadn't left yet. She glanced one last time at her silent phone, packed her schoolbag expressionlessly, said goodbye to the guard, and walked into the rain to the convenience store near the school gate.

The shop assistant opened the door and asked her if she wanted to come in to take shelter from the rain. She shook her head, seemingly defiant, and stood unmoved under the eaves waiting for the rain to stop.

The whole world was drenched in water, and fireworks exploded on the roads.

Shen Xuqing appeared around that time.

He walked out of the school with an umbrella, and as he passed the convenience store, his gaze slowly settled on her. A girl, soaking wet, with red eyes—even a fool could see something was off, but he deliberately asked her nothing.

After getting on the bus, a gentle female voice came from the back seat: "Hurry up and dry yourself off, be careful not to catch a cold."

She subconsciously looked up and saw that the car was lit with warm yellow light. The woman and Shen Xuqing looked about 80% alike, so they were obviously mother and son.

Shen Xuqing closed his umbrella, fastened his seatbelt, and said to the driver, "Dad, take my classmate first."

"Okay. What do you want to eat tonight?"

"Braised pork ribs, garlic kale, Mapo tofu."

"Why don't you just order a Manchu Han Imperial Feast?"

Shen Xuqing's face was reflected in the windshield. After pairing his phone with Bluetooth, Shen Xuqing turned back and smiled gently at her: "Do you know that in some places, rain is called 'dripping stars'?"

That was the most romantic description of "rain" that Lin Shih-jen had ever heard, and soon a beautiful melody came from the car stereo...

The iron gates of the street were pulled up.

Only the neon lights at the corner are still flashing.

The city's alleyways

It rained all night.①

The song that played in the car that day, after repeated replays, is still crystal clear to her, and remains her go-to song on rainy days.

At first, I was just curious about his name, but later I learned more and more about him.

Both are celebrities from Huaicheng No. 1 High School, both have outstanding looks and grades, their favorite basketball star is Kobe, they prefer iced Americano coffee, and they always carry cat treats in their backpacks. Compared to Zhou Lin's aloofness, he is more popular with the public.

Lin Shiren has been following his Weibo for two years, but she has never dared to leave a comment. It's not that she's completely afraid; she has tried to browse his Weibo using her main account and leave comments using her alternate account, and she deliberately doesn't delete visitors, but she hasn't received any replies or follow-up visits.

She seemed to see Wu Gang chopping down the cassia tree in the moon palace, but all her efforts were in vain.

The sudden depression left even Lin Shih-ren confused, so he attributed all his emotions to the pressure of changing classes. A new environment, new relationships, and the college entrance exam a year from now—the uncertainty of the future was just too much…

The air was stuffy and irritating, so she put her phone on airplane mode, curled up on her small bed, and forced herself to fall asleep.

A note from the author:

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① "It Rains All Night" by Jay Chou

100 red envelopes