"Rainy Day Skin Hypersensitivity"

Gu Yansheng didn't know when he fell asleep, but the alarm clock reminded him what time he woke up. The buzzing alarm on his mobile phone disturbed his sweet dream. Gu Yansheng rubbed the soft pillow and sat up reluctantly.

"So early on a Saturday?"

The person next to him turned over in dissatisfaction and fell asleep with his back to him. Gu Yansheng rubbed his eyes and woke up. He remembered how he fell ill yesterday. Looking at his clothes, the redness that started from his ears spread to his neck.

"You...don't help me change clothes next time."

He got up from the bed in a panic, turned his back to the person and chuckled.

"I don't have a good figure, are you afraid that I will take advantage of you, gay?" The voice of the man who just woke up was very magnetic. The other person sat up with his upper body naked, and his extraordinary good figure made Gu Yansheng's shame overwhelmed by jealousy.

"Jiang Lin, get away from me. What's wrong with being gay? You've been attacking my sexual orientation since yesterday!!!"

Mr. Haohao's angry voice became a little louder. Jiang Lin was always very happy at this time. He got up and went into the bathroom and squeezed in with him on the sink to brush his teeth. While brushing his teeth, he winked at the other person and tried to tease Xiaofei, who was angry.

"I apologize..."

"No."

Gu Yansheng took out the clean clothes he had left in the closet and pushed Jiang Lin out of the bathroom, closed the door and went to wash up. Jiang Lin scratched his head and clicked his tongue. This mouth of his could never say anything nice. He walked out of the master bedroom. Xiaofei had already stood up and was lying on the curtains on the balcony, trying to go out.

"Fat dog, do you want to go for a walk?"

Jiang Lin drew aside the curtains and opened the glass door. The rain had stopped, and the air was filled with the scent of moisture and grass. Yesterday's attack had been the worst in months. Why? Shouldn't it be getting better? Was he under too much pressure lately?

I couldn't think of the reason, the only person I could think of was the man named Fan Zhong. He stretched, put a leash on the Corgi, and went downstairs to walk the dog.

When Gu Yansheng came out of the shower, there was no one in the living room. He stood on the balcony for a while. A rainbow appeared in the sky. He took out his mobile phone to take a picture of it. At this time, Jiang Lin sent him a photo via WeChat.

Jiang Lin: [Picture]

There is also a rainbow in the picture, and there is a dog on the ground.

His friends also posted rainbows on their circle of friends, and his college senior Wu Mingyi also sent him a separate photo, which was a wedding invitation.

Wu Mingyi: [Yansheng, my wedding is next weekend, come.]

Wu Mingyi: [Take Jiang Lin with you and disgust him. Hahahaha.]

The other bride's name is not the one I dated in college...

Gu Yansheng: [I will go, but Jiang Lin may not be free. I will ask him when the time comes.]

Wu Mingyi: [He's a cold and heartless guy. You should take him out to socialize more often. Even though he's rich now, his status won't rise much without connections.]

Wu Mingyi: [Hurry up and bring him here. I want you all to attend my wedding!]

Gu Yansheng frowned slightly, the rejection seemed to have been deleted from his brain program...

Gu Yansheng: [I can only promise that I will go. Jiang Lin... I will notify him. If he doesn't go, there's nothing I can do.]

Wu Mingyi: [OKOK! ! ! 】

Wu Mingyi's wedding seemed to bring him a glimmer of hope for his future. A same-sex wedding... would there ever be such a day? Gu Yansheng touched the rash on his arm that had disappeared.

Saturday's overtime work was actually very leisurely. Sister Xiaomei drew blood from the volunteers and distributed medicine, while Gu Yansheng was responsible for recording. When the safe time passed and the volunteers left, their work was over.

"Xiao Gu, you're just too nice. You're always helping others. If you don't have a sharp edge, you'll always be bullied."

Sister Xiaomei is considered an old employee here. She watched Gu Yansheng get into the research institute right after graduation and has been working there ever since. He always silently helps his team members and works overtime selflessly. He is always good-tempered. As an old employee, she is well aware of the rules of the workplace, but this good man is so kind that she couldn't help but remind him.

"It's okay, I have plenty of time now."

"Ah, fool."

Looking at the person smiling so brightly, Sister Xiaomei couldn't help but laugh along.

Outside the car window, the city's neon lights cast hazy shadows on the wet ground after the rain. Gu Yansheng slid into the back seat of his Didi car, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the smooth skin on the inside of his arm. He suddenly remembered that rainy season most—the cold and damp rainy season that changed his life, and the heartbreaking pain he felt that first time.

It was a weekend, the sky gloomy as ink, brewing a torrential downpour. Gu Yansheng, despite his family's dissuasion, insisted the driver take him to find Jiang Lin. The car had no choice but to park at the alley entrance. He held up his small umbrella, trudging along the muddy path until he reached Jiang Lin's doorstep.

Jiang Lin was sitting on the threshold, staring blankly at the darkening sky, his face still indifferent, a look that didn't match his age. Seeing Gu Yansheng's half-wet trouser legs and his shiny little leather shoes wading in the mud, he frowned as usual and said in a cold tone, "What are you doing here on a rainy day? It's annoying."

"I just want to play with you!" Gu Yansheng didn't care about his cold face at all. He smiled and tried to hold the umbrella closer to him to block the rain. "Let me show you my new toy car!"

"No need. Go back." Jiang Lin stood up and tried to close the door. Just then, the long-brewing downpour finally came pouring down. The large raindrops pounded against the tattered iron sheets of the roof, creating a deafening roar, as dense as war drums. A cold wind, carrying the smell of moisture and earth, blew violently into the narrow porch.

Almost at the moment when the wind and rain hit, the smile on Gu Yansheng's face froze.

An indescribable, unprecedented pain and itch, like thousands of red-hot steel needles, suddenly and viciously pierced his skin! Not just one part, but his entire body! From his exposed face, neck, and arms to his chest, back, and legs covered by clothes... everywhere!

"Ah!" The toy car in his hand fell "plop" into the mud. His little body suddenly arched up, and his hands scratched his neck and arms frantically and uncontrollably.

In just a few seconds, his exposed skin broke out in large, dense, raised patches of bright red wheals at a speed visible to the naked eye, forming a terrifying red. The surface of his skin swelled up rapidly, as if it had been splashed with scalding water, or bitten by countless poisonous insects at the same time!

"It's... so itchy... so painful... I can't... I can't breathe..." Gu Yansheng's voice suddenly became hoarse and sharp, filled with extreme pain and fear of dying.

His eyes were wide open, their eyeballs slightly bulging from the feeling of suffocation, bloodshot. He opened his mouth in vain, trying to inhale air, but a terrible "ho... ho..." sound came from deep in his throat, like a worn-out bellows struggling to pull - his airway was swelling and blocking at an alarming rate!

He couldn't stand steadily, and curled up in pain and fell on the cold and slippery mud ground in front of Jiang Lin's house. His body twitched and rolled violently due to the intense itching and suffocation.

The glaring red rash all over his body looked extremely hideous and terrifying against the gray rain. His small fingers scratched his neck frantically, leaving bloody marks, but it did nothing to relieve the intense itching and fatal suffocation that penetrated deep into his bones.

Jiang Lin, who was standing at the threshold, was completely frozen. The indifference on his face was like ice shattered by a sledgehammer, instantly shattering and disintegrating, leaving only a large blank area of ​​horror and unbelievable fear.

Those always empty, indifferent black eyes were now wide open, their pupils shrinking sharply at the sight before them. He seemed to be nailed to the spot by invisible nails, unable to move.

He had seen poverty, filth, fighting, injuries, and even struggles on the brink of death—for example, he himself had once considered jumping into the river. But he had never seen such a strange, such a swift, such a terrifying sight!

A young master who was just full of life and smiling brightly, turned into a monster with a red and swollen body, a distorted face, on the verge of suffocation, and rolling in pain in an instant because of the rain!

The "ho ho" sound of the dying gasp, like a cold poisonous snake, drilled into Jiang Lin's ears and grabbed his young heart.

"Gu...Gu Yansheng?" For the first time, he called out Gu Yansheng's name in full and with a clear tremor, his voice as dry as sandpaper.

Gu Yansheng on the ground could no longer respond. His consciousness quickly blurred in the severe pain and suffocation. His scratching movements became weak and chaotic, and the amplitude of his rolling also decreased. The light of life was rapidly fading from his wide-open, pain-filled eyes.

This dying scene finally woke up the frightened Jiang Lin like a red-hot iron!

"Ah!" He let out a short scream, which he was not even aware of, and his body moved faster than his mind.

He practically lunged forward, using all his strength to drag the throbbing Gu Yansheng from the cold muddy water at the doorway back into the house. The tiny body felt incredibly heavy. Jiang Lin gritted his teeth, his frail arms unleashing unprecedented strength, the veins on his forehead bulging.

"Don't die! Don't die!" He growled incoherently, his voice trembling with panic and command that he himself wasn't aware of. He dragged Gu Yansheng into a relatively dry but still cold corner of the house, away from the rain drifting in from the door.

Seeing the horrific rash covering Gu Yansheng's face and body, and hearing the increasingly faint "ho ho" sound, Jiang Lin panicked. He wandered around the small, cluttered room like a headless fly, rummaging through drawers and clinking bottles and jars. He remembered a small white pill his mother had taken when she had a stomachache. It seemed to be called... something called Min?

"Medicine! Where's the medicine!" he screamed, tears already covering his face, a mixture of rain and sweat, making him look miserable. Fear washed over him like an icy tide.

He couldn't find it! He couldn't find anything that could save this man! He could only watch as Gu Yansheng's breath grew weaker and weaker, his swollen eyelids almost closing.

"Wake up! Gu Yansheng! Look at me!" Jiang Lin rushed to Gu Yansheng and held his hot and swollen cheeks with trembling hands. The touch made him tremble with fear.

Jiang Lin clumsily patted Gu Yansheng's cheek, trying to keep him awake. His voice was filled with tears, and the previous indifference was gone. Only the most primitive helplessness and despair in the face of the threat of death remained. "Don't sleep! Do you hear me! Don't fall asleep!"

He vainly used his soaked, equally cold sleeve to wipe the mud and sweat from Gu Yansheng's neck, trying to cool him down, but it was of no avail. Gu Yansheng's lips had begun to turn blue, and every labored breath was accompanied by a violent heaving of his chest and a terrible wheezing sound in his throat.

At that moment, eight-year-old Jiang Lin, a boy accustomed to coldness and loneliness, was struck for the first time by a huge fear called "possible loss".

He looked at this "troublemaker" who was the only one who would persistently come to him, smile at him, and bring him things. For the first time, he realized clearly that this person might disappear before his eyes. And he, who didn't even want to live, was desperately trying to pull him back from the brink of death.

He clutched Gu Yansheng's burning wrist tightly, as if it were the only rope connecting life and death. His small body trembled violently with fear and exertion, and tears and snot mixed together, dripping onto Gu Yansheng's swollen and red face, which was also blurred by tears. The look of fear, the look of panic left in his heart, was deeply imprinted in Gu Yansheng's gradually fading consciousness.

…

The phone in the car suddenly vibrated, pulling Gu Yansheng back from his wandering thoughts. He took a sharp breath, as if he could still feel the pain of suffocation in the rainstorm of his childhood, and the touch of Jiang Lin's cold, trembling hand on his wrist.

The fresh air after the rain outside the window rushed into his lungs, and his arms were still smooth, but the first attack that almost took his life, and Jiang Lin's face that was completely frightened, tearful, and full of panic, were the indelible marks of life between him and Jiang Lin.

Later, he also learned that he had a mental illness called "rainy skin hypersensitivity," an extremely rare childhood traumatic emergency syndrome...