Chapter 81: Under the Heavy Rain

Chapter 81: Under the Heavy Rain

After returning to her dormitory from her walk, Fang Yuenian hummed a little tune as she pushed open the door and went inside.

Quietly, the two last-minute cramming men hadn't returned yet, and Meng Xiaoyang was huddled alone in the corner of the bed.

"Aren't you supposed to go to bed early?" Fang Yuenian said, tossing her phone onto the bed and heading to the sink on the balcony to wash her hands.

Meng Xiaoyang: "Go to sleep soon."

He seemed to quickly rub his face a few times with the back of his hand, then got down and put on his shoes.

Fang Yuenian was about to say something more when she inadvertently glanced at his expression and sensed something was wrong, so she walked closer and asked, "Why are you..."

He paused in his speech.

Meng Xiaoyang had no tears on her face, but her entire eye sockets, cheeks, and nose were red, revealing her haggard sadness.

Fang Yuenian was immediately shocked, "Oh my god, you, you're crying?"

"Hmm." Meng Xiaoyang walked listlessly towards the balcony.

Yue Nian anxiously followed behind: "What happened? Does your hand hurt? Or what's wrong?"

Meng Xiaoyang lowered his head and struggled to squeeze toothpaste with his injured hand. Fang Yuenian took the toothpaste from him when he had squeezed half of it, saying, "Let me do it."

After a long pause, Meng Xiaoyang sniffed and slowly uttered a startling statement: "He Linjie just confessed his feelings to me."

"!!" Fang Yue Nian was stunned by those words, and the toothpaste in her hand fell to the ground. "Holy crap?!"

Meng Xiaoyang bent down to pick it up, and said very calmly, "If Cheng Bing hears this, you'll see if he doesn't teach you a lesson."

Fang Yuenian: "...Uh, didn't I hear that? No, isn't this the important thing? He Linjie, is...is this guy not smart enough?"

"There's some truth to it."

"So what did you say?"

"I haven't said yet."

Fang Yuenian shouted again, "What?!"

Startled by his shout, Meng Xiaoyang wearily turned on the tap, splashed water on her face, and said, "I haven't replied yet. He sent me a text message."

Fang Yuenian asked with a hint of doubt, "Then why are you crying?"

Meng Xiaoyang said, "Aunt Fen called me and said she would accompany me to the hospital tomorrow. It just so happens that He Linjie is also going."

"so what?"

"No, that's all. Aunt Fen told me a lot about her childhood, and towards the end she got sad, so I..."

When this "Aunt Fen" was mentioned again, Fang Yuenian was indeed a little conflicted.

After Meng Xiaoyang finished brushing his teeth and returned, Fang Yuenian saw that the time was right and pulled him to sit down. She asked very seriously, "I know that He Linjie's mother took care of you when you were very young. How young exactly? You are not related by blood, so why was she so good to you?"

Meng Xiaoyang has been drinking milk every night for the past few days, and he also urged Fang Yuenian to drink some. The two of them held a carton of milk each and stared blankly for a moment before Meng Xiaoyang slowly said, "I went to my uncle's house when I was six years old. I was just starting first grade. My uncle and aunt are very busy with work. After school, I would go home and sit at the door waiting for them to get off work."

It sounds simple, but the neighborhood he lived in at the time hadn't been renovated yet. The building was an old, low-rise, narrow structure with dust everywhere, and mosquitoes constantly infested the windows. Meng Xiaoyang was a very well-behaved child. He would sit quietly on the steps by the door with his schoolbag on his back, sometimes reciting a text or two, but most of the time he would just daydream. Occasionally, passing neighbors would give him strange or pitying looks.

“He Linjie’s family initially lived upstairs from my uncle’s house. Aunt Fen often saw me in the hallway. Later, she found out that I was classmates with her son, so she started asking me to come to her house every few days to wait for the adults. After a while, I always ate dinner and did my homework at her house.”

Meng Xiaoyang was lost in memories, and a hint of sadness began to appear in his eyes again.

For him, who was only six or seven years old at the time, Shufen was gentle, patient, and generous with all kinds of food and toys, which was much better than most people.

Fang Yuenian bit her straw, feeling that the description was strangely familiar.

"Later they moved, but they were still in the same neighborhood. I was still at her house all the time. My aunt had a younger cousin at that time and was too busy to take care of many things. My report cards were signed by Aunt Fen, and Aunt Fen also went to the parent-teacher conferences. She always said that she was the parent of both of us."

Fang Yuenian whispered, "In fact, it's pretty much the same."

Meng Xiaoyang nodded and smiled, "You can't imagine, Aunt Fen is really, really good."

Fang Yuenian smiled in agreement.

A six-year-old boy, orphaned, was taken to the home of a strange and busy relative. He dared not speak, much less ask for anything, and day after day could only wait cautiously and alone at the door. Such a feeling, such a childhood, cannot be described simply as unbearable. Considering this, his attachment to Aunt Fen, and even his feelings of guilt, are entirely understandable.

"What about He Linjie?" Fang Yuenian asked. "He must have been very good to you when you were little. How good was he?"

"It's like how good Cheng Bing is to you. I'm using this analogy to help you understand, not to compare your Brother Cheng to others," Meng Xiaoyang explained.

Fang Yuenian: "...Uh, oh."

Meng Xiaoyang's smile turned bitter. "However, to be honest, I've recently started to feel that I might have really made a mistake back then. If I hadn't... things would be very different now."

Fang Yuenian hurriedly said, "What nonsense are you talking about? Don't get hung up on this. I'm asking you, what's going on with He Linjie? Two years have passed, and he went from hating his classmate to this."

Meng Xiaoyang sighed: "I don't know."

Seeing him like this, Fang Yuenian became a little uneasy: "You're not going to... go back to him...?"

Meng Xiaoyang smiled, "What are you thinking?" Then he stopped smiling, "He may not have really changed his sexual orientation."

“That’s hard to say,” Fang Yuenian frowned. “He was so brave when he saved you that day, he seemed so amazing. Maybe it was because of this experience that he finally understood.”

Meng Xiaoyang shook his head. "Maybe it's because of what happened, and Aunt Fen keeps talking about me in his ear, that he wants to be friends with me again."

Fang Yuenian laughed angrily, "Do you need to confess to be friends? Did you swear that you'd either be a couple with him or enemies?"

"No, I just know him too well. He's always like this. When he gets emotional, he can be very impulsive. He probably hasn't thought things through at all. But you can't blame him. Most people, no matter what age, don't really understand what they want."

His sudden utterance of such philosophical words made Fang Yuenian even more uneasy.

But he is not Meng Xiaoyang, he doesn't have his life experience. Even if he understands him well, he can't truly empathize with him. There is no true empathy in this world, even if you have experienced it yourself.

Fang Yuenian thought for a moment and said, "I think you two should have a good talk—but you have to finish the exams first—just don't worry about anything else, like things from your childhood, your parents, or his silly behavior before. Just clarify things now. This confession is really inexplicable. We're going to be seniors in high school soon. If you keep going back and forth like this, you two will definitely be affected. Your Aunt Fen would never want to see this result."

Meng Xiaoyang finished his milk and stared blankly at the empty carton.

Fang Yuenian then asked, "Let me ask you, are you planning to tell Li Peixiang about this?"

Meng Xiaoyang turned his head, puzzled, and said, "Why tell him?"

Fang Yuenian: "You're not planning to tell him?"

"Let's talk about it during the holidays. I don't know what's wrong with him lately. I guess he's having pre-exam anxiety."

Fang Yue Nian remained silent for a long time.

What's going on? Could it really be that I'm the only one—no, the only one—who has seen through everything?

Or am I overthinking it?

However, he did not have the time or opportunity to confirm it.

Meng Xiaoyang eventually went to the hospital with He Linjie and Aunt Fen. Li Peixiang heard about this later but did not express his opinion. He simply let himself be consumed by pre-exam anxiety and did not say a word during meals.

The city-wide unified exam is just around the corner, putting everyone under immense pressure. The atmosphere in the class during the last week was as gloomy as an impending July rainstorm. Thinking back to when they sent off the senior students to take the exam, they formed a long procession on the main road of the school, passionately shouting slogans such as telling the seniors to relax, take the exam with ease, and that ten years of hard work will surely pay off in one day. Now that it's happening to us, we realize that talking about others is just empty talk.

The night before the exam, two girls were crying quietly at the end of the corridor during a break from evening self-study because they were feeling too stressed.

Now that the senior students have finished their studies and left school, even though the next school year hasn't started yet, teachers and parents are already treating them as senior students. "It's up to you now," "Work hard for another year"—these casual words have become invisible pressure. They are in a province with a highly competitive college entrance examination system, and even if they try their best, it's still like thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge.

Everyone has their own way of coping, and Fang Yuenian got through these moments by envisioning the future.

The future can be colorful, and there will be a fresh and free world.

During the two days of the exam, Cheng Bing was almost inseparable from Fang Yuenian, except when they were in the exam room. Since the seating arrangement was based on surnames and their exam rooms were on the same floor, they would take the exam one at a time. Under Cheng Bing's intimidation, Fang Yuenian refused to compare answers with anyone else.

Meng Xiaoyang and I only met during mealtimes. He was in good condition. Since his hand was still in a sling, the proctors took good care of him and he didn't encounter any inconveniences.

Li Peixiang finally regained some energy, remaining silent about the exam content and instead sharing some anecdotes and gossip from the exam to amuse everyone.

Fang Yuenian was increasingly confused about the two of them and increasingly felt that he had indeed been overthinking things.

It rained heavily that afternoon, with thunder and lightning, reminding me of when they took their middle school entrance exams.

The rain came down hard, leaving many students stranded in the exam hall. But no one knows who started it, and one by one, people rushed into the torrential rain.

Throughout her two years of high school, if you were to ask Fang Yuenian what impressed her most, this rain would definitely be in the top three.

After the senior students were sent off, the school's main gate was closed again. The gray and white ancient building stood in the middle of the bustling street, attracting the attention of passersby. It is a symbol of a century of wind and rain, and at this moment, it stands tall in the wind and rain.

Under the heavy rain, the school revealed its profound and ancient majesty. The trees were lush and green after being washed by the rain, and the bricks and stones of Momei Square showed their original bluish-gray color. Countless young men and women ran freely in the square, their young and youthful bodies unafraid of the wind and rain, and the pressure of the past few days was completely released in the rain.

This rain is an indelible part of her memory; Fang Yuenian has etched it, along with many other things, into her heart.

Senior year of high school has finally arrived.