Typhoon Day

When Bai Luo was dragged into his seat by Aisha, he was in a daze, his nerves were numb, his pupils were blurry, and his thoughts were unable to sink or become scattered.

He responded to Aisha's questioning dully and mechanically picked up the vegetables from the porcelain plate.

There was only one person in the same room with her.

——Thin 阽 (yán).

She had mispronounced the syllables and mistakenly thought he had a brother.

She wrote and directed all the absurd one-man shows herself.

And he, watching the fire from the other side, played with her like a cat.

She is a plaything in the palm of his hand.

No wonder he was born with a cold-hearted appearance, and no wonder his name was "Bo-阽".

Cold and dangerous, without heart.

At this moment, the wine glass in his hand reflected the light, and the wall of the glass refracted the light, but it could not fill even a little bit of his sincerity.

I'm afraid that my sincerity is too hot and will burn his disguise.

To him, sincerity is a luxury, a fragile thing, and a hot potato.

A person leaning against a foggy window, with a pair of cold and wet eyes in the winter night, would occasionally look towards Bai Luo.

What a coincidence.

She is a friend of a friend.

The man drinking the soup was distracted, yet seemed to notice something. He suddenly raised his eyes, his pupils piercing through the dim lights and darting towards the alleyway outside the window, drenched in darkness.

My eyes just happened to meet those of a young man in the night.

The neon lights behind him were emitting a bloody afterglow behind the clouds, which blended perfectly with the indifference in his eyes.

It was withdrawn in an instant without any pause.

Immediately afterwards, Bai Luo's phone, which was placed on the table, vibrated without warning.

My eyelids twitched several times.

Unlock your phone. The message appears.

[Would you like to go to KTV with them later?]

Before coming, she had promised Aisha to go to KTV. After all, she was going back the next day and wanted to spend more time with her.

But not the one teasing her.

[No.]

As expected, Fang added another barbed fish hook.

[Unhappy?]

“…”

Another line of words caught my eye.

[I caused it.]

declarative sentence.

“…”

Bai Luo felt that as long as he raised his eyes, he would meet his glaring and evil eyes.

The floor-to-ceiling windows are mirror-like and transparent, and the cold blue light outside the window pours into the room like the sea.

Bai Luo turned off the screen, and his beautiful facial features visibly cooled down a few degrees.

Want to move out?

The thought flashed through my mind.

*

The KTV is on the second floor. As people climb up the stairs, the wooden stairs make a creaking sound as their heels tap on them.

It is a spacious private room, surrounded by two sets of circular sofas and a giant LCD screen embedded on the wall.

Bai Luo walked slowly with Aisha holding his arm, and the other party's thoughts weighed heavily on her arm.

"What's wrong?"

Bai Luo raised his hand to tidy up the loose hair by her ear, revealing the small mole behind her ear.

"I feel like he's changed. He's no longer the undefeated boy I knew."

Aisha sighed.

The moment she saw Bo Xi in the box, she was in a trance for a moment.

He still had that uninhibited and unrestrained demeanor, and the same aura of keeping strangers away, but there was a strange decadence between his eyebrows.

The once blazing youthful spirit faded away, leaving behind only a gorgeous body full of pretense.

“People change.”

Sincerity can change in an instant, let alone the person who controls it.

No one can be young forever, and no one can be youthful and energetic forever.

Reality is reality. It is a dream that is destined to wake up.

I used to think the world was either black or white, but now I know that the endless dark gray is the underlying color of life.

There seemed to be a strong wind outside the window. A chaotic storm was brewing in Bai Luo's heart.

Did that pinky ring really suck away his luck?

But the original owner of the ring may not be that lucky.

When I walked into the box, someone was holding a microphone and humming a sad song.

“People in the city”

"Are you happy or sad?"

A person's moment is frozen in time, like the sequence frame of a movie, and memories play back scene by scene.

Happy, joyful, sad, and tragic.

Every time I smile, the outline of my youth fades a little.

With every teardrop that falls, the figure of an adult becomes a little sharper.

It turns out that growth is just a matter of a moment.

It turns out that youth is just a brief moment.

Inside the box, everyone was having fun and immersed in the game, and a glass of specially made cocktail fell into Bai Luo's hands at some point.

Typhoon Day

Regarding the memory of the typhoon day, Bai Luo vaguely remembered the scene of the closing ceremony of the military training in his first year of high school.

＿＿

In 2012, Typhoon Haikui, numbered 11, made landfall on the coast and raged southward, heading straight for the Nanhuai River and lingering within the country.

A gloomy gray haze shrouded the sky above the campus. Strong winds whistled past with dead branches and leaves, and the ginkgo trees slanted like waves in the wind.

Bai Luo and his classmates lined up in an orderly queue, preparing to leave the playground.

Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew and her military training cap flew off her head.

The brim of the hat drew an arc in the air, and she hurried to catch up, but the hat stumbled all the way until it rolled to the edge of the playground.

The edge of the playground is a concrete ground, with a row of old bungalows on the side.

When she caught up with the roof and hid her hat in her arms, gasping for breath, a few tiles were blown down by the wind. As they were about to fall, a large ginkgo leaf that had been blown from somewhere happened to land on her eyelids that were stung by the wind and sand.

The next second, brick-red tiles fell to the gray ground.

At the critical moment, a slender hand broke through the air, and the hand with distinct knuckles suddenly grabbed her wrist bone and dragged her into a reverse hurricane.

The rain came in torrents.

The whole person fell uncontrollably into a warm chest, with the boy's rapid breathing and the sound of heavy rain in his ears.

Tiles fell "crackling" where she was standing, and the fragments splashed dust, but she was safe and sound.

When she realized the danger belatedly, a camouflage uniform soaked in body temperature had already fallen from the sky, covering her shoulder-length hair that was soaked with rain.

Like being covered with a misty fog.

The clothes blocked the surging rain, and the only sound was the heavy rain hitting the clothes.

Like the dull heartbeat of falling autumn leaves.

She huddled in a camouflage uniform that was obviously much larger than she was wearing. She raised her eyes from her hair in a daze, only to catch a glimpse of a vague outline in the sea of ​​people, appearing close yet distant in the evening rain.

The stems and leaves of the nameless flowers at the corner of the bungalow grow towards the sky, leaving behind damp and gloomy rain marks.

She couldn't make out the outline of the passerby, just as she couldn't make out her own disheveled appearance.

The loose clothes hung at my wrist, and through the rain-soaked fabric, I vaguely touched something rough.

He concentrated his attention and let curiosity draw his fingers into his pockets.

When the palm of the hand is opened, a plastic badge lies quietly.

Nanhuai No. 1 Middle School.

20120801.

dad.

Whether it was intentional or a prank between friends, the photo and name on the thin blue paper inside the plastic case were now covered with childish graffiti.

On the cartoon sticker, it was jokingly written "Dad has ascended the throne", and the name was roughly replaced by "Dad".

Although Bai Luo didn't see the boy's face clearly, he could guess from the funny badge on his chest that the boy must be a funny person.

Later, she treasured this camouflage uniform for many years, and even when she came to Hangzhou to attend university, she specially put it in her suitcase.

＿＿

Memories are like being slightly drunk, hazy like looking at the flickering shadows in the old alley through the swaying lights on a winter night.

Bai Luo closed his eyes, letting the alcohol dull his nerves.

In a trance, the drunken murmur of a good friend floated into my ears.

"Yun, are you still the boy from Class 8 of Grade 3 that I know?"

"Shouldn't your future be bright?"

Shouldn’t the future be like a towering tree, shading the entire world?

Everyone firmly believed that his life should be open and bright. Bai Luo was like this, and Bo Qi also believed it without a doubt.

But in the face of his parents' deception, he lost all his courage and innocence.

After shedding the youthful and bright shell, there is an emptiness and helplessness inside.

The future is blank.

The light and shadows by the window were all blue and gray, like the swaying water. Bai Luo took a sip of his cocktail and tilted his head slightly.

I don't know when a person appeared in the corner of the sofa, huddled in the shadows like a boneless person, with his lower jaw hidden in the boundary between light and darkness.

Quite depressing.

The figure who was originally pretending to sleep with his eyes closed, raised the corners of his lips lazily with a mocking look when he heard the sound.

"Who are you?"

Aisha, who was originally in a drunken state, was instantly awakened by his words. She never imagined that he would remember her.

Back then, the face was soaked in youthfulness, passionate, fearless, proud to the point of being reckless.

All the edges and corners grow towards the sky, never stained by the gray shadow of compromise.

At this moment, good is turned into bad, and rise is twisted into fall.

Fate dragged him into the mud and gave him a rainy evening.

"Yun, your future isn't like this. Aren't you going to apply to a top international school? Aren't you going to be a diplomat?"

How did you choose drug prevention studies?

Are you determined to be an undercover police officer again?

The person sunk into the dark shadow of the sofa had a thin column of cigarette stuffed between his fingers without him noticing.

He lifted his eyelids coldly, and in the dark, his eyes were like a smoky gray mist.

The danger is dark and mysterious.

"None of your business."

I don’t know if it was because the box was too noisy or too stuffy, but I got up and left in annoyance.

Bai Luo glanced at Aisha, who had a gloomy expression, but she suddenly stood up and chased after him.

Seemingly unwilling.

She was afraid that something might happen to Aisha, and was about to get up and follow her when her left shoulder suddenly felt heavy.

A cool force held her down.

"I'll go. I just happen to need something from her."

The dim light in the box made Concubine Lu, with her delicate makeup, look charming and attractive, with her rosy lips slightly raised.

"You sit in my seat and play games with them."

The faces around him were all unfamiliar, and Bai Luo was not used to it.

But someone kept on encouraging her.

"Come on, it's so boring sitting alone."

"Yeah, it's not an excessive game."

"Don't be afraid, are you afraid of being asked about your secrets?"

The floor-to-ceiling windows on the left side of the box were bright, and the dim lights in the dilapidated alleys climbed up Bai Luo's cold features without hesitation.

She didn't want to cause trouble for no reason, so she suppressed her temper and endured it.

Silently moved to the position where Concubine Lu was facing away from the box door.

"Just pick one!"

The girl sitting next to her looked like she was watching the fun and moved the cards in the middle of the glass table towards her.

Bai Luo was completely unaware of the rules of the game and simply picked up a card from the deck as he was told.

The card is turned over, and it is the Ace of Hearts.

"Ash, what question corresponds to the Ace of Hearts?"

"When was the first time you gave a man a gift?"

A group of people stared at her.

Some people laughed openly.

"Tsk, that's boring."

"Who hasn't given a man a gift?"

The rustling sound of the wind outside the window almost drowned out Bai Luo's faint statement.

"A week before the college entrance exam, I gave a ring to someone I hated. My initials were engraved on the inner ring."

"Giving a ring to someone you hate?"

"It's quite strange."

There are two game tables in the middle of the box, and a table near the door where people are chattering.

So much so that he didn't even notice the sound of the door opening.

The man found a corner, collapsed, covered himself with his clothes and hat, and closed his cold eyes.

Rao was interested in hearing the origin of the pinky ring on his little finger.

"Then what?"

"Does he know it's you?"

"We don't know each other, it's just me who hates him."

To be precise, I envy him, envy him for growing up in love.

Later, envy turned into disgust.

When a person cannot touch his own shadow, he will hate the light that is too bright.

But his blooming made her desolate, and envy became a substitute for disgust.

"Did he take your ring?"

"I can't accept it. Who would accept a ring for no reason?"

"That's right, he would only accept it if he liked her."

"I'm not sure."

Bai Luo fluttered his eyelashes and stared at the blurry night scene outside the window.

Her memory went back to the night when Bo Yi took her in.

At that time, she clearly saw a pinky ring on his little finger, which was a mirror image of hers.

She knew that what she had chosen was just the most common style on the market. Since it caught her eye, it would naturally catch his eye.

So not sure.

And given his cold personality, the love letter probably wouldn't even get his first glance at before it turned into worthless waste paper in the trash can.

The ring fell off accidentally and was not given intentionally.

－－

On June 1, 2015, Children's Day coincided with heavy rain.

The entire Nanhuai was soaked thoroughly.

On the bumpy roads, golden ginkgo leaves dropped by rain were floating.

The humid rain vapor spread everywhere, one wave after another.

Nanhuai No. 1 Middle School was surrounded by various snack streets. Bai Luo had dinner at a nondescript wonton shop.

A frail figure walks alone in the rainy night. Walking alone has become the norm. When I skip classes, I feel more at ease in an internet cafe or sitting alone on a rooftop than in a classroom.

The whole city of Nanhuai is ablaze with light and shadow, with thousands of tall buildings ablaze with lights.

And she is a forgotten street lamp, on but not belonging to any circuit.

They are just countless "passersby", shadows that exist briefly when the light passes by.

The corners of her school uniform were lifted by the evening breeze, then fell heavily, wrapping around her thin shoulder blades.

She could not discern the outlines in the darkness, just as she could not discern the shape of the future.

Tonight, as if possessed by some mysterious force, she returned to school on time and safely.

At the corner of the alley, an old-fashioned street lamp flickered.

The mottled ivy on the blue brick wall was flashed by the car lights.

She heard a clear female voice coming from the end of the alley, the tone was arrogant and tough.

"Be sure to deliver this love letter to him tonight."