Chapter 154, Act One: Meeting in the Rain
"Why doesn't it rain?"
Huali, resting her chin on her hand, sighed as she looked at the peony buds bathed in sunlight in the corner of the wall with a bitter and resentful expression.
Listening to the rain from the side, she found it somewhat amusing. "It's been half a month already, why are you hoping for rain every day?"
Why else? Of course, it's to follow the storyline.
Huali turned her head and suggested, "Sister Tingyu, how about I accompany you for a walk?"
Tingyu sighed, "But we've already walked three laps today. If you really want to go, why don't you let Chenyu go with you?"
Hua Li shook her head listlessly. What use were she and Shen Yu? It wasn't them who needed to be in a relationship.
She sighed, her fingertips unconsciously digging into the peeling vermilion lacquer on the window frame, when Shen Yu, who was resting with his eyes closed under the shadow of a tree, suddenly opened them.
The boy's amber eyes looked past the rose and landed on the horizon. "It's raining."
Huali looked up, “…” She was almost blinded by the sunlight.
She turned away angrily, but before she could lash out, the branches and leaves of the cherry tree in the courtyard were suddenly blown up by the wind. As the petals collided, a damp, cool breeze rushed over.
Then, "plop," raindrops suddenly hit her face.
Ao Bai gasped, "Holy crap, the weather forecast is so accurate! Even I can't do it in this secret realm, yet it's so precise."
"It really is raining." Tingyu was about to reach out to catch it when Huali grabbed her wrist tightly. The girl's eyes were filled with undisguised excitement. "Sister Tingyu, let's go! I heard that the rain view at Tongxin Bridge is especially beautiful..." Perfect for doing tasks and earning points!
"Hey, Karin, slow down..."
*
The misty rain, as fine as woven silk, covered the Tongxin Bridge with layers of oil-paper umbrellas.
Huali and Tingyu walked one after the other under umbrellas to the bridge.
Seeing this scene, Tingyu was suddenly in a daze. She involuntarily looked up.
The scenes in the Floating Realm are all based on real events that happened a thousand years ago. As one of them, Tingyu is like a pre-designed NPC. As long as you take her to a specific location, the plot will be automatically triggered.
What Huali needs to do is ensure that no unexpected events occur before this part of the story is completed, and to successfully reach the fourth act.
As Tingyu crossed the bridge with an umbrella, Huali quickly slipped into a pavilion to take shelter from the rain. Just as she bent down to brush the raindrops off her skirt, Chenyu appeared like a ghost, saying, "Rongxing and Fengyi are on their way."
"Well done!" Huali raised her hand naturally.
"Smack."
Their hands touched lightly, conveying an unspoken understanding.
Hua Li's almond-shaped eyes welled up with excitement, as if she were watching a large-scale historical drama.
She sat on the stone bench, took out a handful of melon seeds, shared half with Shen Yu, and then began to leisurely listen to the rain and watch the play.
However, the only drawback is that you can only see the figures, but you can't hear any sounds.
This feels like silently using your phone during class – it's a bit dry and uninspiring.
Hua Li, who would never compromise herself, rolled her eyes and patted Qing Linzhui, "Ao Bai, the organization has assigned you a task."
From the moment he started working with Shen Yu, Ao Bai could only peek out from the two places where Qing Lin had put his Qiankun Bag, asking, "What?"
"I'll become a frontline reporter and live-stream the gossip."
Gossip is an instinct for all species, and even the system cat can't resist it. Ao Bai immediately became very interested.
Ta-da! Heading straight to the first gossip-loving scene.
*
The fine rain was like a hazy veil, and pedestrians thronged the Tongxin Bridge. The colorful oil-paper umbrellas were like lotus leaves floating on the water, moving slowly with the sound of the raindrops.
As Tingyu stepped onto the highest point of the arched bridge, the path ahead was suddenly blocked by several intersecting umbrellas.
She paused slightly, and subconsciously lifted the umbrella handle upwards.
As the damp, cool air, carrying raindrops, brushed against her face, her gaze was drawn as if by invisible threads, unexpectedly meeting another pair of deep eyes a few steps away.
Under the simple green bamboo umbrella, Feng Yi's tall and slender figure looked particularly elegant in the light rain.
Three breaths later...
A sudden surge of surprise lit up Tingyu's eyes, and she instinctively walked quickly towards the other woman, only to hesitate and stop shortly after. Just as she was about to speak, Feng Yi seemed to suddenly snap out of her daze and said hesitantly, "Miss..."
Tingyu looked up in a daze, "You still remember me?"
Feng Yi asked in confusion, "Have we met before?"
Tingyu nodded, "Ten years ago, Wang Caishan."
"Wangcai Mountain to exorcise demons? You were one of the villagers who were saved back then?" A knowing look flashed in Feng Yi's eyes. "What a coincidence."
"What a coincidence, what a coincidence, it's just right." Hua Li listened to the frontline report from the little reporter Ao Bai on the bridge, a doting smile on her face. "What a perfect match, such a handsome man and a beautiful woman." She closed her eyes and started to fawn over him!
"You don't even use your umbrella properly, who's going to take responsibility if you get catching a cold?" Shen Yu lifted his eyelids upon hearing this. "It's only because cultivators are physically strong that you can't... Hey, why are you glaring at me?"
"Are you allergic to romance?" Huali glared. "Isn't it wrong for someone to fall in love at first sight and be completely captivated?"
Shen Yu rested her arms behind her head, her clear voice tinged with sneer, "You've been reading too many storybooks. You probably fell in love with one after just one glance, without even being able to tell whether something was round or flat, human or ghost?"
Huali paused in her chewing motion, "...Even eating sunflower seeds can't shut you up, huh?"
Just as Shen Yu was about to retort, she inexplicably felt a surge of spiritual energy.
The rain poured down, forming a dense curtain of water that hung from the eaves.
As Feng Yi and Ting Yu walked towards the teahouse with umbrellas, Hua Li was about to follow when ripples suddenly appeared in the air about three feet above the pavilion.
A palm-sized fragment slowly appeared.
Fragments of a Secret Realm!
Realizing what it was, their eyes lit up and they reached out to grab it at the same time!
However, the spiritual energy of the fragments, which were not yet fully formed, was unstable. Just as the two were about to touch, the fragments unexpectedly veered outward by half an inch.
As Huali tried to adjust herself, her feet slipped slightly due to the rainwater that had drifted in from inside the pavilion. She lost her balance and fell backward.
Shen Yu paused in his grasping motion of the shards, his arm instinctively reaching forward.
Before he could even grab the girl's arm, the green vines had already wrapped around the pavilion pillars.
Using the vines, the girl in front of me spun in mid-air and landed gracefully like a butterfly spreading its wings.
As she spun around, the red feathers by her ear flicked out tiny water droplets, which landed squarely on the back of Shen Yu's hand, which he hadn't yet retracted, to his slightly surprised gaze.
"despair."
The faintest sound exploded like thunder in the boy's perception.
The water droplets were icy cold, carrying the chill of a rainy day, yet they also possessed the vibrant life force that emerged from the girl's self-rescue.
Shen Yu's fingertips suddenly curled up, and a strange tingling sensation ran up his arm along with a slight coolness, making him stop breathing for a moment.
"Got it!"
Unaware of what was happening, Huali used her vines to tear off the fragments.
Just as he was about to turn around and call Shen Yu to look together, everything in front of him suddenly blurred and faded.
The pouring rain made the Tongxin Bridge in the distance look like an ink painting soaked in water, quickly blurring and dissipating.
As the tide recedes, a new scene silently emerges.
They returned once again to the cherry blossom tree in Tingyu Courtyard.
This time, the transition wasn't a non-stop spinning and jumping scene; it was so smooth that Karin couldn't help but exclaim "Eh!"
Seeing that the girl was about to look over, Shen Yu suddenly turned his head away.
The movement carried a hint of imperceptible haste, leaving only a slightly hard jawline visible to Karin.
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