Rainy Night and Unfinished Poems
The weather changes in an instant. At dusk, the sky, which had initially been overcast, suddenly began to pour down heavily shortly after Lin Wanxing drove away from the school. At first, it was just a light patter, but soon it became a torrential downpour, blurring visibility. The windshield wipers futilely swung from side to side across the windshield, managing to create two brief, clear fan-shaped areas before being quickly covered by more rain.
Lin Wanxing was going to a specialty bookstore in the east of the city to pick up a photocopy of an ancient book she had ordered a long time ago. She wasn't very familiar with this route, and the navigation instructions seemed somewhat confusing amidst the noisy rain and blurry vision. At an intersection where she needed to turn, she hesitated for a moment. The wheels seemed to have run over something, the car lurched violently, and with a dull groan, the engine gave a weak sigh before stalling completely.
She tried to start the car again, but only the starter motor made a futile "click-click" sound. Several warning lights she didn't recognize lit up on the dashboard. Outside, torrential rain and rushing traffic splashed against the car doors. Inside, she was alone, filled with growing helplessness and panic. She was trapped here, at this unfamiliar intersection, on this terrible rainy night.
The cell phone signal became intermittent. She tried to find roadside assistance, but her fingers trembled with nervousness. A familiar sense of isolation, of being abandoned by the world, enveloped her. Every time she faced difficulties alone, that emptiness and vulnerability stemming from Chen Yu's departure would surge forth in double intensity.
Almost instinctively, she swiped through her phone's contacts, and without a second thought, her fingertip landed on the now incredibly familiar starry sky profile picture. She dialed the number, then held the phone tightly to her ear, listening to the endless, agonizingly long ringing tone.
Just when she was about to give up, the call was answered.
"Teacher Lin?" Jiang Chen's voice came through the receiver. The background was unusually quiet, which made his questioning call all the more clear.
The moment Lin Wanxing heard his voice, it felt as if a nerve she had been holding back had been snapped. Her throat tightened, and her voice carried a dependence and grievance she herself was unaware of: "Jiang Chen... my car broke down on the road... at an intersection, I... I don't know exactly where, the rain is too heavy..."
“Don’t panic.” His voice was calm and steady, without the slightest hesitation. “Tell me what road signs you can see, or what obvious buildings are nearby. Turn on your phone’s location services and share your real-time location with me.”
His composure was like a boulder thrown into a turbulent lake, instantly suppressing the surging panic. Lin Wanxing did as instructed, struggling to make out the blurry signs outside the window, describing them haltingly. Location sharing successfully sent.
"Stay in the car, lock the doors, and turn on the hazard lights. I'll be right there." His speech was slightly faster than usual, but still clear and organized. The call hadn't ended, and she could vaguely hear his hurried footsteps, the clinking of keys, and the slight sound of a door opening. This connection through sound, this feeling that he was on his way, strangely soothed her anxious heart.
The wait wasn't too long, but in the pouring rain and with no one to turn to, every minute felt incredibly long. When a blinding headlight pierced the rain and came to a steady stop behind her car, Lin Wanxing almost burst into tears.
The car door opened, and Jiang Chen, soaked and drenched in cold sweat, got in. His hair and shoulders were wet from the rain, with a few strands of black hair sticking to his forehead, making him look somewhat disheveled, but his eyes were unusually bright and determined. Without asking any questions, he quickly checked the vehicle's condition and, after confirming that it couldn't be started on the spot, promptly contacted a tow truck.
“It will take a while for the tow truck to arrive; the rain is too heavy and the road conditions are poor.” He hung up the phone and looked at her. “We’ll have to wait in the car for a while.”
The cramped carriage became the only island in the storm. Outside was a noisy, chaotic world; inside, a silent and subtle atmosphere hung between the two. The rain pounded incessantly on the roof and windows, like countless small drums beating simultaneously, which only made the quiet inside the carriage seem even more pronounced. Lin Wanxing could clearly hear his slightly rapid breathing and smell the scent emanating from him, a mixture of the crisp rain and his own clean fragrance.
She watched his profile, wet with rain, as he silently gazed at the rain outside the window, guarding this small corner of peace. The dependence, gratitude, curiosity that had accumulated over the days, along with the lingering doubts arising from the puzzle, all intertwined in this enclosed space, forming a powerful impulse.
“Jiang Chen,” she suddenly spoke, her voice soft yet exceptionally clear amidst the sound of rain, “I’ve always wanted to ask you… why did you accept such a… seemingly absurd agreement? Why me?”
Jiang Chen's body stiffened almost imperceptibly. He didn't turn around immediately, still looking out the window, as if the continuous rain curtain held an infinite allure. His Adam's apple bobbed slightly.
“I… need that job,” he replied, his voice low and strained.
“There are many people who need work,” Lin Wanxing persisted, her gaze fixed on his profile, “but not many would choose this method to approach someone… in a state as dire as I was back then. When you look at me, your eyes are always so complex. You fix things for me, solve my problems, remember all my preferences… even,” she paused, her voice softer yet striking the air between them like a hammer blow, “I always see the shadow of someone very important to me in you.”
The air inside the carriage seemed to freeze. The sound of rain was the only background noise.
Jiang Chen finally turned his head slowly to look at her. The car interior was dimly lit, but his eyes were as deep as the night outside the window, churning with intense emotions: pain, struggle, longing, and a hint of almost desperate tenderness. That gaze was so naked and unguarded that Lin Wanxing's heart clenched suddenly.
"Why did you choose me?" she pressed persistently, refusing to look away.
He looked at her, for a long time, as if trying to etch her image into the depths of his soul. His lips moved slightly, as if he were using all his strength to squeeze out a broken, hoarse voice from deep within his throat:
"Because...only when I'm close to you do I feel...that I'm truly alive."
These words were like a bolt of lightning tearing through the night sky, instantly illuminating all the dark corners and striking Lin Wanxing hard. It was almost a confession, yet it carried a weight she couldn't comprehend. It wasn't joy, not sweetness, but a painful, almost humble confirmation.
Just then—
"Boom—!"
A deafening clap of thunder suddenly boomed overhead, shaking the car body violently. Blinding lightning instantly illuminated the sky and the earth, illuminating Jiang Chen's suddenly clear-headed and composed face.
The thunderclap was like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing the surging emotions in his eyes and interrupting this dangerous yet sincere conversation. He abruptly shifted his gaze, looking out the window again. The lines of his profile returned to their usual cold hardness, but his tightly pursed lips and slightly heaving chest betrayed the turmoil within him.
Lin Wanxing stared blankly at him, the words "Only now do I feel truly alive" echoing repeatedly in her mind, mixed with deafening thunder. She had countless questions in her heart, but before the barrier he had rebuilt, she could no longer voice them.
The tow truck finally arrived, its yellow lights flashing in the rain. Jiang Chen handled everything calmly and efficiently afterward, contacting a repair shop and arranging a taxi to take her home.
They remained silent the entire way. The rain gradually subsided, but the atmosphere inside the car was even more complex and difficult to describe than on the way there. He dropped her off at her apartment building, opened his umbrella, and still firmly tilted it towards her.
"Get some rest." He stood at the entrance of the building, his voice returning to its usual deep and steady tone, as if the scene in the car had never happened.
Lin Wanxing looked at his other shoulder, which was wet from the rain, and nodded. A thousand words were stuck in her chest, but in the end, they all turned into one sentence: "Be careful on the road."
She turned and went upstairs without looking back. But she knew that some things had changed on this rainy night. Their relationship had entered a hazy, unnamed realm defined by that sentence and that clap of thunder.
...
Almost as soon as Lin Wanxing arrived home and, still feeling unsettled, changed out of her damp coat, her phone screen lit up. It was a social media post from Su Xiao, with no picture, just a few short words: "Head heavy, legs light, feels completely drained... [dizzy]"
Almost simultaneously, she saw Lu Ziang's comment under Su Xiao's post. There was no greeting, no salutation, just an objective description of the course of her cold:
"The common cold is a self-limiting disease, with a course of 5-7 days. Symptoms usually peak within the first 72 hours. Nasal congestion, sore throat, and fatigue are common symptoms. Usually, no special intervention is needed; just ensure adequate rest and hydration."
The information is calm, objective, and devoid of any personal emotion, like a passage directly copied from a medical textbook.
Looking at the message, Lin Wanxing could almost picture Su Xiao's expression when she received it—a mixture of amusement and exasperation, a desire to complain yet a sense of helplessness. She shook her head, put her phone aside, but her thoughts drifted back to the broken-down car, back to Jiang Chen's eyes, filled with pain and longing in the lightning flashes.
The rain outside the window had stopped completely sometime ago.
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