It rains heavily during the Qingming Festival.

There is a small cemetery on the side of Yaoguang Lake near Wanjian Mountain, where all the deceased people from Linguang Town are buried. It was almost noon, and the villagers who came to visit the graves earlier had gone home early because of the light rain, leaving only a thin boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old still tending to the flowers and plants in front of the three graves.

The boy was born with high brow bones and deep eye sockets, and a straight and sharp nose, which clearly showed his handsome features in the future. However, his skin had already been exposed to the sun and wind, and there was almost no childishness due to age. On the contrary, there was a trace of vicissitudes, urgency and concentration in his eyes.

"Dad, Mom, I'll come visit you another day."

——The tomb on the far left was built fifteen years ago; the one in the middle is still very new, and the date on the tombstone is last year; the tomb on the far right is very strange, it looks extremely luxurious and is of considerable size, but there is no word on the tombstone.

The rain began to get heavier, accompanied by faint thunder, and raindrops fell on the lake like small steps. The green mirror-like water surface was suddenly wrinkled with countless small lotus leaf-like ripples, which spread out layer by layer and broke into undulating green waves in the increasingly fast-flowing water.

At this moment, a clear voice suddenly called his name from behind.

"Jiang Mi."

He turned around and saw a girl in red, about sixteen or seventeen years old, standing behind him.

——The girl's bright and beautiful figure seemed to melt into the rain. Her eyes were like the stars shining in the night sky, and also like a cold and sharp blade, as if she didn't care about anyone in the world at all; and it seemed that as long as she looked at them, no one would have any secrets.

For some reason, the boy's chest began to beat fast. He wanted to indulge in those eyes forever, but he couldn't help blushing and his heart beat fast, so he just wanted to look away.

"Sister, do you recognize me?"

Yao Yue was about to explode, but when she heard the word "sister", her anger somehow subsided: "...Don't play dumb with me, let me out."

"Go out?" The boy was stunned for a moment and looked at her confusedly, "Where to?"

Seeing this, she narrowed her eyes and began to look him up and down——

Jiang Mi in front of him was still a teenager, dressed simply and looked a bit shabby. He was thin, but not skinny, on the contrary, he looked tough and even had a wild impact. The toughness and sharpness of a teenager and the calmness and vicissitudes that did not match his age seemed to permeate from his bones, making others dare not approach him.

"Do you still recognize me?"

The girl's collar was wet from the rain, and her red outer robe and white undergarment were soaked on her chest, soft and thin to the point of being transparent. In the wet rain, the scent of the crabapple flowers was particularly distinct, and petals of them fell one by one as the rain fell, landing on her shoulders and sticking to her cheeks, breathtakingly beautiful.

The moment he looked at her, Jiang Mi was a little dazed, but he quickly suppressed the irritability on his face, lowered his head, and handed the umbrella to her: "I don't recognize you... Sister, you are not from Linguang Village, right?"

——In the village, or even in Wuguang City, he had never seen such a beautiful sister. She was just like the fairy in the legend...

"No," Yao Yue took the oil-paper umbrella without hesitation, but she saw him standing there in the rain, feeling a little puzzled, "Don't you need an umbrella?"

The boy shook his head, he didn't dare.

The big shots in the city don't like people like him to get close to them. If they get close, it will humiliate the fairy.

The wind blew, and a crabapple petal floated down and landed on his lips. Perhaps it was too light for him to notice, she looked at the petal, and somehow reached out her hand and wiped it away with her index finger.

The boy shuddered at the touch of a dragonfly, and then his face suddenly turned red.

That touch just now was almost... like a kiss.

He didn't know where this thought came from. As soon as he thought about it, he felt his whole limbs trembling. He couldn't stand uncomfortably and pursed his lips tightly until the corners of his lips turned white.

There was a moment of silence. In such a silent world, there was only the sound of falling rain.

A hint of tenderness and remembrance suddenly appeared in her eyes, and she took a few steps forward and covered the boy under her umbrella.

"Go home."

On a spring afternoon with drizzling rain and crabapple blossoms flying everywhere, the air seems to be filled with a faint fragrance that makes people want to shout out loud and unrestrained.

Jiang Mi's palms were sweaty all the way home. The oil-paper umbrella was not big, and the two of them were almost shoulder to shoulder. He didn't dare to turn his head to look at the girl in red next to him. He even wondered if he was dreaming when he heard the fairy ask if he could live in his house.

"Sister, you wanna live in my house?"

——The fairy's clothes and accessories showed that she was from a wealthy or noble family. Last year, in order to bury his father, his family's savings were almost gone, and they hadn't bought anything new for a long time...

"If you are in trouble, I will go ask someone else."

Her words were full of sadness and a hint of familiar teasing, which made his heart skip a beat: "It's not difficult, it's not difficult. I'm just worried that the fairy won't be able to get used to living here..."

Yao Yue suppressed her laughter: "Why are you calling me fairy again?"

He even forgot to pursue the word "again". He only hated himself for accidentally speaking out his true feelings. His cheeks were slightly red. "Because...my sister looks like a fairy..."

She paused and deliberately moved closer to him: "Appearing in the cemetery on Qingming Festival, wearing red clothes, should be more like a female ghost, right?"

The beautiful face was so close to him that Jiang Mi even forgot to breathe for a moment. His Adam's apple rolled and his mind went blank. He couldn't utter a word.

Seeing his dull look, Yao Yue smiled meaningfully: "Bringing a female ghost home... It turns out you have been so bold since you were a child."

The young man panicked when he came to his senses, fearing that she would misunderstand him as a drunkard and a womanizer. He was about to explain himself when suddenly a man and a woman came up to him from a distance.

"Jiang Mi, why did you come back just now? My mother made some green rice balls and asked me to bring them to you."

——The young man who was speaking looked familiar. She looked closely and realized that this was Gu Bufan, the elder of Wanjian Mountain. But she remembered that they only met after going to Wanjian Mountain...

The moment Gu Bufan saw her, his eyes widened: "Jiang Mi, where did this girl come from? Is she your relative?"

The face of the woman in red was as flawless as jade, her eyes were full of autumn water, and her slender eyes were slanted. She looked at people as if she could hook people's souls away.

Yao Yue said first: "I am his sister."

The other girl, wearing a yellow dress, looked at her warily, then blushed as she handed over the food box in her hand: "Brother Jiang Mi, try the cold porridge we cooked at home..."

Jiang Mi took the Qingtuan from Gu Bufan, but shook his head at the girl: "Yan'er, your father doesn't allow you to associate with me, so you should go back quickly."

——Linguang Village is sandwiched between Wuguang City and Wanjian Mountain, so the villagers' horizons are naturally higher than those of people in other villages. Especially those with daughters, they are all eager to marry the daughters of the city. Jiang Mi's parents are both dead, and he didn't leave any savings. The villagers know each other well, so naturally they don't want their daughters to have anything to do with him.

He rejected her offer in front of the other two. Yan'er looked unhappy: "It's just a bowl of porridge..."

"Please go back."

Jiang Mi had a somewhat cold and indifferent look on his face. He walked past the two of them, pushed open the bamboo fence door of the yard, and waited for the fairy behind him to come in.

The girl in red smiled slightly and took the food box from Yan'er calmly: "Give it to me."

***

The reason Yao Yue went to take the food box was naturally because... she was really hungry.

——In Jiang Mi's fantasy, she would be hungry if she didn't eat, sleepy if she didn't sleep, unable to carry anything on her shoulders or hands, and might be even weaker than an ordinary mortal. I don't know what this stupid fool is thinking...

Last night seemed like just an absurd dream. When she woke up, there was no trace on her body, and even her clothes were neatly dressed. When she went out to look for Jiang Mi, she scanned the house and found that the wardrobe was full of clothes for all four seasons. It seemed that she was going to stay in this fantasy for a long time.

The boy held the bowl of noodles and placed it steadily on the wooden table: "Sister, the porridge is cold, why don't you try the noodles I cooked."

A celadon bowl with Yangchun noodles and a few drops of sesame oil. The appetizing sour soup with crispy chopped shallots and diced radish is steaming hot.

——His mother died in childbirth, and his father did not remarry in the fourteen years since then. If it were not for raising him, he would have died with his wife. But Jiang's father missed him so much that he became ill and his health was not good, so Jiang Mi became the head of the family very early. Cooking was a piece of cake for him, but he was used to simple meals. Now the meat and vegetables in the kitchen were almost used up, so he could only hastily make a bowl of noodles. I don't know if it suits the taste of this fairy.

A natural fragrance wafted out of the bowl of noodles, lingering in her nose for a long time. She took a bite, and the boy asked with a little expectation and a little trepidation: "Sister, are you used to it..."

She didn't have a big appetite and had never eaten mortal food before, so she couldn't get used to it. But she still said "hmm", and the boy happily started eating: "Sister, tell me what you want to eat in the future, I can cook a lot of dishes."

After the two of them had a quick meal, Jiang Mi went to the yard to feed the livestock, clear the stagnant water, and repair the tiles on the roof... It was hard to imagine that a boy of this age could handle everything so skillfully.

Time passed quietly between the cracks of the rubble. The sun was setting in the west, the sky was dark, and the weary crows returned to their nests. The night rain started to drizzle, hitting the forest like hungry silkworms gnawing on mulberry leaves, making a very fine rustling sound. Soon the rain became heavier, and the black silhouette of Wanjian Mountain was dissolved in the rain.

Jiang Mi naturally gave her the bed and spread out the bedding on the floor. Accompanied by the sound of rain, Yao Yue fell asleep soon.

The moonlight passed through the window lattice and sprinkled on half of her snow-white cheek, and even her skin was faintly glowing with a bright and cold halo. The young man caressed the contours of her cheek with his eyes, a bit like a male animal guarding his mate, full of pride and solemnity; more of it was admiration, an admiration that this person should only have in heaven.

The boy did not sleep well that night, and as soon as he became conscious, many erotic scenes came to him. He felt as if there was an impulse deep in his body that was swelling and painful, rushing left and right, but he could not find a place to vent.

Reality and illusion intertwined, and eventually turned into the face of the fairy in red. Under the crabapple tree, it was not fingers that brushed his lips, but her watery red lips.