0014 Night Rose-C.TLAY, Night.14 On May 5th, the dragon boat race is coming with great force.
The Dragon Boat Festival is still a long time away, but this year's flood season has arrived early. The weather changes at any time, even more childish than a three-year-old child.
Dark clouds covered the city, thunder rumbled, and lightning hidden behind the clouds flickered, like the indecision hidden in someone's heart.
Raindrops began to fall densely on the windshield, suddenly blurring the vision. The sound of heavy rain hitting the roof was as loud as falling stones.
Ruan Mei was too lazy to turn on the windshield wipers. She was stuck in a traffic jam that seemed to have no end. Every car in the rain seemed to have its tires bitten by mud and could not move. They were like souls that were fleeing in panic but unable to move.
The continuous raindrops turned the glass into a kaleidoscope, and the flashing red taillights reflected a dazzling and psychedelic light. In the map app on the mobile phone, the congested road was a whole line of aunt red that was almost turning black.
Ruan Mei sighed helplessly and sent a message to Xu Ziling saying that she was stuck in traffic and asked her to order first if everyone was there and not to wait for her.
The Yangcheng Traffic Radio Station was reporting on traffic jams in various parts of the city. Ruan Mei heard that on the road she was currently on, a driver revealed that the cause of the traffic jam ahead was a four-car chain rear-end collision.
The radio DJ interspersed jokes that were hard to smile at. She changed several channels and finally connected her phone to listen to music.
Even though the traffic was jammed, she couldn't sit idle, so she took advantage of the free time to reply to customers' messages, her thumbs flying across the screen.
She had asked Anna to trim her nails half a month ago. Anna even asked her if she had broken any hard objects, as how come her nails, which had just been done, broke so quickly.
The sanding strip smoothed out the small cracks on the gold foil, and then a new layer of sealing was applied. Now the nail surface is smooth, translucent and shiny again.
As if nothing had happened.
When we received the transfer and address from the customer, several songs had already been played on the playlist.
"The night is already changing/shining like diamonds/but it's also so cold. Look at the thousands of neon lights/giving rise to thousands of dreams/reflecting this harbor..."*
When the smoky singing voice came out, Ruan Mei's thoughts drifted back to that night.
The sky was like a hole with a constant roaring sound. Ruan Mei put "Late Night Harbor" on repeat. The heavy rain lowered the temperature in the city a little, and even the air conditioner was a little colder. She stroked the standing hairs on her arms and reached out to turn up the temperature a little.
The singing was so cold that it almost formed frost on the glass.
"The coldest place tonight is my heart" repeated several times before the right lane finally moved. Ruan Mei quickly sat up and turned on the wipers.
The lane on the right was moving faster, and soon more than a dozen cars had moved forward. The cars lined up in front of Ruan Mei began to get restless, and immediately squeezed in when they saw a gap.
Ruan Mei had no intention of changing lanes. She just stepped on the accelerator and followed the car in front. She moved forward a little with each car that passed, just like a snail crawling along the edge of a flower bed after a summer rain.
The car kept going and stopping, and the thin wipers had little effect on the heavy rain. When it stopped again, Ruan Mei leaned forward, resting her chin on the steering wheel, watching the scenery that was sometimes blurry and sometimes clear.
Trapped in a small matchbox amidst the pouring rain, Ruan Mei felt like she was drowning in the middle of an endless ocean.
The BMW in front squeezed into the lane next to her with a honking sound, and Ruan Mei stepped on the accelerator silently.
Suddenly, there was a deafening thunder above her head. She was thinking about something and was startled by the sudden roar. She screamed "Ah" and forgot to step on the brakes. The radar of the car in front of her sounded the alarm, so she quickly stepped on the brakes.
But it was too late, the front of the car still collided with the car in front.
It's broken! It's broken! Another rear-end collision!
Ruan Mei was stunned for only a few seconds, then quickly pressed the hazard lights, unbuckled her seat belt, grabbed the umbrella on the passenger seat and got out of the car.
Ignoring the honking of horns from behind the car, she quickly bent down to look at the place where the two cars were connected.
The car that was hit was a black Passat. Visually, the rear bumper was not dented, but a small piece of paint was chipped off.
She looked back at herself... Never mind, it would just be another wound.
The Passat driver got out of the car, and Ruan Mei straightened her back and looked at the person who came.
Before I could even utter the word "apology", it was drowned in my throat by the heavy rain.
The raindrops hit the umbrella with a crackling sound, and drops of water dripped down from the edge of the umbrella, like broken strings of delicate water beads.
Ruan Mei gripped the umbrella handle tightly and looked through the dripping curtain at Chen Shanye who was standing a few steps away. He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers today, and still had a black mask on, but he didn't hold the umbrella, and most of his shoulders were already wet.
"Is this your car?" The sound of rain and horns was too loud, so Ruan Mei raised her voice a little.
Chen Shanye pulled his mask down to his chin, glanced at her, shook his head, and walked over to her side: "No, this is a private car for a friend of mine. His son suddenly had a stomachache today and needed to go to the hospital urgently, so I'm covering for him."
He squatted down and touched the rear bumper. Ruan Mei looked down at the strong back that stretched the shirt without a wrinkle. Raindrops hit the top, and the wet fabric showed the wheat color underneath.
"I was just frightened by thunder and forgot to step on it..." She moved closer to Chen Shanye and covered him with the small umbrella.
"Are you okay?" Chen Shanye didn't look up, but interrupted her.
Ruan Mei blinked several times: "It's okay."
Chen Shanye stood up, took out his phone and took a few photos of the scraped rear end of the car. He said, "It's okay then. Go back to the car."
"Ah? No need to talk about compensation? I'm fully responsible for the rear-end collision." Ruan Mei's eyes widened. "Or should we call insurance?"
The two people under the umbrella were very close to each other, just like the two people under the stained glass chandelier that night.
There were shallow puddles on the road, reflecting his black leather shoes and her red skirt like a mirror. The Passat's double flash lights flickered like candles, and the unstoppable water drops mercilessly shattered the mirror.
"No need, it's just a minor paint chip. Don't block other people's way. I'll just tell my friend." He walked out of the umbrella's cover, water droplets sliding from his forehead to his chin. "It's raining too hard, drive carefully."
Chen Shanye stood in the rain, watching her beautiful face and bright curly hair hidden in the water droplets falling from the edge of the umbrella.
He scratched the seam of his trousers with his fingers a few times, said "let's go", and turned to leave.
His elbow was suddenly pulled and Chen Shanye turned around abruptly.
Ruan Mei held up her purple-black umbrella, her brows furrowed. "Chen Shanye, do you want to take full responsibility?"
The umbrella was held high above his head, and the water flowed downwards, dripping onto Ruan Mei.
He took her hand in his backhand and pushed the umbrella back in front of her: "You're wet."
In the time it took to say a word, her hair and shoulders were wet.
"Answer me, do you want to take responsibility yourself?" Ruan Mei wanted to push the umbrella over, but the man's wet palm held it tightly and she could not move.
She stomped her feet in annoyance, and the dirty water splashed on her calves and Chen Shanye's trouser legs.
"Well, I'll take responsibility. It's just a small paint chip. It won't cost much." He let go of her and walked into the rain again.
The sound of raindrops hitting the umbrella was loud, the sound of the impatient driver honking his horn was loud, and the sound of the heartbeat in the chest was loud, but Chen Shanye's voice could still be clearly heard by Ruan Mei.
"This way, you don't need to contact me anymore."
————Author’s nonsense————
The lyrics are still "Late Night Harbor" @ Guan Shuyi
PS: This song was first sung by @贞楚倩, her "Neon Doll" is also on my old song playlist
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