Chapter 37 Umbrella
The rain was getting heavier and the wind was blowing. Although Lin Xiaolu was holding an umbrella, raindrops were still blown onto her from time to time.
After a while, the crowd at the school gate had passed its peak.
There were only about ten minutes left before the parent-teacher meeting was to begin, and most of the students' parents were already in place, some even chatting with each other in the classroom.
After guiding their parents to the classroom, other students also made their own choices. Some children who usually go out on their own will go home as usual, while others will gather in the library or gymnasium, waiting for the parent-teacher meeting to end.
The playground and the open space outside the teaching building were empty. After all, no one wanted to get wet in the rain.
The crowd at the gate was getting thinner and thinner, with only three or two students holding umbrellas like Lin Xiaolu waiting for their parents. Seeing that there were not many people, the security guard at the gate also walked out of the security room and closed the gate diligently, leaving only the side entrance for pedestrians to pass through.
Lin Yun still didn't come.
The rain is getting heavier.
Lin Xiaolu took out her cell phone and looked at her previous message records. The reply with the two words "definitely" was so conspicuous.
She thought back to when her mother was still alive.
Anya is a freelancer and her daily schedule is much more flexible than Lin Yun, so she is always the one who attends parent-teacher meetings.
Compared to Lin Yun's strict time planning, Anya was much more casual. She was often late and was always fooled by her. If she really made Lin Xiaolu angry, such as when she got the time of the parent-teacher meeting wrong, Anya would buy a lot of snacks and toys, and then take Lin Xiaolu to the amusement park. When her daughter's dissatisfaction was completely eliminated by the sugar-coated bullets, Anya would pitifully ask her: "Lulu is the most sensible, can you forgive mom?"
"Don't let your tacit understanding be left on this kind of thing."
Memories of the past flashed before her eyes. Lin Xiaolu looked at the heavy rain and muttered to herself.
She felt that she shouldn't care whether Lin Yun fulfilled his promise.
After all, it was just a parent-teacher meeting. No one had attended in the previous two years, so she didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
Rather, if I hadn't told Lin Yun about the parent-teacher meeting today, I would have already explained the situation at home to my class teacher truthfully, just like in previous years, and then I could have completely ignored the parent-teacher meeting and gone home early from school.
If she went home early now, she might be able to catch the afternoon animation show. The new series of magical girl animation has already reached the tenth episode, right? Speaking of which, since she really became a magical girl, she actually had no time to watch animation.
Is it really necessary for her to be so concerned about the parents' meeting now? As for that man, she had already been disappointed in him and had no trust in him at all. Whether he came or not, it would not cause any emotional upheaval for her.
The reason why I am standing here now is only because she was the one who took the initiative to propose the parent-teacher meeting. It would be irresponsible if I didn't come and take a look. This is an act of responsibility.
Whether he is late or breaks an appointment, it is his business and has no impact on me.
Wait for the parent-teacher conference to start. If he hasn't arrived yet, just turn around and leave. As for the class number, just edit a text message and send it.
Lin Xiaolu thought expressionlessly.
But no matter how she thought, that figure never appeared at the school gate.
Even if she focused her attention on the mobile phone screen and wanted to pass the time by refreshing social media, Lin Xiaolu still felt uneasy and her eyes would glance towards the school gate from time to time.
The last student who stayed there waited for his mother to come. The edges of the two umbrellas touched each other, and the mother and son talked and laughed under the umbrella.
Lin Xiaolu stamped her feet, and her heels kept hitting the ground, splashing water and making a "squeaking" sound.
"Are you really not coming?"
As soon as she said this, as if to confirm something, a piece of music suddenly sounded. The melody was beautiful, but under the sound quality of the campus radio it sounded like a thunderclap, pulling Lin Xiaolu back to reality from her thoughts.
This melody is very familiar to the students of Xizhao Middle School; it is the school bell.
Today, with the schedule changed, this marks the beginning of the parent-teacher conference.
…
…
Lin Yun was running in the rain.
The outcome of the battle was no surprise. For him who was able to kill the pupa alone, defeating the snake was not a difficult task.
It was just that the battle took place on a high-speed train, and the continuous changes in space made it difficult for him to quickly end the battle with silk threads. If he rashly used more powerful moves such as Masterpiece, it might affect other passengers in the car. In the end, he had to pick up the basic magic skills that he had long been a little rusty with.
In this situation, even though he had dealt with the caterpillar as quickly as possible, he was still a few steps slower than usual.
After the light rail tram stopped, perhaps because it was the first time to fight outside the blockade of the Strategy Bureau, there were many more people watching the defeat of the remnant beast. It took him some time to drive these people away from the remnant beast.
Finally, he contacted Hong Si and Xiang Yi Ce Bureau to explain the situation, avoided the crowds who were constantly taking pictures around him, and flew directly to the vicinity of Xizhao Middle School via the aerial route.
As usual, he found a small alley, straightened himself up, walked out of it, and ran towards his destination.
Because he left in a hurry, he left his umbrella on the tram, so he could only walk with his eyes narrowed in the pouring rain.
The wound on his face was still oozing blood. It was caused by glass fragments when he broke out of the car window. It was exposed to the pouring rain and felt an indescribable pain.
The pain was nothing to him; what really mattered to him was the time: there was no doubt that he was late.
The start time of the parent-teacher meeting had already passed before we landed, and now it was just a matter of trying to make up for the loss and wishing to go faster.
However, he knew deep down in his heart that Lin Xiaolu might not be waiting for him there.
It was he who took the initiative to ask to come to the parent-teacher meeting, and Lin Xiaolu might not be very enthusiastic about it; plus, the weather was so bad, even if he went to school, he might just be satisfying himself.
Just think of it as self-satisfaction.
As he consoled himself in this way, he saw the gate of Xizhao Middle School in the heavy rain. Then he quickened his pace again and passed through the pedestrian passage on the side.
Standing at the school gate, he gasped for air and looked around the flower bed, searching in vain for the figure he imagined. However, he found nothing in the end.
There is no one here, and Lin Xiaolu is naturally not here either.
Looking at the empty flower bed, Lin Yun's heart sank gradually: Even though he was prepared, he still felt sad when he really faced this scene.
His breath drifted in the rain, but it couldn't take away the gloom in his heart. He didn't want to make excuses, because he couldn't make it on time.
Just thinking of his daughter's face and what expression she would have if he broke his promise made him feel guilty.
Messed up again.
He thought about this and stood there in a panic, feeling a little helpless. He knew that he could still catch up with the parents' meeting if he entered the teaching building now, but the greatest significance of this trip had become empty talk.
Soon, Lin Yun reached out his hand silently, and his wet fingertips touched the mobile phone in his pocket: at least he had to ask where the class was.
——"Why did it become like this?"
A familiar voice suddenly came from behind Lin Yun, and his hand stopped in mid-air.
Turning around, he saw Lin Xiaolu holding an umbrella, leaning against the pillar next to the gate, looking at him with confusion.
"Lulu..." He started to speak, but found his voice was a little hoarse.
"It's too late. Ten minutes late."
Lin Xiaolu drooped her eyelids and raised her hand to reveal the glowing screen of her mobile phone. The electronic clock in the center showed the time: "It's already four forty."
Lin Yun was unable to answer. He tried to force a smile on his face to express his apology, but his poor facial expression control was not enough for him to make such a delicate expression. In the end, he could only raise the corners of his mouth strangely.
Lin Xiaolu ignored Lin Yun's series of strange actions. Instead, she looked at his embarrassed look, pointed at his face that was still bleeding, and repeated her question: "Why did it become like this?"
"The light rail tram encountered some problems on the way and suddenly stopped running halfway..." Lin Yun explained.
"A cruel beast?" Lin Xiaolu's words left him speechless.
"Well, no."
He didn't want Lin Xiaolu to realize that he and "Delphinium" were in the same place at the time, so he coughed twice a little stiffly: "The remnant beast is such a dangerous existence, why do you think in this direction?"
"Because the Luoming Line was attacked by beasts, it was... reported in the news." Lin Xiaolu paused, then pointed at her phone, "Did you take this light rail train?"
"No, I fell off my bike on the road."
Lin Yun tried his best to appear nonchalant: "The tram was out of service, so I could only pick up a bicycle from the roadside."
"It's better to stop telling lame lies." Lin Xiaolu said in a muffled voice.
The stiff smile on the man in front of her gradually overlapped with her memory of her mother's playful smile when she was occasionally late.
When she ran away from home, he went to her classmate's house, and his haggard and exhausted state was the most embarrassing appearance she could remember. And today he looked even more embarrassed: not only was his always neat formal clothes completely soaked, his usually neatly combed hair was stuck to his forehead like a pot lid, and the small wounds on his face were even more unbearable.
Seeing the man who usually looked like a workplace elite become like this, Lin Xiaolu felt that she should want to laugh, but for some reason, she just felt a little sad. Because she suddenly realized that adults are often not as calm as they seem.
Looking at this man who was so familiar and yet so distant to her, she felt for the first time that his rigid and silent shell had cracked a little, and she glimpsed something more real from it.
It was something she had longed for in the past, but it was something she had never thought about now. It seemed that she truly understood him a little bit because of this.
So she felt relieved, relaxed her frown, and raised her arm: "Catch it."
She handed over the umbrella in her hand.
"Um?"
Lin Yun was slightly stunned. He stared at the umbrella that Lin Xiaolu handed over and took it hesitantly: "Does this mean..."
"I stood at the school gate holding it for half an hour."
Lin Xiaolu turned her face away and avoided Lin Yun's sight: "Help me do it, I'm tired of lifting."
She handed over the umbrella, stood beside Lin Yun, and hid under the umbrella. She stretched her sore arms and shook her sleeves that were soaked by the rain.
After a while, seeing that Lin Yun still didn't take any action, she raised her head with some dissatisfaction: "Why are you still standing here? Aren't we going to have a parents' meeting?"
"Parent-Teacher Conference. Yes, Parent-Teacher Conference."
At this moment, Lin Yun felt as if a warm current had flowed into his heart, making him happy and relieved. He held the umbrella tightly and followed Lin Xiaolu towards the teaching building.
The father and daughter, holding an umbrella together, walked towards the classroom in the rain.
The black umbrella swayed slightly in the downpour, maintaining the small space it covered, and slowly disappeared in the rain.
Thunder rumbled in the sky and rain fell in gusts on the wind.
The flooded road was rippling with water. A snail was submerged in a puddle. The slow speed made it unable to escape. It could only shrink into its shell helplessly, waiting for death soon.
Just then, a hand reached out from under the eaves, gently picked the snail out of the water, and placed it on the ground beside it.
After the owner of the hand finished this task, he took a few steps back and returned to a place where he would not be exposed to the rain.
Xia Liang was squatting there alone.
She had a somewhat relieved smile on her face and watched Lin Xiaolu and Lin Yun disappear in the distance quietly. But when they disappeared from view, a bit of loneliness appeared on her face.
She stared blankly at the snail extending its tentacles from its shell again and crawling slowly. She suddenly thought of the night when she pretended to run away from home and stayed at Lin Xiaolu's house.
Or it could be said that he was the one who initiated the conversation, but after listening to Lin Xiaolu's confession, he was inspired to say these words.
That was a sentence that was spoken out loud, but I didn't dare to say it aloud, for fear of exposing my true feelings:
"Really... I envy you so much."
Thanks to book friends 20221129225603467, Sakimeng J Yi, POKBPUDJ, Yi Zhong, Lazy Cat l, Reader 1616975607213428736, Kirihara Akihara, Reader 1255439301295685632, Cat Lantern Bone Fish, evilvirtuous, Minister of Magic, please update quickly T_T, Wumeng Xinyu, Fenglin Volcano, Ice Cream Cat , Book Friend 20210711140342638, Tian Gong Avalanche, It's Moon Rabbit, Show Me, Little M Who Has Been Fishing, Hu Lei of Peerless Holy Land, Book Friend 20171115173424025, Ye Jijin, Book Friend 20210910170003537, Book Friend 20210301106578416214, and the two local tyrants Chu Yu Qinghe and Qiu Ye Xiaoshuang. Thank you for your support.
(End of this chapter)
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