Chapter 13 Cosmos (12) She knew that he must be feeling...
When He Chuan hurried to Xinhua Bookstore, he saw Lin Xia standing at the door with a stern face, looking even gloomier than the gloomy weather. He thought she was angry because of his lateness, so he apologized quickly:
"I'm sorry I'm late. Tan Zhizhou asked me to tell him about the quarrel he had with someone on the forum. How long have you been waiting?"
Lin Xia shook her head, looking particularly listless:
"It didn't take long."
"What happened? Did you have a fight with your classmates?"
"No, nothing."
Lin Xia sat in the back seat of the car, and hugged He Chuan's waist with familiarity, and said in a muffled voice:
"Go home."
She didn't want to talk, and He Chuan didn't ask any more questions. The two of them rode their bikes and walked home in silence.
Lin Xia was embarrassed to say it, but since He Chuan didn't ask, she felt uncomfortable holding it in her heart. In fact, she really needed someone to talk to. After enduring for a long time, she finally couldn't help but take the initiative to speak:
"Just now, a boy confessed his love to me."
He Chuan was stunned and a little surprised:
"Then why do you look so unhappy? Don't you like that boy?"
"Why should I like him?!" Lin Xia retorted a little excitedly, her voice slightly raised. "I used to think we were friends, but now I'm disgusted!"
He Chuan frowned: "What did he do to you? Did he bully you?"
Lin Xia didn't quite understand what he meant, and answered blankly: "Are you talking about today? He didn't bully me today, but he bullied me before, and I bullied him too."
She gave He Chuan a brief account of their relationship.
"So, I didn't expect him to do this all of a sudden. The probability of this happening is even smaller than an asteroid hitting the earth!"
Lin Xia was completely stunned at the time, and Wang Zhengyu kept waiting for her to answer. She didn't know what he wanted her to answer, nor did she know what she could answer. After being stunned for a long time, she asked back, why?
This question also confused Wang Zhengyu. He scratched his head and stammered that he didn't know either, it was just a feeling.
Lin Xia was not discouraged and asked again, when did it start?
I guess we've just been desk mates for a while now.
So why did you go against me? Calling me names and drawing on my uniform?
I, I want to get your attention...
When she heard this answer, Lin Xia felt as if she had been struck by lightning, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
She complained to He Chuan word by word:
"I always thought that bullying girls you like, using pranks to attract attention, was the most melodramatic, clichéd, and brainless plot in idol dramas and romance novels. I never thought it would actually happen in real life, and I happened to encounter it! We are sixteen years old! We have graduated from junior high school, how can he still do such childish things that even kindergarten kids can't do? Why did he come to me with such confidence and say that he likes me? Does he think I would like someone who bullies me, teases me, and makes me cry? What's the wiring in his brain? Did it get flooded? Did he lose oxygen? Was he squeezed by the door? Is he not fully evolved?"
He Chuan was amused by her series of descriptions.
Lin Xia became even angrier: "What are you laughing at? At me or him?"
"He, was laughing at him." He Chuan clarified in a serious tone, "Then what? How did you answer him? Did you tell him all these words?"
At this point, Lin Xia couldn't help but feel a little discouraged:
"No."
These are what she thought about after Wang Zhengyu left. She was the kind of person who had endless things to say to her close friends and parents, but would lose her temper when arguing or quarreling with others at critical moments and was completely unable to give full play to her abilities.
"My mind went blank at the time, and I just said, 'We should study hard at this stage...'"
What was that all about? It sounded like a precocious love disciplinary sermon. If their homeroom teacher knew about it, he'd be moved to tears. Thinking back on it now, Lin Xia almost wanted to dig a hole and bury herself in it.
Fortunately, boys of this age are very thin-skinned and timid. It takes all their courage to say that they like someone. She was nervous and he was nervous too. After hearing Lin Xia's answer, Wang Zhengyu nodded randomly and turned and ran away without saying a word.
He Chuan couldn't help laughing this time.
Lin Xia was both angry and embarrassed: "What are you laughing at? Is my answer funny? This is my first time experiencing this kind of situation, so it's normal that I didn't perform well."
She was pretty, an art student, and a bit arrogant. She was exactly the type of girl that boys would like in school. Zhao Qianyi had always been on guard, fearing she would fall in love too early. Throughout her life, there were indeed some boys who secretly liked her and pursued her, but it was nothing more than small gifts and the encouragement of classmates. Lin Xia herself didn't feel anything, and she didn't like those childish and boring boys. If she ignored them, they would eventually disappear.
But this is the first time someone confessed to me in person and said he liked me directly.
"Don't tell me you're used to it?"
"No, I haven't experienced that either."
"I don't believe it. You're good-looking and good at studying. There must be a lot of girls confessing their love to you."
Lin Xia's voice gradually became lower and she felt a little uncomfortable.
He Chuan laughed: "I went to elementary and junior high school in my hometown. My classmates were very simple and no one thought about these things, unlike the kids nowadays."
"You make it sound like you're so old, but you're only three years older than me." Lin Xia snorted and asked unwillingly, "What about high school? There must be a high school."
“In high school, everyone just thinks about studying.”
"No one? No one has ever liked you, and you...haven't liked anyone else?"
"Really not," He Chuan said helplessly, "Because I only think about studying, and everything else is not within my consideration."
In other words, he has never liked anyone else, and even if someone else liked him, he wouldn't care?
Lin Xia's mood suddenly became cheerful, and the corners of her mouth curled up unconsciously. The bad feeling caused by today's sudden incident seemed to disappear in an instant.
"Then your high school life is really boring..."
She said this in a guise of taking advantage of the situation.
.
Thunder rumbled in the gloomy sky.
When Lin Xia and He Chuan were about to get home, the rain that had been brewing all day finally fell.
Neither of them had an umbrella, but luckily there was a wood storage shed on the side of the road where they could temporarily take shelter under the eaves. The rain was coming down hard and fast, and in the short time it took to run over from just over ten meters away, their clothes were almost completely soaked.
There was mud and water on the road. Lin Xia found that not only were the edges of her white shoes dirty, but there were also mud spots on the uppers. She quickly took out tissues from her bag, squatted down, and carefully wiped her shoes.
It’s so annoying when it rains, especially when the roads outside the city are not paved with cement. It’s not suitable for going out at all.
While Lin Xia was polishing her shoes, she caught a glimpse of something moving under the eaves of the house next to her. It was almost dark, and it was raining and cloudy, so the light was extremely dim. Lin Xia could not see clearly, so she squinted her eyes and looked carefully for a while. In an instant, she felt the hairs on her body stand up.
“Ahhhhhh—”
He Chuan was wringing the water out of the hem of his clothes when he suddenly heard a scream, and then a huge force crashed into his arms. He took two steps back and almost fell down.
"What's wrong?"
"Yes, there's a mouse!"
Lin Xia grew up in an urban building. Apart from seeing them when taking out the trash at school, she had never had close contact with this kind of creature. She was most afraid of rats and didn't even dare to look at them.
"Where is it?" He Chuan asked.
Lin Xia buried her face in his chest, and pointed behind her with a trembling hand.
"There, by that window..."
He Chuan tried to look for a long time but couldn't figure out what was going on. He guessed that her scream scared the mouse away.
He patted her back gently and soothed her:
"Don't be afraid, the mouse has run away."
"Really?"
"real."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure."
He Chuan thought it would be better not to tell her that mice occasionally got into the house. After all, it was a bungalow in the mountains, and mice were inevitable no matter how clean it was. But if he told her now, she might not even want to go home.
After receiving He Chuan's repeated assurances, Lin Xia turned her head nervously to take a look. After confirming that nothing was moving, she reluctantly breathed a sigh of relief.
But the danger is not over yet, they may come back at any time, and this abandoned warehouse may already be their base camp!
She turned her head and wanted to say that they might as well run home in the rain since it wasn't far anyway. However, the next second, the words she was about to say stopped abruptly.
She suddenly realized that she was very close to him, their bodies almost touching, the fabric of his pants vaguely touching her bare calves, feeling cool. His arms were around her shoulders, and her hands were still clutching his T-shirt. He was almost a head taller than her. He lowered his eyes, and she raised her head, and she could almost see herself clearly in each other's pupils.
The rain blocked out everything, and the world seemed so small that there was only this small space under the eaves. There were only him and her, their breathing could be heard, and their hearts beat in unison.
They maintained this posture, neither of them moving forward. Perhaps it was only a few short seconds, or perhaps tens of thousands of years had passed, and human civilization had been destroyed and reborn several times. She and he, as if awakened from a dream, stepped back at the same time.
Lin Xia bit her lip and was about to speak when she saw He Chuan in front of her suddenly start to take off his clothes. Before she could be surprised, she was enveloped by a warm and familiar breath.
"Don't catch a cold."
He draped the top of his sweatshirt over her shoulders and looked away.
Lin Xia was a little puzzled. She looked down and realized that the chiffon skirt she was wearing was almost completely clung to her body after being soaked by the rain, revealing her skin underneath and even the shape of her small vest was vaguely visible...
She felt a bang in her head and her whole face turned completely red.
Two people stood side by side under the eaves, one step away from each other, one looking at the sky and the other looking at the ground, and no one spoke.
The sky was gloomy and dark, the outlines of the distant mountains and nearby forests were blurred, and there was silence and no one around. Only the sound of falling rain was endless and annoying, and the hot atmosphere spread silently.
Lin Xia tightened the clothes around her body, her heart beating fast.
You have to say something, you must say something, if it goes on like this the atmosphere will become more and more awkward.
But what to say?
Normally they always had endless topics to talk about, but at this moment her mind was blank and she couldn't think of anything.
The zipper twisted her fingers, leaving deep marks, and she finally mustered up the courage to speak.
But at the same time, a deep voice came from beside him.
"you--"
"I--"
The two spoke at the same time, and paused at the same time, then they spoke again:
"I--"
"you--"
He turned his head, she looked up, their eyes met, and then they both couldn't help laughing.
All the embarrassment and restlessness seemed to have disappeared, and everything seemed to have returned to the relaxed and natural atmosphere of the past.
He Chuan said softly: "You tell me first, what do you want to say?"
"I want to say... Have you ever heard the saying, 'Rainy in Mid-Autumn, sunny in Winter Solstice'?"
He Chuan didn't understand what the words were for a moment and shook his head: "No, what does it mean?"
"It's a folk proverb. My father told me it's from Northeast China. It says that if it rains on Mid-Autumn Festival, it will definitely be sunny on Winter Solstice."
He Chuan thought for a moment: "Is it related to farming?"
"Maybe. I'm not sure, it's just an old saying. My dad also said that his grandmother told him this when he was a child. He was very curious and always wanted to test it out to see if it was true. Unfortunately, either it didn't rain during the Mid-Autumn Festival, or when it did rain during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he forgot about it on the Winter Solstice and never managed to do it."
"Why did you suddenly think of this?"
"I don't know. I just remembered it when I saw the rain. Maybe it's because after Dad told me, I've been thinking about it in my heart, but I always forget it like Dad."
Lin Xia felt a little embarrassed.
"What did you want to say just now?"
He Chuan smiled and said, "I want to say that the rain may not stop for a while, so why not run back before it gets dark and when the rain is lighter?"
"Okay, I thought so too," Lin Xia nodded vigorously and agreed happily, "Let's run back!"
She knew that he must be feeling the same as she was, she just knew it.
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