The rain gradually stopped. Large raindrops rolled down the sycamore leaves outside the car window, splashing onto the road with a crisp sound. Lin Wanqing suddenly leaned over and rested her head on Ah Yu's shoulder. His shirt was still damp from the rain, but it made her feel at ease. "Let's go see the children tomorrow," she said. "Take the camera and take pictures of their newly planted sunflowers."
Ah Yu hummed in agreement and put her arm around her shoulder. In the rearview mirror, their shadows were stretched long by the streetlights, like two exclamation marks nestled together, standing firmly on the wet pavement.
A week later, the audit results for the charity project came out. It was as clear as the sky after the rain; even the accountant hired by Zhang Heng couldn't find a single fault. A media outlet wrote a report titled "When Charity Meets Trust," accompanied by a photo of Lin Wanqing and Ayu at a mountain primary school—they stood in a sunflower field, with children's smiling faces behind them, the sunlight casting their shadows together like a full heart.
That night, Lin Wanqing received a text message from an unknown number with only one sentence: "Sorry, I was blinded by greed." She glanced at it and deleted it. Ah Yu was cooking noodles in the kitchen, the steam turning the glass door white, his shadow flickering on it like a gentle silhouette.
"Do you want an egg in your noodles?" he called from inside.
"Add two more!" Lin Wanqing walked over and hugged him from behind. His apron was covered in flour, which he had gotten on it while baking cookies that afternoon—the children had said they wanted cookies, so they had bought the ingredients and spent the afternoon in the kitchen making them.
"The weather will be nice tomorrow, let's go for a walk along the Seine." Ah Yu cracked an egg into the pan, oil splattering and creating tiny golden bubbles on the bottom. "Just like before."
Lin Wanqing pressed her face against his back, listening to the steady beating of his heart. Moonlight streamed through the window, casting a bright patch of light on the floor, like a cropped piece of starry sky. She remembered Grandma Li's words: good people shouldn't suffer injustice. Perhaps the real test isn't the gossip and rumors, but whether, when the storm comes, you're willing to tilt the umbrella a little more towards the other person.
The noodles in the pot began to bubble, releasing a faint aroma of wheat. Ah Yu turned and pulled her into his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head. "No matter what happens in the future," he said, "we'll face it together."
Lin Wanqing nodded in his arms, smelling the scent of sunshine and flour mixed on him—the scent of home. The moonlight streamed quietly through the window, gilding their embracing shadows with a gentle golden hue.
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