Chapter 1 The Unfinished Twilight Rain
Pumpkin Carriage Never Stops
By Huainan Xiaoshan
First published on May 28, 2025.
"Childhood oars parted the ripples, pushing love into the vast destiny."
Volume 1: Willing to be a friend A
01
In May, rain drizzled through Pingjiang, seeping into the entire city.
When Jiang Meng arrived at the audition site at the photography studio with her schoolbag on her back, the staff in the studio were already preparing to pack up and leave.
She ran upstairs in one breath, still catching her breath, and grabbed a girl next to her who was also there for an interview, asking, "Excuse me, is the audition over?"
"It seems like it'll be here soon, why are you only arriving now?"
"I just finished class."
As Jiang Meng spoke, she put her schoolbag on the stool next to her, then quickly took off her high school uniform and hurriedly stuffed it into the bag.
The other person sized her up and down: "A high school student?"
Jiang Meng made a shushing gesture.
She pressed her index finger to her lips, paused in that position for a moment, then looked around with her eyes to make sure no one was listening before lowering her voice and saying, "I'm a freshman."
The studio door opened, and a photographer with a camera slung around his neck poked his head out: "Is anyone else taking pictures?"
Jiang Meng zipped up her backpack and raised her hand high: "Me!"
The other person beckoned: "Come here, hurry up."
Standing under the lighting panel, Jiang Meng adjusted her white hoodie slightly. Before she could even adjust to the bright light, the male photographer had already started snapping photos of her, then quickly flipped through the pictures and asked, "How tall are you?"
Jiang Meng was a little nervous about her first interview: "I'm 1.72 meters tall."
The photographer glanced up at her.
Jiang Meng felt a chill run down her spine at that look. She said, "I didn't lie. It was from the school's physical examination."
The photographer, with a cold expression, raised his camera again: "Make a few expressions."
Jiang Meng grinned.
"Too stiff, be more natural, add some movements."
action?
Jiang Meng made a peace sign and continued to smile.
"..."
The photographer glanced back at his female assistant speechlessly. The two looked at each other for a few seconds without saying anything.
The man refocused: "Let the hair down and take a look."
Jiang Meng: "There will be marks from being pricked."
"It's okay, you can put it down." He said, then gestured to the woman next to him, "Go and help her tidy up."
The woman had a gentler personality. While smoothing her hair, she smiled and said, "Relax your expression. You're so pretty, why are you afraid of making a fool of yourself?"
Jiang Meng gave a dry laugh and said softly, "Sorry, I'm not very good at it."
The girl had very fair skin, and her long, loose hair was fluffy and naturally chestnut in color. It wasn't very long, just past her shoulders.
The photographer's eyes lit up as he looked at her. But then, seeing her pose and the blank expression in the photo, his face darkened.
"Alright, you can go out now."
In the hallway outside the door, Jiang Meng waited for the results, clutching her school uniform. Because she had stuffed an extra piece of her school uniform into the bag, it was particularly bulky, and the zipper was almost bursting.
She vaguely heard the voices of two people talking inside.
The man said, "I have absolutely no sense of how to take pictures, I'm not photogenic at all, and I look like a little kid."
The woman said, "But she's so beautiful. I haven't seen such a perfect face in a long time."
The man sighed, "It's beautiful, but we can't use this picture. Look how stiff the expression is."
The woman argued: "Expressiveness can be cultivated, but a truly great face is the rarest thing!"
Jiang Meng held her phone, opened the promotional poster for her idol's concert, and looked at the price that made her gasp.
A while ago, Jiang Meng saw the job posting for a print model on Weibo.
She clicked on the photography studio's official Weibo account and sent a private message asking about the specific application requirements. The other party browsed through her selfies on her profile and said: "Come for an interview on Friday afternoon."
Then I sent her an address.
The administrator of the official Weibo account didn't ask anything except for one crucial question: "They're not high school students, are they? We don't want to have trouble coordinating filming times."
Looking at the tempting salary, Jiang Meng replied almost unconsciously: No, I just started college.
When Zhao Yuanting learned of this news, she asked her: What is a book model?
Jiang Meng: It's the illustration in romance novels.
Zhao Yuanting: Romance novels actually use real models? That would severely limit the imagination. If the models aren't chosen well, it would be a huge disappointment, and the whole work would be ruined.
Jiang Meng didn't speak, but forced a smile and looked at her with a serene expression.
Zhao Yuanting changed her tune: Okay, I admit, your face is quite convincing.
After finishing her work, Jiang Meng left accompanied by her female assistant.
The assistant was finally able to openly appreciate Jiang Meng's beauty. She looked at Jiang Meng for a long time and asked, "Are you mixed race?"
Because of her deep-set eyes and brows, Jiang Meng has never been asked this question more than straightforward compliments about her beauty. She smiled and nodded, "Yes, yes, I'm from the east side of the city, and my parents had to take a three-hour bus ride every day when they were dating!"
The assistant was amused by her, and after a while, she said, "You're not a college student at all, are you?"
Jiang Meng's smile froze, and she blinked rapidly: "Yes, it is."
"You're nervous, aren't you? You can tell you've never lied before."
"..."
"Besides, these pants of yours are the school pants from No. 1 Middle School. These two blue stripes are exactly the same as my sister's. Even if you altered the cuffs, I would still recognize them."
"...!"
"The backpack is so bulging, could it be stuffed with school uniform?"
"...!!"
Jiang Meng immediately tightened her grip on her schoolbag, her eyes wary.
The other person saw right through her and asked, "What's wrong? Are you short of money?"
Jiang Meng lowered her head, struggling with her inner conflict for a long time, before finally admitting dejectedly, "Okay, yes, a little bit, I think..."
As she spoke, her voice lowered slightly: "I want to see my idol's concert."
After Jiang Meng finished explaining, seeing that the other person remained silent, she sweetly called out to her, "Sister, do you think I still have a chance?"
The assistant didn't say whether it was okay or not.
Jiang Meng tugged at her sleeve, "Sister, sister, help me."
No one can resist a pretty girl's coquettish charm. The woman smiled and finally said tactfully, "Wait for further notice."
Jiang Meng smiled brightly, her eyes crinkling, and she was so excited that she saluted and clasped her hands in thanks, saying, "Thank you, thank you! Good people will always be rewarded!"
-
After leaving the photography studio, Jiang Meng took a taxi home.
She lived behind the affiliated hospital of S University because both her parents worked at the university. Her mother was an associate professor in the School of Life Sciences, and her father held both administrative and professorial positions in the School of Medicine.
When Jiang Meng arrived at her apartment building, she walked with her head down, unaware of the man smoking next to the black Mercedes. He was wearing a dark gray shirt, looked refined and cultured, was in his thirties, and possessed an extraordinary air.
Seeing the distracted girl, the man shifted his gaze and said, "Jiang Meng."
Jiang Meng looked up: "Dad."
Jiang Su was tall and handsome with a cold and aloof look. When he looked down at his daughter, he had no expression: "Why did it take you so long to get back?"
She came up with a prepared excuse: "I'm staying after school to do my exam paper."
Jiang Su didn't doubt it: "Take a bottle of the medicinal wine on the living room table to Secretary Wang. I heard that he has been having back problems lately, and the wine was brought by his grandmother. It's very helpful."
Is he home?
“Sure,” Jiang Su said calmly, throwing away his cigarette. “Go knock on the door and see.”
Are you leaving now?
He said, "An extra surgery was performed last night."
"Okay," the girl's voice was clear and crisp. "May everything go smoothly."
Jiang Su did not respond.
He opened the car door and got in, then said through the window, "Mom's away on a business trip, so make yourself something to eat."
Jiang Meng agreed.
Secretary Wang, formerly Jiang Su's leader, was named Wang Jingbo, the Party Secretary of S University. He later rose to the position of Party Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee. In recent years, he has focused on government work, but he still lives in the old school building that the university assigned to him. The building is located in the South Third District of the university, very close to the medical school. The school atmosphere is nurturing, and the small, detached two-story building at the foot of the mountain is secluded and welcoming.
Jiang Meng lived in the South Third District when she was a child, and only moved off-campus when she went to junior high school, but it wasn't too far away. She was very familiar with the paths here. She crossed the damp pond and walked along, hearing birds chirping and water dripping intermittently from the branches overhead.
She looked up and saw a tree laden with glistening, green plums.
Jiang Meng came from behind the house and had to go around the side of the yard to knock on the gate in front of the courtyard.
From inside the two-meter-high courtyard wall, the old man's slightly weathered voice could be heard: "Last time you said, which two were missing?"
The voice that answered him was clear and gentle, with a hint of magnetism, cool but not cold, like the lingering twilight rain of late spring.
"Longqing and Chongzhen."
Outside the wall, Jiang Meng slammed on the brakes and incredulously pricked up her ears.
The man's voice was like a bucket of cold water being poured down from the sky.
Make sure you haven't misheard.
She frowned.
Why is he here too?
So annoying.
Although she didn't have any deep-seated hatred for the young master of that family, unfortunately, Jiang Meng was having a fundamental conflict with someone over the age-old debate about whether tofu pudding should be sweet or savory. As a result of each sticking to their own opinion and refusing to back down, she solemnly announced: Anyway, I now really hate people who eat sweet tofu pudding, and we're breaking off our friendship for three days.
We agreed to break off all contact for three days, and it's not time yet.
Her assertive instructions were awkwardly displayed in the chat history.
As dusk fell, raindrops dripped from the branches of the fruit trees and landed on her eyelashes.
Jiang Meng stood there, caught between a rock and a hard place. She blinked and felt a cool sensation all over her body.
never mind.
Jiang Meng turned around to go back.
but……
She looked at the things in her hand again.
We can't just leave this wine at the door and walk away, can we?
What is the significance of giving this gift?
There aren't that many living Lei Fengs these days, and her dad is even less likely to be one.
In the courtyard.
"Mingqian, right?"
Wang Jingbo shook the basket in his hand a couple of times, picked up a few ancient coins, held them at a distance to examine them, and finally threw them on the table: "Hey, look them up yourself, my old eyes are failing."
The boy, who had just finished showering, emerged from under the eaves carrying clean clothes. Before he could even put them on, his gaze was drawn to a pile of things. Under the wisteria trellis in full bloom, Chen Jizhou picked up a storage basket from the chessboard table: "Is this whole set real?"
Wang Jingbo: "Your grandfather Qi's collection, this level of quality, you can't find it in any market, it's really as genuine as it gets."
Chen Jizhou quickly picked out the two he wanted, weighed them in his hand, and said, "Thank you, you saved me time."
Wang Jingbo: "If you like it, that's fine."
As he spoke, he turned his back to prune the crabapple branches, and said in a meaningful, drawn-out tone, "Collect more of these useless junks, and get a few more useless, worthless scores on your test next time, as a way of repaying me."
"..."
That was so pointed and so sharp.
Chen Jizhou held a Longqing Tongbao coin in his hand, examining its condition under the dim sunlight. He then looked through the hole in the coin at his grandfather, whose beard was bristling with anger: "My history teacher said that one should be like a copper coin—that's Chinese wisdom. You think I'm wasting my time on frivolous things? I'm studying hard, aiming for a perfect score on the exam. What's more important than being a good person?"
He leaned against the marble chessboard table, a hint of a smile in his eyes: "Don't you think so?"
Wang Jingbo glanced at him and said, "With your mouth, you can make black sound white! No wonder your mother keeps coming to me to complain that you're glib, unambitious, and always going against her."
"That sounds awful. I call it self-preservation."
Chen Jizhou disagreed: "If you want to blame someone, blame Ms. Wang. All the tricks she used to manipulate people at work were used to deal with her good son. With my years of experience fighting her wits, I've developed a set of foolproof tricks that are even more effective than these copper coins."
Wang Jingbo was taken aback, put his hands behind his back, hunched over and stared at him for a while before seriously returning to the main topic: "If you're so good at using idioms, how come you only got a few points in Chinese?"
Sure enough, it all came down to his failing the exam.
Chen Jizhou: "Didn't I say that my essay went off-topic? That Chinese teacher was really unfair; he didn't give me any leeway, even though I was exchanging glances with him for half an hour in the exam room."
This nonchalant tone made Wang Jingbo even angrier: "If you had that half hour to write more words, would you have failed?"
Chen Jizhou smiled and said, "Writing isn't about having a lot of words, Comrade Wang. Don't let me confuse you."
The conversation went around in circles, but Xiao didn't listen at all; he was impervious to reason and cynical.
The old man was truly confused and suddenly forgot what he was going to lecture him about.
Seeing that he had just finished showering, Wang Jingbo pointed to the t-shirt still hanging on the back of the chair: "Put your clothes on properly, don't parade around outside every day, your mind isn't on important matters!"
Chen Jizhou twirled the copper coin in his hand one last time, and with a "ding," the coin flicked from his fingertips, landing in the storage box along a graceful parabola.
The faint knocking sound from the side had been going on for a while.
He stood up and walked towards the door: "You are better at using idioms than my mother, who only knows how to criticize me. The way I walk around school is like I'm visiting a brothel."
Jiang Meng, who was outside, could only vaguely hear the conversation between the grandfather and granddaughter. But as the door was suddenly opened, the rising tone of their voices reached her ears.
Then, a tall, slender boy suddenly appeared in front of her.
Both of them fell silent for a moment.
His string of words abruptly stopped.
Her almond-shaped eyes widened as she looked up.
The falling out, sparked by tofu pudding, is not over yet, but what's even more embarrassing is that he wasn't wearing a shirt.
Hmm... Auntie is right, this person does indeed have the air of a seasoned connoisseur right now. Usually, he's in a state of having just finished his business, possessing the self-satisfied leisure of a sage, with lingering lustful charm.
The boy, with an air of arrogance, wore only a pair of loose black sweatpants, low-waisted, revealing a well-defined and healthy physique. His veins flowed like powerful rivers between undulating mountains. He had probably just showered, as fine droplets of water clung to his shoulder blades, and his hair was half-dry.
Chen Jizhou was quite frank. He tilted his head and looked at the girl who was shorter than him, as if to ask: What's the matter?
Jiang Meng blurted out, "Why aren't you wearing anything...?"
Before she could finish speaking, she met the young man's upright gaze.
She and he were so in sync that she could almost read the unspoken, arrogant undertones in his eyes:
This is my home. What's wrong with me not wearing clothes? Are people born to wear clothes? Did Pangu wear clothes when he created the world? Primitive people went out wrapped in two lotus leaves, so why don't you become a policeman? What about you? You should have been dressed in the amniotic fluid, my dear.
He didn't say anything.
And then they said everything.
Jiang Meng held her breath, and finally just coughed softly to release her chaotic emotions.
The elderly person inside looked towards the door: "Who is it? Looking for you?"
Chen Jizhou left the door open for her and then walked inside, saying, "Who knows?"
He reached out and grabbed the black t-shirt from the back of the chair, putting it on deftly in a few seconds. "He didn't say a word, just stood there blushing."
Jiang Meng: "..." A humiliating disgrace.
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