Chapter 66: That Rain

After Wang Jiexiang left home, it started raining.

It was the Plum Rain Season again.

Raindrops clung to the window, and Yin Xian watched her receding figure.

Wang Jiexiang didn’t leave quickly. She had too much luggage.

He didn’t chase after her. After so many arguments, they both understood without saying it—that this was just another one of those inconsequential ones.

Wang Jiexiang packed her things neatly—clothes, bags, daily necessities, the baking books she bought—everything went into her luggage. But the apartment key she left behind still had her favorite bunny keychain on it.

Yin Xian knew she would only be gone for a short while, that once she calmed down, she’d come back.

He deposited money into her account to cover the sum Jiang Bingbing had borrowed from her.

The weather forecast predicted heavy rain for the coming week.

The rain had been especially heavy last night, and Wang Jiexiang had hardly slept. Holding an umbrella, she stepped out of her studio apartment. The bus broadcast news, stating that this year’s rainfall seemed more than usual.

She had something on her mind. She had felt off all morning, but couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong.

Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared. Wang Jiexiang stared at a large cloud in the sky, lost in thought, and almost missed her stop.

She hurriedly got off the bus, and the strong wind flipped her umbrella over.

Due to the bad weather, the kindergarten canceled the children’s outdoor activities. The teacher took the little ones into the classroom for music and reading lessons.

Without children running and playing in the yard, the garden was much quieter than usual.

The sky remained overcast, and the kitchen lights had been on since morning and stayed lit throughout the afternoon.

The sound of piano music came from the classroom as Wang Jiexiang kneaded dough, making cakes for the children’s afternoon snack.

“Ah—!!”

A sharp scream from a child pierced through the rain, instantly snapping her back to reality.

Following the direction of the sound, Wang Jiexiang looked up at the window. Outside the kitchen, there was a row of iron fences, and a young boy was hanging from the fence, his body convulsing.

It was Xu Qi!

Wang Jiexiang rushed toward the open space as fast as she could.

The rain outside was pouring heavily.

The dark clouds loomed, and the fierce wind blurred her vision.

She stepped into the rain curtain.

“Feifei.”

Yin Xian called her name.

Wang Jiexiang stopped and turned around.

Large raindrops rolled off, hitting her cheeks, soaking her face.

The First Raindrop.

In the desolate fields, the rain soaked into the mud.

“Run, Yin Xian.” She grabbed his hand.

Behind them, a flood was chasing, and the hem of their clothes splashed with mud as they ran, rushing into the torrential rain.

He was four years old at the time, grinning with little fangs, his hair short and soaked in the rain, his head resembling a little hedgehog covered in dew.

“What’s the name of that ancient poem?”

They took shelter from the rain in a pavilion, and she propped her head up and asked him.

Little Yin Xian replied, “Night Rain Sent North.”

And so, she taught him to recite it, word by word:

“Your return has no definite date, Night Rain in Ba Mountain rises in the autumn pond.

When shall we cut the western window’s candle together, and speak of Night Rain in Ba Mountain?”

The Second Raindrop.

Raindrops hit the letter, smudging the ink.

The torn, ragged paper, the scrawled words—one line that had been soaked…

He wrote: 【I have no home】.

Why?

At sixteen, she stared at the old, torn letter in frustration, and finally drew a big house around that line.

And so, they made a connection.

The unfamiliar city boy, the magically appearing letter.

【Is it raining in your city?】

【Yes, it’s been raining all the time.】

【I received your flowers, thank you.】

The popsicle he sent wasn’t cheap, and she shyly asked him in the letter: Can we really eat it?

He replied: 【Yes.】

The white popsicle, as if made of tofu, exhaled a cool mist.

The Third Raindrop.

Raindrops dripped through the broken roof into the rented room in the urban village.

The flood had submerged their home, and Yin Xian and she squeezed together on the broken bed in the rented room, guarding the cluttered mess behind them.

One of her arms hung over the side of the bed, her fingertips tapping the bedframe as she stared at the rising water.

A fish swam into the room.

A dark, fat fish, she didn’t know where it came from or why it had mistakenly entered their home.

Its tail and body swayed gracefully, and its fins pressed tightly against its sides, swimming leisurely.

Yin Xian called it a Chinese Paddlefish.

Though it was called a fish, it wasn’t quite a fish.

The Fourth Raindrop.

It returned to this year’s rainy season, falling from the sky above the kindergarten, blending into the water puddles on the open space.

By the puddle, an electric pole knocked over by the strong wind lay across the iron fence.

Wang Jiexiang saw her own fate.

She braved the rain, running over, wanting to lift Xu Qi, convulsing on the fence, but instead, she collapsed with him in the rain, never to rise again.

Afterward, time still longed to return to Yin Xian’s side.

Unable to reach him on the phone, unable to find him. But she still, was so unwilling.

Even when she received “Come to my island,” and saw the name “Little Rabbit Island,” she still couldn’t remember why they never reconciled in the end.

Was it because of his usual temper and unpredictability?

Yin Xian remained silent on this as well.

He turned into a rabbit, waiting on the Island of Eternal Night, with no memories of pain.

Either they couldn’t remember, or they deliberately forgot.

The story of Yin Xian and Wang Jiexiang ended in the rainy season of her 23rd year.

It was her fault. She had said they would be together for life, but in the end, she left him.

Wang Jiexiang tried to wipe the rain from her face.

Water traces stubbornly climbed her cheeks.

The heavy rain from the whole world could never be wiped clean.

Not saving anyone would be easier.

Not saving anyone, she wouldn’t die.

If she could turn back, she could go back, back to Yin Xian’s side.

She walked back under the eaves, returning to the kitchen where the light was still on.

Wang Jiexiang trembled uncontrollably. She was only twenty-three. Dying like this felt unbearably unjust.

Her gaze turned to the window, where the little boy could no longer make a sound.

Tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes, and Wang Jiexiang grabbed the plastic gloves left by the sink.

She didn’t know if they were insulated or if they could withstand such high voltage.

She rushed out of the kitchen, toward the convulsing boy.

It turned out that if life could start over,

They would meet, get to know each other, fall in love, live in a leaking rented room, and eat stale crabs.

He would help her make carrot juice, and she would knit him a sweater too small for him.

They would still quarrel, fight many times.

They would repeat the same mistakes, reenacting the five years they spent together.

Wang Jiexiang knew that, like her, Yin Xian wouldn’t regret those five years.

What was truly regrettable was the ending.