Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Around 7 p.m., the clouds that had been brewing all day finally made their move. A fierce wind blew, lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled, startling the students who were still struggling through analyzing the mistakes in their mock exams. The heavy rain poured down.

The raindrops were so large that they even had hail the size of rice grains. The sound of it splattering on the carport downstairs drowned out the teacher's voice.

There was a momentary commotion in the class.

The storm outside, resembling the end of the world, sent a surge of adrenaline through the teenage boys and girls. The English teacher, who had been shouting into the microphone, couldn’t get control of the class. Eventually, she gave up and decided to let them play a game of word chain, with each student adding an English sentence related to rain.

High school seniors are probably one of the groups that most want the apocalypse to come. If a drunken man wandered through the streets, the students would turn him into a zombie invasion in no time.

Playing word chain was definitely more interesting than analyzing mistakes, and the students in the class became excited in the downpour, laughing nonstop.

The heavy rain lasted for more than ten minutes, but when the wind stopped, the rain only became heavier. The sound of raindrops hitting the classroom windows was so loud it sounded like a battle.

Twenty minutes later, the grade director announced over the PA system that the evening study session was ending early.

There were a series of safety instructions, telling everyone not to linger around the school and to sign in on the class group chat after returning home.

The entire grade exploded in excitement. It wasn’t even a full lesson they had missed, yet it felt like they had graduated early. Despite the grade director broadcasting the same warning 800 times to go home and not stay in the classroom, the students remained in their brief state of joy.

An Jiujiu was briefly happy too.

Even though no one was at home, and despite the many recent problems, she was still infected by the happiness around her. After a long time, she sent Shi Tuo a jellyshake meme.

Shi Tuo was probably busy and didn’t reply right away, but it didn’t affect her mood. On her way home, soaked through, she hummed a tune off-key.

But sometimes, the heavens just can’t stand seeing someone in the lowest of lows being momentarily happy. When An Jiujiu got home and finished talking to Wang Shanshan on the phone, the electricity went out. The whole building groaned in frustration, and just as she was boiling water for noodles and playing on her phone, the lights went out. Her phone fell with a thud into the water that was still half-open.

An Jiujiu: "......"

She turned off the stove and stood quietly in the kitchen.

In that moment, the frustration that bubbled up inside her made her want to turn on all the burners in the building’s kitchen and yell “Happy New Year” in the midst of the flames.

But in the end, she did nothing.

She just stood quietly, staring out the kitchen window at the pouring rain.

It was actually very noisy. At 8 p.m., the place was usually bustling, but with the sudden power outage, there were curses coming from upstairs and downstairs. This old, run-down building had been poorly maintained. The people on the top floor, using foul language, complained about the power outage while also struggling with a leaking roof. The aunt on the first floor used the same language to curse at the rising water that was spilling into the corridor.

The rain continued to fall tirelessly, and the sound of the rain mixed with the voices in the hallway was deafening. Only An Jiujiu’s place was quiet.

Dark, quiet, like a nightmare during every sleep-deprived period.

She couldn’t quite put her feelings into words, but she felt frustrated—frustration she couldn’t suppress. It felt like the weather was shit, life was shit, and she was shit.

After her eyes adjusted to the dark, she stared at her phone lying in the pot of water.

This broken phone, which she had been using for years, was definitely ruined after falling into warm water. But she wasn’t sure if it would explode if she continued boiling water.

It probably would, since it had a lithium battery.

She slowly reached for the stove’s switch, her head aching from the noise outside. The thought of seeing it explode became clearer in her mind.

Her parents were getting divorced. Her biological father said she had a seductive look. Her grandparents, who used to be warm and loving, were now siding with the unborn boy, telling her mother that the house was theirs and asking her not to divorce. They said they’d bring the boy home and everything would be perfect—one son and one daughter, just like in the past, where the first wife’s family had more authority.

Her family was even more ridiculous than this unexpected storm outside.Chapter 8

The sound of the gas stove’s ignition switch cracking and popping broke the silence. In the darkness, the color of the spark was deep blue—the coldest color, the highest temperature.

Her gas stove was the cheapest kind, no brand, bought by her mother from a flea market. Every time, she had to turn it several times to get it lit. An Jiujiu pressed her lips together and focused on trying in the dark.

She stubbornly watched the igniter flicker in the darkness like fireworks.

Until she heard the loud banging on the door and the very loud “An Jiujiu” outside.

The spark stopped abruptly.

An Jiujiu was a beat too slow to react. She turned around.

Her current state of mind was like a video that had been paused. The loud banging on the door made it feel like the play button had been pressed again. Her eyes, now adjusted to the dark, quickly scanned the familiar furnishings of the house, and she stared blankly at the door.

Her mind snapped back to reality, and she could finally hear the voices outside amidst the rain.

It was probably the old lady who lived across the street from her, speaking in the local dialect.

“I saw this girl enter the house.” The old woman’s voice was full of energy. “Why isn’t anyone answering? Should I call the police?”

“I’ll call 110.” Shi Tuo’s voice.

An Jiujiu jumped in shock.

As she rushed to the door to open it, she still heard the old woman muttering, “She looked quite happy when she came in. She even greeted me. Haven’t seen her come out though, hope nothing’s happened. Such bad luck, ending up with a father like that…”

An Jiujiu bit her lip and quickly opened the door.

The strong wind, mixed with mist, rushed in, bringing with it a deafening sound of rain.

Standing outside were the old lady from across the street and the drenched Shi Tuo.

“I’m home…” An Jiujiu’s voice sounded normal. “I just fell asleep.”

“Oh, your sleep quality really…” The old lady slapped her thigh. “With such heavy rain, you go inside, and in less than half an hour, you’re knocked out cold?”

“Your phone was unreachable.” Shi Tuo, naturally thanking the old lady, stepped inside. He spoke loudly enough for the old lady to hear, “Your mom asked me to bring you some candles and food, and check if the windows are leaking.”

He was avoiding suspicion, yet making it more obvious.

Normally, An Jiujiu would have mocked him by now.

The old lady had been a neighbor for years and knew their situation, so she didn’t say much. She simply muttered about how careless the girl was to fall asleep so easily and shook her head as she went inside.

An Jiujiu shut the door, and Shi Tuo had already lit a candle in the living room—he really had brought a bag of candles wrapped in a plastic bag, with a raincoat on the outside.

But the rain was too heavy, and the candles had gotten damp. The flickering candlelight caused the shadows to waver.

An Jiujiu had eaten very little in the school canteen. After returning, she went straight to the kitchen to make herself a bowl of noodles. She hadn’t even changed out of her school uniform. Her clothes still had the dampness from the rain, and her hair was wet and messy, sticking to her neck. She definitely didn’t look like someone who had just come home and fallen asleep.

Shi Tuo looked equally disheveled.

He stood next to the candlelight, half in the dark, his hair and clothes soaked. His light blue school shirt had turned dark blue from the water, and the cuffs of his pants were dripping. The candlelight was so dim that An Jiujiu could barely make out his dirty arm, and one knee of his pants was torn.

Across the living room, they looked like two stray dogs drenched in the downpour.

“Why are you here?” Stray dog An Jiujiu stood in the corner, out of the candlelight’s reach.

“I came out of the hospital not long ago, and then the heavy rain started.” Stray dog Shi Tuo, trying not to drip water onto the floor, was using kitchen paper to dry himself. “I was planning to pick you up from school, but the class group said the school finished early today, so I just took a cab back home from the hospital.”He had also seen the jelly-shaking emoji An Jiujiu had sent him and thought to himself that she was probably in a good mood now. Given his own current state, he decided it was best not to approach her.

She hardly had any moments of happiness recently, so he didn’t want to spoil her mood with his own bad one.

“After I got home, I saw the notification in the group that the transformer had short-circuited due to the heavy rain. A few buildings in our complex lost power, and I saw that yours was one of them, so I thought I’d give you a call to check on you.”

But the call didn’t go through.

So, he came over.

“My phone…” An Jiujiu raised her hand, then put it down again. “I dropped it in the pot.”

Shi Tuo: “…”

An Jiujiu: “…”

The water on Shi Tuo’s hair was still dripping, and he had to continue using kitchen paper to wipe himself. He didn’t know what to say for a while.

An Jiujiu stared at him for a long time and then asked, “How many candles did you bring?”

“I bought a box at the gate of the neighborhood.” Shi Tuo looked at the box. “Fifty.”

He bought them casually and asked the shopkeeper for long-lasting ones. The shopkeeper recommended a bunch of scented candles and a pack of red-and-white candles. The scented candles were over a hundred for one small one, so he bought the most basic red ones—fifty for 17.9 yuan.

That should be enough to last the whole night without power.

An Jiujiu was silent for another second before walking over, picking up a few candles and a lighter. She lit one in every corner of the room, then went to the bathroom and lit two more.

“Stop wiping yourself, go take a shower.” She said, “I think I have some of your clothes here…”

Shi Tuo looked up at her, confused: “?”

An Jiujiu cleared her throat awkwardly: “I bought you a set of… clothes. I was planning to give it to you for your birthday.”

The room was pitch black. She picked up another candle, rustled around for a while, and found a packaging bag. She pulled out the clothes and handed them to Shi Tuo.

A set of… onesie pajamas with a cartoon cat ear hood.

Fluorescent green.

And it had already been washed, smelling of fabric softener.

Shi Tuo: “…”

An Jiujiu: “Happy Birthday!”

Shi Tuo: “…”

Their birthdays were on the same day, both at the end of September, but he didn’t know she had already bought the gift so early.

He wasn’t surprised by the style of the gift. Over the past seventeen years, all the gifts she gave him were similar. Their house had enough animal-themed pajamas to complete the zodiac signs. She was always careful to wash them before gifting them, just in case he wouldn’t wear them.

But...

“Why fluorescent green?” Why fluorescent green when the power went out and you’re lighting candles?

An Jiujiu: “I figured out what colors you already have, and you’re just missing fluorescent green and death Barbie pink…”

Shi Tuo: “...Please don’t give me anything next year.”An Jiujiu bit her finger.

Shi Tuo paused in his movement towards the bathroom and hesitated, looking at her. “Did you already buy my gift for next year?”

An Jiujiu asked, “So, which one do you choose, Barbie pink or fluorescent green? Barbie pink is a dinosaur, by the way. It’s pretty manly too.”

Shi Tuo: “…”

An Jiujiu: “I was just thinking, if I get busy with filming later and don’t have time to shop, I might as well buy it now and keep it for later…”

Shi Tuo grabbed the clothes and walked towards the bathroom. As he passed An Jiujiu, he lightly tapped her head, knocking her hair into a messy bun: “You really have no sincerity at all.”

He smiled as he entered the bathroom, and An Jiujiu covered her head, also laughing.

Neither of them mentioned that he didn’t actually have to shower here. His home was just a few buildings away. If he cleaned up here and went back, he would get wet again.

An Jiujiu didn’t want him to leave. She was scared. She feared that she would feel like she was being paused again, just like earlier. The rain outside was so loud, so overwhelming. She didn’t feel confident that she could stay composed in such weather.

Shi Tuo didn’t plan on leaving either. She knew that the moment he entered, especially since he had said that cryptic line about the old lady across the hall.

Shi Tuo had no one at home. His mother was still in the hospital, and his father definitely wasn’t coming back tonight.

Tonight, they were both alone.

So, neither of them thought about separating.

Even if he was wearing that fluorescent green, tearful cat-ear hoodie.