…She's in a bad mood?
Shi Ran thought, somewhat bewildered.
Why would she be in a bad mood?
Because after all the ups and downs, she had ultimately divorced her first love—the one she'd grown up with since childhood, the one she'd once believed she would spend her entire life with?
Because even though they were divorced, both sets of parents were still kept in the dark, and the families remained as close as ever, their businesses intertwined like bone connected to bone, sinew to sinew—and they even had to return to their home country together to visit them?
Or was it because of that unfamiliar, businesslike, cold tone Cheng Zimiao had used when she'd just called to inform them of their parents' itinerary?
"…Maybe it's because of the rain."
Shi Ran smiled, brushing him off casually. "I don't like the rain. It's like the sky is crying."
Shen Lizhou was silent, his lashes lowered, casting a small, gentle shadow beneath his eyes, as if he were solving a puzzle.
A few seconds later, he suddenly rotated the umbrella handle in his hand.
The black canopy turned slowly in his grip, like a dark water lily blooming in the night.
Raindrops along the rim were flung outward, tracing graceful arcs like countless glittering fragments of stars, splashing tiny ripples on the ground.
"Maybe it's the Celestial Maiden Scattering Flowers."
He said this with a very serious tone, even somewhat obedient—so obedient that Shi Ran couldn't help but let out a "pfft" and laugh.
She suddenly remembered that she used to love spinning umbrellas like that when she was little, and that she'd also given it the fancy name "Celestial Maiden Scattering Flowers" back then.
"Childish," Shi Ran said with a smile. "Why would the Celestial Maiden suddenly scatter flowers?"
Seeing her laugh, he seemed to breathe a quiet sigh of relief and decided to press his advantage. "Because Dr. Shi treated some kittens and puppies today, so the Celestial Maiden is in a wonderful mood, scattering flowers down to bless all living beings."
Shen Lizhou always spoke in a gentle, slow manner, and whatever he said seemed earnest, like he was coaxing a child. Shi Ran felt this could be credited to him having raised his adorable, brilliantly clever younger brother, Shen Lewei. People with siblings really were a bit different from only children, she thought.
"Alright then, thank the Celestial Maiden for scattering flowers for me," Shi Ran said with a smile. "By the way, how has Lewei been lately?"
Shen Lizhou didn't answer.
She waited a few seconds, until she looked up at him with slight confusion.
This time, however, he didn't meet her gaze. He simply stared straight ahead.
Shi Ran followed his line of sight.
A black umbrella. A black luxury car. A man stood lazily beside the vehicle, a cigarette pinched between his fingers.
That point of crimson glowed and dimmed intermittently in the rainy mist. Seeing her look over, he casually extinguished it. Then, in a hoarse voice, he called to her.
"Shi Ran."
A familiar, magnetic male voice.
Perhaps filtered through the veil of rain, it carried a hint of weary softness—not quite like the usual Cheng Zimiao. Instead, it reminded Shi Ran of the time when he'd been ill and undergoing surgery.
Back then, she'd been at a veterinary hospital in a neighboring country for study and exchange. She'd rushed back upon hearing the news, dusty and travel-worn. He'd already come out of surgery, lying groggy on the hospital bed, and he'd called her name just like that.
Shi Ran. Shi Ran. Shi Ran…
She'd approached him and gripped his hand tightly. He'd suddenly woken, looked at her, blinked slowly a few times, then closed his eyes and pulled her palm to his cheek, pressing it there, mumbling small complaints. Asking why she'd taken so long to come. She'd wanted to apologize, but the words wouldn't come out. She'd only smiled and said, "Didn't you have plenty of people taking care of you?" The anesthesia seemed to have worn off by then—he quickly regained clarity, released her hand, and said wearily, "Of course."
"Why are you here?" Shi Ran unconsciously softened her voice, then quickly returned to normal. "Didn't I say I'd come find you tonight?"
Cheng Zimiao didn't answer. Those peach-blossom eyes swept over Shen Lizhou without a ripple, then he opened the car door and said to her, "Mom and Dad asked me to pick you up."
He'd reverted to that cold, aloof demeanor.
Making one feel that the moment of vulnerability had been nothing but an illusion.
Shen Lizhou stood quietly holding the umbrella, seeing Shi Ran into Cheng Zimiao's car.
Shi Ran felt somewhat unsettled.
She hadn't expected her parents to have returned to the country so soon, nor had she figured out how to break the news of their divorce to them along with Cheng Zimiao. After all, he was the son-in-law they'd carefully selected as their most satisfactory choice…
Her father would be easier to handle, but her mother had a weak heart. The earlier decision to quit playing the piano had completely crossed her, and their relationship had become strained—they'd barely spoken for a year before gradually mending things. If she told them that she was the one who'd insisted on the divorce…
As her thoughts scattered wildly, Shen Lizhou bid her farewell.
"Well then," he said softly, "Shi Ran, goodbye."
"Goodbye," Shi Ran said.
He lifted the corners of his lips in a faint smile and gently closed the car door.
The moment the door shut, much of the sound of rain was sealed away, and the world suddenly fell quiet.
Shi Ran leaned back in her seat. Through the fogged-up window, she noticed that Shen Lizhou had been soaked through by the rain on one side—while she remained clean and dry.
The umbrella he'd raised for her had never shielded him from the rain.
So he stood there, drenched, perfectly still.
The streetlamp's light filtered through the curtain of rain and fell upon him, blurring his silhouette into a hazy glow of light and shadow. That glow slowly dissolved into the downpour, as if he too might transform into a single drop of senseless rain, vanishing into the boundless night.
Shi Ran suddenly felt a pang of inexplicable unease in her chest.
She rolled down the car window, and the cold wind rushed in together with the fine threads of rain, brushing against her face.
"Shen Lizhou."
The man's vacant gaze slowly focused on her face. His forehead was damp from the rain, making his skin look even paler and colder. Tiny droplets of water clung to his eyelashes. He blinked once, then again, looking somewhat innocent. "…Hmm?"
"I want to open an animal hospital in Lotus City," she said with a smile. "Brother Lixiang said you're an expert in the field. If you have the time, would you mind helping me with some advice?"
The rain continued to fall, pattering softly against the umbrella.
He looked at her, then nodded.
"Okay."
The inexplicable sense of unease in her chest eased slightly. Shi Ran said, "Then we'll make plans another time." She added, "Why don't we bring Lewei along too? If he's not busy."
Against the light, Shi Ran couldn't make out his expression, so she urged again, "Hmm?"
The wind was strong and the rain heavy, threatening to soak her forehead as well. Shen Lizhou said, "Okay."
The car window was rolled up by Cheng Zimiao, and the wheels rolled over the waterlogged road.
Streetlamps receded one by one, their dim yellow light sweeping across Shi Ran's face in flickering passes.
The world outside the window was blurred by the rain, like a distant memory.
Shi Ran leaned against the car window, her fingertips tracing the winding trails of water on the glass.
She suddenly missed her carefree childhood.
A small boy sat by the window, his fingertips tracing the winding trails of water on the glass.
"Lizhou," his father's voice sounded from behind him, carrying a rare note of joy and calm. "Come take a look. This is your little brother, Lewei."
Little brother.
Such a strange word. Shen Lizhou slid off his chair and walked over to look carefully. The person in the cradle was soft and tiny, staring at him with round, black-grape-like eyes, babbling incoherently… such a strange child.
He reached out his hand, and the little brother reached out too, grabbing hold of his finger—he gasped in surprise, drawing his mother's attention.
"Don't touch him!" she cried out somewhat shrilly.
His father also lowered his voice and barked his mother's name: "Wanqing!"
Shen Lizhou's body stiffened. He realized something terrible was coming.
With that kind of tone, his mother and father were bound to have another earth-shattering argument.
He didn't understand why their once happy and complete family had suddenly fallen apart.
It had started about a year or two ago. His parents had gone out to attend a gathering, and when they returned, his mother smashed everything in the house that could be smashed. The home had become a powder keg that could explode at any moment.
Anything, no matter how big or small, could trigger everyone's nerves.
But strangely, this time, the anticipated argument never came.
Neither his mother nor his father spoke. Then the baby in the cradle laughed with babbling joy, breaking the suffocating silence in the living room.
"Lizhou," his mother's restrained, gentle voice sounded. Her face was pale as she said, "Go to the supermarket and buy some things for Mom."
Shen Lizhou only realized he'd forgotten his umbrella after stepping outside.
As he turned up the stairs, he heard his parents' arguing voices leaking through the crack of the door like rain.
"When you proposed, I told you clearly," his mother's voice trembled slightly. "I have a family history of hereditary mental illness. I can't have children. You said you didn't care. You said we could adopt one together…"
"Can you stop bringing up the past over and over again?" his father's voice was muffled. "We tried to adopt. We applied so many times and failed. What did you want me to do?"
"So you could openly have a child with another woman and lie to me that it was an adopted child?" His mother sobbed. "Every time I see him now, I think of those years… I taught him to paint, I told him stories. I raised him with all my heart, I loved him, and it turns out he's your bastard with someone else… Do you know that every time I look at him now, I feel sick… I want a child of my own, a child with my blood…"
"Alright, alright. I wanted a child that was truly ours too," his father said in a low voice. "But now we have Lewei, don't we? The doctor says he's very healthy. We're lucky. Let's just live well from now on…"
Shen Lizhou didn't listen any further.
A deafening roar filled his ears. His chest felt like it was being torn apart with pain. His mind went completely blank. The world suddenly felt very far away—sounds, light, air—all separated by a thick pane of glass.
He didn't know how he ended up walking into that rain.
The rain fell so hard, as if the sky itself were weeping.
Rainwater streamed down from the ends of his hair, flowing over his forehead, brows, and eyes. His soaked school uniform clung to his body, heavy as a second skin.
He walked aimlessly forward, step by step, until the faint sound of a kitten's cry drifted into his ears—thin and plaintive, like sobbing.
"Meow——"
Shen Lizhou paused mid-step and followed the sound, looking down.
A small white cat was tangled around his feet.
It was soaked through as well, its fur matted into clumps, trembling violently, looking skin and bones. In its wet, glistening eyes, his own equally drenched eyes were reflected.
Shen Lizhou slowly crouched down.
He noticed a small notch missing from the white cat's ear, its edge crusted with dark scabs. One of its front paws seemed to have a torn pad, caked with mud and blood, held up gingerly, afraid to touch the ground.
In the world of stray cats, white cats were always the least favored. Their pure white fur couldn't hide in the dark of night, couldn't conceal itself in the grass, and was deemed ugly and useless by other strays—an abandoned, superfluous, out-of-place existence.
He wanted to shield it from the rain, but he didn't have an umbrella himself.
He, too, was an abandoned, superfluous, out-of-place existence.
Shen Lizhou reached out, his fingertips brushing the top of the little white cat's head. It tilted its head up contentedly and closed its eyes.
The rain above suddenly stopped.
A pink shadow fell over them, covering him and the kitten, the umbrella's surface printed with cartoon Hello Kitty patterns.
A girl's voice rang out—crisp, sweet, and curious: "You're really popular with cats."
She tilted her head to look at the little white cat: "This little white cat just ate five of my sausages and wouldn't even let me touch it once!" As she spoke, she reached out to pet it.
Too much commotion—the little white cat slipped away in the blink of an eye, and Shen Lizhou stood up.
The little girl raised the umbrella high to follow. It was only then that she got a clear look at him: "Wow, why aren't you carrying an umbrella? You're soaked through." Then she noticed his school uniform and added a hint of envy: "Are you a student at Lianshi No. 1 Elementary?"
Shen Lizhou said nothing. The little girl pouted: "Mom won't let me go to school… How do you guys go to school? Do you also have to practice piano for ten hours every day?"
Shen Lizhou still said nothing. She blinked, stared at him steadily for a few seconds, and asked, "Are you in a bad mood?"
"Don't be upset. Let me show you my special move." Then she spun the pink cat umbrella in her hand, raindrops scattering wildly outward, and she laughed, "Look. Celestial Maiden Scattering Flowers——"