Shen Heng was tending to the flowers when he received a call from the neighbourhood committee, urging him to go over immediately. The caller remained vague, providing no specific details before abruptly ending the call.
Worried that it might be something important, Shen Heng grabbed an umbrella and dashed through the rain to the community centre. In the end, it turned out that they were just distributing benefits to retired veteran cadres, and wanted him to collect cooking essential ingredients.
As for why they insisted on having people pick up those benefits in heavy rain, it could only be said that such mysterious operations happened sporadically.
Outside, the rain showed no sign of relenting; on the contrary, it intensified.
Despite having an umbrella, it proved almost useless. By the time he returned home, most of his body was drenched.
He used his key to open the door, only to find that while the lock had turned, the door refused to budge, as if it were blocked by an unseen force.
Just as he was about to push hard, the door unexpectedly swung open from the inside.
Shen Heng, suddenly losing momentum, almost collided with someone.
The one blocking the door was Zhai Yao. Upon seeing Shen Heng, he spat out a sharp and fierce retort, “Damn it, where the hell were you?!”
Shen Heng provided no explanation. His gaze shifted from Zhai Yao’s face to Shen Ziyao, who was right behind Zhai Yao, and he almost instantly grasped the situation.
He placed the bags of cooking essential ingredients on the ground, pushed Zhai Yao aside, and asked Shen Ziyao, “What are you trying to do?”
Shen Ziyao, seeing that Shen Heng was completely soaked, frowned at first but ultimately disregarded him, anxiously saying, “I can’t find the piano shop’s business card, so I want to go to the piano shop to have them come and tune the piano. My daughter still needs to practise the piano when she returns!”
Shen Heng’s expression darkened as he glanced at the opened piano stool. He reached out to pull Shen Ziyao.
Shen Ziyao waved him away, producing a crisp “slap” sound in the air. He stomped his feet in frustration. “Aiya, why on earth are you guys so insistent on stopping me?! My daughter has a piano performance next week!”
Without heeding the interruption, Shen Ziyao attempted to rush out once more.
In response, Shen Heng forcefully kicked the door shut and locked the door.
Shen Ziyao was thoroughly enraged, trembling with intensity as he pointed accusingly at Shen Heng. “Who do you think you are! Stay out of our family matters!”
“I’m definitely meddling today, no matter what!” Shen Heng let out a low bellow in anger, seizing Shen Ziyao’s hands together and attempting to carry him towards the bedroom.
Afraid that Shen Heng might not control his force well and unintentionally injure Shen Ziyao, Zhai Yao hurriedly grabbed Shen Heng’s arm. “You might hurt him.”
“What did you say to him?” Shen Heng suddenly asked in a cold tone, while his gaze towards Zhai Yao brimmed with clear hostility and gloom.
Zhai Yao was initially stunned, then his mood quickly shifted to anger. “What the hell could I possibly say! Your grandpa just suddenly became like this!”
Shen Heng probably realized he, himself, had overreacted due to his own heightened emotions; he paid no further attention to Zhai Yao, and as he was dragging Shen Ziyao away, he uttered without looking back, “You can go now.”
Zhai Yao thought to himself: This situation has already got to this point; Laozi doesn’t even wanna dip in your family’s muddy water anymore. With that, he promptly unlocked and opened the door to exit.
Witnessing Zhai Yao about to leave, Shen Ziyao launched into another vigorous resistance, yelling at the top of his lungs, “Grandson, call the police, quickly call the police!”
Shen Heng freed up one hand and forcefully slammed the door shut with a “bang.” In an instant, the world fell silent, with only the sound of the pouring rain outside.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Zhai Yao stared at the closed door, muttering a curse under his breath after a long while, “For f*ck’s sake.”
…
In the afternoon, the sky darkened under the onset of rain, casting an ambience akin to evening.
Occasionally, on the street, one or two unfortunate souls without umbrellas could be seen running madly in the rain while shielding their heads, only to be showered with splashes of dirty water by passing cars.
Zhai Yao was precisely one of those unfortunate souls.
Meanwhile, at the far end of Dragonfly Alley, Zhai Bing and Xiao Lajiao were each holding a watermelon, eating and enjoying the rain from home. From a distance, they noticed a person drenched from head to toe running towards them.
Zhai Bing pointed and chuckled to Xiao Lajiao: —Look at that! What a big fool!
Just as the big fool got closer, she realized it was actually her younger brother and hurriedly rushed to open the door for Zhai Yao.
“Oh my days!” Zhai Bing looked at Zhai Yao, soaked from head to toe. She wanted to wipe him down but hesitated, taking a step back. “Hurry up and take a hot bath!”
Zhai Yao, feeling almost hypothermic, couldn’t stop shivering. As soon as he entered the house, he let out a loud sneeze.
“What were you… doing out there? Didn’t you know to find a spot to seek shelter from the rain first?”
“Make way.” Zhai Yao circumvented Zhai Bing, heading quickly towards the bathroom. Under his breath, he muttered, “I’m gonna damn well kill him tomorrow.”
That night, whether it was because the previous cold hadn’t fully recovered or because he was genuinely weakened, Zhai Yao ended up with a fever. Wrapped in a blanket, he lay in bed, experiencing alternating bouts of chills and fever, with every joint aching.
Zhai Bing brewed some cold medicine and handed it to him. Sitting by the bedside, she observed Zhai Yao’s subtle expressions, eager to speak yet hesitant.
Zhai Yao glanced at Zhai Bing from his side view. “What’s up?”
Zhai Bing blinked her big eyes. “Nothing, just showing some concern for you.”
Zhai Yao felt that Zhai Bing wasn’t being completely truthful, but he paid no heed to her.
Zhai Bing poked Zhai Yao with her finger. “Come on, spill the beans. Where did you go? I asked Xie-zi, and he said you didn’t go to the skating rink today.”
Zhai Yao shrank away, avoiding Zhai Bing’s hand, but she persisted.
Zhai Yao clicked his tongue. “Stop bothering me.”
Zhai Bing said with a gossipy expression on her face, “Do you know what you’re reminding me of right now?”
Zhai Yao didn’t want to listen, but Zhai Bing continued with her monologue, “It reminds me of when I first fell in love.”
“.”
Zhai Bing: “It was the sports committee member from the class next door, what was his name again? At that time, many girls in my class secretly had a crush on him, but he just so happened to like me. After every lesson, he would come to my class, take my water bottle, and fetch hot water for me… Later, we had a fight, though I forgot why. It was also raining heavily that day. I ran out from his house without even taking an umbrella and ran back home just like that. That night, I had a fever, and you got so angry, saying you would kill him… Hey, do you still remember?”
“I forgot.” Zhai Yao closed his eyes and turned over.
“Yaoyao, are you perhaps…”
“No, don’t have, don’t talk nonsense.”
“Alright, alright, don’t have…” Zhai Bing wanted to continue chatting with him, but Zhai Yao had already tuned her out entirely. So, she had no choice but to stand up and leave. “Rest well. Don’t go to school if you still feel unwell tomorrow morning.”
As she walked out, she was still muttering to herself while closing the door for Zhai Yao. “Hmm, what was his name…”
Zhai Yao was utterly speechless about his sister’s love-infused mind. He reached out to turn off the bedside lamp.
As his consciousness drifted into muddliness, a name suddenly popped into his mind: Zhang Shipeng.
That was the sports committee member’s name.
After Zhai Yao found out that Zhang Shipeng was flirting ambiguously with other girls while pursuing Zhai Bing, he sternly chased the latter for three streets and gave him a beating. This made the other party so frightened that he avoided Zhai Bing whenever he crossed path with her.
That incident also led to a big argument between Zhai Bing and Zhai Yao.
Thinking about it now, Liang Hao was way too inferior to Zhang Shipeng. At least Zhang Shipeng came from a wealthy family and wouldn’t leech off Zhai Bing.
Zhai Yao slept heavily, in a drowsy and deep state. In his dreams, sometimes he was dribbling a ball with Zhai Bing in front of their house when they were kids, sometimes it was a speeding train passing by, and sometimes it was his parents standing at the end of a pitch-black mountain road, waving at him.
Upon waking up, he found himself drenched in sweat. His body was still in intense pain, and judging by the sensation, it seemed he was still running a fever.
Zhai Yao was thinking of getting up to pour himself a glass of water in the living room when his phone on the bedside table suddenly lit up. Zhai Yao opened it, seeing a new friend request.
—”111″ has requested to add you as a friend through “Xie-zi”’s introduction.
Zhai Yao didn’t think much and directly accepted.
Just as he was about to toss the phone aside after seeing no response from the other side, the chat window suddenly displayed, “The other party is typing…”
The other party typed for a long time without outputting anything, as if they hadn’t mastered pinyin.
Zhai Yao moved his fingers and sent a “?” over.
The other party started typing again.
【111: Did you get rained on?】
Zhai Yao’s intuition probably guessed who the other person was, but logically he felt it was unlikely.
【111: I’m Shen Heng.】
Okay, intuition was more accurate.
Zhai Yao immediately thought of blacklisting the other person.
“111” acted even faster.
【111: I went downstairs to bring you an umbrella, but you’ve already left.】
【111: Grandpa is fine; he has forgotten everything after a sleep.】
After that, “111” stayed quiet for a while, and Zhai Yao was about to blacklist him again.
—”111″ is typing…
【111: He hasn’t had an episode in a long time. I thought you asked him about the piano.】
【111: Sorry.】
“111” didn’t continue anymore. Zhai Yao, as if possessed, waited for a while, then tapped the keyboard—
【Out-of-reach: Oh.】
After sending that, he watched with wide-open eyes as a conspicuous, red exclamation mark appeared in the chat window.
Zhai Yao: “……?”
F*ck!
…
The following day, Zhai Yao ultimately opted not to take a leave. Zhai Bing’s bestie was coming to their house today, and he thought that perhaps he could find a more peaceful rest within the confines of the school.
The rain-soaked streets hadn’t entirely dried up, and the rising temperature hung heavily in the air, creating a damp and stifling atmosphere. Zhai Yao shook his still heavy head, bought a bottle of iced cola from the convenience shop right outside the school’s entrance, and chugged it down.
When he entered the classroom, Song Kai, seated in the first row, extended a greeting to him. Because Song Kai often accompanied Yang Ning and Xiao Lajiao for the dance lessons, he thought that he had established some preliminary acquaintance with Zhai Yao.
However, Zhai Yao’s gaze immediately made him lose that self-confidence again.
Zhai Yao, bearing a heavy mood, walked from the aisle to the back row. He dropped his backpack, took out the stool and sat down, and rested his head on the desk, wholly disregarding the inquisitive looks from his desk partner.
He didn’t want to meet Shen Heng’s gaze, fearing that he might not be able to refrain himself from engaging in fisticuffs with the other party. Considering his current physical condition, he probably still couldn’t beat the latter.
His surroundings hushed for a moment. Soon after, the soft swish of movement was heard, accompanied by the gentle scrape of a chair against the floor. Then, a hand reached towards Zhai Yao’s forehead.
“Get lost.”
Zhai Yao didn’t bother lifting his head.
The hand hesitated in mid-air for a moment, but eventually rested on his forehead briefly before retracting.
“You have a fever.”
Zhai Yao chuckled coldly within: Who are you pretending to be a good person for? You knew damn well deep down who was responsible for this.
The person beside stood up. “Let’s go to the hospital.”
Seeing Zhai Yao’s continued silence, he paused again before pressing on, “A high fever can easily turn you into a fool.”
Zhai Yao had ten thousand different foul words stuck in his throat. He straightened up, staring at Shen Heng with a murderous look, contemplating which curse to throw at him first.
Finally, he spoke hoarsely, “How dare you f*cking delete me?”
…
I’m mad 😡 ZY isn’t perfect but he came to see SH’s grandpa just to help him and he was thrown out under the rain like some trash. -1 for you SH 😆
That’s what made him boiling mad 😂 not the fact that shen heng let him drenched in rain lmaooo
/inserts that tiny chick holding a knife meme/ 👈 This is literally zhai yao when he said that 😂 (doesn’t help that he was sick too)