Chapter 27.

 The days of the third year of high school can basically be described in just four words — "tactical drilling in problem sets."

All the ambiguous restlessness, anxiety, and even tangled pain of adolescence can be buried in the vast and complex exercises. Everyone is like numb donkeys, their fingers and eyes kidnapped by exercise books, desperately trying to grasp the tail of the college entrance examination, putting all their effort into studying.

But even with all that effort, time still flies by, like it's wound up on a spring.

In a daze, the days passed until the Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Spring Festival, the last day of joyful family gatherings, a festival of sorts.

The school mercifully canceled evening self-study. After the last class ended at half past five, students should have rushed out of the school gates like untamed horses, joining the crowded rivers of people to celebrate... but they were stopped by a sudden downpour.

Bai Xunyin looked out the window at the gray sky, where drizzling rain mixed with snow was carried by cold winds, making it seem chilly.

She couldn't help but furrow her brow in slight headache.

Linlan was a city with frequent rainy seasons, yet it rarely rained from November to March.

During this season each year, people wouldn't carry umbrellas as usual but instead checked the weather forecast before going out. Yet the weather forecast clearly stated it would be sunny on the Lantern Festival.

It seemed unreliable, causing inconvenience to many.

Once it started raining in Linlan, it would often continue endlessly, catching those without umbrellas in the rain and forcing them to catch cold.

For a moment, even the most rebellious students in the school were not brave enough to rush out into this icy world of snow and rain. Except for a few lucky ones with umbrellas, the majority of students were trapped inside.

The evening self-study that the school had specially canceled seemed to be of no use now.

"Ah, it's so annoying." Amo also looked out the window and complained softly as he held Bai Xunyin's elbow, "Why is it raining again? My mom said my grandmother and the others are coming to our house today, and she asked me to come back early..."

"Ning Shumo." As she was talking endlessly, Sheng Wen passed by and took over her words with a clear and cold teenage voice, casually swinging the umbrella in his hand.

—He was also one of the few 'lucky ones' who brought an umbrella.

Amo was stunned, somewhat unexpectedly staring at him blankly for a moment without realizing what he meant.

Instead, Bai Xunyin quietly pushed her arm, and Amo turned to look, reading a hint of meaning in her normally calm eyes.

"Ah." Amo came to his senses, and the usually straightforward girl showed a trace of 'shyness,' hesitatingly asking, "Are you going to take me home? Should we share an umbrella?"

......

This girl always had a knack for asking awkward questions.

Sheng Wen's face flashed with a hint of embarrassment, only briefly responding with two words, "On the way."

Amo's heart instantly burst into a burst of colorful fireworks, her eyes curved — then, putting friendship aside, she followed Sheng Wen.

Bai Xunyin couldn't help but laugh and cry, sent a WeChat message to Amo who was still chattering away with a '[run duck]' emoji, then put away her phone and focused her gaze back on the papers on her desk.

Since the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon, it was better to take advantage of the opportunity to review yesterday's test papers. She still wasn't clear about the last physics problem.

Yu Luoyin, sitting two seats away, saw this scene and couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing.

Vacation and dismissal were always the most exciting words for students. The rain that interrupted the 'celebration' made people even more restless. But for Bai Xunyin, these external noises and surprises were nothing at all.

She was like a calm and precise instrument, always walking the righteous and correct path, her heart unwavering amidst the chaotic world around her.

It seemed that all the turmoil around her had nothing to do with her small corner of the world.

Yu Luoyin slightly narrowed his long, narrow black eyes, finding it quite interesting to watch.

In the past, he rarely had moments where he observed a young girl so carefully, often just approaching openly without understanding the concept of 'distance.'

Nowadays... familiarity breeds caution, and he could only watch from afar, finding it quite intriguing.

Yu Luoyin thought with interest, absentmindedly playing with the umbrella in the desk.

Next to him, Zhou Xin suddenly noticed his movement and inexplicably asked, "Why are you waiting here with an umbrella? Aren't you going home?"

"Never mind." Yu Luoyin threw the umbrella to him, "You go first."

Zhou Xin had been waiting for this moment and took it without hesitation, walking away.

Once this guy left, Li Yuan and Lu Ye, who came late for help, complained incessantly about this damn weather.

Yu Luoyin ignored them as they nagged beside him, his black eyes always looking faintly at Bai Xunyin's straight back, her profile...

His gaze burned with intensity.

"When will this damn rain calm down? Canceling evening self-study was pointless, damn it... Yu Ge, what are you looking at?" In the middle of Lu Ye's complaining, he realized that the person in front of him hadn't even looked at him. He followed his gaze to find that it had been fixed on something not far away.

Lu Ye couldn't help but feel a bit strange — what were these two doing? Why weren't they talking in a classroom, but instead staring so eagerly?

He scratched his head, and with his straightforward manner, he went over to talk to them, "Bai Xunyin, you..."

As soon as he started, Bai Xunyin sharply closed the book she was looking at, the crisp sound interrupting Lu Ye's words.

Then she swiftly packed up her things on the table, took her bag, and left the noisy classroom, completely ignoring him with a cold expression and not even giving him a glance.

Lu Ye's inner turmoil at this moment could be described as being struck dumbfounded, dumbfoundedly watching Bai Xunyin's slender figure leave the classroom.

And Yu Luoyin, who had been lingering, suddenly stood up, quickly catching up.

"This," Lu Ye stiffly turned his head, bewilderedly asking Li Yuan behind him, "Did I offend Bai Xunyin? What's going on?"

"Who knows?" Li Yuan smirked, but looked at the rain outside that hadn't diminished. Thinking about the two just rushing out without an umbrella... he pondered for a moment, "Come on, let's go outside and see."

The two of them followed and ran outside, swiftly descending the stairs to the front of the teaching building.

Through the glass door, they could see from afar Bai Xunyin and Yu Luoyin running out one after another.

In the icy world, the two of them seemed to be acting out some kind of 'idol drama' — Yu Luoyin was indeed a manly man, for the sake of being cool, he didn't care about the freezing wind and rain, took off his school uniform to cover the girl's head, leaving himself only in a white shirt, instantly getting soaked and clinging tightly to his well-defined body.

Lu Ye and Li Yuan were left speechless by what they witnessed.

What was even more shocking was that Bai Xunyin seemed unaffected by the situation. With a tug, she threw the school uniform back onto Yu Luoyin, her fair face wet from the rain, looking cold and stubborn, lips pursed, and then turned and ran.

The two quickly disappeared from sight, their recent scene seeming particularly unreal.

"This..." Lu Ye pondered Bai Xunyin's attitude, hesitatingly asking, "Are they fighting?"

Li Yuan remained silent, then after a while, shook his head with a serious expression.

He belatedly remembered that Yu Luoyin always kept an umbrella in his desk drawer, yet today he deliberately used his clothes as an umbrella, clearly intending to play the "sick man strategy," but the purpose was either to soften the girl's heart or to win her favor.

But given Yu Luoyin and Bai Xunyin's current relationship, he shouldn't need to resort to these tricks again, right?

Could it be... their relationship had broken down?

---

Yu Luoyin was getting on Bai Xunyin's nerves by sticking close to her.

In the school playground, she rejected his makeshift "umbrella" made from the school uniform, tossing it back on him without hesitation, expecting the proud boy to be embarrassed and lose his temper. She didn't expect Yu Luoyin to follow her without shame.

He didn't seem to be doing it intentionally. He didn't put on the school uniform he had just taken off and instead walked around in a wet white shirt, which looked cold. Yu Luoyin's black hair was also soaked, just like hers.

Bai Xunyin felt like she was in an ice cellar all over her body, turning her head away indifferently, ignoring everything.

"Fool, aren't you cold?" Yu Luoyin seemed determined to stick around, relentlessly following her, insistently draping the school uniform he had used to protect himself around her. "Put this on first."

Annoyed, Bai Xunyin pulled it off and threw it on the ground—a blue and white school uniform instantly stained.

"I only have two school uniforms. I don't know how I'm supposed to handle it now that one's dirty. You still threw it?" Yu Luoyin laughed helplessly in the cold rain, teasingly. "Bai Xunyin, do you have any sympathy?"

He pretended to be pitiful, his face freezing white in the cold rain, black eyes fixed on her.

Bai Xunyin's mind flashed with the words "ridiculous."

The culprit was accusing her of lacking sympathy.

With a sarcastic curve on her lips, Bai Xunyin avoided him and quickly ran to the bus stop.

She couldn't ride her bike in such heavy rain, so she had to take the bus.

The bus station was crowded with people seeking shelter, like pigeons in a crowded cage, but there were few who actually got on the bus.

Bai Xunyin arrived just in time for the No. 108 bus she wanted to catch. She agilely jumped on, moving so quickly that Yu Luoyin, who was staring at her without blinking, almost couldn't keep up.

His eyes stung from the rain, Yu Luoyin stepped onto the bus, oblivious to the fact that Bai Xunyin was rapidly disappearing from his sight.

The first time he felt embarrassed under the public eye.

"Two dollars, can't even handle a bus ride..." he didn't even have the money to take the bus. Yu Luoyin couldn't help but laugh at himself.

But his face seemed to be able to be fed in this situation. A middle-aged woman around fifty years old saw Yu Luoyin's handsome and pitiful appearance, instantly acting like a typical middle-aged woman, her eyes full of motherly love.

"Oh, why is this young man so wet like this? Didn't bring money for the bus?" The plump woman took out two yuan coins and threw them into the coin slot, "Auntie will pay for you."

Yu Luoyin's broken eyes slowly gathered, and he smiled softly, "Thank you, auntie."

He insisted on scanning five yuan to the aunt's phone, then stepped into the bus with a shallow water on the floor.

Standing beside Bai Xunyin like a shadow.

The long fingers held on the moist stainless steel handles on the bus, feeling very cold.

Yu Luoyin's eyes were unconsciously on the handle of the bus, and Bai Xunyin's slender fingers were so pale and red that he could see them.

He seemed to have been only a few times in his life.

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