People who love drizzles are sentimental.
Those who stroll through light rain are artistic and sensitive.
Those who love downpours are passionate at heart.
And those who like getting soaked in a rainstorm without an umbrella… are just plain idiots.
Su Qingqing was the most textbook example of that last type. If personalities were sorted into case studies, she’d be a model specimen.
Ming Xue was holding a single-person umbrella, so they had to press closely together just to keep most of their bodies dry. The problem, though, was that Su Qingqing was already completely soaked.
Ming Xue had one arm wrapped around her, but soon enough, her own clothes began to dampen. The fabric clung to her skin from the moisture, the green of her dress almost translucent over her body, separated from bare flesh by just a single layer.
Only when the cold from outside pierced her chest did she truly feel how warm the girl in her arms was. Ming Xue suddenly shivered and pulled Su Qingqing closer.
"Why are you so hot even after being soaked? Are you running a fever?"
Su Qingqing squirmed a little under her hold. "Maybe it's because you're holding me too tight, Sister Ming…"
"Ah—sorry!" Ming Xue quickly released her. A brief gap formed between the two of them, and the wind, laced with rain, rushed in to fill it, immediately stealing away what little warmth she had left. She yelped softly and wrapped her arms back around Su Qingqing.
"If you’re so afraid of the cold, why’d you come to the field?" Su Qingqing asked helplessly.
"I suddenly wanted to see what campus looks like in a downpour, so I came," Ming Xue said like it was the most natural thing in the world.
What terrifying decisiveness… She just came because she wanted to?
"But what about you—why the hell didn’t you bring an umbrella?" Ming Xue puffed up angrily. This Su Su really didn’t know how to make people worry less!
"I love rainy days, dear sister," Su Qingqing said, stretching out her right hand to catch raindrops in her palm and watch them burst into a splash of scattered light.
"Are you brain-dead? Who likes getting soaked?" Ming Xue shot her a soul-searching question.
Su Qingqing stared at her in silence, then after a moment of serious reflection, reached a conclusion. "Maybe I actually am."
"Ugh…"
Ming Xue rolled her eyes. "Come on, I’m taking you back to your dorm."
Her arm wrapped tightly around Su Qingqing, leaving her no choice but to be half-dragged, half-led as they made their way toward the dormitory building.
The closer they got, the more the emptiness of campus faded, replaced by the noise and youthful chatter that defined college life. It was the third day of registration. While fewer freshmen remained, there were still some around—most of them looking distressed, doing everything they could to keep their luggage dry while letting themselves get soaked, juggling umbrellas and ponchos with clumsy effort.
"Alright, Sister Ming, you should go back. Didn’t you say today was your chance to sleep in?"
Standing in the lobby on the first floor, Su Qingqing felt unbearably heavy. Every step she took left trails of water leaking from her soaked clothes.
"No way. I’m going up with you. I need to make sure you clean up properly. Catching a cold right at the start of the semester would be terrible," Ming Xue insisted. She clearly knew the dorm matron and exchanged a few friendly words with her. Then she placed her umbrella just outside the room, took Su Qingqing’s hand, and led her upstairs without giving her any chance to object.
Su Qingqing didn’t really mind, but being treated like a child made her uncomfortable. Halfway up the stairs, on the third floor, she suddenly froze.
Crap. Yu Zhongmeng was in the dorm too!
She sneaked a glance at Ming Xue from the corner of her eye. Her little heart started pounding out of control.
Why was she nervous? It wasn’t like anything was going to happen if the two met. One was a roommate, one was a senior—it wasn’t a big deal, right?
But no matter what she told herself, her heart only beat faster.
Her body even started to stiffen up.
Ming Xue noticed her odd behavior and asked, worried, "Susu, what’s wrong? Don’t tell me you did catch a cold?"
"No… Maybe you shouldn’t come up with me, Sister Ming. I’ll go alone."
"Nope." Ming Xue shot that idea down immediately. "I promised I’d send you back last time and got caught up with something. This is me making it up to you."
"Nice!" came the chipper, mocking voice of Boss Pan in her ear. She sounded thrilled, chirping nonstop. "Su Qingqing, you really know how to spice things up. Keep going, I’m loving this!"
Su Qingqing wished she could mute her entirely—if only it were possible.
——————
Yu Zhongmeng was in an unusually good mood today. She liked rainy days. So she had moved her chair next to the window, draped in a thin, airy shawl, reading Strategies of the Warring States with the sound of wind and rain as her soundtrack.
After a few days of living together, she’d already sensed that her roommate was a bit… off. But exactly how off, she couldn’t quite put into words.
At first, she chalked it up to not having fully adjusted to her new environment. But this morning, when she woke up and saw the pot of hot water placed neatly on her desk, her heartstrings twitched unexpectedly.
All those small coincidences and strange synchronicities, they all traced back to Su Qing.
"Su Qing…qing…" Yu Zhongmeng murmured. She was feeling oddly restless. She placed her book down on the sink counter, crossed one leg delicately over the other, and rested her cheek against her hand, spacing out.
A door opened behind her. Even as her face remained expressionless, a flicker of heat stirred in her chest—something she hadn’t even realized was there.
She stood up abruptly and turned around.
The door swung open.
Standing there was a completely drenched Su Qingqing. Her usually sleek black hair now clung to her body, making her look utterly pitiful. The corners of her eyes were tinged red—probably from the cold.
"Su…"
Yu Zhongmeng opened her mouth, ready to say her name—until her gaze fell on the person behind her.
Tall, nearly 170 centimeters—a height already considered statuesque among girls. The green dress she wore was damp down one side, probably from Su Qingqing’s soaked clothes. Yu Zhongmeng noticed it immediately.
And somewhere inside her, something quietly clicked into place.
She was already comparing herself to this stranger.
Sometimes, unspoken instincts had no logic. Perhaps it was because today, she had also worn green.
She was the cold, elegant peacock. The girl behind Su Qingqing was the ivy flourishing in the rain. One represented silvery aloofness; the other, vibrant vitality. Natural-born opposites.
Su Qingqing held her breath with all her might. She had no desire to get dragged into any kind of drama. She quickly opened the wardrobe and began searching for clean clothes. Her only goal now was to dash into the bathroom and disappear.
Ming Xue, meanwhile, caught a whiff of hostility from the gorgeous girl behind the glass door. It confused her.
"Maybe she has really strong territorial instincts?" she thought. "Like, she sees me entering the dorm and feels threatened or something?"
Like a little tiger cub. Ming Xue mused.
"Hello, I'm Ming Xue, class assistant for Susu's class," she said warmly. "But feel free to come to me if you need anything too!"
Yu Zhongmeng’s heart gave a sudden jolt. Susu?
She looked toward Su Qingqing, who was trying to hide behind the wardrobe. That rare, almost frozen expression on her face had started to thaw.
Yu Zhongmeng quietly dragged her chair back toward the center of the dorm and extended her right hand toward Ming Xue. "Nice to meet you, Senior. I'm Yu Zhongmeng. You can call me Mengmeng."
"Nice to meet you, Mengmeng." Ming Xue sighed in relief. So this girl wasn’t as hard to talk to as she’d seemed.
"Come on in."
Yu Zhongmeng turned to Su Qingqing and asked softly, with a hint of puzzlement, "Why are you soaking wet, Susu?"
Susu froze like a startled cat.
(End of Chapter)