Six in the morning, on the airport expressway.
The wipers swung frantically back and forth, but could never clear the windshield. One second, a road sign was still visible; the next, the rain coated the glass like paste, leaving nothing outside clearly visible.
Luo Bisheng gripped the steering wheel, his arms tense, as the car crawled through the downpour like a snail. "Bro, this rain is freaky. You think the planes will chicken out too and refuse to fly?"
Wang Xiaoliang scrolled on his phone with his thumb, the screen lighting his face. Fucheng's weather showed a red warning for torrential rain, the red glaring at him. He switched to Jiangcheng, where a bright sun icon sat on the screen.
"Surely not. I still haven't received a text." The moment he finished speaking, the phone vibrated in his palm.
A notification popped up from the airline app-[Your flight has been canceled due to weather conditions].
A text message followed right after.
Wang Xiaoliang switched back to the booking app. Every flight on the homepage was grayed out, marked with a little padlock. Fucheng to Jiangcheng? Gray. Fucheng via Yangcheng? Gray. Pengcheng, Hangcheng-anything departing Fucheng was completely grayed out.
He processed the refund.
Then he opened 12306. Every train passing through Jiangcheng had the glaring words "Service suspended" in its status field.
"Slow down." Wang Xiaoliang slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Looks like I won't be getting back today."
"Tsk." Luo Bisheng turned the wheel and took the car down the exit ramp. "Come on, let's get beef offal! Heaven's asking its guest to stay. We ought to oblige. Maybe Fucheng can't bear to let you go and wants you to keep me company supervising the work for another couple of days. Ha!"
"Look at you, gloating." Wang Xiaoliang