Pu Yu's illness hit hard.
It was as though all the tears and exhaustion she had stored up over the past year had erupted at once.
Her high fever subsided, then returned, over and over.
She slept entire days away, unable to tell day from night.
Her dreams always took her back to that damp rainy season.
Sometimes she dreamed of the repair shop. Yuan Su sat at the workbench fixing a desk lamp while she leaned over her exercises beside him, the fan whirring and carrying the scent of rosin.
Sometimes she dreamed they were watching the sunrise on North Mountain. Yuan Su suddenly said, "I have to go," then turned and jumped off the cliff. Distraught, she reached out to grab him, but caught only a handful of cold, damp mist.
The clearest dream was of Auntie Lu.
In it, Auntie Lu sat in her wheelchair, her face pale but her smile gentle.
She said, "Little Rain, don't blame A Su. He did it to protect you."
Pu Yu asked through her tears, "Then where is he going?"
Auntie Lu only shook her head.
Then the whole dream began to collapse, like paper soaked until it fell apart.
Every time Pu Yu woke with a start, her pillow was wet with tears.
"Yuan Su..."
She cried out his name, her voice shattered beyond recognition.
A doctor from the town clinic had come to see her and said that prolonged exposure to the rain, combined with extreme emotional distress, had brought on a high fever and mild pneumonia.
The doctor prescribed some medicine and told her to rest, stressing that she must not catch another chill.
Li Suhua was heartbroken. Although her back injury had not fully healed, she still forced herself to care for Pu Yu, helping her