Xu Suiran
Twenty-One Letters in the Rain
Biodata
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Xu Suiran (许岁然) 5 |
| Alias(es) | Suisui; Sui Sui — affectionate names used by Pu Yu 6 37 |
| Gender | Female 5 |
| Affiliation | Tingnan Middle School; Class Two, Senior Year 19 24 |
| Occupation/Role | Science-track student; lunchtime school-radio host 9 36 |
| First Appearance | Chapter 5, “The Sunken Light of Days Gone By” 5 |
Background / History
Xu Suiran’s parents run a grain and cooking oil shop in Whitebank Town. The family lives above the shop in a small two-story building, with a landline used for business. Her parents hope that studying science will give her enough mathematical ability to handle the shop’s payments without losing money 9 47.
Her family was among those affected by Yuan Su’s father’s debts: her parents lent him eight thousand yuan, which remained unpaid. Seeing Yuan Su’s family collapse changed how she viewed her own supportive home and her worries about the future 9 11.
Appearance
- Eyes: Round eyes, later described as almond-shaped 5 48.
- Hair: Wears a ponytail; on one rushed morning, her hair sticks up “like a bird’s nest” 5 13.
- School clothing: Wears a blue-and-white uniform when accompanying Pu Yu to the internet café 15.
Personality
Xu Suiran is outgoing, affectionate, and quick to welcome others. She links arms with Pu Yu, enthusiastically shows her around school, and readily offers food or help. Her generosity is attentive rather than merely extravagant: noticing Pu Yu’s plain lunch and single bottle of soda, she divides the drink equally; when she suspects Pu Yu has skipped breakfast, she tricks her into taking a bun 5 9 13.
She is fiercely protective of her friend. She improvises an explanation to save Pu Yu from public humiliation over counterfeit money, refuses to let her visit the internet café alone, and sharply answers Zhou Tingting’s attempts to belittle her academic results 6 15 22.
Her dramatic complaints rarely last long. She quickly moves from despair over an exam answer to planning a holiday outing, and celebrates the end of midterms despite calling her results a disaster. She also enjoys romantic gossip, taking a particular interest in Pu Yu and Yuan Su’s growing closeness 18 20 28 37.
School Life
| Area | Details |
|---|---|
| Academic habits | Sometimes rushes unfinished homework and asks to copy Pu Yu’s answers. She also borrows Pu Yu’s Chinese paper to copy its answers 14 22. |
| Mathematics | Fails a monthly mathematics exam, prompting her mother to cut most of her pocket money 27. |
| Physics | Complains that Teacher Wang’s lessons make her sleepy 9. |
| Peer support | Becomes Song Jinnian’s deskmate under the academic-support arrangement. He patiently explains problems but also monitors her studying, note-passing, and magazine reading 24 47. |
| School radio | Hosts the lunchtime broadcast and plays Pu Yu’s dedication of “Sunny Day” to the absent Yuan Su 36. |
Relationships
- Pu Yu — Close friend. Their friendship begins with Xu Suiran’s welcome lunch and becomes an inseparable companionship. She supports Pu Yu’s studies, defends her, and encourages her ambition to write professionally 5 9 22 47 48.
- Yuan Su — Classmate whose former academic success and family troubles she remembers. Initially wary of his temper, she is surprised by his patience with Pu Yu and later suspects him of secretly giving her the repaired Walkman. Despite her curiosity about him, she still barely knows him personally when visiting his shop 5 10 11 28 37.
- Song Jinnian — Deskmate and class monitor. She resents his strict study supervision, likening him to her father, though Pu Yu points out his patience and concern for her progress 24 47.
- Li Suhua — Pu Yu’s grandmother, whom she visits and affectionately addresses as Grandma. She offers family help with the leaking roof and joins Pu Yu’s birthday celebration at home 26 32 49.
- Zhou Tingting — Classmate she confronts for mocking Pu Yu’s Chinese score and dismissing her success as luck 22.
- Parents — Supportive shopkeepers who provide her with a stable home, but also impose consequences for poor grades 9 27.
- Uncle — A bricklayer whom she offers to ask for help repairing Pu Yu’s roof; her father has learned some building skills from him 32.
Story Role / Major Arcs
| Chapters | Events |
|---|---|
| Welcoming Pu Yu | Buys the new student lunch when the meal-card office is closed and explains Yuan Su’s history. During the counterfeit-money incident, she invents a story about a stranger exchanging banknotes, then pulls Pu Yu away from the crowd and checks on her 5 6. |
| Friendship and the competition request | Shares Pu Yu’s thank-you soda in a toast to their friendship. Later accompanies her to deliver Teacher Wang’s physics-competition request to Yuan Su. After his refusal, Pu Yu challenges her description of him as “pitiful,” explaining why pity can deny his efforts 9 15 16. |
| National Day outing | Guides Pu Yu around the county town and bargains a cassette player down to eighty-eight yuan, intending to buy it for her. Yuan Su exposes the player as a refurbished fake. Xu Suiran invites him to travel home with them and tries to have Pu Yu offer him candy on the bus 18 19 20. |
| Seating changes and the Walkman | Nearly tells Cheng Siyi about Pu Yu’s declaration that she wants to remain Yuan Su’s deskmate forever. After moving beside Song Jinnian, she denies buying the Walkman left on Pu Yu’s desk and suggests Yuan Su as its likely giver 24 27 28. |
| Practical help and shared company | Offers to enlist her father and uncle to inspect Pu Yu’s leaking roof once the weather clears. Later visits Yuan Su’s repair shop with strawberry milk and chips to celebrate the end of midterms 32 37. |
| Supporting Pu Yu’s writing | Lets Pu Yu use the family telephone to ask an editorial office about submissions. She also tells Song Jinnian that Pu Yu needs essay materials, leading him to bring over an organized collection 47. |
| Year-end birthday | Remembers Pu Yu’s December 31 birthday from a student-record entry she saw after the transfer. Arranges a tiramisu cake, gives her a black fountain pen and white leather notebook, and joins the candlelit celebration with Li Suhua 48 49. |
Notable Quotes
“Woo! To our friendship!” 9
“The snack shop’s nowhere near as important as you!” 47
“Then I’ll stand in a really long line at your book signing and proudly tell your readers—I believed in you when you were only seventeen!” 48
Trivia
- Sweet-and-sour ribs are her favorite cafeteria dish; she calls the school’s orange soda its best offering 5 9.
- Enjoys romance magazines and asks Pu Yu to hide two of them from Song Jinnian’s supervision 18 24 47.
- Frequently struggles to wake up early and sometimes gives up walking to school with Pu Yu so she can sleep longer 8 13 27.
- Li Suhua secretly slips twenty yuan into her schoolbag after Pu Yu’s birthday celebration, unwilling to leave the cake entirely at Xu Suiran’s expense 49.