The Rain Stops

Cen Xia hung up the phone and entered the hospital room. Ding Yiheng and Fang Sheng were already fast asleep.

Shi Su had finished his meal and cleared the small table by his bed himself. Now, with his head turned to the side, he gazed expectantly at Cen Xia as he came through the door.

Cen Xia raised a hand and turned off the main light, leaving only a small bedside lamp that cast a soft, dim glow. He walked to the bed and asked quietly, "What's wrong?"

In the dim light, Shi Su's face was slightly flushed. He asked in an equally low voice, "Who changed my clothes?"

His reaction time was ridiculously slow. He had been awake for almost an hour before noticing that his clothes had been changed. Not only his clothes, but even his underwear wasn't the pair he had worn that day.

"I did." Cen Xia looked completely at ease. "You were soaked. How could I leave you in wet clothes?"

Shi Su's face turned beet red in a flash, but luckily the light was too dim for Cen Xia to see it.

"My, my clothes, the ones I changed out of, where are they?" His eyelashes trembled as he stammered out the question.

"I washed and dried them in the infirmary laundry room. Why? Was there something important in them?"

"There was a necklace in my jacket pocket, but it wasn't anything valuable." Shi Su shook his head.

Hearing that, Cen Xia hurried to fetch the dried clothes and stuffed the whole pile into his hands.

Underwear included.

It was even right on top. Shi Su spotted his gray pair at a glance, and his face flushed red again.

"Quick, check if it's still there. If it isn't, I'll go look for it in the laundry room."

Like someone covering his ears while stealing a bell, Shi Su shoved the gray pair to the bottom. His eyes were full of embarrassment as he rummaged through his uniform jacket pockets with slightly trembling hands.

His fingertips brushed against something hard.

He took it out and saw that the silver chain had broken in two. Only one star-shaped pendant remained, hanging alone from the chain. Shi Su searched everything inside and out, but couldn't find the other one.

The other one must have been lost.

Cen Xia frowned at the sight. "Is it broken? I'm sorry, I forgot to check the pockets before washing them..."

Shi Su shook his head. "It's all right. It wasn't anything valuable in the first place."

A lie.

Cen Xia thought this as he watched Shi Su's lowered gaze. If it wasn't valuable, why had he asked for it first thing?

"I'll go check the laundry room."

"There's no need..."

Shi Su had only just raised his hand and hadn't had time to stop him when, with a click, Cen Xia had already opened the door and quickly gone out.

The dimly lit corridor was deserted. The window at the far end hadn't been shut properly, and the wind had blown it open a crack. Howling gusts, carrying cold spray, forced their way through the gap.

The rain was coming down far too hard.

Cen Xia switched on his phone's flashlight and searched the floor bit by bit. But the pendant was too small; he remembered it being only as big as a thumb when Shi Su held it. It was very difficult to find.

From the hospital room to the corridor, he found nothing, which meant it hadn't been dropped along the way.

That left the laundry room as the only place it could have been lost.

His gaze searched bit by bit, from the washing machine to the dryer. Cen Xia reached inside and felt all around, but found nothing.

He lay on the floor and looked carefully to see if it had rolled into a corner.

Finally, beneath the side of the washing machine, he found the other star pendant gleaming silver.

Once he had it in his hand, Cen Xia breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, it hadn't been lost.

The little star lay in his palm, its five irregular points shimmering with color.

It made a pair with the one Shi Su had, one large and one small, mirror images of each other.

It was quite pretty.

On his way back, Cen Xia ran into Shi Su, who had grown worried when he didn't return and had come out to look for him.

At the sight of him, Shi Su breathed a sigh of relief. He was wearing the clothes Cen Xia had changed him into himself, his hair lay limply against his cheeks, and his face was still a little pale.

Cen Xia opened his hand to show him the star. "I found it."

Shi Su lowered his eyes and quietly watched the star sleeping in his palm. After a long while, he took it from Cen Xia's hand and held the tiny thing between his fingertips.

"It's not valuable. It wouldn't have mattered if it was lost."

"Even so, I couldn't let it get lost on my watch," Cen Xia said. "Let's go back. It's late."

Cen Xia patted his shoulder, put an arm around him, and started forward.

Shi Su didn't move. He reached up and clasped the hand Cen Xia had laid on his shoulder, then looked up at him, his gaze growing grave and solemn.

"Would you blame me, Brother Cen?" he asked suddenly.

"Blame you? For what?" Cen Xia withdrew his hand and looked at him, puzzled.

He was silent for a long moment before saying, "I've been so, so careful. I don't want to drag you down, and I want even less for you to be unable to stay at school because of me. I really have... been so, so careful."

He did his best to keep his voice steady, but when he finished, he still couldn't hide the faint tremors in it.

He didn't want to lose another friend.

"But I..."

His unfinished words vanished into an embrace warm with body heat. Outside, wind and rain darkened the world, while someone held him gently.

Warm and safe.

Making one willing to sink into it.

"I don't blame you," Cen Xia said.

"You did nothing wrong. You're just too righteous, too courageous, too kind."

You couldn't bear to see the darkness in this school, so you stepped forward, and so you became the target of everyone's arrows.

Not everyone can be like you.

Anyone who blames you and abandons you for that is a fucking idiot.

Cen Xia thought coldly.

He, too, had been a fucking idiot for choosing to stand by and watch coldly because of this world's rules.

If it had all begun simply because Shen Si was fighting over someone out of jealousy, that would have been ridiculous.

But if the real reason was just that Shi Su had once stepped forward to do the right thing, then this world was rotten to the core.

So, compared with the latter, the former seemed easier to accept.

The power to make all the rules had always been held firmly in the hands of those at the top. No one in power wanted to see someone at the bottom stand up and resist, and no established rule was expected to be broken.

To them, everything Shi Su had done was a challenge to the power they held.

Cen Xia let go of him and looked into his eyes. "What was Shen Si's reason this time?"

Shi Su was silent for a moment before speaking. "...Because of Zhou Zanli."

"He... hasn't had a good time in the Student Council. No, not just in the Student Council. He's being driven mad."

"You helped him?" His tone was certain.

"Yes, I helped him. Shen Si was unhappy, so he switched his target to me." Shi Su took his hand again and held it against his chest. "...I'm afraid you'll be next, in my place."

His gaze was stubborn and resolute as he said, word by word, "I won't let him do that."

Cen Xia was taken aback, his gaze gradually dropping to the hands holding his.

After a long moment, he finally managed to squeeze out, "...Isn't this pose of ours a little too gay?"

"..."

"...Brother Cen, I'm being serious."

Cen Xia said, "Oh, right."

Shi Su tried to speak, opening his mouth, but he really couldn't go on.

Cen Xia had ruined the mood with a single sentence.

Seeing the frustration and dejection written all over his face, Cen Xia reached out and gently cupped his cheek. This was even gayer, but Cen Xia felt it was entirely fitting.

"Don't worry, baby. Your Brother Cen is very capable." His voice was soft, its final notes drawn out lazily, spilling over with a clinging tenderness he didn't usually show.

That softly spoken "baby" fell into Shi Su's heart, and in an instant it was like a cluster of fireworks exploding, bursting in his chest into a sky full of tiny, brilliant sparks.

The wind howling outside the window had disappeared at some point, and the rain gradually eased, lingering in long threads between heaven and earth.

Gradually, the threads broke, too.

Before midnight, the rain stopped.

(So many people suddenly reading has left me surprised, delighted, and apprehensive. I've read everyone's comments. I haven't replied because I'm an introvert and don't know what to say. I've seen all the praise, and although no one has criticized me as the author yet, I'm still very uneasy. I'm afraid what I write later won't be good enough and I'll let everyone down. The author no longer has a glass heart, but a heart of foam.

Let me clear up some questions: someone asked who the other male lead is. Is it an all? Actually... the author hasn't decided either. It seems this kind of thing isn't allowed now... so most likely, I won't state it explicitly in the main text (but I'll definitely write what needs to be written, mm...). Ship whatever you like.)