Chapter 6 Dear Passerby Four
Because the mountain we planned to climb was just outside the city, we used bicycles as a means of transportation, Hua Ziyin took Xiao Yuan and Xu Yun took me. Along the way, the mountains and rivers were beautiful, and the breeze was blowing on our faces. It was so pleasant that we couldn't help but sing.
I sat on the back seat of Xu Yun's bicycle, swinging my legs, slightly spreading my fingers, feeling the cool touch of the wind passing through my fingers, and singing softly: "The clouds roll into summer, and the tears are evaporated by the years. On this road, have you, me, and her lost your way?"
Xu Yun then continued to sing: "We promised not to separate, to be together forever... "
Xu Yun sang as she straightened up slightly and pedaled hard. The white bicycle passed by Hua Ziyin's bicycle with a "whoosh".
I proudly raised my hand to Hua Ziyin and made a victory gesture. But before I could feel proud for a few seconds, Hua Ziyin's bicycle passed me at lightning speed, leaving only one line of his singing: "You once said that we would never separate and that we would always be together. Now I want to ask you, was it just childish talk..."
Hua Ziyin seemed to be competing with Xu Yun, riding the bicycle very fast, scaring Xiaoyuan on the back seat so much that she couldn't help but scream.
I said loudly, "Hana Ziyin, can you please ride slower? Do you really want to be first in everything? Look how scared Xiaoyuan is..."
Hua Ziyin seemed not to hear it and continued to move forward quickly.
Xu Yun smiled, and then said meaningfully, "He just wants to beat me."
I pretended not to understand, but Xu Yun suddenly said, "But it seems that he can't beat me."
I didn't know how to respond to him. Fortunately, we had reached the foot of the mountain, and Xiaoyuan and I successfully met up and headed for the top of the mountain. We chose a path that almost no one usually walks on. It was the turn of spring and summer, and all kinds of wild flowers were blooming in the mountains. Xiaoyuan and I were quickly attracted by the rhododendrons all over the hillside. We completely forgot the original intention of "climbing to the top" and lingered in the sea of flowers, taking pictures of various flowers that we couldn't name with our mobile phones.
Xu Yun waited patiently on the side, but Hua Ziyin was as sarcastic as ever, accusing us of wasting natural resources by using our mobile phones to take pictures of these plants growing in the mountains and fields, and saying that we were completely unable to capture their aura.
"Then take a picture of it that looks spiritual and show it to us." I was not convinced.
As if he had been waiting for me to say this, he took out a SLR camera from his backpack without saying anything , put the lens close to a tall, thin white flower, and started taking pictures. After a while, he handed the camera to me. I leaned over to take a look, and at one glance, I knew he was right.
It is indeed unfair to these elves driving in the mountains to take random photos with mobile phones like we did, but I don’t want to give in and deliberately say: "It’s just like this, I don’t feel there is any difference."
Unexpectedly, Hua Ziyin suddenly picked up the camera, pointed it at me closely, and took a close-up photo of me. Then he shook the camera at me and said, "Yes, the flower I photographed is the same as yours, there is no difference."
I didn't know where the sudden strong sense of anger came from, and was about to argue with him, when I heard a loud thunder out of nowhere, and instantly raindrops as big as beans fell down.
Xiaoyuan was so scared that she curled up into a ball. I quickly pulled her to find a place to hide from the rain. But there was nowhere to hide in the mountains. Soon, my hair was soaked, and I felt cold. It seemed as if lightning was striking me. Xiaoyuan held me tightly.
Xu Yun took off her coat to cover Xiao Yuan and me, and kept apologizing: "It's all my fault. I didn't check the weather forecast and didn't do enough homework."
Seeing that he looked anxious, I quickly comforted him: "It's okay, it's okay, the weather in the mountains can change at any time."
"You're soaked like a drowned rat, and you still say it's okay." Hua Ziyin, who had been silent all the time, suddenly interrupted.
I thought he was going to say something disappointing again, and was about to refute him, but I saw him silently handing me a raincoat, and I was stunned for a moment.
"Why, do I disgust you so much that you don't even want my raincoat?" He looked down at me, tiny raindrops dripping slowly along his hair and landing on his eyelashes, trembling slightly before flowing down the corners of his eyes, like tears.
"I..." I was stunned, and all the words of rebuttal suddenly couldn't come out of my mouth.
I wanted to tell him that although I didn't like him, I didn't hate him that much. I was just wondering why he didn't make sarcastic remarks to us first and then take out the raincoat as usual, but instead contributed his only raincoat silently.
The sound of the rain was gurgling, and Hanako Yin, who had a hint of sadness in his eyes, was hard to guess. I stood there in a daze, but he suddenly came over, quickly opened his raincoat, and covered my and Xiaoyuan's heads.
He did all this silently, then took a few steps back silently, distanced himself from me, turned his head to one side, and stood motionless under the tree, letting the rain slowly wet his hair.
The four people who were originally talking and laughing seemed to have all their interest extinguished by the sudden thunderstorm. Even the atmosphere gradually became weird and fell into endless silence. No one was willing to speak first.
Only the sound of rain was getting louder and louder. Even with the dense leaves above our heads, they couldn't block the heavy rain.
I couldn't help but quietly lift up a corner of my raincoat and look through the rain at Hua Ziyin, who was standing like a sculpture. His whole body was already soaked, and I could even see water dripping from his sleeves. Even so, his slightly pale face was still stubbornly turned to one side, and because of the rain, his eyes were slightly narrowed, like a dangerous and alert little animal.
However, I don’t find him scary. I feel that he is very similar to me in some ways. For example, we are both lonely and unsociable children.
I lowered my head, not daring to look into his eyes again, but at the same time, I discovered a fact that made me even more confused. Hua Ziyin stood two steps away from me, letting the rain and wind blow, motionless. In fact, he was standing in the wind, blocking the rain for Xiaoyuan and me. Because of this, Xiaoyuan and my clothes were not completely wet. He was using his body to block the rain for us.
I wanted to speak, to ask him to leave the wind and take shelter from the rain, but I opened my mouth but no sound came out. I thought about the countless times I had said bad things to him, and was it because I didn't realize his good intentions, just like today?
I didn't dare to think too much, I just wanted to quickly pull him under the raincoat to hide. Just as I was about to reach out my hand, Xiaoyuan grabbed Hanako Yin's sleeve before me.
I saw his head turned quickly from side to side, with a kind of almost desperate hope in his eyes. That barely perceptible hope disappeared completely when his eyes swept across my face and finally landed on Xiaoyuan's hand.
Then, he raised the corners of his mouth and laughed: "It's nice to get caught in the rain like this, Xiaoyuan, don't you think?"
Xiaoyuan tilted her head, thought for a while and said, "You 're right. When I was a child, I loved rainy days the most. It seemed that jumping and laughing in the rain was the happiest thing in the world. But I have never been wet in the rain since I grew up." As she spoke, she suddenly lifted up her raincoat, with a fearless expression on her face, and was about to rush to Hana Ziyin.
I quickly grabbed her and said, "Are you trying to kill yourself? You know you'll catch a cold and have a fever if you catch a cold, but you still..."
I wanted to say, "You're still trying to show off by imitating others." But before I could finish my words, I realized that Hua Ziyin might think that this was a veiled criticism, so I quickly changed my words and said, "You're still trying to be romantic by imitating others."
Xiao Yuan was intimidated by me and was hesitant, so I pretended to say casually: "Hanako Yin, you should stop playing and come over here to hide from the rain."
"No, I'm already soaked anyway." He pursed his lips tightly, looked at me deeply, and after a long moment, he said, "Thank you!"
All the words I had prepared were blocked by his cold "thank you", and I lowered my head and remained silent.
The atmosphere was about to fall into an awkward silence again. Xu Yun, who had been silent all the time, suddenly said worriedly, "It looks like the rain won't stop anytime soon, and it's getting darker. It might be dangerous after dark. I think we should not wait any longer, but go down the mountain along the original route in the rain."
Xu Yun's words were right, and no one objected. Everyone started to prepare to go down the mountain. However, it was not until then that we discovered a serious problem. We had originally taken the small path up the mountain. We had just been admiring the flowers and hiding from the rain. How could we find the way down the mountain now?
We are lost!
