Late night—
Well, not that late.
Around midnight, probably.
Rain started falling again outside the window.
But the downpour was over, leaving only a hazy drizzle.
The air was thick with Jiangnan’s unique scent—the fragrance of soil and fresh grass.
An Jing leaned against the doorframe, watching Zhu Ying pick out an umbrella by the door. “It’s raining. Are you really going out?”
“Of course! We promised to go for a stroll tonight.”
“There probably aren’t even many shops open anymore.”
“What does that matter? I’ll take this clear umbrella. Xiao Jing, hurry up and put on your shoes!”
“Good thing I wore sandals today.” An Jing shook her head helplessly. “Are you sure about this? You already caught a chill. Going out in the rain…”
“Ah, it’ll be fine! Hurry, hurry!”
“Is there another umbrella?”
“Take the black one, Xiao Jing. This clear one’s a bit small for both of us.”
“The folding one?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay… Did you bring the keys? We don’t want to get locked out.”
“I did.” Zhu Ying patted her pocket. “Even if I didn’t, I could just sleep at your place.”
“Then you’d have to wait until your parents got home to come back…”
“Oh~ Suddenly I feel like not bringing them?”
“Ew—” An Jing dragged out the sound, walked to the door, and checked one more time. “Are you sure you brought them? I’m closing the door?”
“Nope~”
“Did you bring them or not?!”
“I did, I did! Even if I forgot, Xiao Jing has my keys too. Now close the door, let’s go!” Zhu Ying raised her hand excitedly, and the hallway lights flickered on.
Outside was a hazy world shrouded in rain and mist. The corridor lights turned on one by one as they descended the stairs, and the rain tapped steadily against the eaves and awnings. A strange feeling stirred in An Jing’s heart, and she couldn’t help humming along with the rhythm of the rain.
“Hmm… da-da, da-da…”
Her voice echoed ethereally through the midnight rain, drifting far away. It made you want to linger, wishing the daytime would come later, hoping the night would stretch on just a little longer…
Crossing the residential complex and passing through the alley, the entrance to Dapeng Shopping Street was a mess.
In front of the few barbecue stalls and food stalls still open, only a few middle-aged men sat under the awnings, slowly picking at the leftovers on their plates.
They weren’t making much noise. They looked tired from drinking, only raising their glasses in the air occasionally for a toast, taking a sip, and then chatting desultorily about this and that.
No telling if it was about life or something else. But whatever it was, it didn’t seem like a heated topic.
Zhu Ying held her transparent umbrella, tiptoeing and leaping through the rain, dodging puddle after puddle.
She was as light as a swan dancing in the rain.
“Slow down! Walk too fast and you’ll get soaked,” An Jing called out helplessly. “Slow—down—”
“Xiao Jing, let’s go this way!”
“Which way?”
“Across the street!”
Zhu Ying pointed excitedly to the other side.
The numbers next to the red light were counting down. A taxi whooshed through the gathered water in the middle of the road, splashing up a spray, then zipped away into the distance.
Across the street was Old Day Street. The road there was much narrower, just a one-way barely wide enough for two cars to pass.
There were low buildings on both sides, the tallest maybe five stories.
It was an urban village. The roadside was lined with self-built houses of all shapes and sizes. A few scattered shops were closed. They didn’t have the roll-up shutters common in the city, but sliding metal mesh doors, behind which were large iron doors so smooth they reflected the light.
The small city wasn’t big, but if you really started walking, it wasn’t small either.
Ducking into these narrow alleys was like entering a maze. Even locals could get lost at night. From the outside, it looked like nothing was there, but once you went in, you’d find it was a complex labyrinth that seemed to have a bit of everything.
Zhu Ying waited for An Jing to catch up. She checked for oncoming traffic both ways, and the moment the signal turned green, she eagerly stepped onto the zebra crossing and hurried across.
The boundary between the asphalt road and the cement one was clear. One side was pitch black, the other a dull gray.
Sparse streetlights illuminated the road. In the middle of the path ahead, a streetlamp emitted a white glare, trying to push back more of the darkness. It was blinding, like a searchlight. You had to deliberately look away when walking past, or it would dazzle you so much you couldn’t see the road.
“Xiao Jing~!” Zhu Ying stood under that glaring streetlamp, holding her transparent umbrella. “How’s this?”
“Uh… How’s what?”
“Let’s take a picture!”
“Mm—” An Jing picked up her phone, turned the camera, and glanced at the screen. “I can’t see you at all. You’re just a black silhouette.”
“That’s the feeling I want! Just take it!”
“Fine, fine…” An Jing clicked the shutter with a click and opened the photo album to take a look. “The lamppost’s shadow is really long.”
“What’s it like? Let me see?”
“Here.”
“Oh~ The effect is great!”
And so Zhu Ying continued walking forward with her umbrella.
The wind grew stronger in the drizzly fog.
The road ahead turned back into asphalt.
It widened slightly, lined with a few already-closed shops.
A small supermarket and a cigarette shop were squeezed together. Across the street was a small store that looked like it was still under renovation, or maybe the renovation had stopped halfway. Through the glass door, you could see tools scattered messily inside. The big lock on the door was already rusted.
“It feels just like a dream,” Zhu Ying said, folding her umbrella and ducking under An Jing’s large black one. “Right, Xiao Jing?”
An Jing tilted her umbrella towards Zhu Ying. “But this isn’t a dream, you know.”
“That’s what makes it interesting—feeling like it’s a dream, even though it’s real.” Zhu Ying tilted her head, looking at the shops beside them. “If it were a dream, we probably wouldn’t see anyone except you and me. Maybe when we get to the next fork in the road, there’ll be no other path to choose. And when we turn around—the shops behind us will crumble like sand.”
An Jing felt a shiver run down her spine and couldn’t help turning around to look.
Those streetlights were still standing solidly by the road. The houses were hazy in the rain, but showed no sign of crumbling into sand. The ginkgo tree they’d passed swayed in the rain, a fan-shaped green leaf knocked loose by the raindrops, plummeting to the ground faster than usual.
“Don’t scare me…”
“How is that scary?”
“I honestly thought something was going to happen…”
“It’s just an ordinary midnight. Shouldn’t an empty night look like this? You don’t need a dream for this kind of scene.”
An Jing took a deep breath through her nose. All she could smell was the heavy humidity. “This is the first time I’ve come to this street this late at night.”
“You don’t come here much during the day either, do you?”
“Ah… I guess so. I just remember there’s a railway ahead, and a big banyan tree next to it. Can’t remember anything else.”
Zhu Ying interlocked her fingers with An Jing’s, and they walked slowly forward, An Jing stepping right into a cold puddle.
“Puddle! Don’t get your shoes wet.”
“I already got ’em wet a while ago~” Zhu Ying playfully stuck out her tongue. “So it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Then why didn’t you just wear sandals?”
“Was afraid it’d be cold tonight.”
“And now it’s even colder?” An Jing shot her a helpless glance.
“Didn’t expect that~ By the way, which way up ahead?”
“How should I know…”
“Left or right?”
“Uh… right?” An Jing looked to the right. There were more shops there, but they were all closed, quiet along with the night. Not that they’d be terribly lively during the day anyway.
“Okay~!”
The shops on the right street looked like a long stretch, but once you actually walked it, you realized it was quite short.
After just a few steps, the roadside turned into fields.
The gaps between streetlights grew longer, letting darkness seep in front of An Jing and Zhu Ying, sheltered under their umbrella, several times.
They walked in silence for a while, just tilting their heads to watch the blurry night scenery.
Until they passed the next corner—
“Waaah!!!”
“Eek!?”
“Holy—” An Jing patted her chest. “What the hell, there’s a clothing store around this corner, and it’s right by the road. Scared the crap out of me…”
“I wasn’t scared until you scared me.” Zhu Ying put her hand on her hip in annoyance. “They’re just two mannequins. Seriously, are they really that scary?”
“They’re right behind the corner window, with a blue light on! Jumping out suddenly like that, how could I not be scared?”
“I wasn’t scared at all!”
“That’s because you weren’t looking this way…” An Jing felt a bit guilty and tugged Zhu Ying a few steps away. “Let’s get away from here… Mannequins are the scariest thing to see at night.”
“What, afraid one of them will jump out of the window and chase you?”
“Th-that kind of thing isn’t impossible!”
“Pfft, Xiao Jing is such a coward~”
“What if it actually happens? I mean, even superpowers exist now…” An Jing pouted. “Better safe than sorry, you know?”
“So what? The more you don’t want to look, the more I’m going to look!”
“Ew—”
Zhu Ying dragged An Jing a few steps closer to the clothing store on the corner, even brazenly pressing her cheek against the glass. “See? Nothing to be afraid of!”
“Rawr!!!”
“Waaah!!!”
“Hehehe, scared you, didn’t I?”
“Ohhh, so you can scare people too!”
“See? You are scared~” An Jing grinned wickedly. “Saying you weren’t afraid. You were just putting on a brave face.”
As they bickered, the mannequin in the window suddenly fell backward with a thump.
Scared out of their wits, they grabbed each other’s hands without another word and ran all the way down the street.
“J-just now!!!”
“Hehe…” Zhu Ying looked at An Jing’s pale, startled face and suddenly bent over, laughing so hard she trembled. “What’s the matter, Xiao Jing? Why are you so scared?”
“Wh-what’s it to you?! Didn’t you see that?!”
“It must have been because you were too loud and caused a vibration, knocking the mannequin over.”
“How could it fall that easily!”
“Maybe it wasn’t stable to begin with, like something was propping it up underneath.”
“Th… that’s possible.”
“It must be something like that.”
“Sigh… Still creepy.”
“Want to go back and check? If the mannequin stands back up again—”
An Jing’s hair stood on end. She shook her head like a rattle-drum. “No way, no way! Let’s just go forward!!”
The streetlights were shining. The rain streaked through their glow, looking like twisting arcs of light…
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