(1)
Winter rain always seems to bring a sense of chill.
But the world in the rain can also be lively.
Winter rain always seems to evoke monotonous gray and white.
But the world in the rain can also be colorful.
Winter rain always seems to remind people of the silence and loneliness of everything.
But the world in the rain can also be a boisterous carnival of gongs and drums.
Someone must have been getting married.
Despite the heavy rain, a motorcade still drove through the bustling street.
A truck was fitted with an awning, and several men, full of folk charm, were beating gongs and drums.
The man at the very front held up a suona wrapped in red cloth and played a joyful tune.
The black wedding cars behind were adorned with flowers, whether real or fake, they hadn’t lost their petals in the rain.
The mischievous wind playfully lifted her quiet skirt, gently caressing her legs clad in milky-white tights, making her shiver from the cold.
She hugged the warm pork floss bread in her hands, gently exhaling a puff of hot air, “Whew, it’s really cold today.”
“Is it?”
Zhu Ying couldn’t wait to tear open the bread bag, taking a big bite without a care for her image.
Pork floss stuck to her delicate nose.
She chewed with puffed cheeks, like a hamster, “Mmm, it has mayonnaise inside, sweet.”
An Jing lowered her head and looked at the pork floss bread in her hand.
Actually, at that moment, she’d rather eat the few bits of pork floss on Zhu Ying’s face…
However, this was her first time eating freshly baked, warm bread.
The taste made her very curious.
So she tore open the packaging and, just like she usually ate, took a generous big bite.
Her mouth was full of pork floss, which enveloped the soft bread.
After biting into it, the mayonnaise, enriched with lard, flowed out, mixing with the pork floss, elevating the texture to another level.
“How is it? Is it good?”
Zhu Ying felt in her shirt pocket and pulled out an unopened tissue.
“Here, take one, wipe your face?”
“Your face is covered too.”
“Huh, is it?”
“Where?”
“On your nose, and below your eyes. Ah, that looks like a tear mole.”
“Then you also have two bits of pork floss on your face, below your eyes.”
“Mine are real tear moles…”
“Clearly black pork floss, right?”
Zhu Ying joked, and before
An Jing could laugh, she bent over and started laughing herself.
“Black pork floss would be too scary, that color clearly looks like something you can’t eat…”
***
(2)
Next to the supermarket, there were always various ‘unmanned’ contraptions.
Different types, different patterns and decorations.
There were vending machines, unmanned tissue dispensers, unmanned lockers, unmanned condom dispensers…
The most popular were the claw machines placed at the supermarket entrance and the photo booth with a small shed next to it.
The so-called photo booth was for taking sticker photos, shaped like a phone booth, but almost completely opaque.
An Jing had only eaten half of her bread when Zhu Ying grabbed her wrist and pulled her inside.
She managed to take a bite during their stop, and with puffed cheeks, she asked, “Why suddenly… run so fast…?”
“If we don’t hurry in, someone else will occupy it.”
Zhu Ying skillfully inserted two coins into the slot.
With a pleasant chime, they entered the photo interface.
An Jing was still curious about where the warm air was coming from when Zhu Ying pulled her in front of the camera.
“Hurry, look at the camera~!”
“Ah… huh?”
An Jing, who hadn’t reacted yet, was caught off guard, her face a bewildered expression.
This was truly her first time taking sticker photos.
Because for boys, it always felt like something only girls liked.
If it were a couple, it would be fine, but if a boy went in by himself, he would definitely be ridiculed.
So even though she was a bit curious about what it was like inside, she had never entered.
“Look here, a total of ten photos will be taken. You can pose in various ways looking at the camera.”
“Ah… huh? When will it take the picture?”
“It automatically takes one every ten seconds, the next one is about to be taken!”
“Ah… ah!”
An Jing hurriedly moved the hand holding the bread out of the frame, straightened her body, and stared at the camera with slightly tensed muscles.
Ten seconds was actually quite long, but for An Jing, who was taking sticker photos for the first time, it was so fast that her brain couldn’t even think.
She was just relying on her remaining consciousness to make various stiff movements.
“Last one, An… An Yin, quickly smile?”
“Ah, smile, smile… how do I smile again…?”
However, time had no intention of waiting for her.
She didn’t know if she had smiled or not, but she heard the “click.”
***
(3)
An Jing’s head felt a bit dizzy.
She only knew that she was in a small space, pressed against Zhu Ying.
Although separated by clothes, she seemed to be able to feel her body temperature, and even clearly hear her breathing and heartbeat.
However, Zhu Ying seemed defenseless, her delicate little face filled with trust.
An Jing felt her heart thumping.
For a moment, she even felt that she and Zhu Ying were like a couple.
Her heart struggled, but she inevitably fell into that wonderful fantasy.
She could hear Zhu Ying’s voice in her ear, but she couldn’t quite make out what she was saying.
Occasionally, Zhu Ying would turn back to look at her, and she would always foolishly nod her head aimlessly.
It was like having a beautiful dream in a short amount of time.
“Mmm, we can have this funny one, and then, mmm… mmm… also this one…”
The printing sound came from the huge machine.
The slight vibration echoed her heartbeat.
Two brightly colored sticker photos “plop” into the tray.
Zhu Ying bent down to pick them up, then straightened up and gently leaned against An Jing.
Soft and warm, like a small, mochi-like body…
A sweet scent drifted from her fluffy hair.
When An Jing came back to her senses, Zhu Ying was no longer leaning on her, but standing at the other end of the small space, her eyes holding an enigmatic smile, gently waving the two sticker photos in front of her.
“Ah, ah!”
An Jing suddenly snapped back to reality, lowering her raised arm.
Just a moment ago, she almost couldn’t resist wrapping her arms around Zhu Ying…
“Mmm, these are the ones we just took. I chose this photo template. Take a look, how do you feel about it?”
There were ten photos on one sheet of sticker paper.
Each photo was a different size, with the largest one in the middle.
In the picture, An Jing had a forced, unnatural smile, while Zhu Ying next to her picked up her half-eaten bread, opened her small mouth wide, and exaggeratedly pretended to gobble it all up in one bite.
The expressions of the two formed a stark contrast.
Next to them, there was a design of rain falling on one side and a sunny sky on the other, with the border made of colorful stripes.
Each of these photos could be torn off individually and pasted wherever one liked.
But An Jing felt she probably couldn’t bear to tear them, because each one was a picture with Zhu Ying, and… they seemed to be very close.
“It feels, it feels… very beautiful,” An Jing said, staring at Zhu Ying in the photo.
“Want to take them again? This time, you arrange how we pose?”
“No, no need…”
An Jing shifted the topic, staring at her toes, “Um, you have some pork floss and mayonnaise on your chin…”
“Where?”
Zhu Ying took another bite of bread, cradling it.
“Here, here.”
“Can you wipe it for me?”
Looking at the innocent Zhu Ying, An Jing swallowed hard.
She wanted to refuse but still reached out her hand.
Just as she gently touched Zhu Ying’s smooth skin, she suddenly shivered and pulled her hand back.
“Forgot to use a tissue?”
Zhu Ying took half a step forward, almost walking into An Jing’s embrace.
Being alone in the small space seemed to make it hard for her to breathe.
Just then, her phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated.
The ringtone she liked sounded a bit harsh at that moment.
“Hello…? Ah… mmm… I’m, I’m outside… You guys… O-okay…”
An Jing hung up the phone, taking a deep breath of the air filled with Zhu Ying’s scent.
“My sister… called me. Um, I need to go find them.”
“Alright. Next time you come to a small city, you can call me out to play too, okay? Oh, do you want to add me on QQ?”
“Ah, that, that thing, I don’t use QQ!”
An Jing’s fleeing figure looked so flustered.
***
(4)
Raindrops, black as ink, were blown by the wind, forcefully hitting the car window.
Each raindrop shattered into pieces upon impact, yet each one was still so resolute.
This was on the way back after buying things from the supermarket.
Her two sisters sat in the back, discussing a sci-fi movie that had started to be promoted but hadn’t been released yet.
“It’s a disaster movie, doesn’t seem very interesting.”
“Xiao Jing might like to watch it, right?”
“Will it be released in China?”
“We can watch a pirated version on the computer.”
“That’s not satisfying to watch! If it’s released in China, we could take the little one to see it…”
An Jing, sitting in the passenger seat, didn’t listen to what her sisters were talking about at all.
Her thoughts had drifted out the window.
The thought of Zhu Ying’s unprecedented closeness today filled her with secret joy, yet it also brought a feeling as if she had been cut by a knife.
That was closeness as a girl…
If she were still a boy, she would never have had such an opportunity.
What’s most feared in this world is not never having something, but having had it and then losing it.
It was precisely because she had experienced this happiness that she wanted to hold onto it even more.
But such a girl was destined not to belong to an ordinary person like her.
—She still believed in her heart that she would definitely change back into a boy.
It was like someone who had never been in love, yet experienced heartbreak first.
Thinking of the person destined to drift away, rain began to fall in the boy’s heart.
It poured down, forcefully washing over the world of his soul.
It was hazy, weaving into a rainy mist called melancholy in the air.
It drifted, little by little, seeping that helpless coldness into the boy’s heart…