Resisting Winter

The rain drenched her hair in a flash, a strand of bangs stuck at the corner of her eye, Bai Lu gently put it away.

The night was a little cold, she just got caught in the rain so her body involuntarily shivered. Because the rain drenched her hair, it sticked to her face like a glue, she had to squint her eyes to see.



After wiping the water on her face, she walked towards the first floor.

The building was old-fashioned, the floor was lower than the street, so you can imagine how wet the floor would be on a rainy day like this.

There were abandoned shoe cabinets piled up at the entrance of the building, full of dust, and at the bottom there was a gray-blue colour canvas shoe. It was probably thrown here, and who knows where the the other one of the pair went.

Bai Lu rubbed her palms together to keep her hand warm and came to Xu Hui’s door, she listened quietly for a while.

There was no movement at the other side of the door, only the sound of rain could be heard.

Bai Lu took a deep breath and raised her hand to knock on the door.

The knocking sound was very small. Her knocking sound was almost covered by the sound of rain. She knocked softly for three times.

But the people in the house still heard it.

“Who is it?”

Through the door, Bai Lu also heard Xu Hui’s voice, which was a lot lazier than before.

Boys are not as wary as girls, and did not look through the peep hole, Xu Hui directly opened the door.

Bai Lu was originally small, and because she was soaked by the rain, the whole person looked like a drenched stray kitten.

Xu Hui was stunned and looked down at her, “Who are you?”

Bai Lu lifted her head up, her lips frozen blue.

He must have just taken a hot shower, because a beige towel was wrapped around his neck. He took off his wet clothes and changed into a clean dark blue T-shirt. The T-shirt was a bit large, showing his white skin slightly of his neck and shoulders. His body was tall and thin, like a bamboo pole.

Bai Lu shrunken her shoulders and said softly: “Sorry, I was passing …… originally I was supposed to meet with a friend, but it was already too late and suddenly rained heavily. I did not bring my phone, there is no phone booth nearby, can I borrow your phone?” After saying that, she hastily added, “I can pay.”

Xu Hui listened, let out a faint ‘oh’, then went back into the house.

“You wait.” He said.

As he walked and wiped his hair with a towel, Bai Lu looked into the house –

A one-room apartment, a very small house.

He lives alone? It seemed so.

The house was not neat and tidy, but it could not be called messy either, at most it was a moderate home. Bai Lu saw a few pieces of clothes thrown in the corner of the bedroom door, it was the two pieces that he was wearing and just got wet outside.

Xu Hui soon returned, unlocked the phone screen, handed it to Bai Lu, and went back to the living room sofa to sit.

The phone was the latest model. Bai Lu quickly noticed that there was a calendar on the screen, August 20, the day was marked red.


Bai Lu glanced at Xu Hui, he did not rub his hair. He took a cigarette from the case that was on the small coffee table.

He bit the cigarette with his lips, but found no lighter on the table. Xu Hui touched his trouser pocket, then remembered that the lighter was in the trouser he just changed, so he got up to retrieve it.

Bai Lu clicked on the important note of August 20th.

The note was ery brief, only one line.

Second hospital inpatient department, 10:30, Jiang Yiheng.

With lighter in his hand, Xu Hui lit the cigarette, Bai Lu also dialed her phone.

The phone should be in the backpack at this time.

“Xiao Ru are you still waiting? Don’t wait, the weather is very bad. I won’t be able to reach you.”

“……”

“You can’t blame me, there’s nothing that I can do.”

“……”

“Well, I know you’re not happy and I’m not happy either.”

“……”

“But that’s okay, we can meet each other the next time.”

“……”

“Bye.”

Bai Lu hung up the phone, she also deleted the call record. Xu Hui came over and took the phone back from her. Bai Lu was about to pull out the money from her bag when she heard.

“No need.” The cigarette clouded his eyes and he squinted his eyes slightly.

Bai Lu lowered his head and said softly, “Thank you, then.”

Xu Hui gave a hmm, and Bai Lu turned around and walked out. She just walked past the gate of the building when Xu Hui’s voice came again from behind.

“You don’t have an umbrella?”

Bai Lu stopped on her feet and turned her head, “Hmm.”

Xu Hui’s brow was slightly frowned he looked a little impatient.

“Then you can stay inside the building for a while.”

Bai Lu bit her lips, slowly nodded, and said in a small voice, “Thank you.”

Xu Hui just let Bai Lu wait at the entrance of the building, and did not let her into the house. Bai Lu stood against the door. Xu Hui turned on the TV, and kept pressing the remote without stopping.

Bai Lu thought he didn’t want to watch anything at all, he was just bored.

Finally, he stopped at the movie channel, which was playing a Korean movie, “Yellow Sea”.

The movie was bloody and gloomy, the hero was behind the bars, surrounded by a group of police but he escaped the prison to the mountains. He was shot in the arm, so he tore his own clothes, clumsily bandaged to stop the bleeding, and finally cried helplessly.

Xu Hui finished smoking a cigarette and took another one out.

The hero’s wife went to work in Korea and was nowhere to be found. The hero smuggled in the case of a murder for the promise of tens of thousands of dollars, just to find his wife and start life over.

“Very sad ……” Bai Lu looked at the TV gloomily and said softly.

Xu Hui seemed to remember Bai Lu’s presence only at this time and looked at her without speaking.

Bai Lu turned her head, locked eyes with him, and added: “This male lead, he is very pitiful.”

Perhaps it was boredom, Xu Hui answered her.

“Why pitiful? Who asked him to kill someone?”

Bai Lu: “But he didn’t kill the person.”

Xu Hui grunted, “That is not the catch, someone may did the crime first, but he was the one who was caught for the murder.”

Bai Lu did not speak, Xu Hui took a puff of smoke and said, “Everyone has to pay retribution for their evil deeds. He agreed to go to prison in order to pay his debts, this kind of person is not called pitiful.”

“He didn’t do it to pay off his debts.” Bai Lu said quietly.

Once he finished smoking, Xu Hui looked down and stuck the cigarette butt in a drained mineral water bottle on the coffee table.

“Then it’s for what?”

“It’s to not live a life like a dog.”

Xu Hui looked up, and Bai Lu was also looking at him.

“The hero is a Korean, the Chinese see them as not as our people. The Koreans also see them as inferior than them. No one thinks about them, so he can only carry the sin of others. The story of this movie is downright tragic. The hero has no dignity, even if he fought again, and ultimately did come out of the darkness …… “Bai Lu said this to this and suddenly paused for a moment realising that she spoke too much, “Oh, sorry, I spoke too much.”

Xu Hui looked calm, the TV continued to broadcast the film, but his gaze remained fixed at Bai Lu.

“You’ve seen it?”

Bai Lu nodded: “I’ve seen it before.”

Xu Hui seemed to be amused to know that a girl who looked like a stary cat liked watching such gory movies, but did not ask anything.

“Oh.”

There was nothing to talk about after that, so Xu Hui turned his head back.

Bai Lu took a look at the time and felt that if she didn’t go back to school now, it would be more than just a review, and said to Xu Hui, “The rain should almost stop, I’ll go first, thank you for tonight.”

Xu Hui: “Did it stop?” He stood up, went to the window and pulled the curtains back.

The curtain stretched and showed him the blurry scenery of the window.

Xu Hui: “It didn’t stop, can you walk in this?”

Bai Lu blushed, “Then, can you……”

“I can lend you an umbrella.” Xu Hui followed Bai Lu’s words.

Bai Lu was busy saying, “I’ll pay you.”

“No need.” Xu Hui walked over and took out a long-handled umbrella from behind the door and handed it to Bai Lu.

Bai Lu held the umbrella in her hand and whispered, “Then if I meet you again, I’ll return the umbrella. Or I can also come over and…..”

“Forget it, there is more than one umbrella in my house. This umbrella is quite worn out and old. I guess it could only be used once or twice.” Xu Hui said indifferently.

Bai Lu took the umbrella and thanked him again before turning around and leaving.

The door closed, Bai Lu did not look back.

After leaving the gate of the building, she opened the long umbrella. The umbrella had the colour red and white, with an advertisement of a cab company. The umbrella was really broken, with three broken bones, and the right side of the umbrella was completely collapsed.

Bai Lu walked across the street with his umbrella and entered the school under the stern gaze of the security guard uncle.

As expected, the next day was another review – a review with a strong nasal voice. Last night’s pouring rain left Bai Lu’s fragile body facing the threat of a cold.

“You also packed an office talk package this time.” Bai Lu was called to the office by Mr. Bao after writing the review, and when he returned Wu Hanwen looked up from his test paper and teased.

Bai Lu ignored him and sat down in her seat.

“Jiang Ru magic is not a little girll.” Wu Hanwen said, “And you also came with a after-effects of getting wet in the rain. Why did you came back to school so late yesterday night?”

Bai Lu turned his head, “Are you finished questioning?”

Wu Hanwen had a calm face, “Not really.”

Bai Lu: “You’re going to the competition in September, right?”

Wu Hanwen frowned, “Why are you, who are too thin to poke so stupid? I have at least given you so many questions, how can you don’t know about it?”

Bai Lu looked at him, but he did not wait for her to speak, Wu Hanwen immediately said again: “But it is not accurate to say that the questions I gave you are competition related. After all, to you, the competition is not as important as the test.”

Bai Lu stifled a laugh and hummed.

Wu Hanwen raised his eyebrows and turned back to work on the problem.

It rained heavily last night, but today the sky was clear and blue.

Bai Lu turned around to get her books and saw her cell phone lying inside her school bag.

She again, thought of the result of doing that.

The first number of the recent call is no longer a string of unknown numbers, which Bai Lu saved after returning to the dorm last night.

In the middle of the night with the phone, Bai Lu, who was afraid of people finding her out, did not directly write Xu Hui’s name on the contacts.

The lightning flashes, but the night seemed to be more quieter than usual. She lay on the bed for a while, the scene of Jiang Ru putting flowers on both of their heads came to mind.

So she saved his name as Enduring Winter.

The day was drowsy and lasted until the evening. She used a whole roll of hand towels to wipe her nose.

Wu Hanwen frowned, “Are you okay?”

Bai Lu waved her hand, “I’m fine.”

She insisted on finishing a set of science papers, then looked up and just saw the calendar board on the wall.

August 17th, the 20th just happened to be Saturday.

“Do you need to take some medicine?” In the evening after school, Zhou Yuxin and the other two girls came over and asked with concern.

Bai Lu drooped her eyelids and shook her head.

“Stay away from me, don’t catch cold from me. It’s an important time for all of us now, so don’t be sick like me.”

“Okay, then you get well quickly.”

Behind her, Li Siyi comforted her, “Bai Lu, do you know that when a person is sick is actually the best time to study?”

Bai Lu: “……”

Li Siyi had a serious face, “Because it’s easy to concentrate at this time.”

Wu Hanwen: “You read your book.”

“Hey school committee you still don’t believe it.” Li Siyi said to Wu Hanwen, “I had a cold and fever during the middle school and I got into the Sixth Highschool in a breeze.”

Wu Hanwen: “Then you are as strong as an ox now, wouldn’t you have no hope for the college entrance exam?”

Li Siyi’s small, highly myopic eyes glared up behind his lenses, “I’m losing weight.”

Bai Lu fell asleep in the midst of the derogatory comments around her.

Before going to sleep she thought, this cold would only last for two days.