Chapter 37: The Umbrella

The overcast rain grew increasingly urgent, and the slanted wind did not cease; although Lin Xiaolu held an umbrella, raindrops were still blown onto her body from time to time.

Some time passed, and at the school gate, the crowd had already passed its peak.

There were only about ten minutes left until the parent-teacher meeting began; most parents had already taken their places, and some were even chatting with each other in the classrooms.

After guiding their parents to the classrooms, the other students made their own choices: some children who usually traveled on their own went home as usual, while others gathered in the library or the gymnasium, waiting for the meeting to end.

The playground and the open space outside the teaching building were empty; after all, no one wanted to get soaked in the rain.

The crowd at the entrance grew increasingly sparse, leaving only two or three students waiting for their parents with umbrellas, just like Lin Xiaolu. Seeing that there was no one left, the security guard at the entrance walked out of the security office and dutifully closed the main gate, leaving only the side entrance for pedestrians to pass through.

Lin Yun still hadn't come.

The rain grew even more torrential.

Lin Xiaolu took out her phone and looked at her previous message history; the reply consisting of the two characters "definitely" was so conspicuous.

She remembered when her mother was still around.

An Ya was a freelancer, and her daily schedule was much more flexible than Lin Yun's, so she was always the one who attended the parent-teacher meetings.

Compared to Lin Yun's rigorous approach to time management, An Ya was much more casual; arriving right on time or being late was a common occurrence, and she would always laugh it off. If she truly made Lin Xiaolu angry—for instance, the one time she completely got the time of the meeting wrong—she would buy many snacks and toys, then take Lin Xiaolu to an amusement park, and once her daughter’s dissatisfaction had completely dissolved under the sugar-coated bombardment, she would pitifully ask, "Lulu is the most sensible, won't you forgive Mommy?"

"Don't save all your tacit understanding for things like this."

Past memories flashed before her eyes, and Lin Xiaolu looked at the torrential curtain of rain, muttering to herself.

She felt that she shouldn't care whether Lin Yun fulfilled his promise or not.

It was just a parent-teacher meeting, after all; no one had come to attend it for the past two years, and she hadn't felt there was any problem with that.

Or rather, if she hadn't told Lin Yun about the meeting today, she would have already done as she had in previous years: explained the situation at home truthfully to the homeroom teacher, and then she could have completely ignored the meeting and gone home early from school.

If she went home early now, she might even be able to catch the afternoon animation program; the new series of the magical girl animation must have reached the tenth episode by now, right?

Come to think of it, ever since she truly became a magical girl, she hadn't had the time to watch animation at all.

Was it really necessary for her to be so concerned about the parent-teacher meeting now?

As for that man, she had already been disappointed in him long ago, and there was no trust to speak of; whether he came or not could not possibly cause any emotional ripples in her.

The only reason she was standing here now was that she had been the one to initiate the parent-teacher meeting; not coming to check would seem irresponsible—it was an act driven by a sense of duty.

Whether he was late or broke his promise, it was his own business and would not affect her.

When the meeting started, if he still hadn't arrived, she would turn around and leave. As for the class number, that was just a matter of editing a text message and sending it.

Lin Xiaolu thought expressionlessly.

Yet no matter what she thought, that figure never appeared at the school gate.

Even when she focused her attention on her phone screen, trying to kill time by refreshing social media, Lin Xiaolu still felt restless, her gaze drifting toward the school gate from time to time.

The last student remaining there waited for their mother; the edges of their two umbrellas met, and the mother and child under the umbrella laughed and talked incessantly.

Lin Xiaolu tapped her feet, her heels striking the ground repeatedly and kicking up splashes, making a "squelch-squelch" sound.

"He wouldn't really not come, would he?"

Just as she said this, as if to confirm something, a piece of music suddenly rang out. Its melody was pleasant, but under the sound quality of the campus broadcast, it sounded like a thunderclap, pulling Lin Xiaolu back from her thoughts to reality.

This melody was very familiar to the students of Xizhao Middle School; it was the bell for class.

And on this day, with the schedule changed, this was the signal that the parent-teacher meeting had begun.

Lin Yun was running in the rain.

The result of the battle had no suspense; being able to kill a Pupa alone, defeating a Grub was not a difficult task for him.

It was only because the location of the battle was a high-speed train that the continuous changes in space made it difficult for him to use silk threads to end the fight quickly, and rashly using more powerful moves like "Masterpiece" might have affected other passengers on the train; in the end, he had to pick up his long-neglected basic magic techniques.

Under these circumstances, even though he had dealt with the Grub as quickly as possible, he was still a few steps slower than usual.

After the light rail train stopped, perhaps because it was his first time fighting outside the blockade of the Extraordinary Strategy Bureau, there were many onlookers around after defeating the Remnant Beast this time, and it took him some time to drive these people away from the vicinity of the beast.

Finally, he contacted Hong Siyu to explain the situation to the Extraordinary Strategy Bureau, avoided the crowd that kept taking photos, and flew directly to the vicinity of Xizhao Middle School via an aerial route.

As usual, he found a small alley, and after restoring his true form and walking out, Lin Yun ran toward his destination.

Because he had set off in a hurry, his umbrella had been left on the train, so he could only squint his eyes and move forward in the pouring rain.

The wound on his face was still oozing blood—this was from being scratched by glass shards when he broke out of the train window earlier—and exposed to the pouring rain, there was an indescribable stinging pain.

This kind of pain was nothing to him; what he really cared about was the time: there was no doubt that he was already late.

He had already missed the start of the parent-teacher meeting before he even landed; at this point, it was just a case of locking the stable door after the horse had bolted, wishing one-sidedly that he could be a little faster.

Yet, deep in his heart, he knew that Lin Xiaolu might not be waiting for him there.

It was he who had taken the initiative to ask to come to the parent-teacher meeting, and Lin Xiaolu might not have been that enthusiastic about it; plus, with the weather being so terrible, even if he arrived at the school, it might just be for his own self-satisfaction.

Let it be self-satisfaction, then.

He consoled himself this way, caught sight of the gate of Xizhao Middle School in the heavy rain, and then quickened his pace once more, passing through the pedestrian walkway on the side.

Standing still at the school gate, he panted heavily, looked around the flower bed, and searched in vain for the figure he had imagined. However, he ultimately found nothing.

There was no one here, and naturally, Lin Xiaolu was not here either.

Looking at the empty flower bed, Lin Yun's heart gradually sank: even though he had prepared himself, when he truly faced this scene, he still felt sad.

His gasps drifted into the rain, unable to take away the heavy mood in his heart. He did not want to make excuses; the fact that he had failed to arrive on time was already a reality.

Just thinking of his daughter's face, and thinking of the expression she would have because he had broken his promise, he felt a wave of guilt.

Messed up again.

He thought this, standing there in an incredibly disheveled state, feeling at a loss for a moment. He knew that if he entered the teaching building now, he could still catch the parent-teacher meeting, but the greatest significance of this trip had already become empty talk.

Before long, Lin Yun silently reached out, his wet fingertips touching the phone in his pocket: at the very least, he had to ask where the classroom was.

—"Why did it end up like this?"

A somewhat familiar voice suddenly came from behind Lin Yun, and his hand paused in mid-air.

Turning his head, he saw Lin Xiaolu holding an umbrella, leaning against the pillar by the gate, looking at him with a confused expression.

"Lulu..." he began, only to find his voice somewhat hoarse.

"You're too late; you're ten minutes late."

Lin Xiaolu drooped her eyelids and raised her hand to reveal the glowing phone screen; the digital clock in the center showed the time: "It's already four-forty."

Lin Yun couldn't answer; he tried to pull a smile onto his face to express his apology, but his rusty facial expression management was not enough to allow him to make such a delicate expression, and in the end, he could only quirk the corners of his mouth in a strange way.

Regarding this series of strange movements from Lin Yun, Lin Xiaolu didn't pay them any mind, but instead looked at his embarrassed appearance, pointed at his face that was still oozing blood, and repeated her question: "Why did it end up like this?"

"On the way, the light rail train ran into a bit of trouble and suddenly stopped running halfway..." Lin Yun explained.

"A Remnant Beast?" Lin Xiaolu left him speechless with a single sentence.

"Cough, no."

He did not want Lin Xiaolu to realize that he and "Crested Myna" were in the same place at that time, so he coughed stiffly twice: "Why would you think of such a dangerous thing as a Remnant Beast?"

"Because the Luoming Line was attacked by a Remnant Beast; it's... what the news said." Lin Xiaolu paused in her words, then pointed to her phone, "You were taking this light rail train, weren't you?"

"No, I fell off my bike on the way."

Lin Yun tried to appear as nonchalant as possible: "The train stopped running, so I could only scan a bike from the side of the road."

"You should stop with the lame lies." Lin Xiaolu said in a muffled voice.

The stiff smile squeezed out by the man in front of her gradually overlapped with the playful smile of her mother when she was occasionally late in her memories.

Once, when she had run away from home, he had gone to her classmate's house, and that haggard, exhausted state was the most disheveled look she had in her memory. But today he looked even more miserable: not only was his usually neat suit completely soaked, but his hair, which was usually combed neatly, was plastered to his forehead like a pot lid, and the small wounds on his face were even more unsightly.

Seeing the man who was usually a corporate elite become like this, Lin Xiaolu felt that she should have wanted to laugh, but for some reason, she only felt a bit of a sore nose now. Because she suddenly realized that adults were actually not as composed as they appeared on the surface most of the time.

Looking at this man who was so familiar yet distant, she felt for the first time that his rigid, silent shell had cracked, and she caught a glimpse of something more real from within.

It was something she had once eagerly longed for, and something she had not thought of in a long time. She seemed to have truly understood him a little because of this.

And so, her heart relaxed, she smoothed her furrowed brows, and raised her arm:

"Take it."

She handed out the umbrella in her hand.

"Hm?"

Lin Yun was slightly startled, staring blankly at the umbrella Lin Xiaolu was handing over, and hesitated before taking it: "Does this mean..."

"I've been standing at the school gate for half an hour holding it."

Lin Xiaolu turned her face away, avoiding Lin Yun's gaze: "Hold it for me; my arm is tired."

She handed over the umbrella just like that, naturally standing beside Lin Yun and hiding under the umbrella. She stretched her sore arm and shook her sleeve, which had been soaked by the rain.

After a moment, seeing that Lin Yun still hadn't moved, she raised her head with some dissatisfaction: "Why are you still standing here? Aren't we going to the parent-teacher meeting?"

"The parent-teacher meeting, yes, the parent-teacher meeting."

At this instant, Lin Yun only felt as if a warm current had washed through his heart, joyful and somewhat comforted. He gripped the umbrella tightly and followed Lin Xiaolu as she took steps toward the teaching building.

The father and daughter walked like this, sharing an umbrella, strolling through the rain toward the classroom.

The black umbrella swayed slightly in the pouring rain, maintaining the small space it sheltered, and slowly disappeared into the curtain of rain.

Thunder sounded in the sky, and rain drifted in the wind.

The waterlogged road rippled; a snail was submerged in a puddle, its slow speed making it unable to escape, and it could only helplessly shrink into its shell, waiting for death shortly after.

Just then, under the eaves nearby, a hand reached out, gently picked the snail out of the water, and placed it on the ground to the side.

The owner of the hand finished this task, then took a few steps back, returning to a place where they would not be rained on.

Xia Liang was squatting there alone.

A somewhat comforted smile hung on her face as she quietly watched Lin Xiaolu and Lin Yun disappear into the distance, but once the figures were gone, a touch of loneliness appeared on her face again.

Staring blankly at the snail as it extended its tentacles from its shell again and crawled slowly, she inexplicably thought of the night she had pretended to run away from home and stayed at Lin Xiaolu's house.

Or rather, the words she had spoken on impulse after initiating the conversation and listening to Lin Xiaolu's confession.

That was a sentence spoken aloud, yet not dared to be said loudly, for fear of revealing one's true heart:

"I really... envy you so much."