My eagerness to see Mi Cai at this moment is beyond doubt, so I didn’t care about the overnight travel or the impending rain. Immediately, I told Luo Ben that I would return to Xitang and asked him to arrange accommodation for Mi Cai first.
I put my phone back into the briefcase I always carried, took out the prepared bank card again, handed it to Leyao and said, “Take this card. I need to head back to Xitang now.”
Leyao took the card from my hand and held onto it tightly, looking at me and saying, “This is my favorite place in Suzhou. Can’t you just sit with me a little longer?”
“The rain is going to get heavier…”
“Excuse…”
As soon as Leyao finished speaking, the light drizzle turned into heavy raindrops, enough to soak us both.
Leyao looked disheartened and, after a while, whispered, “During these years in Suzhou, there were many nights when, while others thought I was out fooling around, I was actually kept company by these endless railway tracks. But every time we sit here together, it rains, so I feel frustrated. I want you to stay with me until the rain stops and the sky clears…”
I hate it most when Leyao speaks to me in parallel sentences. It reminds me not only of those melodramatic Qiongyao dramas, but also makes me feel her loneliness more deeply. Just as she described, while others thought she was carefree and happy, she always looked at these endless tracks with sadness.
But at this moment, my eagerness to see Mi Cai was even more urgent, so I said, “With such thick clouds, this rain might last until tomorrow!”
“So what if it does? It’s early summer; it won’t freeze us to death. At worst, we can sit in your car. Maybe tomorrow morning we can even see the sunrise!”
I imagined the next morning, waking up to fresh, clean air and warm breezes after the rain, and watching the sunrise rising from the end of the tracks. It indeed sounded beautiful, but I couldn’t afford to linger. I hardened my heart, grabbed the reluctant Leyao, and said, “Stop fooling around. Don’t you have an event in Nanjing tomorrow? Would you like to show up with panda eyes and let down your millions of fans?”
In the rain, Leyao kicked me as we walked, while I happily told her, “Kick harder. My legs were numb from sitting anyway. Feels great!”
Leyao was so angry she almost slapped me, but finally just fiercely pinched my lips with both hands, then stormed off, refusing even to get into my car. She quickly ran to the front of the train station, hailed a taxi, and disappeared from my sight. I muttered to myself, “It’s not that big of a deal. You’re not leaving Suzhou forever. Maybe it won’t rain next time!”
…
After leaving the train station, I drove Ah Feng’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution as fast as I could toward Xitang. However, the rain kept getting heavier, turning into a full-fledged early summer downpour, which made driving increasingly difficult. The inside of the car kept fogging up from my breath, making it hard to see outside. I had no choice but to pull over to the roadside temporarily, waiting for the rain to ease before continuing.
The rain showed no sign of stopping. In my anxiety, I lit a cigarette and absentmindedly looked out the window and surprisingly noticed the roadside motel where Mi Cai and I had stayed before, about 200 meters ahead. Memories of that night came flooding back… Perhaps without Mi Cai’s persistence, we might have already become strangers after that night. What would my life be like now? Would there be another woman by my side? And if so, who would she be?
When my cigarette was almost finished, I realized I had been thinking too much. Life is indeed wonderful, always offering infinite possibilities through different choices. But we, with our limited strength, can only drift along with these thoughts, experiencing pain, joy, and sorrow…
The rain outside poured down like it was venting its anger, and finally, unable to wait any longer, I decided to take a risk, thinking optimistically: “After all, there are only a few dozen kilometers left. With such heavy rain, there must be few cars on the road. As long as I drive slowly, nothing serious should happen.”
I wiped the fog off the inside of the window, restarted the car, shifted gears, released the clutch, and stepped hard on the gas, quickly shifting up to the fourth gear, completely forgetting my earlier intention to drive slowly.
After driving about a kilometer, my phone suddenly rang. I finally slowed down, took out my phone from the briefcase, and my spirits lifted—this call was from Mi Cai.
I pulled over again, answered the call from Mi Cai, my heart beating faster. I didn’t speak first, just waited…
Finally, Mi Cai spoke on the other end of the line, softly asking, “Are you on the road?”
“Yeah.”
“Where are you?”
There was no navigation system in the car, so I looked around but couldn’t determine my exact location. I said, “Remember that roadside motel we stayed at last time? I just passed it by about a kilometer.”
“Turn back now. I’m about 20 kilometers away from that motel. The rain is too heavy. Don’t drive anymore!”
“You’re on the road too?”
Mi Cai didn’t say much, just “Yeah,” but I could clearly sense her concern for me, enough to make my heart race again in this torrential downpour. After a while, I softly reminded her, “Drive slowly. I’ll wait by the roadside. Let’s go to that motel together when we meet!”
“Okay!”
The rain was really heavy, so I didn’t dare to talk much with her, fearing it might distract her driving. After hanging up, I turned the windshield wipers to the fastest speed and, through the window, eagerly waited for that white CC sedan.
Only twenty minutes later, I saw Mi Cai’s car coming from the opposite direction, which meant she had maintained a speed of 60 km/h even in this downpour, making me feel a bit frightened. I quickly honked to signal her. She noticed me and finally slowed down. Immediately, I turned the car around and followed behind her.
Soon, we arrived at the roadside motel again. I parked before her, held my jacket over my head to open her car door, and without even saying a word to her, I hugged her and ran with her against the fierce wind and heavy rain toward the eaves of the motel.
…
Under the not-so-large eaves, I still held her tightly in my arms, watching the continuous raindrops falling from the eaves, sighing, “What a heavy rain… Let’s wait until it stops before heading back to Xitang.”
Mi Cai looked up at the pitch-black sky, “Not sure when it will stop.”
“If you’re tired, we can stay here tonight, though the conditions are pretty poor.”
“That’s okay. We can just chat.”
I nodded, and we walked into the motel together. The same middle-aged woman, slightly plump, greeted us again. She clearly remembered us, put down the sunflower seeds she was eating, and smiled while asking, “Why are you two here again?”
I replied, “It’s raining too heavily outside, and we’re stuck. Do you have any rooms left tonight? If so, find us one with a better environment.”
She looked through the drawer for keys for a while before looking up and saying, “There’s actually one double room left. It’s 300 yuan per night.”
I was taken aback and immediately sarcastically replied, “Didn’t realize this place is a five-star hotel or something. Still 300 yuan per night at this hour!”
The middle-aged woman responded in a displeased tone, “This is a roadside motel. We make our money during heavy rains, just like those inns in Xitang that make their money on weekends!”
Her analogy left me speechless, but I still didn’t want to waste money. I sat down on the sofa in the lobby and told her, “What a rundown motel, you really think I’m made of money? I’ll just sit here and wait for the rain to ease. Don’t even think about ripping me off!”
The middle-aged woman was about to get angry when Mi Cai, who had been silent, finally spoke up. She smiled at the woman and said, “Sister, people are already having a hard time, don’t make it worse for us. We’re really in a bad situation.”
The woman looked at Mi Cai and asked, “What does ‘ren jian bu chai’ mean?”
I looked at Mi Cai curiously, not expecting her to know this internet slang, and even more curious about how she would explain it to the middle-aged woman.
Mi Cai thought for a moment and answered, “It means life is already hard enough, so some things shouldn’t be pointed out directly… We really don’t have much money. Please be kind to us!”
The woman looked at Mi Cai and said, “You don’t look like someone who’s broke. Otherwise, I wouldn’t ask you 300 yuan. For regular truck drivers, I’d give a standard room for 100 yuan!”
The woman’s blatant honesty in trying to overcharge us left Mi Cai speechless. I quickly jumped in and said, “Wow, so you’re actually robbing the rich to help the poor? What a noble professional ethic!”
The middle-aged woman ignored me completely and turned back to Mi Cai, the softer target, saying, “Are you staying or not? If not, leave quickly. Don’t disturb my business!”
I was too lazy to argue with her anymore, so I stood up and pulled Mi Cai’s hand, wanting to walk out, but to my surprise, Mi Cai didn’t want to leave at all. She said to the middle-aged woman, “Sister, the rain outside is just too heavy. Driving is really unsafe for us. Please let us stay. Don’t you feel we’re destined to meet? Every time we’re in trouble, we end up at your motel. Seeing you sitting here makes my husband and me feel so safe. It’s like we’ve been saved!”
After Mi Cai flattered her like that, the woman’s face lit up with a smile, and she said, “You make me sound like a goddess of mercy. How can I not give you a discount? I’d feel bad about myself!”
Mi Cai looked at me with a bit of smugness, then said to the woman, “Then give us a discount, okay?”
“Alright, 80 yuan per night. That’s even lower than what I give to my regular customers! Here are the keys. The room is on the third floor. I won’t accompany you up.”
Mi Cai took the keys from the woman’s hand and then asked me for my ID card. She handed over both her ID and mine to the woman for registration.
I leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Earlier, you said ‘my husband and I.’ Did I hear that right?”
Mi Cai looked at me, nodded, and didn’t deny it.
“Now that I’m your husband, why didn’t you even acknowledge me last night? You owe me an explanation—you’ve left me feeling down all day!”
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