Chapter 156: The Rain Falls So Deep [Third Update]

"I have an umbrella."

While replying on the phone, Bai Qingxia looked up at the corner of the ceiling in her room.

There were no cracks in that spot, but water had begun to seep through. The white paint darkened in color, and soon a droplet formed right in the middle and fell down.

She quickly found a basin and placed it directly underneath.

"Drip!"

The droplet landed in the plastic basin with a crisp sound. The girl looked up, hearing the voice continue through the phone.

Lu Yuanqiu: "Wait for my call tomorrow. If it's raining really hard, just wait for me at the entrance of your alley, and I'll ride my bike to pick you up."

Bai Qingxia hesitated for a brief moment. She hadn't wanted to trouble Lu Yuanqiu, but knowing he would certainly insist on this, she agreed.

However, it didn't rain the next morning.

Yet, when the first period of classes began at school, a torrential downpour suddenly broke out across the sky without any warning.

This period happened to be Brother Xu's class.

Mid-lecture, a fierce gale whipped up outside, blowing all the windows wide open. The curtains danced wildly near the window frames, tilted upward at a forty-to-fifty-degree angle, making a rumbling sound.

Outside, the trees shook violently as if it were the end of the world. Dense streaks of rain blurred the air into a misty scene, and raindrops splashed onto the desks near the windows. Bai Qingxia immediately moved her textbook a little further inward.

Lu Yuanqiu had been feeling sleepy, but the whipping curtain instantly jolted him awake.

Though it should have been sleepytime, everyone became spirited instead.

"Is this the end of the world?!"

Gao Qiang couldn't help blurting out.

"Isn't the end of the world two years from now? In 2012."

Someone retorted.

"What end of the world? Even if the end of the world comes, you still have to finish this physics class!"

Brother Xu slapped the podium, his expression stern as he addressed the students.

His face had remained tightly set since the beginning of class, and he hadn't performed any romantic little physics experiments beforehand.

Lu Yuanqiu guessed it was because this blind date had probably fallen through again.

Sigh, he hadn't been back to No. 7 High School for a long time before his rebirth, and he didn't know if Brother Xu ever managed to find a partner in the end.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Close all the windows!"

Brother Xu commanded.

Bai Qingxia was just about to stand up when Lu Yuanqiu pushed her back down and got up to close the windows himself.

"Woman, things like this aren't your turn to handle. This is a man's job, so you just sit tight~~"

Lu Yuanqiu leaned close to her face, emitting a bubbling vocal fry loud enough to rattle her eardrums.

Bai Qingxia shrank her neck, a trace of faint disgust showing in her small eyes.

The girls sitting in front of them turned around, their expressions of disdain even more obvious. They scratched the backs of their hands, seemingly signaling to Lu Yuanqiu that he was giving them goosebumps.

"Jie-jie-jie—" Lu Yuanqiu laughed like a maniac.

It wasn't until lunchtime that the rain finally stopped. Watching the students stream out for lunch, Lu Yuanqiu nudged Bai Qingxia with his elbow, tilted his head, and said, "Let's go, time for lunch. Take advantage of the rain stopping now; if you go any later, it'll start pouring again, and even an umbrella won't help."

Bai Qingxia turned to glance out the window, closed her book, and nodded at Lu Yuanqiu.

The two of them walked out of the teaching building together, but just as they were about to leave the Freshman Building, they found a densely packed crowd of students jammed at the entrance.

As it turned out, the stretch of ground between the Freshman Building and the cafeteria was already completely flooded with standing water across a hundred-meter span.

"So much water..." "How are we supposed to get across?"

"Ah, I'm wearing sneakers!"

Lu Yuanqiu poked his head out from behind the crowd and saw that the standing water was indeed quite deep.

"Yueru, what should I do? My shoes can't get wet, ying ying ying..." A freshman girl stomped her feet in anxiety.

"What's the big deal? I'll carry you!" At that moment, Ruan Yueru, the short-haired girl standing beside her, said forthrightly. She was wearing sneakers herself.

Ruan Yueru bent down to carry her friend on her back, rolled up her trouser legs to reveal fair calves, and stepped into the puddles in her sneakers, walking step by step toward the cafeteria.

"She's so man..." A sigh came from nearby.

Lu Yuanqiu turned his head and saw that it was Cao Shuang.

"Do you like her?"

Lu Yuanqiu asked him meaningfully.

Cao Shuang's expression instantly changed, and he flung his arm out, "Bah! How could I possibly like a tomboy like that!"

Despite saying that, Lu Yuanqiu knew that Cao Shuang had constantly brought up things related to Ruan Yueru in front of him over the past few days without realizing it.

For instance, how Ruan Yueru couldn't beat him at basketball, or how Ruan Yueru surprisingly had excellent academic grades...

"Brother Qiu, are you going across? I'll carry you, it's fine if my shoes get wet," Cao Shuang asked.

Lu Yuanqiu shook his head. "I'm not that delicate. Go on by yourself."

However, following Ruan Yueru's demonstration, the male students at the scene began rolling up their trouser legs one after another, carrying their female meal buddies (girlfriends) on their backs toward the cafeteria.

There was even a thick-browed, big-eyed boy who good-naturedly acted as a "foot porter," declaring that since his shoes were already soaked anyway, anyone who wanted to cross could hop on his back for a round trip.

None of the girls stepped forward themselves; instead, grinning boys walked up to thank him and asked him to carry them across, and the thick-browed student turned none of them down.

"Oh my, look at all this water!" Su Miaomiao's voice came from nearby as she clutched a stack of lesson plans.

Lu Yuanqiu and Bai Qingxia stepped aside to make room. At that moment, Bai Qingxia accidentally stepped on someone's foot behind her and jumped in fright. She quickly hid beside Lu Yuanqiu's flank, poked her head out, and apologized hastily: "I'm sorry."

Looking up, she saw it was Zheng Yifeng.

Zheng Yifeng didn't seem to notice that his foot had been stepped on at all. He stood by the wall, his gaze wandering intentionally or unintentionally toward Su Miaomiao.

Bai Qingxia paused slightly, realizing for the first time that Zheng Yifeng seemed quite attentive to Teacher Su.

Lu Yuanqiu: "Teacher, why don't you let Zheng Yifeng carry you?"

Hearing this, Su Miaomiao turned around, looking first at Lu Yuanqiu and then at Zheng Yifeng. Zheng Yifeng averted his gaze, putting on an aloof expression.

Su Miaomiao smiled quickly and said, "No, no, it's fine. My shoes won't be ruined."

She was still wearing high heels and black silk stockings today. After the people in front of her moved down, she carefully followed behind, stepping down the stairs as the accumulated water instantly flooded into her high heels.

Zhong Jincheng appeared in the crowd like a phantom, his throat moving as he muttered, "Those aren't high heels, those are my champagne glasses."

Lu Yuanqiu: "...It had to be you."

Zhong Jincheng turned and smiled at Lu Yuanqiu, then quickly stepped forward, falling in step beside Su Miaomiao and chatting and laughing as they headed toward the cafeteria.

Lu Yuanqiu looked at Zheng Yifeng.

Useless. Given the chance and you can't even handle it. Look at Zhong Jincheng...

Zheng Yifeng still maintained an aloof expression, his eyes half-closed in a daze. Realizing perhaps that he truly was useless, he simply abandoned all caution, stepped directly into the water, and walked calmly toward the cafeteria.

Lu Yuanqiu recognized his shoes—they cost one or two thousand yuan a pair.