Chapter 2: Your Umbrella

As she prepared to board the car, Yun Li hesitated for a moment between the passenger and the back seat.

Miss He didn’t make herself clear enough and only said that this driver was an employee of the company. Maybe he came to pick her up just to help. If she sat in the back, that might be a little bit disrespectful and would make him seem more like a driver than an employee.

Her only option was to bite the bullet and choose the former.

The light and rain interlaced as they came from above, and the windows were full of stars.

Yun Li fastened her seat belt, took out a piece of paper from her bag, and roughly wiped off the large drops of water on her clothes.

The ride was silent. 

In the past, she would just sit in the back and play dead after getting in a taxi; at most she would ask for the price when she was about to get off. It was rare for her to sit in a stranger’s passenger seat, as it always felt awkward not to speak.

After she racked her brain to think about something to say, Yun Li spoke up, “Sorry for the trouble to have to come and pick me up.”

A few seconds later, the man lightly said, “Mm.”

It fell silent again.

Yun Li couldn’t think of what else to say, and so she began to pretend to look busy. She took out her phone and flipped through several commonly used apps repeatedly.

After driving for a while, the man suddenly asked, “Where to?”

“Ah?” Yun Li sat upright and said hurriedly, “Yangjin Hotel.”

“Mm.”

After this, the man never spoke again.

He didn’t seem to have the slightest desire to talk, except for the necessary questions. Aside from that, he was dead silent. As if he really was just a taxi driver.

The two people she met tonight were really two extremes in character.

One was too enthusiastic, the other was too cold. It was just that their appearances were both quite eye-catching

Thinking of this, Yun Li secretly glanced in his direction again.

From her angle, she could see most of the man’s side face, partly covered by shadows. His hat was taken off, and his jawline was clear. The hair on his forehead was wet, partially covering his eyebrows. 

His lips were still quite pale.

He was wearing his jacket already, but still looked like he was cold.

She retracted her gaze and pretended to look back at the scenery. But she couldn’t help but look back at him again.

When it came to looks, he was the type of man that she liked.

His temperament was indifferent and cold, and he appeared to have no worldly desires and weaknesses. Seemingly weak, but inexplicably revealing a hint of viciousness.

He could be described as a seemingly dying wolf from the streets, who could jump up and bite you any second.

When they arrived at the hotel, the quiet atmosphere along the way was finally broken.

There was a glass canopy at the door. The man stopped the car, dropped the word “arrived” and got out of the car. Yun Li replied thanks and hurriedly took her things and followed him closely.

The man carried the suitcase to the doorstep for her, and he lifted his chin inward, “Just go in.”

“Okay, thank you.”

The man nodded and said nothing, then turned and returned to his car.

It was still raining cats and dogs. Looking at the man’s back, Yun Li imagined him to be washed away by the heavy rain. She took a step forward and yelled, “Uh, um!”

The man stopped and looked back.

Yun Li’s heart was beating heavily as she handed him her umbrella, “The rain doesn’t seem like it will end soon.”

He didn’t move a muscle. 

“I will go to EAW tomorrow,” Yun Li met his eyes for no reason, and her voice trembled a little, “You can put it at the front desk then, and I’ll go get it.”

Afraid that the scene where he turned down the umbrella would be repeated. She simply put the umbrella on the hood of the car and said quickly, “Thank you for bringing me here today.”

She did not wait for the man to respond and had already walked inside with her suitcase.

After walking a few meters into the hotel, Yun Li finally had the courage to look back.

The place where the umbrella was originally placed was empty.

The car drove forward as the rain continued to pour down. The taillights disappeared into the darkness, breaking the evenness of the rain. 

Yun Li let out a sigh of relief.

In her room, Yun Li fell asleep after taking a shower. Because of the unfamiliar environment, she didn’t sleep very well. 

She had a dream about tonight’s scene.

Everything went as it did, but after getting in the man’s car, what had happened went in a completely different direction.

The man did not drive her to the hotel, but to a wilderness.

There, Yun Li also saw the man at the airport. He laughed wildly, mocking her for being stupid, and declared that the man was the leader of their criminal organization.

The man’s eyes looked at her as if he was a hunter looking at its prey. A cold-blooded, cruel predator. 

She was nervous and wanted to leave as soon as possible.

As soon as she turned around, the man used the umbrella that she gave him tonight to pierce her in the heart. 

Then Yun Li woke up.

“……”

The panic in the dream persisted, and she touched her chest unconsciously. After relaxing in bed for a few minutes, she calmed down, and she realized how absurd this dream was.

After a while, Yun Li picked up her phone to check the time.

On WeChat, Miss He added her into a group and notified everyone to gather in the hotel lobby at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

Yun Li didn’t dawdle and quickly went to wash up.

She went out ten minutes early.

There were two men and a woman sitting on the sofa, and only the woman was facing her. Through the corner of her eyes, she caught a glimpse of her, and the woman immediately got up and greeted her, “Are you Miss Lazy Cloud?”

Yun Li nodded.

Lazy Cloud was her username on E site.

The full name of E site was Endless Sharing, which was a video platform for content creators. It was once a small communication platform, and later, an option for video creation was set up. The number of online users gradually increased and the website gradually expanded.

That summer before her sophomore year, Yun Li had nothing better to do and started to post videos on E site.

She was just filming for fun at first and never thought anyone would watch it. The content was very mixed, focusing on food and other interests of hers. She would just record whatever she wanted.

And now, although she wasn’t too popular, she still had a good couple hundred thousand followers.

The woman on the sofa was Miss He, her full name was He Jiameng. The two men were also famous content creators at E site, one was called Unknown, and the other was called Fee Water.

After they greeted each other, they got into the car.

The arrangement was a seven-seater SUV. Yun Li and He Jiameng sat in the middle row, and the other two sat behind them. Along the way, they all chatted.

Her phone vibrated.

Yun Li opened her phone, and found that it was a message from her friend Deng Chuqi.

Deng Chuqi: [You’re at Nanwu?]

Yun Li  gave a non sequitur reply: [I almost died just now.]

Deng Chuqi: [?]

Yun Li: [In my dream]

A moment later.

Deng Chuqi: [I almost got a job with an annual salary of one million today.]

Yun Li: [?]

Deng Chuqi: [In my dream.]

“……”

Yun Li couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Immediately, perhaps it was just her mind playing tricks with her, the noisy background sound became quieter. She turned her head and looked over, just to meet He Jiameng’s smile.

“Miss Lazy Cloud, you think it’s funny too?”

“Huh?” Yun Li didn’t listen at all, and said with a guilty conscience, “Um…yeah it is.”

They may be aware of her perfunctory prevarication, and they didn’t keep the topic on this. They soon switched the conversation. 

Yun Li relaxed but felt a little bad.

She felt that she was a mood killer.

……

EAW Technology City opened in a large business district called Haitian Commercial City. Not too far from the hotel, it was only a fifteen-minute drive in the car. 

The neighborhood was very lively, with commercial streets on both sides along the way, and it passed by Nanwu University of Technology. Coincidentally, that day, it was the Qixi Festival1 and the pedestrians on the road were in pairs, bustling and full of energy.

Looking out the window, Yun Li could see a huge Ferris wheel perched on the top of the mall.

The entrance to EAW was on the first floor.

Today was not the official shooting day, just a day for everyone to get familiar with the building and the shooting process. It wasn’t a mandatory event to attend either.

Yun Li didn’t want to be left behind and was afraid to not know what to do when it was the day for the shooting, so she came along. 

In addition to them, a few more people arrived at the scene. Yun Li didn’t know or recognize them.

They said hello and He Jiameng led them inside. 

After entering, there was a front desk and a ticket gate. Down the escalator, EAW’s play facilities occupied a large part of the upper three floors, separated from other stores in the business district.

Because it had not yet opened, there were no people in the store, and the equipment had not been turned on. Here, He Jiameng only briefly introduced them to the projects on each floor.

Yun Li acted alone, and when she saw an item of interest, she wrote it down in hermemo. After she was done, she started to think about what content to make. At the same time, the phone vibrated once again, this time notifying her of low battery.

She flipped through the bag, and failed to find her power bank.

I forgot to bring it?

She looked around and saw He Jiameng sitting on the lounge chair in the corridor on the same floor. Yun Li walked over, “Jiameng, do you have a charger here?”

He Jiameng looked up: “No, but there is one in the lounge.”

“Then nevermind…”

“No it’s okay, the lounge is very close. I’ll take you there.” He Jiameng glanced at the time. “We may stay for another hour or so, you can rest there and recharge the battery along the way.”

Because having one’s phone dead was a very inconvenient experience in this era, Yun Li did not refuse, “Okay, thank you.”

She exited from EAW, then walked out to the nearest fire exit and walked down the stairs to the first floor. She entered from the side door, which led to a long corridor, and she could see several single-open glass doors, one of which said “EAW Technology City”.

Marked below, “Employees Only.” 

He Jiameng swiped her card to unlock it.

There were two doors on the front and left of the building: the office and the staff lounge.

The two entered the lounge and turned on the lights.

There were lockers on the entire left side, and there were two small dressing rooms next to it. In the middle were two rectangular tables and a small bar.

The space was not small, so He Jiameng only turned on the lights on their side. The room was still a little dim, but one could see clearly that there were three sofas at the innermost location. They were put together into a U shape, and there were several lazy chairs around them.

He Jiameng picked up the remote control of the air conditioner and muttered, “Why is the air conditioner turned on, and it’s 30 degrees…?[2“

“Is it because someone’s here?” asked Yun Li.

“Maybe someone has come down before. A few people have come here today, but they are all in the store now.” He Jiameng turned it down a few degrees, turned over the charger to her, and pointed to one of the tables, “Do you want to charge it here? Or you can go to the sofa.”

“Okay, thank you.”

He Jiameng wanted to sit down and accompany her for a while, but when she glanced at the phone, she suddenly took out her foundation from the bag to enhance her makeup.

Yun Li blinked, “What’s the matter?”

“The boss is here, and he is in the store now!” He Jiameng said excitedly, “My boss is super handsome and gentle! Miss Lazy Yun, you should be reapplying your lipstick too!”

Super handsome?

Hearing this keyword, Yun Li asked, “Was it the person who came to pick me up?”

“No. Yesterday for your incident, the boss called me, and scolded me first,” He Jiameng put her hand on her chest as if it was the most painful thing ever, “Then, he said that he will arrange someone to pick you up. I don’t know who it was. I guess it should be my colleague.”

“……”

“My boss rarely comes here. He only came once during the trial period, but I didn’t get to meet him that time,” added He Jiameng, “I can’t believe he’s free today on Qixi, he must still be single.” After she finished speaking, she smiled as she invited, “Would you like to go up and meet him with me?”

Yun Li was amused by her, “No thanks, I’ll let my phone charge for a little.”

He Jiameng didn’t force it, “He should still be here by the time you’re done, I’ll go now, see you later!”

“Okay.”

There was a socket at the table, so she didn’t bother to go to the sofa. She didn’t plan to stay too long either, as she wanted to leave by the time her phone was just half full.

After a while, Deng Chuqi sent her a voice message, “So what dream did you have yesterday?”

Yun Li briefly described the content of the dream to her.

Deng Chuqi inquired: “Can an umbrella stab someone to death?”

Deng Chuqi:  “What a weird dream, the umbrella you lent out turned into a life-threatening knife. Make sure you remember to take the umbrella back, so that the murderer’s weapon doesn’t stay in the murderer’s hands.”

“……”

This was not unreasonable.

Yun Li was a bit superstitious.

She would almost always forget the dreams she had in the past right after she woke up, but this time, it was as if it actually happened. She could even still remember the blood splattering before her eyes.

I asked him to put it at the front desk yesterday, wonder if he’s here today.

Thinking of this, Yun Li didn’t even bother to recharge anymore. She packed up her things and got up. But at this moment, she heard a slight movement from the sofa.

Yun Li stopped and hesitated to walk in that direction.

When she approached, she realized that there has been a person lying on the sofa the whole time.

This position was blocked by the back of the chair, and the light was dim and a certain distance away. Since she didn’t look closely, she didn’t notice at all.

The man was very tall, and this sofa couldn’t fit him. He was covered with a thin blanket, and he was frowning. Moreover, she couldn’t tell whether he was asleep or awake.

Yun Li recognized him at a glance.

He was the man who had come to pick her up on yesterday’s rainy night. 

“……”

She stopped breathing.

Thinking of what she had just said, Yun Li was not sure if the man heard it. 

She saw the man open his eyes.

He didn’t seem to have just woken up though, he probably has been awake for a bit longer.

The surrounding area was still; even a single breath could be heard. 

The next second, the man retracted his eyes and sat up. Moving slowly, he picked up her umbrella from the side of the sofa. He didn’t hand it to her, but instead, put it on the coffee table in front of her.

“Your umbrella.”

As if she was caught by the teacher for playing games in class, Yun Li stayed in place for a few before reaching to grab it.

The man calmly said, “Thank you.”

Yun Li didn’t dare to look at him, so he just gave an “mm”.

Seeing that he had no intention to speak anymore, Yun Li couldn’t stand the embarrassing atmosphere anymore. She swallowed, and said, “Then, I’ll get going now.”

But before she could move, the man spoke. His voice was still very soft, like a casual reminder.

“It‘s a folding umbrella, it can’t kill.”

Yun Li froze, tilted her head, and met his eyes again. As if returning to the rainy night in her dream, the cold, damp rain, along with his next words, drilled into her chest mercilessly.

“It is possible though with a straight one.”

“……”