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Squeak!
As he was about to reach the garage, Chen Xu slammed on the brakes to stop the car, flung open the door, and dashed out.
"Luo Xiyun!"
He shouted as he ran.
The vegetable garden that was arranged like a garden had been completely destroyed, with flowerpots scattered everywhere and the whole road in disarray.
He rushed to Luo Xiyun's house, violently pulled open the door, and barged in, "Luo Xiyun, Luo Xiyun..."
He searched everywhere, but no one was there. The room doors were locked, and no one responded to his calls.
"She hasn't returned at this time, she must be trapped on the road."
It was almost three o'clock in the afternoon, meaning she had been trapped for four to five hours.
He had come back with a glimmer of hope to see if she had safely returned home, but things had developed for the worse. He felt a heaviness in his chest, gave the door a forceful pat, and turned to run back out.
He got back into the car, turned it around, slammed the accelerator, and drove off.
"Luo Xiyun, please, please, don't have an accident." He did not want to spend the remaining two months all alone.
"She always took this road whenever she came back." Chen Xu drove down a road, honking the horn loudly.
It was still three o'clock in the afternoon, but in such weather, with a typhoon and heavy rain, visibility was poor, and even with high beams, he could only see a distance of two to three meters ahead.
He only hoped that the sound of the horn would attract Luo Xiyun's attention.
He didn't know where she had gone on her bicycle or which routes she might have taken, so he could only try every possible branching road.
Time passed slowly, and there was no sign of the typhoon weakening.
The sky grew darker, and Chen Xu's anxiety increased, with various thoughts flashing through his mind.
"Did we miss a road, and she's trapped on it?"
"Has something happened to her, so she can't hear the horn?"
"Did she hear the horn but has no way to respond?"
....
Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a flash in the rearview mirror, and although it was fleeting, he saw clearly that it wasn't lightning.
He shuddered involuntarily, slammed on the brakes, then turned the wheel and collided with a small car parked by the roadside, forcibly turning the car around.
After driving just a little further, he saw that flash again, and this time he could see clearly, it was the light from a phone's backlight.
"Found it!"
He felt a wave of relief wash over him as he drove closer. When the headlights illuminated the scene, he finally saw the current state of Luo Xiyun.
She was standing by the roadside, soaked through, yet disregarding everything else, with one hand holding onto a lamppost, the other waving a phone with its backlight on with effort.
"Looks like she's had a rough time."
Chen Xu thought to himself as he parked the car in front of her. At this moment, it seemed she couldn't hold on any longer, swayed by the strong wind, she collapsed to the ground, clinging to the lamppost, looking extremely wretched.
Looking at her wretched appearance, he found it a bit funny, but felt it wasn't right to gloat. He adjusted his expression, opened the door, got out, and braved the wind and rain to help her into the passenger seat.
The back seat was full of stuff with no place for people to sit.
After getting into the car, Chen Xu handed her a clean towel, started the car, and headed home.
....
All the way, Luo Xiyun wiped the water off herself with the towel, remaining silent. She didn't speak, and Chen Xu didn't utter a word either. There was an awkward silence in the car.
He didn't really feel like talking, and he honestly didn't know what to say.
To him, Luo Xiyun was both unfamiliar and familiar.
The last time the two of them sat together like this was three months ago when they were assigned work. Since then, they hadn't spoken. They seemed to have an unspoken agreement to stagger their times leaving home to avoid running into each other.
Whenever they did encounter each other, they acted as if they didn't see the other, as if the other didn't exist.
Because of this, she felt very unfamiliar to him.
Yet, at the same time, he also knew her well, knowing what dishes she liked, what style of clothes she favored, what she did on certain days, and even when her period started.
Living next door to each other, many areas were shared, and without paying special attention, many things just came to be known. Like which meats in the freezer were consumed the fastest, which vegetables in front were picked the most, and what clothes were hung outside each day.
By the time Chen Xu drove the car back into the garage, it was completely dark, and when he glanced at his phone, it was already seven in the evening.
He turned off the car's engine and was about to open the door when he heard Luo Xiyun speak for the first time since getting in, "I sprained my foot."
"Huh?"
He was startled for a moment before turning to look at her, aided by the car's interior light. It was only then that he noticed she had scratches on her arms and knees, though he couldn't see her foot because of the angle and lighting.
It seemed she must have fallen while riding her bicycle.
He thought for a moment; it was still twenty meters to the house, and getting her there in the force of a level ten typhoon seemed difficult.
He decided to restart the car, driving it into what was once the vegetable garden. The flowerpots once used for growing vegetables were scattered everywhere by the wind, and the car would occasionally bump when a wheel rolled over one. Luckily, the SUV had a high enough chassis that nothing would get stuck.
He slowly drove to her house, then got out and helped her down, leading her into the coffee shop where she lived.
Once inside, he flicked the light switch, but with a "click" sound, the light didn't come on.
"Is the light broken?"
He flicked it a few more times, but the light remained off. He had to rely on his phone's flashlight to help guide her to the room door.
Luo Xiyun reached up to a hanger beside her and retrieved a key to open the door.
After helping her inside, Chen Xu felt he should leave, but then he heard the sound of a switch being flipped, though still no light inside.
He immediately realized something was wrong, a power outage?
It seemed trouble hadn't arrived singly.
The home's power supply depended on a diesel generator. If it broke, there'd be trouble.
Hopefully, it was just a tripped circuit breaker.
He thought to himself.
Then, he heard Luo Xiyun say something, but her voice was too soft, and he didn't catch it, so he asked, "What did you say?"
In the darkness, he sensed her breathing become heavier, and after a moment, her faint voice came again.
This time, he heard it clearly; she said, "I want to go to the bathroom."
This was the second sentence she had spoken since they met.
Chen Xu could tell that she was probably feeling quite embarrassed when she said it.
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