Xiang Yu reached out to hold his hand. Her hand was small, soft, and slightly cool. Lu Heng grasped it tightly, and Xiang Yu turned her head and smiled at him. "Xiang Yu, you're really beautiful," Lu Heng said instinctively. "Silly," she replied. The silly boy was staring at her without blinking, making her feel her face was heating up. At that moment, the rain started to fall. They quickly ran into the school gym to avoid getting wet, but they still got drenched. Once inside, Xiang Yu noticed the umbrella in her hand and couldn't help but make a playful face at Lu Heng. But he continued to gaze at her intently. "Xiang Yu," he called her name, tenderly, with a hint of unease.
Outside, the rain was pouring down, making everything look indistinct. The world seemed to turn upside down on the rain-soaked ground, making it hard to distinguish between reality and a dream. Xiang Yu looked at the boy in front of her, with a lock of wet hair on his forehead. His eyes still held a bit of youthful innocence, not as resolute as in her previous life, but unmistakably pure and slightly foolish, qualities only a teenager could possess. Xiang Yu felt a lump in her throat, a surge of tears. "It's so good," she thought. "It's so good to see him like this."
Lu Heng felt a tremor in his heart. He knew she was looking at him, but he always wondered if she was seeing something or someone beyond him. "Today, I saw you with Xiao Zhanyuan downstairs," Lu Heng mumbled, his voice growing softer and almost inaudible, his eyes beginning to evade hers. But Xiang Yu looked at him calmly, without a hint of avoidance. Lu Heng's voice carried a mixture of defiance and tenderness, like when he saw them earlier, feeling more heartache than anger, which he didn't fully understand himself. "You don't have to be overly considerate of me. I mean, if you like someone else…" He couldn't continue. "There's no one else," Xiang Yu's voice was calm and firm. "I've only ever liked you. Xiao Zhanyuan came to say goodbye today. We might not contact each other much in the future. You know, we've known each other since we were little, and both Si Ping and Han Xing have gone to Japan." She paused, her words heavy and uncertain, then slowly said, "But for some reasons, we didn't know how to interact, so we thought it would be better not to see each other. That's what you saw today." She didn't deny or evade, wanting to be honest with him, to avoid any misunderstanding or speculation.
In such weather, her eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of mist, more sparkling than usual, like spring water flowing, even without explicit affection, still carrying emotion. Lu Heng couldn't speak, but he reached out and pulled her into a tight embrace. Xiang Yu gently rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat mingling with the sound of the rain outside. The world was so quiet, as if they were the only two people between heaven and earth. He bent down and kissed her hair, which had a faint scent of osmanthus. He didn't stop, his lips moved to her forehead, then to her eyes, very lightly. His lips continued to search for hers, and as they kissed, they both let out soft murmurs. Many years later, Xiang Yu still remembered that damp summer day, that long, youthful kiss with the scent of rain-soaked grass. Perhaps she would never forget it in her lifetime.
Later, when the rain stopped and the sky darkened, they walked back together. They didn't hold hands, and even as they walked side by side, there was a slight distance between them, whether from shyness or something else. They didn't speak, just walked quietly. But the streetlights cast their shadows long, and the two shadows overlapped intimately, even though their owners' hands never touched.