Chapter 13: It Never Rains
On the surface, Lu Yunxi continued to learn the dance as seriously as the other girls, but internally, she was screaming.
What is going on?!
Belly dancing didn’t exactly seem like something that belonged in an ancient setting. Taking advantage of the lessons, she spent her time observing Grandma Wang, hoping to find a clue. Unfortunately, she saw nothing unusual.
In the days that followed, whenever she wasn’t occupied with training, she spent every spare moment running over to Grandma Wang’s house. She was dying to know if there was someone else here who had traveled through time like her.
While her parents were very kind, she often found herself missing her modern life. There was no one to talk to about it, and the prospect of finding a fellow traveler to reminisce with was exhilarating. Of course, she knew she had to be careful; she needed to gather information secretly. What if the person turned out to be dangerous?
A few months passed.
Lu Yunxi’s dancing skills progressed from the internship level to the beginner level. After weeks of observation, she finally confirmed that Grandma Wang was not a time traveler. According to the stories she gathered, Grandma Wang had learned the dance from her own teacher, who had passed away years ago.
Disappointed and unable to identify any other candidates, Lu Yunxi eventually gave up her search.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, Lu Yunxi was nine years old.
“I’m heading out. Take care, Xi’er, Yu Niang.” Lu Dahu checked his bow and quiver, said his goodbyes, and began the trek up the mountain.
Lu Yunxi and her mother watched him disappear into the distance before returning to the house. Her father’s hunting trips usually lasted two or three days, sometimes stretching to four or five.
With her father away for several days, Lu Yunxi felt as free as the Monkey King escaping from beneath Five-Finger Mountain. Although her mother would still urge her to train, Yu Niang knew very little about martial arts; she couldn’t tell the difference between serious practice and just going through the motions.
Lu Yunxi pretended to train for a short while, and as soon as her mother returned to her room to work on her embroidery, Yunxi slipped out through the front door.
However, after only a few steps, the sunlight above was suddenly cut off, and the entire sky plunged into darkness. Yunxi stopped dead, staring up at the blackened sky, and then sprinted back toward the house.
What on earth is happening? It’s early morning and it’s already pitch black!
Almost the second she burst back into her room, the sky opened up.
A torrential downpour began. The rain and fog were so thick they blocked all vision; she couldn’t even see the trees right outside her window clearly. She frowned, her heart sinking.
It had never rained in Mushroom Village since the day she was born.
She had never understood why the village was always so perfectly beautiful, yet never saw a drop of rain. But for nine years, the weather had been constant, and the villagers had always been calm about it, so she had assumed rain simply wasn’t a part of life here. Now that a storm had finally arrived, she was worried about what it meant for those in the mountains.
Thinking of her father out there, she bit her lip nervously and offered a silent prayer.
The rain was incredibly heavy. Compared to the storms she had seen in her previous life, those were mere drizzles compared to this. Lu Yunxi stared out the window, realizing the visibility was less than a meter. Even if she wanted to go up the mountain to find her father, they could pass each other by and never know it.
She knew she couldn’t go after him, but a heavy sense of dread settled in her chest. With rain this intense, what if there were landslides?
Just as her anxiety was reaching a breaking point, a voice drifted through the storm.
“Xi’er! Xi’er?!”
The roar of the rain nearly drowned out the sound. It took a moment for Lu Yunxi to realize it was her mother calling out. The voice was thick with panic.
Yunxi shouted back with all her might, “Mom, I’m in the house!”
She yelled it several times, but her mother clearly didn’t hear her. The calls continued, becoming more frantic and shrill. Hearing her mother’s sobbing voice, Lu Yunxi paced the room, searching for a way out.
She rummaged through the house until she finally found a decorative bamboo umbrella. It was meant for show, but the quality was sturdy enough to serve its purpose. She opened it against the lashing rain and sprinted across the courtyard to her mother’s room.
At that moment, she was profoundly grateful that her mother had rejected the idea of a bamboo house years ago. A bamboo structure wouldn’t have stood a chance against this downpour. Their courtyard house, however, allowed her to move along the connected corridors. She wasn’t entirely dry, but she wasn’t soaked to the bone either.
When she burst into the room, she found her mother sitting on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the deluge outside. Her eyes were red from crying, and her whole body was trembling.
“Mother?!”
Ignoring the wet hem of her skirt, Lu Yunxi tossed the umbrella into a corner and ran to the bed.
“Mom,” she said, hugging her tightly and patting her back. “I’m here! It’s okay! We’re fine!”
Under her steady comfort, her mother slowly began to settle. Yu Niang wiped her eyes, looking a little embarrassed as she realized her daughter was the one taking care of her.
When the rain had first started, it felt as though someone had squeezed her heart. The pain and fear had been so sudden and overwhelming that she had simply broken down. As a mother, she felt a sting of shame that she hadn’t been the one comforting her child.
Lu Yunxi didn’t judge her. Seeing that her mother was calm, she quickly boiled a pot of water and steeped some osmanthus petals. The temperature had plummeted with the rain; even Yunxi felt a chill, and she knew her mother’s fragile health wouldn’t handle the cold well.
The two sat in silence, sipping the osmanthus tea and watching the rain through the window. They looked as still as a landscape painting, though they couldn’t stop themselves from glancing toward the mountains every few seconds.
They sat there for an hour, but the rain showed no signs of slowing.
On the surface, Lu Yunxi remained calm, but her mind was racing with worry. Her father had been out there for hours now. If he couldn’t find shelter, the drop in body temperature would be life-threatening.
But she couldn’t let her unease show. If she panicked, her mother would follow. So the two of them sat in the gloom, waiting as night began to fall.
