Under the Dusk - Come in

This summer, Ruan Shu moved three times.

The last time, it was a hot afternoon, and just on her first day in the new place, the weather turned bad. The originally clear blue sky was covered with clouds, and soon it began to rain heavily, soaking Ruan Shu through and through.

The heavy rain came suddenly, and it seemed like she had left her keys at the supermarket.

With no other options, she could only knock on the neighbour’s door, her shoulders trembling, begging him to let her in, even if it was just to spare her a towel…

That was Ruan Shu’s first meeting with Ji Yan.

If she could go back in time, she would still be grateful to herself for having the courage to ask a stranger for help.

But sometimes, she wondered: if the person who had opened the door wasn’t Ji Yan, would she have regretted it?

After all, at that time, she had been in a very awkward situation.

Soaked through, her clothes and pants sticking to her skin, and her face pale from the rain.

The moment the door opened, Ruan Shu saw a man standing there, and she instantly felt embarrassed, wanting to find an excuse to refuse. But the man stepped aside and said, “Come in.”

His voice was exceptionally pleasant and youthful.

But he was too tall, and Ruan Shu didn’t dare to look up. She only remembered that when she brushed past him, her forehead probably only reached his chest.

He had just taken a shower, and his body still carried the warm scent of shower gel.

Like most single adult men.

The environment he lived in was a bit shabby, but it wasn’t dirty or messy. It was just that everything in the room was clearly visible at a glance. There were a few bottles of alcohol on the table, now empty, probably from last night, which hadn’t been thrown out. The ashtray still carried the damp smell of cigarettes.

In front of her was a television that looked relatively decent, playing a UEFA Champions League football match.

He was probably one of the many football fans.

Fortunately, the bathroom was clean. In fact, it was surprisingly clean. Shampoo, shower gel, hand soap, and shaving cream were all neatly lined up together.

Perhaps he had a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder; the way these items were arranged was very consistent. Even though the kitchen counter looked a bit old, there wasn’t a single soap stain to be seen. The air, aside from the steam from his shower, had no strange odours.

He was very clean.

A man who kept his bathroom clean but let his living room be a bit messy.

Ruan Shu let out a sigh of relief.

She took off her clothes and stood under the shower, taking a satisfying hot shower, her body temperature gradually returning with the warm water.

For a normal person, perhaps they wouldn’t casually enter a stranger’s house to take a shower like she did.

But Ruan Shu didn’t live in a normal place.

She was in one of the cheapest urban villages in Kanyang, where the rent was only 580 yuan/month.

This self-built house by the villagers had three floors. The first floor was a car repair shop, the second floor was the living area of the repair shop owner, and the third floor had only two rooms for rent—one of which was his, and the other had just been rented by Ruan Shu.

And Ruan Shu wasn’t exactly a normal person.

She was an orphan, born after her father had passed away. Since childhood, she had been weak and often sick, always running a high fever every time she got caught in the rain.

She didn’t know when this rain would stop. She didn’t want to get sick, and she certainly didn’t want to die in a city where no one knew her.

***

The next day, Ruan Shu gathered up her courage to knock on the door, intending to return the clothes and towel the man had lent her the afternoon before and to thank him properly.

She had washed the clothes clean and hung them out to dry on the summer night. By morning, they were already dry.

But to her surprise, he wasn’t there.

Just like yesterday.

After she finished her shower yesterday, the man had already left. The living room was spotless, completely different from when she first entered.

Outside, the heavy rain continued.

She wasn’t sure where he could have gone, but the landlord quickly brought over the spare key—since they lived nearby, it wasn’t much trouble.

Still, the fact that he came out in the rain made Ruan Shu feel a bit guilty.

“Hey, no problem!”

The landlord was a boisterous man with a loud voice, wearing flip-flops and jingling a set of keys in his hand as he pulled them out.

He had a cigarette in his mouth, and Ruan Shu wasn’t sure if the rain outside was too heavy or if the cigarette was just of poor quality, but she could smell a damp, musty odour. He said, “Yán Ge asked me to come. He said you’re a young girl who just moved in, and you lost your key. You probably haven’t had a chance to change the locks, so I came to help you open the door. Don’t worry, everyone here is a good person…”

He was talkative, and Ruan Shu couldn’t quite keep up with him. In the end, she could only shyly say, “Thank you.”

It was then that Ruan Shu learned.

The man across the hall was called Yán Ge, though she wasn’t sure which “Yán” or which “Ge” it referred to.

She only remembered that the second time she saw him and called him “Yán Ge,” the man seemed amused.