A Chance Encounter in the Storm

The fierce wind howled, and the surrounding birches rustled loudly under its assault.

From a distance, Shen Jingyi watched the young woman approach her with quick steps, and noticing the girl’s reddened eyes, she quickly averted her gaze and hurried forward.

Yet, Qin Xiyao seemed to sense Shen Jingyi’s scrutiny, for she subtly raised her head, and for a fleeting moment, their gazes collided.

‘Ah, that girl…’

A stir went through Shen Jingyi’s heart, and a small box in her pocket faintly glowed.

However, as the two women brushed past each other, they diverged onto different paths, leaving the desolate park path once again to Shen Jingyi alone.

****

The weather in Wangdu had been particularly peculiar these past few days.

While the morning had been bright and sunny, by noon, the sky had become blanketed with layers of dark clouds, now, at this very moment, being torn apart by streaks of silver lightning.

Before Shen Jingyi could even react, the torrential rain began to pour down.

Having no umbrella and no shelter nearby, she was drenched from head to toe.

Drops of rain slowly streamed down her temples, and her plain white dress, completely soaked, clung to her body.

Her phone vibrated again, displaying a message from Bai Muxue: [It’s raining. Where are you?]

Shen Jingyi shook the rain from her face, and without another thought, she quickened her pace towards the silver-grey luxury car parked quietly in the distance.

A small window in the car’s back seat was partially open, revealing Miss Bai sitting quietly within.

Her hand propped against her forehead, a lollipop casually held between her lips, she leaned against the window, staring blankly at the swaying birch trees.

Shen Jingyi’s steps faltered.

Remembering the crying girl she had just seen, it was difficult not to link the girl’s distress with Miss Bai’s notoriously unpleasant behavior.

‘Could that girl… be in the same predicament as me…?’

‘Why do I feel such a sense of familiarity…?’

Who was Bai Muxue, after all?

She was one of Wangdu’s most prominent heiresses, a haughty and arrogant young lady…

Yet, in her past, Shen Jingyi had never imagined she would become entangled with a pampered young lady like Bai Muxue.

Even though she excelled academically and possessed the incredible powers of a magical girl, this pride and dignity seemed utterly worthless in the face of harsh reality.

Perhaps she, too, would one day be like that girl she had just seen, filled with grievances yet having no one to listen, forced to find a corner and weep in silence…

As the rain fell silently, only then did Shen Jingyi notice that her tightly clenched fists were trembling.

Just then, as if noticing Shen Jingyi standing frozen before her, Bai Muxue rolled down the car window and waved, “What are you staring at? Aren’t you cold? Get in.”

Seeing Bai Muxue actively call out to her, Shen Jingyi pursed her lips.

Her small hand instinctively clutched the now-damp necklace, and after a moment of hesitation, she got into the car.

Once the girl had settled inside, Bai Muxue closed the car window, switched on the air conditioning, and, frowning, asked, “Did something happen?”

“…No.”

Shen Jingyi keenly noticed that the voice of Bai Muxue before her carried an indescribable weariness, and her already fair skin now bore a sickly pallor.

Yet, Shen Jingyi was in no better state: her face was pale, her lips tinged blue, rain streamed down her long hair, and her clothes clung entirely to her body.

If yesterday’s Shen Jingyi had been a shy yet dignified high-mountain flower, today, she was merely a pitiable young girl.

“Teacher Shen, did you just see… *cough, cough!*”

Bai Muxue instinctively turned to ask Shen Jingyi if she had seen Qin Xiyao, but before the words could leave her mouth, she frantically averted her gaze.

Shen Jingyi’s long dress, wet and clinging to her body, perfectly outlined her slender waist.

The thin fabric, once dampened, precisely highlighted her graceful, albeit not striking, curves beneath her intimate white undergarments.

With a single glance, Bai Muxue saw everything, both appropriate and inappropriate, laid bare.

That glimpse of soft, pale skin instantly brought a flush to Bai Muxue’s already pale face.

She lowered her head and coughed a few times, asking, “How did you get into such a state? Did you encounter some… Rain Monster?”

“…There’s no such thing.”

Shen Jingyi lowered her gaze slightly, ignoring Bai Muxue’s uninspired attempt at a joke to cover her embarrassment.

She said softly, “I merely happened to get caught in the rain.”

She raised her eyes to the lightning and thunder outside the window.

The torrential downpour grew increasingly fierce, and the howling wind relentlessly lashed against the car windows.

She truly wanted to ask Bai Muxue about the girl she had just seen… But what good would asking do?

She was merely bound to Bai Muxue by a contract, and perhaps, to Miss Bai, she was nothing more than an amusement to pass the time.

At this thought, the girl’s body grew even colder and stiffer, and an indescribable sense of powerlessness welled up in her chest.

“Is that so?”

Hearing this, Bai Muxue nodded.

With a small grunt, she pushed herself up and opened the glove compartment in the front.

“Look, your dress is completely soaked. Take it off, take it off.”

No sooner had Bai Muxue’s words fallen than Shen Jingyi, upon hearing them, froze abruptly and turned her head, a tremor running through her.

“…!”

The young woman’s delicate body tensed, her fingernails nearly digging into her flesh.

She stared at Bai Muxue, unmoving, for a long moment.

Bai Muxue continued rummaging through the glove compartment.

Sensing Shen Jingyi’s sudden silence, she asked without looking back, “What’s wrong?”

“Are we, are we going to… do it here?”

An unnatural flush spread across her pretty face.

Shen Jingyi’s cherry lips were slightly bitten, her eyes flickered, and her small hand tightly clutched the hem of her dress as she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, like a buzzing mosquito.

“Tsk, this is annoying, my arm’s too short, I can’t reach it… Hm? What?”

The young woman’s shy voice was simply too soft, and Bai Muxue hadn’t heard clearly.

She was still stretching her petite body, trying to find something deep inside.

Shen Jingyi remained silent for a long while, then looked up at the raging storm outside the window.

Although it was quiet and deserted all around, and the windows were tinted one-way, but… to truly do it in a place like this…?

An eerie silence descended upon the car’s interior, and for a moment, only the sounds of Bai Muxue rummaging remained.

In the silent standoff, the blush on Shen Jingyi’s face grew more pronounced, and her fingers began to tremble uncontrollably.

She secretly glanced at Bai Muxue, who was still rummaging, and noticing that the other seemed about to retract her words, only then did she take a deep breath.

Fumbling and trembling, she slowly untied the fastenings of her dress.

Her clean, smooth skin was thus slowly revealed.

Without the obstruction of clothing, below her delicate collarbones were soft, smooth curves.

Her flat abdomen glowed with a snowy, jade-like pallor, and the slender, exquisite figure unique to a young woman was completely exposed to the air.

With only her final intimate garments remaining, Shen Jingyi closed her eyes, but her subtly trembling eyelashes betrayed the unease in her heart.

But the next moment, something soft was thrown over her head, thick and heavy, completely enveloping her.

Shen Jingyi froze, instinctively reaching out to touch it, only to feel a warm, fluffy mass.

It was a… thick blanket.