That night, torrential rain fell from the sky.
This great storm was heavier than any of the rainfalls she had seen when she was in Nepal.
As a result of the rainstorm, Wen Han and Meng Liangchuan were left stuck on the second floor of a little restaurant. It was a very narrow space on the second floor, and there were only two small tables that the owner had squeezed in there to try to scrape in a bit more business.
"Did you know? Since entering Nepal and all the way until today, in my memory, if it hasn't been a rainy day, then it's been a cloudy day. I feel like all the rain that I may see in my entire lifetime has already been seen here." There had been very few days of clear skies. It was just like Cheng Muyun and the type of person he was. The times where he was relaxed and laidback were very few. Most of the time, he was indecipherable.
"Miss Wen Han, you came at a bad time and were just in time to catch the rainy season here." Having found some hard-to-come-by, decent-tasting meat in India, Meng Liangchuan ordered two orders of it.
Through the rain-splattered glass of the second level, Wen Han could see that there were not really any people on the street outside anymore. Rubbing her hair with the clean towel that she had bought, she pulled out the protection amulet that was around her neck.
Meng Liangchuan had always had astonishingly keen observation skills. "You never wore this thing in Nepal, right?"
Her head bowed, Wen Han squeezed that amulet that was in her hands and shook her head.
"Cheng Muyun gave it to you?" Meng Liangchuan continued to press, perceiving something. All of Wen Han's bags had been left in Nepal, and she had no possessions on her, so for such a thing to suddenly appear on her meant that there was a ninety-nine percent chance it had come from that man.
Her heart skipping half a beat, Wen Han answered in a low voice, "Yes, he was the one who gave it to me, but he said nothing." As she spoke, her voice grew tight. How could she have forgotten that there was still this thing?
"May I have a look?"<>Please support the original translation of this story at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com
Wen Han set it on the table and slowly pushed it over to him.<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the translation has been taken without consent of the translator.
Picking it up, Meng Liangchuan first looked over the design on it. It was very ordinary, just one of those protection amulets that were often found in temples. His brows came together as recalled for a moment. "This amulet seems to be from the temple beside this restaurant." He had stayed here for so many days already and had collected a lot of information and facts. Useful information, useless information, all of it had been branded into his mind.
"That day... I went into the temple to burn some incense. He waited outside for me, and then once I came out, he gave me this." Wen Han's heart was beating more and more rapidly. "If you open it up, inside, it's actually not a protection amulet. It's like some sort of rootstalk of a plant."
Meng Liangchuan nodded and, loosening the drawstring, very carefully pulled out that small object.
Facing the light, he looked it over and then also brought it up in front of his nose to take a sniff. His eyes narrowed slightly. "It appears to be a Chinese herb."
"Chinese herb?" Wen Han was surprised.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead
She had actually never even thought of that.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead
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Life: A Black and White Film (一生一世，黑白影画)
General FictionWen Han has arrived in Nepal on vacation and, as a Buddhist believer, also a pilgrimage. But very shortly after entering the borders, she runs in again into someone she had had one encounter with six months ago, hundreds of miles away on the far-off...
