It was just a love letter; I'm really no great writer!

Inside the terminal, the lights are dazzling and the floor is smooth.

Di Lingyan followed Lu Ran to check in, hopping and skipping like a jubilant little white rabbit.

She was graceful and charming, and everything she looked at was new and exciting.

"You're getting a little too excited today."

After passing through security, Lu Ran pressed down on Xiao Di's head, which was constantly turning around.

"It's so much fun to come out with you~" Di Lingyan looked at the bamboo leaf-shaped steel frame, her eyes sparkling. "Two joys combined, it's so dreamy, like a dream."

"Did you think of your sister when you heard that poem?"

Taking advantage of her happiness, Lu Ran asked gently.

"Uh..." Di Lingyan pouted her little red lips, "A little bit, I guess."

"In our literary society, you seem to have the least connection to literature, but you're actually the most sentimental one," Lu Ran said with a smile.

"No way!" Di Lingyan instantly bristled. "I read novels every day, okay! Humph... I'm an artsy girl!"

Finally, she sighed.

"But your poem just happened to evoke some memories for me..."

"Isn't it incredible? It fits so perfectly, as if I was born for this poem. Well, you've got it backwards, you wrote this poem for me."

"But actually, your original intention was probably not what I understood, right?"

Lu Ran nodded.

Li Shangyin's poem about lotus flowers was written for his wife, Wang. He used the flowers and leaves to metaphorically represent the disparity in their social status, but he praised the lotus flowers and leaves for their unique charm and unwavering innocence.

But that's part of the beauty of poetry.

One hundred people have one hundred different moods and a thousand different emotions.

To appreciate poetry is, in fact, to appreciate one's own heart.

"Gifting you a spirit flame, hehehe~" she chuckled to herself.

"Anyway, this poem is mine now..."

Lu Ran brought the conversation back to the point: "So, you feel a lot of pressure having an outstanding older sister?"

"Hmm," Di Lingyan said sullenly, "I'm going crazy!"

"Is it...that serious?"

"Of course, I'd rather die than live in someone else's shadow no matter what I do."

Di Lingyan looked at him with a stubborn yet joyful expression, her eyes and brows full of affection. "But I don't care about her now. I have everyone in the literary club, I have track and field, and I have you..."

Lu Ranxin's heart skipped a beat.

Di Lingyan leaned closer and rested her head on his shoulder. "When I first saw you, I thought you were so funny. You were really overestimating yourself. But then I thought, you didn't do anything to lose your self-respect. Is it wrong to like someone?"

"Because you kept shamelessly flaunting yourself in front of Yi Shuang, I slowly started to pay attention to you. Although this boy's grades are average, he dresses neatly, is good-looking, and is the one who puts in the most effort when playing soccer..."

"During the most obsessive period, when I saw you wearing canvas shoes, I would change into canvas shoes too. Whatever study guide you used, I would buy that set of study guides. Training was tough and tiring, and whenever I was about to give up, I would think of you. Even you dared to pursue Yishuang, so what did I have to fear?"

Lu Ran: ...

I never thought I could be used as inspirational material?

Di Lingyan twisted her body somewhat embarrassedly as she spoke.

"I'm so happy you joined the literary club, even though I'm always mean to you. I don't know why, but I want you to hate me. Every time you frown, I feel suffocated, it hurts so much, but it seems like I get a masochistic pleasure from it... By the way, you said you were going to Suocheng for some important business?"

"I..." Lu Ran remained silent.

No!

No!

Isn't that too heavy?

What does it mean to be willing to die to live in someone else's shadow?

Your sister didn't leave you any way to survive, did she?

Looking at the girl's delicate, rosy face, Lu Ran suddenly missed Xia Liang.

Liang Jie is bright and generous, and she's also decisive and efficient; she would never secretly stab you in the back.

And Xiao Di...

On the outside, she is dashing and heroic, but inside she lives a crybaby like Lin Daiyu.

Lu Ran wanted to say, "Let's get down to business? I came to Suocheng and took care of your sister first!" But now he couldn't utter a single word.

Who is our class's psychology representative again?

Li Xingping... then it's alright.

"I'm going to Suocheng to clear my head. Yes, to clear my head. You know, I'm looking for that mysterious pipa player. Where can I find a kindred spirit in this world? I'm going to ask the Buddha what he has to say." Lu Ran said without changing his expression.

"Oh." Di Lingyan nodded in disappointment. "Then can I play the flute?"

"No, it has to be a pipa." Lu Ran said decisively.

"Alright." Di Lingyan pouted, then narrowed her peach blossom eyes. "I'll help you look for it."

Lu Ran breathed a sigh of relief.

"It seems like the only person I know who can play the pipa is..."

Lu Ran's heart tightened.

Di Lingyan stretched out his slender index finger, just like the famous detective Kogoro, "Yishuang!"

"But Yishuang is always studying in the classroom this morning, so it shouldn't be her..."

"Hmm...the one playing the pipa over at Boya Building?"

"Hey! I remember Professor Xie taught a folk music class this semester. Could he be from another school?"

During her mental exercise, wisps of steam rose from her flushed forehead, a testament to the immense energy expenditure of her mind.

"Boarding is in progress."

Lu Ran got up as if sitting on pins and needles, pulled his small suitcase, and quickly walked towards the corridor bridge to queue.

"Wait for me!"

Di Lingyan quickly jogged to catch up and gently tugged at his clothes.

After entering the cabin, Di Lingyan looked around curiously, and was pushed by Lu Ran to sit by the porthole.

After takeoff, two heads squeezed against the window, gazing at Huaicheng, its lights like a sea of ​​stars, with dark, churning clouds in the distance. The tiny plane looked like a flickering firefly.

"So beautiful," she murmured.

Nearly 10,000 meters in the air, the girl's upturned lips brushed against his face, leaving a burning mark.

……

"You ask when I will return, but there is no set date; the autumn rain in Bashan swells the pond at night."

After tonight's performance, Di Qingling took the young actress Lu Huamian back to the hotel and had a light meal in the executive lounge.

The elegant girl held her phone, staring blankly at the poem.

Bashan... naturally refers to Huaicheng. Lu Ran sent her five words, "It's raining in Huaicheng." At that moment, she wanted to ignore everything and fly to Huaicheng to see him, but she finally restrained herself.

Thus, the line "You ask when I will return, but there is no set date" came into being.

The two nights of rain intertwined in time and space, and a deep, bone-chilling longing grew like a madman.

"When shall we trim the candle by the west window together, and talk of the night rain in Bashan?"

So he hoped to talk by candlelight under the west window, to tell of the sorrow and loneliness he felt listening to the rain that night.

One is "何" (he), and the other is "却" (que).

What longing, yet it flows freely.

Not writing love letters is even better than writing love letters.

Without realizing it, she switched to the voting interface. Flights to Huaicheng were sorted by time, with the earliest flight departing tomorrow morning...

"Sister, are you going back? I'll be fine on my own," Lu Huamian suddenly said.

Di Qingling put down her phone, looked at the warm yellow lights winding along the prayer wheel path, and gently shook her head: "What's there to go back to? It's only been two and a half days."

"You look like you've been here for the past two and a half years," Lu Huamian muttered.

Di Qingling blushed, her index finger hovering over her red lips: "Shh, little one, don't talk nonsense."

"I'm not a child!" Lu Huamian protested.

This is Lu Huamian's biggest weakness; she's almost fifteen or sixteen, but looks like she's eight or nine. Ever since Lu Ran called her "little kid" last time, Di Qingling has often used this to tease her.

"Eat quickly, then go back and rest. You have two more shows tomorrow."

Di Qingling picked up her phone again, stroking Lu Ran's profile picture with her fingertips. It was a black and white cartoon male head.

She asked Lu Huamian, and it seems to have originated from a baseball manga, Adachi Mitsuru's H2.

So she downloaded the comic to her phone and read a little bit every night before bed. She thought that even though she couldn't write poetry, her longing for him was no less.

hum-

The news arrived even faster than I did.

"Sister, tonight I am in Delingha, shrouded in darkness" (Note 20)

"Sister, all I have tonight is the Gobi Desert."

"At the end of the grassland, I have nothing in my hands."

……

"Everything is growing."

Tonight, all I have is the beautiful, empty Gobi Desert.

"Sister, tonight I don't care about humans, I only want you."

-

Note 20: From Hai Zi's "Diary".