When Bright Moon Encounter the Dark Clouds

After playing football, I returned to the shop since my colleges were all locals and had homes here. I was the only one staying in the shop.

It was already dark. My body stank with the smell of sweat, but I felt lazy, so I just laid on my narrow bed. I laid there looking at the ceiling while the image of Tan Jiao appeared in my mind: with her head down, wearing my hat, and mute.

I never knew that prickly woman from the ship would act like that. Suddenly, I felt like letting out a smile.

Right then, Xiaohua entered the small compartment after parting the door curtains. He grinned mischievously when he saw the smile on my face. “Brother Yu, you’re thinking about a woman, aren’t you?”

This witty little punk.

I lit up a cigarette without answering him, and he sat beside the bed and said, “Why do I think there’s something between you and that Miss Tan?”

“What’s there between us?”

After giving it a brief thought, he replied, “I can’t put my finger on it. I just feel something is going on when you two are together.”

I cursed at him, “F*ck off.”

Yet, he decided to double down. “Hehe, care to explain why she picked you specifically to wash her car?”

I took a slow draw from my cigarette, feeling the slight sting and bitter taste. “So what? You think I’ll back off from a challenge?”

“Hoho, you’re the best! I think it’s highly likely that you’ll have that Miss Tan eating out the palm of your hand.”

I stopped joking around with him and instead turned my attention to something outside the window.

The street lights came on, lighting up an area with a flock of black birds that had arrived at some point in time. There were around ten of them, and a few of them were looking at me through the window with their yellowish-brown eyes that sparkled faintly.

I looked back at them.

Xiaohua asked, “Brother Yu, what’s up? What are you looking at?”

I had seen these birds before.

Only once, when I was on that ship.

I ran out of the shop and heard the sounds of wings fluttering; they were flying away.

There was a matter I had never told anyone about. Ever since my trip on that ship, I had felt a seemingly blurry hole in my memory that I could not recall. From time to time, I would think back and become perplexed and frustrated.

Yet these birds, seemingly still with the scent of river water, were flapping their wings to go through that hole.

An indescribably strong intuition drove me to chase the few slower birds.

It happened after I chased the birds for half a block.

It was already quite late when I ran through the busy streets, travelling through the winding roads to finally arrive at a street beside a river. The sky had more and more of those birds of unknown origin. There were hundreds of them circling in the sky with the bright moon behind them; it was as though they were a mass of darkness plotting something.

I was drenched in sweat after that run and stopped beside a short wall to catch my breath. All of a sudden, as if those birds had finished gathering, one of them let out a clear call before they all dispersed into the night.

Damn it, I cursed inwardly.

Right as I wanted to chase after the bird that seemed to be the leader, a figure appeared from the other side of the wall. I instantly broke out in a cold sweat, feeling chills all over my pores. There was no way to dodge them.

The person slammed right into my chest and let out a gasp of surprise. I grabbed her arms and subdued her. She tried to break free, but I picked her up and placed her against the wall, cornering and subduing her.

Her body was trembling ever so slightly.

I became dumbfounded when I saw her face under the faint glow shining upon us from a street light.