On the forty-fourth day of living together, it rained in Shanghai.
The rain of the plum rain season started in the morning, falling unhurriedly, wrapping the entire city in a layer of gray-white mist.
The taller buildings were hidden by the clouds.
Lin Xia got up in the morning, pulled open the curtains, took a look, and changed her jacket for a thicker one.
By the time Yin Qi woke up, it had already been raining for three hours.
She stood at the balcony door, just looking at the rain outside, not saying a word.
Lin Xia cooked two bowls of noodles in the kitchen, carried them out, placed one bowl on the table, and set the other near the balcony.
She called out to her:
“Breakfast is ready.”
“Mhm,” Yin Qi turned around, sat down by the balcony, picked up the bowl of noodles, took a bite, and said,
“Thanks.”
“Do you like watching the rain?”
Lin Xia sat across from her with her own bowl and asked.
“It’s okay,” Yin Qi said.
“It’s just a little noisy.”
“What’s noisy about rain?”
“I didn’t mean the sound of the rain,” Yin Qi said.
She paused.
“On rainy days, people’s emotions are more abundant. It feels a bit chaotic.”
Lin Xia paused mid-bite and looked up at her.
“You can sense people’s emotions?”
“Not the specifics,” Yin Qi said.
“Just the general atmosphere. On rainy days, people tend to be unhappy or overthink things. When it all gathers together, it’s a bit noisy.”
“Then what are you sensing right now?”
Yin Qi held her bowl, stopped to think for a moment, and said,
“Everyone doesn’t want to go to school or work… and someone near me is missing a person they haven’t seen in a long time.”
Lin Xia paused for a moment and asked,
“Which person?”
“I don’t know,” Yin Qi said.
“I can’t tell who it is specifically. It’s just an emotion drifting over. It feels pretty strong.”
Lin Xia lowered her head and took a bite of the noodles.
Then it suddenly occurred to her that she hadn’t been back to her hometown in nearly two months.
The last time she called her mom was three weeks ago, and the call lasted only ten minutes.
Her mom asked where she was and what she was doing.
She answered according to the regulations.
Her mom said, “Take care of yourself,” and then hung up.
Lin Xia wasn’t sure if that drifting emotion had anything to do with her.
She didn’t ask.
“Do rainy days make you feel bad?”
she asked, shifting the topic.
“No,” Yin Qi said.
“I just need a little time to adjust. I’ll be fine after a while.”
“Mhm.”
Lin Xia nodded.
“After we finish the noodles, we don’t have to do anything this afternoon. We can just stay here.”
Yin Qi looked up at her.
“Aren’t you writing your report?”
“I can write the report tomorrow instead,” Lin Xia said.
“It’s raining today. We can take the day off.”
After saying that, she was a little surprised herself—because she wasn’t sure why she had said it.
According to the rules, work logs had to be filled in every day, and rain wasn’t a valid excuse to postpone them.
But she had said it anyway.
Yin Qi watched her for a moment, then lowered her head and continued eating.
A faint curve appeared at the corner of her mouth—so slight it was almost imperceptible.
“Alright,” she said.
“Day off today.”
***
That afternoon, the two of them stayed in the living room without turning on the TV.
Lin Xia picked up a book that Yin Qi had read before.
Yin Qi leaned back on the sofa, occasionally checking her phone, occasionally spacing out.
The rain kept falling outside, tapping against the window glass with a rustling sound.
Around four o’clock, Lin Xia closed the book and said,
“Can you tell me about the day you were born?”
“Tell you what?”
“Just… how you felt,”
Lin Xia said.
“Suddenly appearing in this world—what was that like?”
Yin Qi thought for a moment.
“Actually, I didn’t feel anything special. I just suddenly existed.”
“Weren’t you scared?”
“Scared of what?”
“I don’t know,”
Lin Xia said.
“It’s just… not knowing anything, having nothing, suddenly appearing in a strange place… When I think about it, it’s pretty terrifying.”
“It’s not like I knew nothing,”
Yin Qi said.
“When I was born, part of the information from this world entered my consciousness directly. It was like…”
She paused.
“Like suddenly falling into a swimming pool. You instantly know the water temperature, the depth, and the direction of the current.”
“So you knew what you were?”
Lin Xia asked.
“You knew right away that you were a meme?”
“I knew,” Yin Qi said.
“I also knew how this world works, what memes are, about your GMRA, and roughly how I would be dealt with.”
“And then you just sat there waiting for us to come,”
Lin Xia said.
“Because you knew we would.”
“Mhm,” Yin Qi said.
“And I waited a long time. The speed of your response was neither fast nor slow.”
“…Sorry about that,” Lin Xia said, realizing it and finding it a bit amusing.
“We have to go through procedures after receiving the signal.”
“I know,” Yin Qi said.
“I wasn’t blaming you. It was just a little cold. Sitting on that stone for forty minutes—it was pretty chilly.”
Lin Xia couldn’t help but smile, then suppressed it and continued asking,
“What about before you were born? Where did you come from? Do you know?”
After this question, the room fell silent for a while.
Yin Qi didn’t answer immediately.
She put down her phone, turned her head, and looked out at the rain.
Her expression was calm, but there seemed to be something more in it than usual—Lin Xia couldn’t quite tell, but she felt the question had touched some deep place inside her.
“I know a little,” Yin Qi finally said.
“But if I tell you… you might not believe it.”
“Try me.”
Yin Qi was silent for a few seconds, then said,
“I came from another place. It’s very similar to here. But it’s different. Over there, there are no memes. Everything else… is pretty much the same.”
“Another place…”
Lin Xia repeated.
“Do you mean a parallel universe?”
“Maybe,” Yin Qi said.
“There are many ways a meme can be born. Maybe I’m just a special type that carried a piece of memory over here.”
“A piece of memory… what does that mean?”
“Just… a previous life,”
Yin Qi said.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s already in the past.”
Lin Xia looked at her profile, watched for a while, didn’t press further, and only said,
“Then what about here? Are you getting used to it?”
Yin Qi turned her head, met her gaze, looked at her for a moment, and said,
“It’s okay. I’m getting more and more used to it.”