My Umbrella Came to Life and Now Tells Me to Break Up Every Day - Chapter 18
Chapter 18
I said yes to Shen Tingyu on an utterly ordinary rainy day.
No fireworks.
No grand confession scene.
Not even a decent meal.
Because he’d messed up cooking porridge again.
Steam billowed from the rice cooker, and the kitchen looked like it had been attacked by rice soup.
Shen Tingyu stood amid the wreckage, holding the lid in one hand, his expression unusually blank.
“It didn’t remind me this time.”
I leaned against the doorway, laughing so hard my stomach hurt.
He looked at me, then suddenly laughed too.
The sound of rain drifted in from outside the window.
The old Black Umbrella hung by the door, its tip pointing down, quietly dripping water.
When I finally laughed enough, I walked over and helped him wipe the rice soup off his cuff.
Shen Tingyu lowered his head to look at me.
His eyes were beautiful.
Like a faint glow of sky just before the rain stopped.
I said, “Shen Tingyu.”
“Mm?”
“You can sleep in the bed now.”
His whole body froze.
I coughed, my ears heating up too.
“What I mean is, we can start with a trial period as my boyfriend.”
He looked at me.
For a long, long time.
So long the rice cooker beeped again.
Then he suddenly reached out and gently pulled me into his arms.
The hug was very restrained.
It wasn’t like Chen Shu’s old, instinctive possessiveness.
When Shen Tingyu held me, his arms were steady, but he left a little space for me to pull away.
As if he still remembered what I’d told him: don’t make decisions for me.
He asked softly, “Can I?”
My nose stung, and I nodded.
“You can.”
The next second, he said,
“Then can the rice cooker enter its trial period too?”
Me: “…”
I pushed him away.
“One of you has to go.”
Shen Tingyu seriously glanced at the rice cooker.
“I’ll stay.”
I laughed until I couldn’t breathe.
After that, I still often carried an umbrella.
Even when the weather forecast said it would be sunny.
Zhou Yi teased me, “This is a lingering side effect of being lovestruck. You’ve even turned carrying an umbrella into a ritual.”
I said, “No, this is risk management.”
Beside me, Shen Tingyu nodded. “She never used to check the weather.”
Zhou Yi looked at him. “You’re her boyfriend now, not a weather app.”
Shen Tingyu thought about it.
“I can do both.”
Zhou Yi was left speechless.
Laughing, I hung the umbrella by the door.
Shen Tingyu had repaired that old Black Umbrella.
The copper wire on the ribs had been replaced with slender silver clasps, and the old Copper Coin was embedded at the bottom of the handle.
Now, it trapped no one, nor did it need to shield anyone from disaster anymore.
Sometimes, I would still touch the handle.
When my fingers brushed that Copper Coin, I would remember five-year-old me clutching it and crying. I would also remember twenty-seven-year-old me finally no longer standing in the rain, waiting for someone.
Chen Shu never came looking for me again.
I heard from mutual friends that he’d gone out of town.
Zhou Yi opened a dessert studio, and her first cake was called “Don’t Go Back to Your Ex.”
It sold very well.
As for Shen Tingyu, he rented a small storefront on Old Street.
Strictly speaking, I rented it first.
His documents were still being reissued, so the business license was temporarily under my name.
Shen Tingyu had strong opinions about this.
“I feel like you’re keeping me as your boy toy.”
I said, “You came home with me for twenty yuan. Don’t get too picky about the process.”
He shut up.
I was the one who named the shop.
Tingyu Umbrella Repair Shop.
On opening day, there weren’t many customers.
After all, few people were willing to repair umbrellas nowadays.
But Shen Tingyu wasn’t in a hurry.
He sat by the window, slowly wiping down an old umbrella.
Sunlight fell across his shoulders.
I leaned over the counter and asked, “Boss, how much to repair an umbrella?”
He lifted his eyes to look at me.
“Depends on the situation.”
“Can you repair relationship problems?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
He set down the umbrella, walked over, and tucked the hair the wind had mussed behind my ear.
“First, see it clearly.”
“Then open it up.”
“If it won’t open, don’t keep it.”
I smiled. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“Who does it sound like?”
“A mature boyfriend I’ve trained well.”
Shen Tingyu thought about it.
“Then can this mature boyfriend apply to leave work early?”
“To do what?”
He picked up the old Black Umbrella by the door and opened it, shading the little patch of sunlight above our heads.
It suddenly dimmed beneath the umbrella.
His kiss landed very lightly on my forehead.
“To take you home.”
I reached out and held the umbrella handle, and his hand too.
It wasn’t raining outside.
But I knew that from now on, even if another downpour came, I would no longer stand in place, waiting for someone who would never arrive.
I had an umbrella.
And I had myself.
(The End)
