Chapter One: left in the middle of nowhere
Lin Wan got out of the car.
That was all she did. She did not slam the door. She did not scream or cry or throw a tantrum. She just got out, closed the door quietly behind her, and stood there while Chen wei drove away without looking back once.
Four months.
Him and Xiao Rui. Four months. While Lin Wan was right there.
The first tear fell and Lin Wan did not stop it. There was nobody to see her anyway. Just empty road in both directions and red sand stretching out further than she could see and a sky that was already starting to look like it had not decided what kind of day it wanted to be.
Lin Wan wiped her face.
Then she pulled out her phone.
No signal.
Of course.
But she could not let it weigh her down. Lin Wan needed to be strong and move on. So what if she had been betrayed by her best friend and her boyfriend at the same time. There were so many fishes in the river. Lin Wan would find herself a hunk to soothe her heart.
What she needed to do right now was get back to the city and her apartment.
"I should have at least let him drop me off somewhere I could find a cab," Lin Wan muttered to herself, looking at the empty road in both directions. "Now I am stuck in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal."
Lin Wan raised her hand and roughed up her hair in frustration, then started walking forward in the direction Chen Wei had driven.
'It is not that I am scared or anything,' Lin Wan mused internally, her eyes darting frantically from left to right in case something jumped out from behind her. But even an adult knows to go home when it is late. And this place is miles away from town.
The more Lin Wan walked the more it felt like the road was endless. At some point the asphalt had completely disappeared beneath her feet and now she was walking on deep sand that kept swallowing her shoes and slowing her pace with every step. Her legs were getting heavier. Her throat was getting drier. And the sky above her was doing something that Lin Wan did not appreciate at all.
It was darkening.
Thunder rumbled across the sky like a warning.
Lin Wan stopped walking and stared upward.
Was it not enough that she had been betrayed and abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Was it not enough that she had no signal and no cab and no idea how far she was from civilization. Now the sky wanted to drench her too. Lin Wan scanned the flat open land around her. No trees. No shelter. Not even a large rock she could hide behind.
Lin Wan opened her tote bag.
Her tote bag that she always said had everything in it. Her tote bag that she had bragged about to Xiao Rui many times, saying she was always prepared for anything.
She dug through it.
Lip gloss. Purse. Phone charger that was currently useless. Receipts she kept meaning to throw away. A granola bar. Hand sanitizer.
No umbrella.
Lin Wan stared into the bag.
She was about to burst into tears when the sky cracked open with the loudest thunder she had ever heard in her life. It boomed so deep and so close that Lin Wan felt it in her chest and her body made the decision for her before her brain could weigh in.
She squatted down.
Both hands over her head. Face tucked between her knees. Tote bag held above her as a shield against whatever was coming.
Lin Wan stayed like that for three full seconds.
Then the thunder stopped.
Lin Wan waited.
Silence.
Lin Wan slowly lifted the tote bag from over her head and looked up.
The sky was bright. Completely, perfectly bright. Not a single drop of rain had fallen. The clouds were gone like they had never existed and the air around her smelled clean and fresh.
Lin Wan stayed squatting on the sand for a moment longer.
Then she stood up slowly, straightened her clothes, looked around to make absolutely sure nobody had witnessed that, and kept walking.
Two hours later, under the scorching hot sun, Lin Wan heard it.
Water.
Dripping. Somewhere close.
Lin Wan's feet found strength she did not know she still had. She walked faster, following the sound, and then she saw them. Palm trees. Coconut trees. Rising up ahead of her like a reward she had not been sure she deserved. Lin Wan broke into a run.
The closer Lin Wan got the cooler the air became, soft and wet against her hot dry skin, wrapping around her like the world was finally offering her something kind. The sound of water grew from a drip to a trickle to a steady rushing and Lin Wan pushed through the last stretch of open sand and stopped.
A pool.
Wide and still, tucked between the palm trees like it had always been there waiting for her. The water was so clear Lin Wan could see straight to the bottom, pale smooth stones sitting peacefully under the surface.
A thin stream fed into it from somewhere deeper in the trees, and the air above it was cool and sweet and the most wonderful thing Lin Wan had breathed all day.
Lin Wan did not even think about it.
She dropped straight to her knees at the bank, scooped water into both palms and brought it to her mouth.
It tasted clean. Cool. Like if relief had a flavor and this was it.
Lin Wan scooped more and drank again. And again. She did not care that she was on her knees in the dirt. She did not care that her shoes were ruined from the sand. For the first time since Chen Wei drove away Lin Wan felt somewhat close to being okay.
She reached for one more handful.
When something cold and slippery wrapped around her waist.