Chapter 613 - 628: Localized Rainstorm

Once the car was outside of Beijing, the sky began to darken. The clouds grew thicker and heavier, their color deepening.

An Ning leaned forward to take a look.

’Looks like it’s going to rain.’

CRACK!

As if to prove her right, a bolt of lightning slanted down directly in front of the car, followed by a deafening clap of thunder.

In an instant, lightning flashed and thunder roared.

An Ning subconsciously pressed the accelerator a little deeper.

’I just need to outrun this cloud.’

WHOOSH—

A fierce wind kicked up.

’You have got to be kidding me!’

An Ning couldn’t help but grumble to herself, her eyes fixed on the ever-darkening sky. She had a bad feeling. She’d just missed a service area, and the next one was sixty-five kilometers away.

It should take about forty minutes, but if she got caught in the rain, she didn’t dare guess how long it would be.

SPLAT... SPLAT...

The moment the thought crossed An Ning’s mind, she saw huge raindrops begin to fall, clattering against her windshield.

’I shouldn’t have jinxed it. The damned heavens are out to get me.’

An Ning tried to stop her stray thoughts, but her mind refused to cooperate. Her gaze shifted restlessly, her heart unquiet and agitated.

RUMBLE—

More lightning and thunder.

An Ning was now driving under the dark cloud. The fat raindrops stopped pattering against the windshield; now it was like someone was dumping buckets of water on her car.

The car’s windshield wipers had never been so busy or so tired in their entire existence.

Back and forth, back and forth. They could never wipe it all away.

Outside, the rain was endless; inside, her vision was hopelessly blurred.

Her eyes had completely lost their function at this point. The rain poured down indiscriminately, a merciless deluge.

’So it’s really picking a fight with me, is it? Well, I have spiritual power!’

An Ning knew squaring off against the weather was a bit childish, but her stubborn streak had taken over.

Her spiritual power shot out from the car in an instant. An Ning let out a triumphant laugh.

CRACK!

A bolt of lightning connected seamlessly with her spiritual power.

’What the—’

She instantly retracted her spiritual power. Grimacing in pain, An Ning flipped off the dark sky.

’I refuse to believe it!’

Defiant, An Ning sent out her spiritual power once more.

CRACK!

"Fuck!"

An Ning retracted it again. "You’re definitely targeting me!" she shouted, her voice filled with absolute conviction.

"I’ve never heard of spiritual power attracting lightning! Why are you so petty? So what if I’m not from here? I’ve done tons of good deeds!"

An Ning continued to mutter under her breath, but she didn’t dare send her spiritual power outside the car again.

At this point, she was basically driving blind. She didn’t dare turn the wheel or change her speed. Her hazard lights were flashing, and she could only hope her fellow drivers behind her wouldn’t crash into her.

After a few more grumbles, An Ning took a deep breath, silently chanting to herself, ’Don’t get angry. Anger rots the brain.’

Of course, it was completely useless.

’My eyes are useless, my spiritual power is out of commission... but I still have my phone!’

An Ning took out her phone, opened the camera, and pointed it outside the car.

’Hmm... it’s a tiny bit better, I guess.’

The camera’s view was slightly better than what she could see with her naked eye, but only just. The rain was simply too heavy, leaving no visibility whatsoever.

Her phone’s camera was state-of-the-art, but this downpour clearly didn’t give a damn.

An Ning opened the car window and looked out at the sky. It was as black as ink.

She could even see that it was just this one patch of dark cloud; beyond its edge, the sky was clear.

In other words, this single dark cloud was hovering right over her. All she had to do was drive out from under it.

The window was open for less than ten seconds, but half of An Ning’s body was already soaked through.

She closed the window, stabilized her speed and direction, and continued to drive.

Ten minutes later, she was still under the dark cloud.

Twenty minutes later, she was still under the dark cloud.

Thirty minutes later, she was still under the dark cloud.

"Are you kidding me? Are you following me?!"

An Ning was so furious she wanted to smash the steering wheel. If a person came after you, you could fight back.

But what could you do when the heavens themselves were out to get you? Just tell me, what could you possibly do?!

Nothing. You could only endure it.

Thankfully, the next service area wasn’t far. If she could just hold on for about ten more minutes, she’d be there.

Five minutes later, An Ning vaguely saw a motorcade.

’Who’s so unlucky they’re having a wedding procession today?’

When An Ning reached the end of the line, she discovered that she was the unlucky one.

That wasn’t a motorcade at all. It was a line of cars waiting to get into the service area.

And she had missed it!

Missed it!

The downpour had packed the service area to capacity. Everyone had chosen to play it safe and wait out the storm.

Only An Ning had managed to perfectly miss the exit, taking that patch of dark cloud with her as she drove further and further away.

What she didn’t know was that as soon as she was gone, the people who had been taking shelter at the service area all came out happily.

"It’s not raining much now."

"It was just one cloud. Once it passes, it’s over."

"That person up ahead is sure unlucky."

As it turned out, An Ning was the only unlucky one.

Between the two service areas, An Ning’s car was the only one on the road.

At this point, An Ning had resigned herself to this fact.

When King Yan wants you dead by midnight, he won’t let you live ’til dawn.

She wasn’t about to die, but the sentiment was the same.

She had no choice but to endure this rain.

Since she couldn’t fight it, she might as well enjoy it.

She cranked the music to full volume, put on some hype tracks, and started singing completely off-key, her shoulders jerking to the beat.

Singing a chaotic mess of "Hey, hey—yo, yo—" she blew past the second service area.

Her rebellious streak flaring up, An Ning didn’t even spare the service area a glance as she drove right past it.

As she drove on, the rain poured on.

Wherever the dark cloud went, a torrential downpour followed.

After An Ning passed three service areas, the dark cloud gradually dispersed.

An Ning didn’t dare utter a word or continue to taunt it. She knew it was best to quit while she was ahead.

When the dark cloud finally dissipated completely, An Ning nearly cried with relief.

"What a fucking ordeal! Jiang Xia, if you dare treat me poorly, I’ll throw you in a water cistern!"

Far away, Jiang Xia let out a sneeze—ACHOO! A sweet look entered his eyes as he thought, ’An Ning must be missing me.’

Once the dark cloud was gone, An Ning finally pulled over at the fourth service area. She grabbed her luggage, went to the restroom, and changed her clothes.

The first thing An Ning did after changing was step out of the restroom and look up at the sky.

’Thank God, it’s not raining.’

That rain had really left its mark on her.

An Ning grabbed a bite to eat at the service area and rested for a bit before deciding to press on.

Before getting into the car, An Ning put her hands together in a prayer-like gesture, flipping a Copper Coin in her palm to give her luck a little boost.

"Please don’t rain again!"

"Please don’t let it rain again on the road!"

After repeating her pious plea three times, An Ning got in the car.

As the car pulled away from the service area, it seemed her prayers had worked. It really wasn’t raining anymore.

However, the rest of her journey seemed to swing to the opposite extreme: from a torrential downpour to a scorching sun.

The sun was now high in the sky, beating down directly on An Ning.

If it weren’t for her sunglasses, she wouldn’t even be able to open her eyes.

The sun was so strong it made her arms ache, forcing her to put on a long-sleeved shirt.

"So you’re just going to torment me and only me, is that it? You win! Can’t I just admit defeat now?!"