Lu Xiaorong couldn’t possibly let her go to school like this.

By the time she chased out, Lin Shilan had already gone down the stairs.

“Rui Rui.” Her throat was dry. She had wanted to call her back, but her voice came out barely audible.

After the incident last time when she slapped her elder, Lu Xiaorong felt that this child’s temperament had changed—completely changed. She wasn’t this kind of disobedient, disrespectful, argumentative child before.

As a mother, how could she feel at ease when her own child wouldn’t eat? Lu Xiaorong simply urgently wanted to restore their life to normal. If only Lin Shilan would come and yield a little, even without copying the wrong answers, she would have let her eat breakfast.

Thinking of this, Lu Xiaorong suddenly felt immensely wronged and heartbroken.

She returned to the room, packed several eggs into a plastic bag, then ran downstairs. At the residential complex entrance, she stopped Lin Shilan and gave her the eggs.

Then, without saying another word to her, Lu Xiaorong left.

Lin Shilan stood there dazed, holding the small bag of boiled eggs. She noticed that her mother’s eyes were red. Probably from not sleeping well last night, upset because of her.

Actually, her mother coming to bring these eggs made her feel worse than if she hadn’t come at all.

If her mother had been harsh with her, then she could likewise harden her heart and resist her. Being hungry—she wasn’t afraid of that. But now her mood felt like being covered with a damp cotton quilt. The uncomfortable feeling transferred from her stomach to her heart, leaving her heart feeling clammy.

Tan Jin didn’t know that after he left yesterday, Lin Shilan had gone hungry.

He suddenly got the urge to ride his bicycle to school. Early in the morning, he pumped up his mother’s bicycle tires and came out early to wander around the complex entrance. If he rode his bike home from school in the future, he could zip back home quickly, and Su Ge wouldn’t be able to follow him. Plus, there was another benefit…

“Hello, student girl, want a ride to school on my bike?” He rang the bicycle bell, circling around her.

Lin Shilan was peeling an egg and decisively refused: “No, you’re too showy.”

Tan Jin jumped off the bicycle and walked beside her. Just as she finished peeling the egg, he tilted his head, opened his mouth wide, and ate her egg.

Usually she was the one snatching his food, but today he had snatched her egg in one bite. Tan Jin smiled triumphantly.

Lin Shilan looked at the eggshell and said quietly: “I haven’t eaten anything since last night.”

Before he could even chew, he lowered his head and immediately returned the egg from his mouth, completely intact, back to the bag in her hand.

Lin Shilan didn’t even look at him and said softly: “Originally the two eggs left inside were still edible, but after you spit on them, those two can’t be eaten anymore.”

“Give them to me! I’ll eat them!” Tan Jin took the plastic bag from her hand. “What do you want to eat? There are things on our way to school—just say it, I’ll buy it for you.”

“Oh.” She opened her big eyes wide and curiously asked him: “What you ate yesterday, that flatbread with fried chicken cutlet—I’ve never tried eating it that way. Tell me, is it really good?”

“I’ll buy it for you, I’ll buy it!” When you eat someone’s food, you owe them. He could only readily agree.

A wonderful journey to school.

Tan Jin pushed the bike with one hand and ate eggs with the other.

Lin Shilan heartily devoured the fragrant chicken cutlet flatbread, making him so envious that the few bites of already bland eggs became even more tasteless.

“What time do you get out of school today?” she asked.

Usually he was the one asking her this question. Now that she asked him, Tan Jin felt quite happy: “There’s no evening self-study today, so I probably won’t be late. Will you wait for me?”

Lin Shilan smiled mysteriously and answered: “No.”

He suspected she was deliberately messing with him: “If you’re not waiting, why’d you ask!”

She asked for her own purposes, naturally.

Lin Shilan planned to follow Su Ge after school to learn more about her.

Evening.

Whether because Tan Jin chose to ride his bike home from school, or because Su Ge hadn’t planned to follow him today anyway, Lin Shilan successfully waited for Su Ge at the school gate, and she walked in the opposite direction from their home.

Having had one previous tracking experience, Lin Shilan maintained a moderate distance following behind Su Ge. A light drizzle floated in the evening sky, and she also brought an umbrella to occasionally use to cover her face.

After walking for five minutes through several alleys, Su Ge turned into a bookstore.

Lin Shilan came to this place occasionally. Their small town had only three stores selling educational books in total. This store sold quite a variety of books and had a complete selection, but the prices weren’t cheap.

After Su Ge entered the store, she didn’t come out for a long time.

Summer—mosquitoes were starting to multiply. Lin Shilan hid in the bushes waiting for her, getting bitten on her feet and face with bulging mosquito bumps.

She didn’t dare move around casually, nor did she want to give up tracking. Enduring the itching, she fed the mosquitoes for two hours.

From sunset to complete darkness.

Lin Shilan began to suspect whether Su Ge lived in this store.

Waiting foolishly like this seemed endless.

She scratched her arms covered with mosquito bumps and decided to take the initiative and go into the store to look.

She deliberately chose the most natural way of passing by. Lin Shilan walked forward for a bit, crossed the street, then walked back.

Her elaborate performance didn’t encounter an appreciative audience. A little boy sat at the store’s cashier, holding up his phone, completely absorbed in playing a game.

Lin Shilan pretended to browse books, hand stroking her chin, feet moving stiffly, using her peripheral vision to search for Su Ge’s figure.

Only when she walked to the deepest part of the store did she discover her beneath the bookshelf.

A light yellow backpack with Chibi Maruko-chan was being used to cushion finished books, while Su Ge herself sat on the floor.

The store’s lighting was dim yellow. Her head was nearly buried in the book. Holding a copy of “The Shimmering Parallel Universe,” Su Ge was reading with rapt attention.

Someone had come, and that person was even staring at her.

But she was immersed in the book’s content, completely unaware of what was happening around her.

Every time Lin Shilan had seen Su Ge, she felt there was an indescribable awkwardness about her. Whether it was her small, compact steps, or her evasive, flickering gaze avoiding others’ eyes, she always seemed somewhat uncomfortable.

But now, the young girl’s hair on both sides was tucked behind her ears, her legs stretched out in the corner. The wall of books beside her seemed to have built a fortress for her. Leaning against them, the corners of her mouth quietly curved upward.

Very strangely, before entering the bookstore, Lin Shilan had harbored full hostility and scrutiny toward Su Ge, but when she looked at this high school girl reading so earnestly, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind: She’s not as frightening as I imagined.

As if possessed, Lin Shilan also took a copy of “The Shimmering Parallel Universe” from the shelf and went to the counter outside to pay.

“How much is this?”

The little boy pouted, paused his game, and called out upstairs in a childish voice: “Mommy!”

Before long, a woman came down from upstairs.

Taking the book from Lin Shilan’s hand, she glanced at the price on the back and told her: “Sixteen yuan fifty.”

This book was worth three days of her lunch money. Lin Shilan rummaged through her backpack, gathering together the coins she had.

The little boy rubbed his stomach and whined to his mother: “Mom, when is that book-reading sister going to leave? I’m hungry. Once she leaves, can we close the store?”

The woman quickly hushed him: “Keep your voice down, don’t disturb that sister. She comes so often to buy books. She buys them but doesn’t take them home—she just likes reading here. If you make her stop coming to buy books, you won’t have snacks to eat anymore.”

The speaker had no particular intention, but the listener took it to heart. Lin Shilan silently wondered: Often buys books? Buys them but doesn’t take them away? Why?

“Sister, do you not have enough money? Why have you been digging around for so long?” The little boy looked at her with innocent eyes.

Lin Shilan summoned her resolve and slapped the coins down on the table.

“Take it, this is seventeen yuan.”

She added: “Remember to give me fifty cents change.”