Thinking she would stay awake all night, her stamina couldn’t hold out, and Lin Shilan dozed off near morning.

After reading Su Ge’s book, besides the biggest question of “why can she transmit information between different spacetimes,” she had another important question.

—Did Uncle Tang marry a woman with a child and later divorce?

Based on the description from the first spacetime’s Su Ge, Lin Shilan strongly suspected that Su Ge’s stepfather was her Uncle Tang.

Their town was small, and she didn’t recall anyone falling into a well before. Moreover, in her original spacetime, the time of Uncle Tang’s fall into the well corresponded with what was described in Su Ge’s book.

Therefore, Lin Shilan thought that in the morning, once her mother had somewhat recovered to a communicative state, she’d ask her about Uncle Tang. Unfortunately the next day, when she got up, her mother had already gone to work.

Breakfast and meal money had been left on the table for her. Her mother probably felt that using these things as leverage wouldn’t work on her either. Afraid that Lin Shilan would really refuse to eat or drink, but not wanting to say nice words herself, her mother had done this.

She certainly wouldn’t deliberately sulk with her mother—if given food, she’d eat it; if given money, she’d take it.

Lin Shilan’s mind was full of matters about parallel spacetimes. She wolfed down breakfast and prepared to feed Jing Jing before going to school. Strangely, the little dog wasn’t in its bed.

The house was only so big. She looked around but didn’t see the little dog, and its usual toys were also missing.

The lame little earth dog loved sleeping at home most and was unlikely to run out on its own. After thinking carefully, Lin Shilan called her mother.

As soon as the call connected, she heard the little dog barking on the other end.

Lin Shilan asked anxiously why she’d taken the dog away. Lu Xiaorong replied casually: “My colleague wanted to see the dog, so I brought it to work.”

She found this baffling: “Why the sudden need to see the dog? I just told you last night to respect me. Mom, even if you want to take Jing Jing away, you should ask me first before taking her. How far have you gone? Come back. Don’t take her to work. With people coming and going at school, how inconvenient for the little dog to be there. If your colleague wants to see her, have her come on the weekend…”

Her mother on the other end forcibly interrupted her with the two words “so nagging.”

Then she hung up without further discussion.

Lin Shilan felt uneasy. But she knew where the dog was now—after school this afternoon, she could bring the dog back.

She glanced at the time. If she wanted to intercept Su Ge at the school gate to ask questions, she had to leave now.

From the moment the school opened, Lin Shilan stood outside waiting.

She didn’t wait for Su Ge, but instead waited for an cheerful big fool.

He appeared at the school gate riding his bicycle, a plastic bag hanging from the handlebars.

Wearing a smirk that deserved a beating, he deliberately circled in front of her, ringing the bell repeatedly.

“No way, Lin Shilan, are you spying on my life? How did you know I bought breakfast again? You rob me every time—I don’t think it’s accidental, you’ve been plotting this all along.”

Having read Su Ge’s book, Lin Shilan had lost the mood to banter with him.

Tan Jin seemed to have been eating a lot lately and had gained weight. His face was a bit chubby, making the small red mole on his cheek even more eye-catching. Like a cute little red bean that had fallen onto a bowl of white rice porridge.

“Come here.” She beckoned to him.

Obediently getting off his bike, he held the plastic bag with an aggrieved expression: “You won’t wait to go to school together with me, and now you’re robbing my steamed buns. You can’t eat both buns—at least leave me some.”

Helplessly handing over the two warm brown sugar steamed buns, he saw Lin Shilan also extend her hand.

She didn’t take the bag—her hand went straight to his face.

Tan Jin let out an “Ah—” sound, eyes wide and round, mouth open and round. Lin Shilan pressed her index finger against his face, vigorously trying to pick off his little mole.

“Pick it off, pick it off.” Her hand made him very itchy.

He looked horrified, dodging everywhere: “Why are you picking at my mole?”

“Very bad little mole, pick it off!” She pounced at him viciously, like a crazed demon.

The little mole was very innocent. Jin Jin’s face hurt.

Tan Jin knew nothing.

Tan Jin was bullied quite pitifully by Lin Shilan.

The class bell rang.

Lin Shilan absentmindedly finished morning reading and the first class.

Su Ge didn’t come to school today.

During the break, she slowly and carefully finished eating the brown sugar steamed buns, then couldn’t sit still any longer. After asking the teacher for leave, Lin Shilan shouldered her schoolbag and left the school.

She planned to walk yesterday’s route and find Su Ge.

Lin Shilan glanced at the sky—today was a rare sunny day.

The small town had entered summer, and the sun’s rays spilled onto the streets, bright everywhere.

Very fortunately, at her first stop, she found Su Ge.

Skipping class, she was hiding in the bookstore reading.

Holding a book, wearing her school uniform, she sat quietly in that same corner from yesterday.

There was sunlight outside the store. As Lin Shilan entered, she immediately felt the coolness.

On Su Ge’s yellow schoolbag by her feet lay a black umbrella… She recognized at a glance that it was her own umbrella.

The slightly plump young girl raised her head.

Her eyes were light-colored, containing a lazy, distracted feeling, emotions difficult to discern.

“You came after all.” She said.

All the words she’d wanted to say to Su Ge were completely forgotten.

Lin Shilan froze with a shiver.

It was like swallowing a block of ice—her throat felt dry and her limbs stiff.

Belatedly, she realized that coming to find her so rashly had been truly impulsive.

The Su Ge of the first spacetime was suspected of having killed someone.

The Su Ge of the second spacetime hadn’t done bad things, but had deep thoughts.

The Su Ge of the third spacetime was a thorough and complete “great villain.”

What about the current Su Ge?

The umbrella was with her, indicating that Su Ge knew about Lin Shilan following her home yesterday.

Lin Shilan couldn’t help cursing herself as stupid in her heart. Last time when she saw her here, Su Ge was already reading “Shining Parallel Universes.” She definitely also knew about those parallel world versions of herself, so then…

“You deliberately lured me here?” She clenched her fists to keep her body from trembling.

“Mm.” Su Ge admitted frankly.

“You knew yesterday that I was following you? You deliberately led me to the bookstore to let me see the book?”

Not only asking her, Lin Shilan was also thinking through it in her own mind.

“Perhaps even earlier,” her scalp tingled: “You stalked Tan Jin just to make me suspicious of you, to make me investigate you?”

Su Ge didn’t answer directly, only saying: “You came faster than I imagined.”

Lin Shilan hadn’t expected her to be able to scheme against her like this. Her head buzzed with dizziness, and she even began to doubt whether there was something fishy about what Su Ge had let her read.

“Is what’s in that book real?”

“I want to ask you the same question. The information I obtained is exactly what you saw. I’ve already shared it with you without reservation. As for whether what they wrote is true or not, you tell me the answer.”

The young girl’s eyes sparkled with intense curiosity. Beneath the dejected exterior was actually hidden a pair of bright, shining eyes—so bright they were chilling.

“What do you want to do…”

Lin Shilan calmed herself and stopped pretending with her, directly adopting an uncooperative attitude: “I don’t have an answer. You’re so clever, you can go find the answer yourself.”

Su Ge looked at her deeply.

She suddenly asked: “Have you read the entire book?”

“Didn’t finish it,” Lin Shilan smiled without mirth: “It was written so poorly.”

“Really?” She narrowed her eyes: “I think it’s written very well. I’m very grateful for this book.”

The atmosphere grew subtly tense.

“Lin Shilan.” Su Ge chewed on these three characters, revealing a strange smile: “During the group assignment, you left a very deep impression on me. That’s also when I sensed something unusual between you and Tan Jin.

Caressing the book in her hands tenderly, she fell into a trance.

“It seems that ever since this rainy season began, Tan Jin has been very deliberately avoiding me. I was secretly sad, thinking I’d done something wrong, or that he disliked me like the other classmates… After the group assignment, I read this book in the bookstore and was absolutely overjoyed. Parallel universes—what a beautiful existence. That way, I would have unlimited chances to get close to him.”

“Don’t even think about it.” Lin Shilan spoke up to interrupt her fantasy.

Putting on a poker face, she picked up her infuriating coldness again and told her word by word:

“Today, I just came to notify you that whether through schemes or methods, you can no longer steal Tan Jin away.”

“You know he likes me, right? The current me likes him too. Once I like him, you’ve already lost the chance to compete with me.”

Su Ge’s expression remained unchanged, completely unfazed, as if what she said was nothing new.

“Oh.” She also raised all her quills, pointing them at Lin Shilan: “What makes you think you can come here and show off to me? You have confidence because I’ve already shown you my cards face up. You say I use schemes and methods, so let me ask you—without schemes, what cards do you have in your hand? Can you tell me?”

Su Ge and Lin Shilan had a grudge.

From Su Ge’s perspective, no matter what her personality was in each spacetime, she couldn’t make Tan Jin stop liking Lin Shilan and like her instead. So she was frustrated.

And from Lin Shilan’s perspective, Su Ge had once robbed her of supplies and caused her death; moreover, she knew most clearly that the Tan Jin of the third spacetime had accepted Su Ge’s confession.

Lin Shilan hadn’t read Chapter Four of “Shining Parallel Universes.”

She didn’t dare to read it.

After finishing Chapter Three, she no longer had the confidence to continue reading.

The Tan Jin of the third spacetime accepted Su Ge’s confession. She could still make excuses for him—that wasn’t him—but that was still enough to make her dejected and disappointed.

With each chapter, Su Ge became stronger and closer to Tan Jin. If following after the third spacetime, the Su Ge of the fourth spacetime became even more capable, successfully pursuing Tan Jin and getting together with him… If that were the case, Lin Shilan simply couldn’t face it.

Because Tan Jin had told her before: He started crossing over last year.

He possessed the same ability as her.

Therefore, the him from the fourth spacetime would be the him by her side now—no escaping it at all.

Reading the remainder of that book would only take a few more minutes.

After this period of time together, Lin Shilan had found someone she liked in this rainy season… She wanted a good ending with him.

What if he once didn’t like her and turned to like someone else instead?

What if he had done that—what should she do?

If Lin Shilan hadn’t glimpsed that Su Ge’s hand gripping the book was using excessive force, her fingertips turning white, she would have really thought Su Ge was unmoved by her words.

Having mutually disgusted each other, there was nothing more to say between them.

Lin Shilan turned to leave.

Su Ge called out to her: “You didn’t take your umbrella.”

Her steps halted, and she turned around.

Su Ge, sitting on the ground, raised her hand high, proactively handing her the black umbrella.

After such a tense interaction, the two of them in this spacetime stood on opposite sides again.

Now, this action of Su Ge’s conveyed some unknown signal.

Lin Shilan hesitated somewhat.

“Take it.” Su Ge’s words held deeper meaning: “You’ll need the umbrella eventually. It’s going to rain for a long time afterward, isn’t it?”

Tan Jin’s face suddenly flashed through her mind.

Thinking of that tiny little mole on his face, Lin Shilan furrowed her brow tightly.

“No need, I have a spare.”

Coolly putting her hands behind her back, she strode out of the bookstore.

Lacking in schemes, she made up for it with toughness—at least she’d won back one round.