On Lin Shilan’s side, she had no idea of Tan Jin’s progress.

She and Tan Ziheng together embarked on the long journey of searching for the dog.

If Lu Xiaorong had thrown away Jing Jing in the morning, so much time had passed by now that the little dog could be anywhere in the town.

The area around the petrochemical plant was a labyrinth of complex alleys. Tan Ziheng’s car couldn’t drive in. So Lin Shilan was responsible for searching those small alleys, while Tan Ziheng went to the main roads and more distant places.

The car drove to the vicinity of the petrochemical plant.

Tan Ziheng noticed that Lin Shilan’s complexion wasn’t good.

He asked if she was feeling unwell. She replied that she was fine.

Thinking she was in a bad mood from worrying about the little dog, Tan Ziheng didn’t continue asking.

They agreed that if there was any progress, they would contact each other by phone.

The rain stopped for a while, then started again.

When Lin Shilan was sitting in the car, she didn’t remember to bring an umbrella. After walking a few steps outside, fine rain began falling from the sky, and she got drenched again.

Seeing a small convenience store at an intersection, she walked over to ask the owner if he sold umbrellas.

“No, I only sell food here.”

“Oh,” Lin Shilan asked him in passing: “Have you seen a little lame native dog today?”

“I really haven’t been paying attention, probably not.” A customer walked out of the store, and the owner took the items and helped her calculate the payment.

Lin Shilan was speechless.

She had run into Su Ge again.

She was buying cookies at the small store. Lin Shilan had come in after her.

Pretending not to see Su Ge, she let her gaze go blank and left the small store without showing any emotion.

Along the way, Lin Shilan didn’t overlook any nooks and crannies.

There were too many places that could be searched. Jing Jing was such a small dog, she could be hiding anywhere.

Seeing anything with a yellow color, she would instinctively get excited, shouting “Jing Jing” and running over… but those were just leaves, plastic bags, cardboard boxes, or aluminum cans.

The sky gradually darkened.

Lin Shilan kept checking her phone, but it remained silent.

When she encountered people, she would walk over to ask them. The rest of the time, she wandered aimlessly searching.

One passerby told her: “I think I saw a native dog at the snack shop up ahead.”

Lin Shilan hurried to the shop he mentioned.

The snack shop did indeed have a native dog.

However, it was at least five times larger than Jing Jing’s size.

It was the shop owner’s dog. The old dog sat calmly in the shop, gnawing on a meat bone.

Lin Shilan, who had rushed into the shop, saw not the dog first, but Su Ge drinking soup.

“…”

“…”

Her foot hung in the air, not knowing whether to enter the shop or not.

Su Ge held up her soup spoon, not knowing whether to drink or set it down.

Their eyes met.

Then, simultaneously, they both sighed.

Lin Shilan turned and left, suffering in silence.

Asking people nonstop, searching for the dog.

Her feet were sore from walking, but she had no thought of resting at all.

The longer the dog was lost, the more remote the hope of finding her became.

Hoping and hoping, the longed-for phone call finally rang once.

It was Tan Ziheng calling.

He asked Lin Shilan if there was any new information. She said no.

The two discussed for a bit. Lin Shilan asked Tan Ziheng to go home after a while to check: was there any possibility that Jing Jing had found her own way home, and also, had the missing Tan Jin returned or not.

Tan Ziheng agreed.

Expanding the search area, Lin Shilan went deeper into the alleys to look.

Today’s Su Ge content was excessive. She really didn’t want to run into her again.

Lin Shilan planned to enter a hair salon to ask the owner if he’d seen the little dog. Before going in, she deliberately looked from outside—that familiar school uniform wasn’t inside.

She pushed open the door and confidently entered the shop.

The owner was blow-drying a customer’s hair. When Lin Shilan opened her mouth to ask him, the hair dryer in his hand happened to blow toward the front, revealing the customer’s face.

Su Ge, wrapped in a hairdressing cape, looked toward the mirror.

Lin Shilan covered her forehead, finally losing her composure.

Meeting on a narrow road!

If they met on the left road, why did they still meet on the right road?

The world is so small, happiness is so scarce!!

Both mentally cursed the other for being a stalker.

Coming out of the hair salon, Lin Shilan had developed a psychological shadow about entering shops, always feeling that if she entered one more shop, Su Ge would pop out from some corner.

The time passed nine o’clock.

They had been searching for the dog for over three hours with no results whatsoever.

Earlier, Lin Shilan had sent her mother a text message: [Did you really throw Jing Jing on the street?]

Her mother hadn’t replied.

Not until after nine o’clock, probably seeing she still hadn’t come home, did Lu Xiaorong call Lin Shilan back.

She immediately answered, but her mother hung up the phone.

Well-acquainted with Lu Xiaorong’s tactics, Lin Shilan didn’t want to go back and forth calling and maneuvering with her mother, so she simply ignored her.

All evening, no results.

Not many shops in the town still had their lights on, and there were few pedestrians on the road.

One hardware store hadn’t closed yet. Lin Shilan didn’t hold much hope but wanted to casually ask. The owner wasn’t at the counter, so she walked out of the shop.

Then, for who knows how many times, she ran into Su Ge, who was selecting wash basins outside the door.

Really…

Lin Shilan really couldn’t hold it in anymore!

She earnestly entreated her: “Could you please stop following me?”

Su Ge’s expression was calm: “I’m giving that sentence right back to you.”

Bad luck! The indignant Lin Shilan stood in place.

She planned to wait for Su Ge to leave, then walk in the opposite direction herself.

But the other party didn’t seem to be in a hurry.

She lowered her head selecting basins and muttered: “You’re looking for a dog?”

They had run into each other so many times before. Su Ge had definitely heard what Lin Shilan was doing.

Essentially, she was asking a pointless question.

Lin Shilan raised her eyebrows: “Have you seen a dog?”

Su Ge answered irritatingly: “No.”

The rain intensified.

The light drizzle from before, Lin Shilan could still endure without an umbrella.

Right now, raindrops were pouring down in torrents. If she went out, she would immediately be soaked through.

She could only take shelter from the rain for a while.

Su Ge could leave. Unlike Lin Shilan, she had brought an umbrella.

That umbrella had originally been Lin Shilan’s.

She hadn’t taken the umbrella at the bookstore. There was even less possibility of asking for it back now. Lin Shilan awkwardly looked elsewhere, hoping Su Ge would quickly leave the shop and stop waving the umbrella in front of her eyes.

Slowly, Su Ge pulled the black umbrella out of her backpack.

She didn’t open the umbrella. Instead, she folded it up properly… leaving it on the hardware store’s counter, in a position where Lin Shilan could reach it with her arm.

Seeing her action, immediately, Lin Shilan’s heart felt somewhat mixed.

She didn’t quite know if saying this was good or not. It was like a small pebble stuck in her throat—uncomfortable not to say.

In the end, she still said it.

“I finished reading the whole book.”

Su Ge scratched her neck and responded somewhat awkwardly: “Oh.”

The night was deep.

The sound of rushing rain fell into the empty mountains.

The blowing wind was cool, carrying a trace of loneliness.

Just when Lin Shilan thought Su Ge wouldn’t speak again, she opened her mouth.

“What kind of dog is it?”

After thinking for a moment about whether to give a brief or detailed answer, Lin Shilan chose the latter.

“A little native dog with a broken leg. It was hit by a car before… that is, about a month ago, the dog you threw in the trash can. You also wrote about it in Chapter Four.”

It seemed she had chosen wrong.

Su Ge shrank her hands and feet. Visibly, the expression on her face became awkward. When Lin Shilan’s gaze turned toward her, she chose to avoid it.

Completely having her sore spot stepped on, she fled as if escaping into the curtain of rain.

Her mood felt strange. Lin Shilan’s mind conjured the story of Su Ge from other spacetimes written in the book. This morning, their exchange had indeed been unpleasant too…

But the rain was falling so heavily.

To be fair, no one would want to get rained on.

Moving quickly, she opened the black umbrella and ran toward Su Ge.

“You!”

She called out to her.

“Didn’t you just get your hair cut? You use the umbrella.”

Su Ge turned her head to look at her.

Lin Shilan was slightly surprised.

This girl was tightly pressing her lips together, as if about to cry.

Her eyes held inferiority and a bit of panic that she hadn’t yet had time to hide.

“Aren’t you going to continue looking for the dog?” she asked.

Lin Shilan handed her the umbrella handle: “I’m going to continue looking.”

Su Ge didn’t take the umbrella. Her gaze flickered, not daring to look at her.

“I thought the little dog wouldn’t survive.”

She revealed a forced smile: “Maybe because every version of me thought that way, that’s why every time I couldn’t save it. The little dog actually was saved alive?”

“Mm.”

Lin Shilan faintly sensed why Su Ge was breaking down.

If that little dog could be saved, then every time she abandoned it in the trash can, it was as if the little dog’s life had been terminated by her.

But Lin Shilan could also understand that Su Ge hadn’t saved the little dog because she was too overwhelmed taking care of herself.

When we’re deep in the mire, bearing too much, how can we have the energy to care for other things?

Just like how, in the first three years after crossing over, she also hadn’t saved the little dog even once.

This time, Lin Shilan had managed it—not because she was nobler than Su Ge. She simply had someone accompanying her, someone supporting her, so she had freed up one hand.

Therefore, she said one more thing to Su Ge: “Actually, this is also the first time I knew the little dog could be saved. In the past, I never tried to save it either.”

After a long while, Su Ge raised her head.

Her gaze no longer evaded.

Looking at Lin Shilan, there was a glimmer surging in her eyes.

Su Ge asked her: “So are you confident that this time the little dog can survive?”

“I don’t know…” Lin Shilan let out a long breath.

Fatigue showed for just an instant. Blinking her eyes, she had already rallied her spirits, her tone becoming firm again: “I’ll do my best to let it survive.”

Su Ge reached out her hand.

She didn’t take the umbrella. Instead, she pushed it toward Lin Shilan’s side.

“Inside the petrochemical plant, have you searched there?” Her shoulders were getting rained on, but she seemed unaware.

Lin Shilan shook her head: “Not yet. Can you go inside the plant?”

“Normally speaking, no. But I know there’s a small path to get in.”

Lin Shilan felt somewhat troubled.

The area around the petrochemical plant was enough to make her panic. If she had to go inside…

“I can go look inside.” Su Ge offered voluntarily.

Thus, inexplicably, Lin Shilan gained someone—a person she couldn’t have guessed even racking her brains a few hours ago—who joined the dog-searching camp.

Even she herself wasn’t clear why the conversation with Su Ge could bizarrely progress to this point.

Searching for the dog required contact. In her phone, she even had Su Ge’s number now.

While they were talking, the hardware store owner came back.

Su Ge bought the wash basin she wanted.

Insisting on not taking Lin Shilan’s umbrella, Su Ge headed off with the red wash basin on her head, her back gradually receding into the distance.

—Was infiltrating the petrochemical plant like this really okay?

Lin Shilan listened to the raindrops falling on the basin, making pattering sounds… and thought of Tan Jin again.

She couldn’t help being curious—if he knew about this magical development, what kind of expression would he have?