Tan Ziheng returned to the clinic.

Lin Shilan was awake.

She was rubbing her forehead, sitting dazedly on the hospital bed.

“Does your forehead hurt?” he asked gently. Lin Shilan looked toward him.

She was completely confused about the situation: “What happened to me?”

“You fainted in the car,” Tan Ziheng could see her complexion was still very poor. “Where do you feel uncomfortable now?”

“Headache, nausea.”

Lin Shilan recalled the scene she saw before being scared unconscious…

Tan Jin followed behind Tan Ziheng.

He was a few steps slower, and also walked in.

Tan Jin’s appearance made her entire body shrink backward.

That movement was too obvious.

All day, Tan Jin had been looking forward to seeing Lin Shilan. He had so many things he wanted to say to her.

But at this moment, when she saw him.

Her face showed alarm, no joy.

Without exaggeration, she was scared as if she had seen a ghost.

Tan Jin had specifically washed his face. His previously dirt and dust-covered face was now washed clean. So he didn’t understand why she had that reaction of avoiding him. Did she not want to see him?

Caught in the middle of the frozen atmosphere, Tan Ziheng spoke up, breaking the deadlock: “Then it should be fine. These two symptoms are normal. The doctor said earlier that after you woke up, you’d definitely still feel unwell and need to recuperate some more.”

As rationality gradually returned, Lin Shilan remembered something important: “Where’s Su Ge? Did you find her?”

“Found her! After I went in, I explained to the patrolling old man, and he didn’t make things difficult for us after that. When you fainted, I sent Su Ge to her doorstep.”

Tan Jin listened to Lin Shilan and Tan Ziheng’s conversation, completely confused, unable to understand what they were talking about. Why were they looking for Su Ge? The Su Ge they mentioned—was it the “bad person” Su Ge he knew?

“Also,” Tan Ziheng hurriedly told her the latest good news: “Xiao Jin helped you find the puppy.”

“Really?!” Lin Shilan’s attention finally shifted to him a bit.

She glanced at Tan Jin, but he wasn’t looking at her.

She had no choice but to turn to Tan Ziheng, who was closest to her, and ask about Tan Jin: “Didn’t my mom send the puppy to a colleague’s house? How did he find it?”

Tan Ziheng made way, leaving space for Tan Jin to explain what happened on his end.

Both people were looking at him.

Tan Jin let out a breath: “Ah, the dog? I was lucky to find it. Just… as I was walking along the road, I saw an auntie leading a local dog. It felt like Jingjing. I got closer to look, and it really was. While she was buying vegetables and not paying attention, I brought the dog home.”

He made it sound especially easy, lying without even blinking.

She stared fixedly at the gauze on his arm: “What happened to your hand?”

“That? Oh,” Tan Jin’s tone was flippant, his eyes conveying indifference, his mouth running with made-up lies: “I was walking and swinging my arm with too much force, scraped it against the wall.”

He was avoiding communication, using a casual tone to hide his true words.

She hadn’t expected him to come. So he was hurt by her, just a little bit.

Not wanting to appear miserable in front of them was another little bit.

Before the matter of finding the dog, because she learned he had lied to her, Lin Shilan had torn up the draft paper and walked away alone. If not for her distant attitude, Tan Jin would have almost forgotten this major matter weighing on his heart.

In his pocket, the little torn paper he had glued back together hadn’t yet been given to her.

It was just finding the puppy.

Accomplishing such a small thing didn’t mean anything.

He had gotten carried away.

“Thank you.” Lin Shilan looked into his eyes and sincerely thanked him.

Tan Jin’s eyes were empty. He laughed softly and replied: “You’re welcome.”

After the terror at the petrochemical plant…

Lin Shilan remembered some things, or more accurately, remembered some scenes.

All day, she had been gripping her phone, waiting for Tan Jin to call. When he was truly before her eyes, she didn’t know what to say.

The words in her heart were all tangled together, like a ball of yarn that couldn’t be untangled.

So annoying.

This rain, day and night, fell endlessly.

The three people, each with their own thoughts, came out from the clinic.

Tan Ziheng drove his younger brother and Lin Shilan toward home.

Tan Jin sat in the passenger seat, Lin Shilan sat in back.

All along the way, everyone looked out a different window. No one spoke.

Fortunately, the clinic was very close to home, so they didn’t have to be awkward for too long.

When the car arrived home, the Tan parents had already gone to sleep.

Tan Jin opened the door.

Jingjing excitedly rushed toward Lin Shilan.

It wagged its tail frantically, wagging so hard its tail was about to break off.

Lin Shilan crouched down, opened her arms wide, and embraced the little creature she had searched for all day.

“You missed me, didn’t you? You were abducted today, weren’t you?”

“Little silly dog, do you know how long I searched for you?”

If the puppy could speak, it would chatter endlessly in her embrace: talking about how bad Lü Xiaorong was, abducting it; talking about the new household it arrived at, how they ganged up to bully it; talking about the male master, how heroically he rescued it.

Unfortunately, the little local dog couldn’t speak human language.

Jingjing’s round black eyes gazed at her, pawing at her with its little paws. It sensed that its mistress’s face held a faint sorrow, but had no way to ask her why she was unhappy.

The puppy licked her hand over and over, hoping this could help her feel a bit better.

Tan Jin stood by the door, a short distance away, watching the scene of her reunion with the puppy.

His brother went to the kitchen to cook a late-night snack. This was the best opportunity for him to talk to her.

Tan Jin walked toward Lin Shilan, needing only a few small steps.

For such a long time, Tan Jin had always been like this, hesitating, keeping a distance, secretly watching her.

How should he explain the lie he told her?

He fell into thought, gradually spacing out…

Lin Shilan.

In Tan Jin’s eyes, none of the things others praised about Lin Shilan were things he agreed with.

People said she was smart and good at studying. He had seen her painstakingly memorizing books all night, and also seen her getting up early to scribble on notebooks. People said she was conscientious in her work. He had seen her careless appearance, picking up things without watching the road, her left foot stepping on her right foot and tripping herself. People said she had a good temper. He had seen her speak harshly to him, using all kinds of unpleasant words to mock and ridicule him coldly.

People said she was beautiful. Tan Jin didn’t think she was that pretty either. In front of him, she had dark circles under her eyes, hair tied up like a bird’s nest, wearing loose butterfly pajamas that only aunties would wear. When she cried, her features scrunched together and she blew snot bubbles.

In his eyes, she had always been just a very ordinary Lin Shilan. Weak, rigid, fragile, neurotic, stubborn as a duck, clearly caring but speaking coldly.

Lin Shilan had nothing good about her.

The worst thing about her was that she liked his brother.

She admired his brother, came to his house for no reason, looked for his brother, chattering away talking to him.

And not once had Lin Shilan turned to look at him.

That lie was the beginning he wove for their story.

So.

Even if she misunderstood him, hated him, he still couldn’t unravel it.

…

Tan Jin stood there in a daze for a while.

In the silence, she endured along with him.

In the end, he didn’t speak to her. Lin Shilan heard Tan Jin’s footsteps retreat into the distance.

She turned her head.

He was no longer there.

Withdrawing her thoughts, Lin Shilan heard the water kettle in the kitchen bubbling as it boiled.

She put down Jingjing and stood up from the floor. All day, she had caused them so much trouble. Just waiting to eat without doing anything made her feel guilty.

Lin Shilan planned to go to the kitchen to help Tan Ziheng make the late-night snack.

Tan Jin, covered in stinking sweat, went to take a shower.

Following the doctor’s instructions, he kept the stitched area dry. After washing clean, he discovered he had other wounds on his body.

On his flip-flop-wearing feet, ankles, and palms, there were actually various degrees of breaks in the skin.

Coming out of the bathroom, he found several cartoon band-aids and applied them one by one to the injured spots.

The cartoon-patterned band-aids made him think of the cartoon puppy he had once applied to her forehead.

Shut in his own room, Tan Jin painfully gnawed on his fingers.

Outside came Lin Shilan’s voice. He had originally planned not to eat the late-night snack…

But he still wanted to find her.

Regardless of whether he would annoy her, Tan Jin decided to walk toward the dining room and insert himself between them.

Contrary to Tan Jin’s expectations.

As soon as he appeared, Lin Shilan brought over noodles she had cooked for him, with an egg on top. It wasn’t the kind his brother fried—the perfectly shaped soft-boiled egg. The yolk was completely fried and scattered.

This meant that egg could only have been fried by her.

She had specially fried it for him.

“You don’t like scrambled eggs?” Lin Shilan saw him staring intently at the egg and felt a bit uneasy.

Tan Jin immediately said: “Impossible not to like them. I’ve only eaten scrambled eggs since I was little.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, as if to prove it to her, he picked up the egg with his chopsticks in one motion, stuffed it in his mouth in one bite, barely chewed, and swallowed directly.

Tan Ziheng carried his own noodles over and sat down to eat as well.

Tan Jin glanced at his brother’s bowl.

That mouthful of egg suddenly wasn’t so fragrant anymore.

In his brother’s noodles, there was also an egg fried just as scrambled.

A fierce internal struggle was happening within him.

Over at Tan Ziheng and Lin Shilan’s side, they started talking again.

“Xiao Lan, you go sleep in my room later. I’ll sleep in the living room.”

Lin Shilan shook her head in refusal: “No need, Ziheng-ge. I’m staying over for one night. Having the living room to sleep in is already great. You and Tan Jin helped me find the dog today and sent me to the clinic—I’ve worn you both out too much. You need to rest well. After eating the noodles, I’ll clean up, and you go into your rooms and sleep quickly.”

“You can’t sleep in my brother’s room.”

Tan Jin also spoke up. She thought he was coming to help persuade Tan Ziheng, but unexpectedly he changed direction and said: “Lin Shilan, you sleep in my room.”

Tan Ziheng objected: “Xiao Jin, the bed in your room isn’t comfortable—it’s too soft. You were injured today and need to recuperate. Sleeping in the living room isn’t good either. It’s most appropriate for Xiao Lan to sleep in my room.”

Tan Jin disagreed and stubbornly thought up a reason. He said: “Sleeping in your room won’t work. Your room has bad feng shui.”

This reason made Tan Ziheng laugh.

He looked toward Lin Shilan.

“Xiao Lan, you decide. Whose room do you want to sleep in?”

Tan Jin stopped eating his noodles, his gaze also turning toward her.