Night had fallen deep, and tree shadows swayed in the open space of the petrochemical plant dormitory.

Seeing Lin Shilan’s somewhat hesitant appearance, Tan Jin asked her if she needed him to accompany her upstairs.

“If your mom scolds you, at worst I’ll say ‘I forced Lin Shilan to get glasses’—after all, that’s what actually happened.”

She refused: “You sent me to the hospital before, and my mom’s been watching me, worried about puppy love. If she finds out you took me to get glasses tonight, she’ll definitely overthink it.”

“Just go home,” Lin Shilan stepped onto the stairs, speaking both to him and to bolster her own courage: “Besides, the glasses needed to be replaced anyway. I didn’t waste money or use it to do anything bad.”

“Alright, looks like you’ve figured it out.”

Tan Jin smiled with relief, waved at her, and went home.

Lin Shilan tiptoed as she opened the front door.

The group of freeloaders had already gone home after eating and drinking their fill. Only her Uncle Tang remained, passed out drunk on their small sofa, his snoring thunderous.

Lü Xiaorong was washing dishes by the sink. When she saw her daughter, more than not buying cigarettes, she was anxious about why she hadn’t come home for several hours.

“After I finish these dishes, if you still weren’t home, I was going to the police station to report you missing.”

“I didn’t mean to make you worry.” Lin Shilan held up her phone to show her the text message: “I sent you a message. Didn’t you see it?”

Lü Xiaorong let out a scoffing laugh through her nose, her words becoming increasingly severe: “What good are text messages? A criminal could use your phone to send them too. You’re my only daughter, you’re all the hope I have for the rest of my life. If something happened to you, I wouldn’t want to live either.”

Lin Shilan understood her mother was expressing her concern for her.

But honestly, she didn’t feel love from those words—only heaviness.

After her daughter apologized, Lü Xiaorong began pursuing the next matter.

“What’s the necessity of getting new glasses? At your age, you should focus on studying. These glasses are very fashionable, but they’re not practical at all. Glasses are a tool—practicality should be the priority.”

Lin Shilan explained helplessly: “I didn’t get new glasses to be vain. The prescription in my old glasses wasn’t strong enough anymore.”

Hearing this, Lü Xiaorong became even more agitated, immediately dropping the bowl in her hands and coming over to look at her eyes: “Oh my! Not strong enough again? Your nearsightedness got worse again? You never protect your eyes. If this keeps up, both your eyes will go blind. How many times have I told you—your posture when doing homework should be proper, the lights should be on. So many times I’ve come home to find you in the pitch dark…”

If she really couldn’t stand listening anymore, Lin Shilan wouldn’t have chosen to interrupt her.

“Mom. It’s precisely because I didn’t want you to say this that I kept wearing glasses with an insufficient prescription.”

“When I got my eye exam at the glasses store, I was more nervous than during final exams. When they pointed at the eye chart and asked me which direction, I couldn’t see clearly and was very anxious inside. I don’t want my eyes to get worse either, but they already can’t see clearly. I need glasses. I’m telling you all this because I want you to know that I’m very clear about how important protecting my eyes is, so please stop blaming me.”

Lin Shilan’s heartfelt words were viewed by Lü Xiaorong as excuses.

Keeping her anger, she dumped all the leftover dinner dishes without saving any for Lin Shilan.

The next day.

Uncle Tang woke up early in the morning wanting soup to cure his hangover.

Her mother had barely slept before getting up to bustle about.

Lin Shilan told Lü Xiaorong she was going to the library to study today.

Her mother didn’t have time to worry about her, so she let her go.

Downstairs.

Deliberately not sending him a text in advance, Lin Shilan had originally thought she could wait for Tan Jin for once.

The light rain drizzled.

She opened her umbrella and had just taken two steps…

By the large tree, a young man was listlessly stepping in puddles.

“Why is it always you waiting for me?” Lin Shilan was somewhat puzzled.

Tan Jin answered casually: “Oh, I just got here. I happened to see you leaving from the window. I was ready too, I just came downstairs faster than you.”

A small car passed by them, and the driver rolled down the window.

“Xiao Jin, didn’t you leave really early? Why are you still here?”

The face-slap came too quickly.

Both the liar and the person who heard his lie fell silent.

Lin Shilan suppressed her laughter and greeted Tan Jin’s father sitting in the car.

Uncle Tan called for them both to get in: “It’s raining. Where are you going? I’ll give you a ride.”

Looking at the time, Tan Jin’s father was going to work at the petrochemical plant, which was exactly where they needed to go.

The two exchanged glances.

Tan Jin spoke: “Drop us off at the stationery store near the petrochemical plant.”

His father agreed and opened the car door.

Lin Shilan got into the back seat, and Tan Jin followed her in. Uncle Tan was still holding the passenger door open when he turned to look and saw both of them already seated in the car.

“Huh, not sitting in front?” Tan Jin’s father didn’t name names, closing the door while muttering to himself: “Usually, come hell or high water, no matter who he goes out with, he insists on sitting in the passenger seat. Today he wants to sit in back?”

Tan Jin coughed lightly, already regretting getting in his father’s car.

He touched the back of his head, trying to divert everyone’s attention: “Wow, the rain outside is really heavy.”

She looked toward the car window—there were just a few small raindrops on it, and the wind had nearly dried them.

“Lin Shilan, you got new glasses?” The previous topic having failed, he looked for something to say, very deliberately trying to chat with her: “The new glasses look good.”

His words were so dry that she couldn’t even respond: “You helped me pick them out last night. Did you forget?”

“Xiao Jin went out with you last night?” Uncle Tan, who had been paying attention to them, naturally picked up the conversation.

“No wonder when he came home, he had a smile on his face and was singing in the shower. I was wondering why he was in such a good mood. Usually at home, Xiao Jin always has a long face, like someone owes him money. Goes out once and comes back a changed person, beaming with joy.”

“Dad,” Tan Jin said seriously, reminding him: “Don’t chat while driving. Watch the road.”

“I am watching.”

Uncle Tan was indeed driving attentively, but his mouth wasn’t hindered in the slightest.

“Xiao Lin, it’s really great that you’re spending time with Xiao Jin. If you don’t ask him to go out, he’ll definitely stay home playing video games on Saturday. Before, when you came to the house to do homework with Ziheng, Xiao Jin really wanted to talk to you. You don’t know…”

“Dad! Turn on the radio!” Tan Jin said through gritted teeth: “It’s too quiet in the car!”

“Oh.” Uncle Tan finally got the hint and fell silent.

“We’re almost there. Should we still turn on the radio?” Lin Shilan’s expression unchanged, seriously asked Tan Jin.

He met her gaze.

Under her eyes, his puffed-up cheeks deflated like a balloon losing air.

“Then… no, I guess.”

The monotonous sound of windshield wipers echoed in the car.

The three people didn’t talk, each person staring out a window.

Lin Shilan saw the stationery store.

“Uncle, can you drop us off up ahead? Is it convenient to park there?”

“Sure is.”

Uncle Tan parked the car steadily.

They got out, Tan Jin exiting first. Uncle Tan couldn’t hold back and said to Lin Shilan in an extremely low voice: “Xiao Lin, only you can handle Xiao Jin. In our family—me, his mom, his brother—none of us can control him, but he listens to you.”

Tan Jin’s ears were about to explode from blushing.

If Lin Shilan didn’t come out soon, he might just run away by himself.

Uncle Tan’s car drove into the distance.

But the awkwardness from inside the car followed them all the way outside.

Tan Jin walked along the road, continuously moving forward until Lin Shilan reminded him.

“We’re already at our destination.”

He turned around to find her.

They walked back a short distance, and she pointed at a trash can along the outer edge of the petrochemical plant.

“There. That’s where I found the puppy before.”

“Mm.”

Tan Jin seemed to have lost his soul, looking left and right.

“The puppy hasn’t been thrown away yet. What do we do now?”

“Wait.”

Lin Shilan yawned and looked up at the sky.

The sky was overcast, clouds piling up.

A Saturday daytime with a rainstorm approaching—perfect for sleeping at home.

They stood there bored.

After a long while, she found a topic to chat about.

“Why did Uncle say you listen to me?”

His tone was flat: “He was just talking nonsense.”

The raindrops in the air gradually became denser. The rain was getting heavier.

The two each held their own umbrellas, neither looking at the other.

The umbrella beside her, the person whose face was blocked, suddenly threw out a string of questions toward an unknown direction.

“You sang in the shower?”

“You wanted to talk to me before?”

“You didn’t sit in the passenger seat because you wanted to sit with me?”

“You got up really early and waited for me downstairs?”

Tan Jin couldn’t bear it anymore.

“Does your family live by the sea? Why do you have to manage so much?”

That umbrella lifted up a bit, revealing a pair of exquisite and beautiful girl’s eyes.

Her eyelashes lowered, hiding the emotions in her eyes, distant yet so timid.

“Can you come closer to me?”

His expression froze, and then he heard her murmuring.

“…I don’t like the petrochemical plant.”

Instantly, as if possessed, he withdrew his own umbrella.

His body stiff, he took one small step to the left.

Rain mixed with wind, blowing straight at them.

To keep the rain from hitting her, Lin Shilan gripped the umbrella handle tightly.

After this gust of wind passed.

She finally remembered to raise the umbrella higher to let the dazed Tan Jin come over.

In this short time, by the time he got under the umbrella, he had already been thoroughly ravaged by wind and rain, his hair messy like weeds, his face looking dazed.

“Why didn’t you use your umbrella?”

After asking this wicked question, she was the first to burst out laughing.

“…”

This world where only he was a fool.

Tan Jin was tired.