Tan Jin reacted strongly to Lin Shilan’s words.

He seemed to forget they were hiding and spoke to her at normal volume: “Su Ge and I are classmates. She has a one-sided crush on me. I have no interest in her.”

—Two light sentences, completely absolving himself.

Lin Shilan’s mind conjured Su Ge’s line “Don’t like Lin Shilan, like me instead,” as well as Tan Jin’s agreement at the time.

She looked at him sideways and asked casually: “Then who are you interested in?”

The lightly tossed question made him like a cat whose foot had been stepped on, instantly bristling all over.

Breathing rapidly, Tan Jin’s chest heaved up and down.

“Me?”

Avoiding her eyes, he said: “I’m interested in crazy people.”

She didn’t know who he was insulting, but it wasn’t her anyway.

Lin Shilan stared at Su Ge’s retreating figure—she was gradually walking away.

Not wasting any more time, she didn’t have a chance to communicate with Tan Jin and took the first step herself, rushing toward the trash can.

The poor little puppy. It lay among leaves, drink cans, and discarded food scraps, whimpering with convulsions.

Its ginger-yellow fur was soaked by rain, blood bubbled from its black nose, and its pure black eyes like glass marbles stared wide open at the sky.

Lin Shilan covered the puppy with the prepared cotton towel.

Tan Jin carefully picked it up.

They wanted to see where it was bleeding. The moment their fingers touched its skin, it let out a piercing shriek.

This cry alarmed Tan Jin terribly.

He freed one hand, frantically rummaging through the bag for iodine, cotton swabs, cake, ham sausage, band-aids… Medicine and food—he’d brought a pile of things, but the current situation left him at a loss, not knowing which would help.

Lin Shilan was calmer than him. Assessing the puppy’s blood loss, she quickly made a judgment about the situation: “It’s injured too severely. The medicine we brought can’t handle this. We need to take it to a hospital.”

“It’s crying so pitifully.”

His body was rigid, not daring to move at all: “Did I touch its wound?”

Even though Tan Jin’s movements were extremely gentle, the puppy continued to cry out in pain.

Connecting it to the brake sound they’d heard earlier, she suddenly had a flash of insight and a theory: “Was it hit by a car?”

Tan Jin agreed: “Very likely!”

She vaguely remembered that if that was the case, you couldn’t move the injured party carelessly. Lin Shilan looked around and spotted a large cardboard box behind the trash can.

She had an idea: “I’ll break down the box and use the cardboard to support the puppy.”

“I’ll do it.” He handed the puppy to her.

The puppy’s body was wrapped in the soft towel, its abdomen against her right palm. Lin Shilan could clearly feel the heavy weight of a small life in her hands.

“Thump-thump, thump-thump.”

The little stray dog’s heart was beating.

She held it like holding a tiny clock.

The cardboard box was large and heavy. Tan Jin pulled it up and used all his strength to tear off a piece of cardboard.

Whether because it had no energy left or because being held was comfortable, the puppy’s cries became softer.

She took the cardboard he handed over, placed it under the puppy’s body, then cradled it in the crook of her arm.

Then the two of them ran at full speed to find a nearby pet hospital.

Based on information from before, they both knew that in the original timeline, it wouldn’t die this quickly.

This was a tenacious little dog. Even after being thrown away now, it wouldn’t die until the next morning.

In fact, at the very end of its life, the puppy had crawled out of the trash can with its own strength and died in the grass. This showed how strong its will to survive was.

Their intervention was well-intentioned, but the outcome was unpredictable.

Was their rescue timely enough? Could it be saved?

Or would meeting them make things worse?

The little stray dog bled and trembled.

They ran at maximum speed, not daring to slack off.

Tan Jin held the umbrella, shielding Lin Shilan and the puppy. Whether he himself was covered, he completely didn’t think about.

Entering the hospital, she and the dog were dry and comfortable.

He looked like he’d taken a shower, his entire body soaked through by the heavy rain.

The pet hospital staff examined the puppy’s injuries.

Just as they’d guessed, according to the doctor’s judgment, the puppy had been in a traffic accident.

“Fractured right forelimb, internal bleeding. We need to take an X-ray, then perform surgery.”

“Alright, do it as soon as possible.” Tan Jin agreed decisively.

The doctor lifted his glasses and looked at them—both still looked like inexperienced students…

“This is just a worthless stray dog, and it will be disabled afterward. Are you sure you want to save it? Surgery will cost quite a bit.”

“Save it. I have money.” Tan Jin was equally straightforward.

The doctor was still giving the puppy a painkiller injection.

Tan Jin had already gone outside ahead of time to pay all the treatment fees.

This was a very, very small puppy, probably only about three weeks old.

The stray dog whimpered, its eyes brimming with tears.

Lin Shilan stroked the puppy’s head.

By its ear, she said softly: “Stay alive.”

Last time, she had buried it with her own hands.

Four years later, finding this little puppy again.

This time, she wanted to change its fate.

The doctor performed surgery inside while Lin Shilan and Tan Jin waited outside.

His rain-soaked hair had already dried, but his clothes and pants were still wet.

The pet hospital’s air conditioning was on quite high. Tan Jin, sitting on the bench, hunched his neck, looking somewhat pitiful.

Lin Shilan pulled a towel from her bag and gave it to him.

Tan Jin happily accepted it, wiping himself here and there all over, wiping energetically.

She leisurely reminded him: “That’s the towel for the dog.”

His wiping motion froze abruptly.

“…I brought an extra one.” What a dramatic pause—she’d pranked Tan Jin again.

“Not funny.” Tan Jin returned the towel to her.

Lin Shilan glanced sideways: “What’s not funny?”

The corners of his eyes drooped downward, and his face had puffed up a full circle from anger.

“That joke earlier wasn’t funny, and ‘your Su Ge’ wasn’t funny either.”

Tan Jin unilaterally entered a cold war with Lin Shilan.

The air conditioning blew whoosh whoosh whoosh.

The annoying rain fell without stopping.

After a while, someone came from the front desk.

He came to find Tan Jin with a form: “You didn’t finish filling in all the information. You need to write down your puppy’s name.”

“Oh, okay.” Tan Jin took the paper and pen he offered.

The cold war was over.

Total cold war duration: five minutes.

“Lin Shilan, what should we call the dog?”

Pen tip pointed at the line for the dog’s name, he lowered his head, ready to write what she said.

Lin Shilan didn’t speak.

Tan Jin had no choice but to look up at her.

“Jing Jing.” She said.

“Huh?” He was shocked.

Lin Shilan patiently elaborated: “The dog. I want to call the dog ‘Jing Jing.'”

He felt something was off: “Why?”

Her expression was peaceful: “I like Jing Jing.”

Tan Jin’s expression cracked: “Since when do you like Jing Jing?”

She remained peaceful: “I’ve always liked being quiet.”

“But you still can’t call it Jing Jing!”

The pen in his hand was twisted out of shape as he desperately resisted: “Because I’m also Jin Jin!”

“You’re Tan Jin, Jin Jin. It’s Jing Jing.”

She drew her conclusion: “Completely different.”

“They sound exactly the same when you say them out loud!” Tan Jin grabbed his hair.

Seeing he was truly breaking down.

The corners of her mouth turned up, and she burst out laughing.

Lin Shilan scored a victory: “Was this joke funny?”

He breathed a sigh of relief: “Oh, so you were joking.”

Pulling away the form, she wrote the name she’d actually thought of for the puppy.

Tan Jin leaned over to look.

[Pet Name: Jing Jing]

She was addicted to being wicked: “Actually, I wasn’t joking.”