Until the little stray dog’s surgery ended, Tan Jin kept struggling with Lin Shilan over its name—or rather, his name.

“How about calling him Qingtian? You want to escape the rainy season, and Sunny Day sounds so auspicious.”

He racked his brains, and one suggestion after another popped out, all tailored to “guess what Lin Shilan would like,” making it impossible for her to shut them down.

“I thought of a particularly good one: Dudu. Very catchy, isn’t it?”

“You’ll definitely like this one—Sunny! If you want a Chinese name, you can call him Yangyang.”

“How about thinking of a common name? Lele? Guoguo? Doudou? Duoduo?”

But no matter how Tan Jin pitched his ideas, Lin Shilan maintained her impenetrable attitude: “Okay, I’ll consider your suggestions.”

When the puppy came out of surgery, she directly called out “Jing Jing” and went up to greet him.

The dog had nearly half his body wrapped in bandages. After the surgery, he was very weak, lying quietly on the table.

The doctor said the surgery was very successful. The puppy would need to stay at the hospital for observation while they gave him injections and medicine. To be safe, they should come back in a week to take him home.

Hearing that the dog would be fine, both of them were especially happy.

Lin Shilan stroked the puppy’s fluffy head and praised him: “Well done.”

The dog was listless, his front paws wrapped up and swollen, his eyes barely open.

Whether or not he understood her words, the puppy licked her hand a few times.

The sudden wetness made Lin Shilan freeze slightly.

It was as if someone had tickled her chest with a feather.

Her heart was touched by this softness and felt a slight sinking sensation.

“Doctor, is the puppy male or female?” This field on the form was also left blank. Not daring to move the lying puppy, Tan Jin still asked the doctor.

“He’s a little boy,” the doctor said.

Seeing that changing the name was hopeless on Lin Shilan’s end, Tan Jin turned his attention to the dog.

While she was talking with the doctor, he crouched down like a thief, covered his mouth with his hand, and communicated with the dog: “Buddy, let’s pick a cool name.”

“Liehuo?” The stray dog had no reaction.

“Daofeng?” The dog’s eyes narrowed even smaller.

“Leiting?” The eyes that had been left with just a sliver completely closed.

Frustrated again, Tan Jin hung his head dejectedly, his back curved like a shrimp.

“Jing Jing,” Lin Shilan called from behind.

“Hm?” He turned to look at her, and the puppy beside him actually lifted his eyelids slightly.

She smiled radiantly, her eyes full of affection, her face bathed in bright light.

For a moment, Tan Jin couldn’t tell whether she was smiling at him.

The puppy who had been called by name perked up his short little tail under her gaze, slowly wagging it from left to right.

When they left the pet hospital, it was already evening in the small town.

The stone-paved road, washed by rain, had a smooth and shiny surface.

Lights were turning on in every household, and they could smell the fragrance of the townspeople cooking dinner.

The two still didn’t have a warm conversation, walking quietly on the road home.

They had saved this puppy, yet the weather remained just as terrible, and everything seemed the same as when they came.

Yet it was also different.

The air was saturated with summer moisture as they strolled through the rain.

To avoid stepping in puddles, their footsteps stayed very close together.

“Why do you think Su Ge appeared there?” Lin Shilan took the initiative to bring up this topic.

Having been teased by her about it, Tan Jin showed slight resistance to the two words “Su Ge.”

He sighed, having no interest in picking up that mess: “Whoever abandons a dog is definitely not a good person. Let’s not worry about her.”

“You also need to escape the cyclical rainy season.”

But Lin Shilan showed no sign of dismissiveness: “You helped me, and I want to help you too.”

“You can tell me what you know.” Her expression was sincere.

“Alright.” After thinking for a moment, Tan Jin spoke up.

“Before the rainy season, I can say I had almost no impression of her…”

Every class has someone who isn’t very well-liked by everyone. In Tan Jin’s class, that person was called Su Ge. As for the specific reason, he couldn’t say, but everyone seemed reluctant to play with her or sit near her.

During Tan Jin’s chubby period, he had also been that kind of unpopular person in class.

When he realized his classmates were isolating Su Ge, he didn’t do the same as them.

It wasn’t that he stood up for her—he just didn’t bully her and treated her like an ordinary classmate.

When the class was divided into small groups for assignments, Su Ge was left out. The teacher asked who was willing to work with Su Ge, and after asking several people who all refused, when asked, Tan Jin wasn’t picky about partners, so he readily agreed.

Later, when Su Ge asked to borrow his eraser, Tan Jin would always lend it to her.

When the class bought workbooks, one was placed at the bottom. Since he didn’t like doing homework anyway, he just randomly took one.

That Su Ge would confess to him was something Tan Jin never expected at all.

His normally thoughtless actions, in Su Ge’s eyes, were all interpreted as signals that he was interested in her.

“I like you, and you like me too. If you didn’t like me, why would you agree to be in the same group with me? If you didn’t like me, why would you clap for me in front of everyone during the group presentation? You must like me, so after the group presentation, when the teacher gave out chocolate as a prize, you didn’t take any and left it all for me. You like me, so you lent me your eraser and never asked for it back. You especially love me—you even gave me the good workbook and used the damaged one yourself.”

Tan Jin was dumbfounded.

He rejected her confession.

As for what he had suspected before, about the object of the vow…

Actually, it was very far-fetched. Tan Jin couldn’t think of what vow he would have made to Su Ge. But he could feel that after he rejected her, Su Ge’s condition became particularly terrible, and he felt guilty about it.

After hearing his account of Su Ge, Lin Shilan was also dumbfounded.

First, their relationship was vastly different from what she had imagined.

Second, according to Tan Jin’s words, he actually hadn’t treated Su Ge any differently—everything he did was very ordinary, yet Su Ge’s misunderstanding of him was very deep.

If she continued to doubt the truth of Tan Jin’s story, they would never be able to work together, so she chose to believe him for now.

“According to the Chinese horror route you mentioned before, before the flood, the person I’m most worried about is my mom, and the person you feel guilty about is Su Ge. Even if we can’t guess the content of the vow, at least we can try our best to prevent these two people from harboring resentment toward us. I think this is an idea worth trying.”

Lin Shilan rarely showed such a reasonable side. Tan Jin had prepared himself to be interrogated, but she didn’t question him at all. He was so surprised that his footsteps became unsteady.

“…”

She was speaking seriously when she suddenly caught sight of Tan Jin’s strange gait.

“Why are you walking pigeon-toed?”

After being called out, Tan Jin tried to correct his posture as he walked.

He looked at her face while walking.

“Yes, it’s worth trying. But I can’t think of how to eliminate Su Ge’s resentment. If I’m good to her, she’ll think I like her even more, which definitely won’t work. If I deliberately treat her badly, wouldn’t that be bullying her like everyone else? Won’t the resentment get even deeper?”

“Let me think…”

Lin Shilan instantly had an excellent suggestion: “How about we swap positions? You help me deal with my mom, and I’ll help you deal with Su Ge.”

Tan Jin agreed immediately, nodding his head so fast it left afterimages.

They walked with light steps, secretly holding expectations for the future in their hearts.

“I’m not pigeon-toed anymore, right?” he asked confidently.

“Right.”

She glanced at him.

“Now you’re walking with opposite arm and leg swinging.”