They had saved the dog.

Whether Lin Shilan could bring him home was still an unknown.

She said to her mom: “I want to keep a dog.”

Her mom said to her: “Don’t even think about it.”

Before Lin Shilan entered the house, Tan Jin taught her: “Try using the same momentum you use on me, on your mom.”

So she put on an immovable poker face and repeated to her mom like a broken record: “I want to keep a dog I want to keep a dog I just want to keep a dog…”

Lu Xiaorong put her hands on her hips and used her lion’s roar to interrupt her speech: “Stop talking! Our family cannot keep a dog!”

Before Lin Shilan entered the house, Tan Jin also taught her: “Just imagine your mom isn’t your mom—she’s me wearing your mom’s skin.”

Her gaze swept over her mother’s permed brown-black long hair and pale face. She emptied her brain, unfocused her eyes, and imagined her mom as a steamed bun with seaweed hanging on top.

Actually, Lin Shilan knew roughly what lines her mom would say. She voiced her mom’s concerns before Lu Xiaorong could: “We can’t keep a dog. Dogs carry bacteria, how dirty. You have to walk the dog every day, who has that energy? If you have that energy you might as well study more. Our family can barely afford to feed ourselves, and we still have to feed a dog, where’s the money for that? Keeping a dog is so noisy, after all that noise can you still study properly?”

Lu Xiaorong: “…”

Lin Shilan’s strategy was: say what her mom would say, leaving her mom with nothing to say.

Lu Xiaorong took a deep breath: “Since you…”

“Since you already know the reasons, you still dare to make such an unreasonable request to me.”

Once again, Lin Shilan predicted her and finished the sentence at a faster speed.

This unusual maneuver truly startled Lu Xiaorong—her obedient daughter was actually interrupting her now.

She was contemplating how to use more reasons to scold her daughter, which also gave Lin Shilan space to express herself.

“Mom, the things you’re thinking about, I’ve thought about too. So I’m bringing up keeping a dog after careful consideration. I will take responsibility for raising it. I will walk it, bathe it, train it well so it won’t be noisy. It can eat our leftovers, it won’t cost much money. At the same time, I promise you that keeping a dog won’t interfere with my studies. Mom, can you trust me?”

Lin Shilan had drafted this speech in her mind long ago.

She had many thoughts inside, many things she wanted to say to her mom but hadn’t said.

Because she didn’t want to make her mom angry or disappointed, because she didn’t want them to argue, even though she had experienced the same scenes many times over, she still chose to swallow the voice in her heart.

Senior year was the most critical moment of her academic career. Lin Shilan conformed to her mom’s wishes, focusing on “studying” as the one thing during her blossoming youth.

Other than that, she did nothing.

If once again, she did nothing and just let her seventeenth year pass by, what a regret that would be.

This time, in life, she found something she wanted to do.

—Adopt the puppy.

—Open her heart and communicate with her mom.

“Alright…” Lu Xiaorong was somewhat reluctant, but in the end she relented.

“I’ll let you keep it for a while, but trusting you comes with conditions. On the next practice exam, you must reach the score I require, then I’ll let you continue keeping it.”

“Okay! Thank you, Mom!”

Lin Shilan was extremely happy.

She could keep Jing Jing!

It turned out that as long as she honestly spoke what was in her heart, her mom could understand!

When Lu Xiaorong wasn’t home, Lin Shilan couldn’t wait to go to Tan Jin’s house in the neighboring building to share this good news with him.

However, Tan Jin had troubles on his end.

“I looked at the upcoming course schedule. Next Monday is what I told you about—the class dividing into study groups event. So when the teacher asks me tomorrow whether I want to be in a group with Su Ge, should I refuse or agree?”

She drank from the soda in her hand and told him: “I think you should agree.”

He was a bit uneasy: “Then how should I avoid suspicion? During the group assignment, should I be a bit colder toward Su Ge?”

Lin Shilan took Tan Jin’s fries and said while chewing: “After hearing your story, I think you weren’t particularly nice to her before either. Like we said before, if you’re worse to her, you’ll become like everyone else bullying her.”

He sighed: “Then what should I do?”

Lin Shilan picked up a chicken nugget and dipped it in ketchup: “Just act the same as you did before.”

He looked to her for help: “Okay! You have a plan, right?”

Lin Shilan didn’t deny it, because she was busy eating a Big Mac hamburger.

Tan Jin sat there stunned. The McDonald’s he had just bought back now only had Ronald McDonald left on the packaging paper.

It was hard not to suspect that this person had specifically come to his house to mooch dinner.

Patting her bulging stomach, she smiled serenely: “I’ve never had McDonald’s before, it’s actually very good.”

—Such familiar lines.

—Last time when she had bubble tea, she said the same thing.

He silently cleaned up the table, trying to find a bite to eat.

Lin Shilan held the soda and slurped it loudly.

She drank so loudly it angered the hungry Tan Jin.

He stopped what he was doing, his dark eyes fixed on her, his expression somewhere between a smile and not: “You ate my food, believe it or not I’ll eat you?”

She glanced at him and stood up.

“I’m going home.”

As if the person who ate Tan Jin’s food wasn’t herself, Lin Shilan turned and left.

“Oh, right.”

Before she’d taken two steps, she turned back and thrust the drink cup into his hand.

“This is for you.”

Tan Jin instinctively took it.

Looking down, it was already empty.

When he tried to settle accounts with Lin Shilan, she had already greased her feet and walked out the door.

…

The next day arrived.

Only then did Tan Jin realize how absurd Lin Shilan’s plan was.

He went according to plan and became part of a group with Su Ge.

When the group was doing independent work, Lin Shilan came to help on time.

The narrow double desk.

Su Ge sat on the left side of the bench, he sat on the right side of the bench.

Lin Shilan sat between them.

She stood there stiffly, rigid as a popsicle. Although it was summer, Tan Jin and Su Ge felt waves of cold air drifting through the atmosphere.

He coughed once, trying to lay the groundwork for Lin Shilan’s inclusion: “This is the class president from the neighboring class. Their Class One has already finished this assignment, so I specially invited her to guide us.”

Lin Shilan didn’t speak.

Su Ge swallowed and greeted first: “Um… hello, class president…”

Lin Shilan suddenly turned her head, using force to make the corners of her mouth turn up cheerfully, revealing an extremely eerie smile to her.

“Hello.” Her greeting carried no emotion, like a killer’s.

Su Ge immediately lost her ability to speak and, across the barrier, cast a pleading look toward Tan Jin.

He had no choice but to break the awkward situation: “Let me talk about our task. This group assignment is to review previous lessons, select several important chapters, then organize them into slides for presentation to the whole class.”

Lin Shilan nodded: “Okay, I understand.”

“I’ll do it for you.” She boldly shouldered everything.

The classroom at this moment was no longer a classroom—it was a ski resort frozen for thousands of miles.

An afternoon passed.

Tan Jin and Su Ge, who hadn’t participated at all yet completed the group assignment, found their relationship ironclad as if they had gone to an ice and snow themed haunted house together.

The poor-quality actor that Tan Jin had invited was very satisfied with the group assignment she had completed hands-on.

“Don’t worry, with this presentation, you’ll definitely get first place in the class.”

The academic expert, immersed in studying, had completely forgotten the purpose of why she came here.