Lu Xiaorong was a teacher of secondary subjects at the elementary school.

She didn’t have her own independent office. When Lin Shilan went to the grade-level office at the elementary school, she didn’t see her, nor did she see her own little dog.

After asking the teacher sitting at her mother’s desk, he said that Lu Xiaorong had two information technology classes in the afternoon and had gone to the computer room first to do the cleaning.

So Lin Shilan walked toward the elementary school’s computer room.

Sure enough, her mother was sitting inside, organizing the shoe covers that students needed to use for class.

Lu Xiaorong hadn’t expected to see her daughter at this hour.

She was extremely surprised: “Lin Shilan, shouldn’t you be in class at school?”

“I came to take Jing Jing home.”

Lin Shilan looked around. There wasn’t a trace of the little dog anywhere in the computer room.

Her mother laughed in exasperation: “You’ve really grown some nerve. For the sake of a dog, you’re not even attending classes anymore? Do you still remember you’re a senior year student?”

“I remember.”

Her mother was shifting the focus again. Lin Shilan didn’t let herself get drawn into it: “You’re the one who didn’t say a word before taking my dog away, and then hung up on me. Otherwise, I would be sitting properly in the classroom attending class right now.”

Lu Xiaorong set down the shoe covers in her hands, placed her hands on her hips, and lectured her: “I’ve noticed you’ve been getting better and better at sophistry lately. Now to get you to attend class, I have to negotiate conditions with you? Taking the college entrance exam is your own business. If you don’t get in, it’s your own future that’s ruined. Even elementary school students understand this principle. Do you need someone to specifically coax you to attend school?”

“Mm. Like you said, taking the college entrance exam and attending school are my own business. If I mess up my own future, I’ll take responsibility for it myself.”

She kept a straight face and got straight to the point: “Give me back my little dog.”

“Want the dog? No way. Last night I caught you reading leisure books, seriously delaying your studies. A senior year student, and your mind still isn’t on studying. Raising a dog was something I specially permitted because you promised you’d achieve good results. Now with this attitude of yours, that special permission is revoked. Our family can no longer keep a dog.” Lu Xiaorong waved her hand, trying to drive her out.

Lin Shilan stood motionless in place.

Right now, this was a parallel spacetime.

She would leave at any moment, so she would never yield again.

Even if she couldn’t take anything with her, she had to settle Jing Jing properly.

“You always have your own set of twisted logic. You stole the dog I was raising, I came to find you, how did it become my attitude being bad again?”

“Raising a dog was something you specially permitted? How do I remember it—I insisted on raising one, and you made me a promise and then went back on it. Mom, in your previous sentence you just said studying is my own business, in the next sentence, you’re threatening me with studying again. Studying is also a kind of tool, used to impose various restrictions on me. Either way, you always have something to say.”

Lu Xiaorong was furious: “Is this the attitude you use to speak to your mother? Lin Shilan, who gave birth to you and raised you? You’re riding on my nose now, is that it? Do you still consider me your mother?”

In the spacious computer room, their voices weren’t quiet. People outside could tell they were arguing, and passersby craned their necks to look.

Lin Shilan felt terrible.

These past few days, the conflicts between her and her mother hadn’t stopped, but she had been holding it in.

With her mother’s shout, all the grievances she’d been suppressing erupted.

“Is it possible for me to forget that you’re my mother? Which day don’t you use this to pressure me? You’re my mother, so as a daughter, I basically don’t need to speak at all, is that it? I can only listen to everything you say, and I don’t deserve to receive any respect either? This is what a mother and daughter are in your eyes?”

If it was going to be an argument, she wasn’t afraid to argue with her mother either. Because deep down, she didn’t think her mother was in the right.

Her mother never considered that when she said harsh words, it would hurt her feelings. Why should she be so considerate of her mother’s feelings? Lin Shilan also adopted a sarcastic and mocking expression.

“Why did you specifically target my dog? You think I don’t know? It’s because I care about this little dog. Yesterday I didn’t eat breakfast, you used food as leverage, but couldn’t overpower me. In the evening, you didn’t come home, still wanting me to call you and submit. None of it worked, so this morning you secretly took the dog away.”

“Therefore, I can only interpret this as you using the dog as a means to suppress me. You want me to have no choice but to beg you humbly, promise you that I’ll behave well from now on. Then you’ll magnanimously say ‘keeping the dog depends on your performance,’ and that way, I’m controlled by you again.”

Lu Xiaorong was so angry her hands were trembling.

The basket of shoe covers was heavily thrown down in front of Lin Shilan by her.

The basket tipped over, and blue shoe covers rolled across the floor.

“This is how you think of me?”

“Lin Shilan, I’ve exhausted my heart and blood raising you, my only precious daughter. I’m so afraid you’ll take the wrong path, I hope you’ll have a good future. I’ve worked so hard, only to be so misunderstood by you in the end? You think my life is too long, you’re hoping I’ll die soon, is that it?”

Lin Shilan’s emotions didn’t collapse.

She had never been this assertive in telling her mother so much of what was in her heart.

Her mother was sparing no effort to refute her. By all rights, she should have been unable to withstand it long ago. But she discovered that the more she spoke, the clearer her mind became. Her mother was constantly seeking out her weaknesses in morality and family affection to attack.

Over the years, their interactions had always followed this pattern.

With attack after attack, calluses had finally grown over her weak spots. Her heart had gradually gone numb too.

The time for class was very near. Students were already gathering at the computer room entrance.

Lin Shilan was calmer than her mother. She knew Lu Xiaorong cared most about face, and why would she want her mother to be laughed at by students?

She crouched down and picked up the shoe covers that had fallen on the floor, picking them up one by one.

“I’ve never denied your hard work. I also only have you as my one mother. You’re my most important person. Of course I don’t want to think badly of you, but your behavior leaves me with only one way to interpret it. Regarding my matters, you won’t distinguish right from wrong; so you’re always right, and I’m always wrong. The words you just replied with also demonstrate that you truly are incapable of having a matter-of-fact dialogue with me.”

All the shoe covers were picked up. She handed the basket to her mother.

Lin Shilan lowered her voice, brought the topic back around, and also gave her mother a way out.

“I skipped class to come here to tell you. Raising a dog has a negligible effect on my studies, but you preventing me from raising a dog, secretly taking my dog away, will make me skip classes. It’s your incorrect actions that are delaying my studies.”

“Mom, where did you put Jing Jing?”

Outside the computer room, voices were rising in a clamor.

Lu Xiaorong held her arms crossed, not taking the basket, her face still showing lingering anger: “Our family doesn’t allow dogs. Your classes—attend them or don’t. I can’t be bothered to manage you.”

The bell rang.

Students taking the computer class swarmed in like a flood.

Lu Xiaorong went to maintain order.

Lin Shilan placed the basket at the edge of the table. Her mother gave her a shove, pushing her out of the computer room.

There was no way she would give up like this. She stood straight outside, waiting for her mother to finish class.

A high school student standing in an elementary school hallway was quite eye-catching.

Lin Shilan wasn’t embarrassed.

Her mother would rather let her stand here than tell her where she’d put the dog.

Then she’d just stand here. She didn’t care anyway.

The computer classroom was extremely noisy.

A whole room of clicking mice and tapping keyboards, with elementary students whispering to each other.

Lu Xiaorong was teaching from the front.

She knocked on the lectern several times, asking everyone to be quiet.

The students continued doing their own things, no one taking her seriously.

A chaotic class.

Boys and girls roughhousing, everyone wandering around at will, like a marketplace.

They played their games while Lu Xiaorong persisted in teaching hers.

This wasn’t Lin Shilan’s first time seeing her mother teach. She had attended elementary school here too.

When she was in elementary school, her mother taught science to the lower grades.

Back then, Lu Xiaorong was a very popular teacher. In science class, they could go out to look at plants and insects, do some interesting little experiments.

The classes she taught were the favorite classes of many young students.

Later the textbooks were revised, Lu Xiaorong switched to teaching other subjects, and Lin Shilan graduated from elementary school.

This was the first time she’d seen her mother conduct a class in such a terrible state.

Lu Xiaorong shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice continuously drowned out by the disruptive noise made by students.

The whole class had their computers on—some browsing web pages, some playing small games, some listening to music, some watching videos—but no one had opened their textbooks.

The students completely ignored the teacher’s lesson. This indicated that such chaos had been going on for a long time.

Lin Shilan watched silently.

At school, Lu Xiaorong was an exhausted and powerless teacher.

In the adult world, Lu Xiaorong was an easy-going sister-in-law who was easy to take advantage of for meals.

Only with her did Lu Xiaorong display an intimidating and domineering appearance.

Lin Shilan was the trump card on which she had staked everything, the one she had to protect. Lu Xiaorong hoped that when this card was revealed, everyone would look at her with new eyes, that it would transform her life back into what she fantasized it should be.

Lu Xiaorong wanted Lin Shilan to be obedient.

She would pour everything into it, even if it meant destroying her, she had to make her obedient.

Life and career—nothing was going well, nothing was under her control. And Lin Shilan was the only thing she could still control…

Strange weather.

Sun shower on a clear day.

Once this patch of white clouds was blown away and dark clouds blocked the sky, the sun wouldn’t be visible again.

With just a few minutes until the bell, unable to contain their eagerness for class to end, students were already running into the hallway. Lu Xiaorong couldn’t stop them either.

Lin Shilan stubbornly endured until the computer class ended before going in to talk to her mother.

Used blue shoe covers were all over the computer room, one here, one there. Only a few pairs had been thrown into the trash can as required.

Lu Xiaorong had to turn off the computers and clean up again. She had no time to chat idly with Lin Shilan.

She followed her mother step by step.

“Tell me where you put the dog, otherwise I won’t leave.”

Her mother laughed mockingly: “You child are really sick. For the sake of a broken dog, you’re making such a fuss with me?”

Lin Shilan only said one sentence to her: “Where did you put the dog?”

Lu Xiaorong was extremely irritated. The computer chairs were pushed by her with loud clanging sounds: “For one broken dog, is it necessary for you to be so fixated? It was a stray dog to begin with. I threw it back on the street, okay?”

She really hadn’t expected her mother to be this conscienceless: “Where did you throw it?”

The enraged Lu Xiaorong turned around, pointing at her nose and scolding: “Lin Shilan, I’m telling you, if you ask me one more time about what dog or whatever, tonight you can continue going hungry, and from now on there won’t be food for you at home either. You don’t need to come home.”

“Fine, I wasn’t planning to go back anyway.”

Lin Shilan pestered her, refusing to compromise: “Where did you throw the dog?”

“On my way to work, I found some secluded spot and threw it there,” Lu Xiaorong challenged her: “What of it? Why are you glaring like that? You’re not actually going to beat your mother over a dog, are you?”

“Do you think I wouldn’t dare?”

In the computer room with the lights turned off, her face was in the shadows, carrying a frightening coldness.

Lu Xiaorong had nothing to say.

Lin Shilan couldn’t tell whether her mother was speaking in anger or not. She couldn’t get any other answer from her, so she could only take it as the truth.

She would search for Jing Jing along Lu Xiaorong’s route to work.

Turning around, Lin Shilan quickly left the computer room.

Her mother cursed some more unpleasant words at her retreating back. She let them go in one ear and out the other, not acknowledging a single sentence.

If she no longer considered herself as herself, no longer considered her mother as her mother. If she only treated the two of them as templates for another mother-daughter pair in a parallel world.

That way, Lin Shilan could calmly accept that perhaps her mother had never loved her from beginning to end; or rather, had no idea whatsoever what the correct way to love her should look like.