The commotion Tan Jin made outside the door attracted his good friend, the little dirt dog Jing Jing.

It emerged from its doghouse and barked madly at the front door.

One person and one dog working in tandem from inside and out made her home exceptionally lively and noisy.

Lu Xiaorong scolded Jing Jing a few times, but it couldn’t understand good words from bad and happily bounced around.

Her temples throbbing, Lu Xiaorong had no choice but to reopen the front door and let Tan Jin in from outside.

“Auntie, sorry for the intrusion.”

Opening the door revealed a big smiling face, but his belated politeness was clearly useless.

“What do you want?” Lu Xiaorong was written with impatience from head to toe, her tightly knitted brows leaving a “stay away” furrow between her eyebrows.

“The smell of food wafting from your home is so fragrant!” Tan Jin’s two hands were clasped in front of his chest, his attitude extremely respectful. “Auntie, could you let me stay and mooch a meal?”

“I only made enough for two people. There isn’t enough rice.”

Lu Xiaorong erected an iron wall, determined to drive away this little beggar asking for food.

“No problem, no problem. I have a small appetite and eat little—I only need to eat a few grains of rice each meal.”

Tan Jin’s face was equally thick as an iron wall. Lu Xiaorong held in her anger with nowhere to vent it, thinking for a while before coming up with new words to refute him.

“Don’t your parents care about you? Is it appropriate for you not to go home to eat dinner?”

“Ah, there’s no one at my house today. My family all went out, leaving only me.”

Lu Xiaorong tilted her head slightly, her gaze looking toward the opposite building… Their home’s lights were clearly on.

Seeing that Tan Jin’s lie was about to fall apart, Lin Shilan came to his rescue at the right time. She opened their rice cooker and let out an exaggerated exclamation.

“Wow, our home actually cooked too much rice.”

She went around her mom, speaking while quietly bringing Tan Jin inside. “Looks like your luck is good—you can mooch a meal. Come in quickly.”

“That’s wonderful. Thank you, Auntie, for being willing to host me. Let me help set out the bowls and chopsticks.”

Tan Jin and Lin Shilan coordinated seamlessly. He successfully entered her home, and while taking off his shoes, he didn’t forget to pat the little head of the meritorious contributor, Jing Jing.

Lu Xiaorong maintained her low pressure. She didn’t go so far as to drive Tan Jin out, but she didn’t give him any pleasant looks either.

Dinner didn’t have many dishes: steamed yellow croaker, stir-fried vegetables, and a small dish of fermented tofu to go with the rice. These dishes didn’t even fill the small dining table, and Lu Xiaorong had no intention of adding more dishes.

Perhaps Tan Jin was truly hungry—he ate with relish, praising after every bite.

“The vegetables even have minced garlic added for fragrance, very particular.”

“The white rice is cooked just right, not too much or too little water. This kind of rice would be delicious even with just some soy sauce.”

“This fish is good, very flavorful. Auntie, how did you marinate it?”

Tan Jin completely didn’t treat himself as an outsider, actively asking Lu Xiaorong questions, wanting to interact with her. His voice was the most active at the dinner table. Lu Xiaorong pretended not to hear, rolling her eyes internally: How could there be someone as shameless as Tan Jin?

Lin Shilan had eaten at Tan Jin’s home before—Tan Jin’s mother’s cooking skills were much better than her mom’s. Their home’s hospitality was lacking, yet Tan Jin was so considerate that it made Lin Shilan feel embarrassed instead.

“Should I fry a couple more fried eggs for you?” She worried Tan Jin hadn’t eaten enough.

He lifted his head from his rice bowl, thought about it, and told her, “Yes! I want four.”

Since entering the house, this was the first time Lin Shilan laughed out loud.

After eating, Tan Jin helped clean up.

Lin Shilan watched him diligently collect the dishes and wipe the table. While wiping, he stopped and let out a big yawn, a teardrop forming at the corner of his eye.

—From their reunion at the train station until now, had Tan Jin rested at all?

He was using the same body. After such a long period of fatigue, Tan Jin’s eyes had developed red bloodshot lines. If she hadn’t noticed, he would still be pushing himself.

Lin Shilan walked over, took the cleaning cloth from his hand, and urged him to go home and get a good sleep.

Tan Jin glanced at Lu Xiaorong who was washing dishes, lowered his voice, and whispered in her ear, “No, I need to stay a bit longer to wear down your mom’s anger. I feel like once I leave, your mom will scold you again.”

Indeed. What Lin Shilan couldn’t handle most was her mom.

The sight of her being scolded to tears by her mom was still vivid in Tan Jin’s memory.

Lin Shilan patted Little Jin’s head.

“Don’t worry, I’m not afraid of her.”

His hair was soft. Touching him made her heart feel soft too.

After sending Tan Jin off, Lin Shilan fed Jing Jing some food.

The little dirt dog hadn’t been seen for several weeks and seemed to have grown a bit taller. Its legs had completely recovered, and now it could move around flexibly on three legs.

Lin Shilan didn’t know how the “Lin Shilan” of this spacetime had persuaded her mom to keep the dog.

Last time she left here, her mom had told her not to come home and to secretly give the dog to her colleague. Her relationship with Lu Xiaorong had deteriorated to its worst.

Now, their mother-daughter relationship had clearly eased considerably. Sitting at the same table with her mom, peacefully finishing a meal—such everyday moments made Lin Shilan feel both familiar and strange.

Her nose twitched slightly, catching the warm fragrance of the small town’s mountains.

On a summer evening, cool breezes mixed with drizzle blew into the long corridor at her home’s entrance.

The green plants planted there rustled in the wind, their leaves washed by rainwater and gleaming with an oily sheen.

Holding the puppy, Lin Shilan stared blankly at the marks left on the cement ground in front of the door after being soaked by raindrops, her mind thinking of nothing.

“Rui Rui.”

Her nickname—her mom hadn’t called her that in a very long time.

Lin Shilan froze, then turned her head.

Lu Xiaorong took off her dishwashing gloves and smiled at her. “Come in and help me brew some tea.”

Lin Shilan acknowledged and closed the screen door, walking toward the dining room.

She filled the kettle with water and heard her mom ask from behind her, “How did you do today?”

“What…” Only after speaking did Lin Shilan remember that she had participated in the third mock exam today. Her mom was asking about that. “Oh, you mean the test. I did alright.”

Lu Xiaorong knew that when her daughter said “alright,” it meant she did very well.

Nodding with satisfaction, she said, “I signed you up for a college entrance exam sprint tutoring class. Classes start tomorrow evening.”

The water in the kettle bubbled.

The sound of boiling water was loud. To cover it, Lin Shilan raised her voice, “Huh? What sprint class? Spending that money is unnecessary.”

“It’s necessary. The college entrance exam is life’s most important matter. Even if I have no money, I’ll sell everything I have to scrape together the money to let you attend the best tutoring class.” Lu Xiaorong’s generosity coated her eyes with a layer of proud radiance as she looked at Lin Shilan with spirit.

Lin Shilan furrowed her brows tightly. Her originally relaxed mood suddenly tightened, then rapidly deteriorated.

“Not going, don’t want to go. If the money can be refunded, refund it quickly.”

“The tutoring class is unnecessary for me. It’s just like the chicken soup you cooked last time—unnecessary.”

She didn’t lift her eyelids, had no interest in looking at her mom, only staring at the kettle. Her left hand picked at her right hand’s fingernails as she waited for the water to boil.

Lu Xiaorong’s lecture was delayed but hadn’t disappeared. She let out a cold laugh, saying in a tone that saw through Lin Shilan, “Ha, I knew it. Your mind isn’t on studying again.”

“You’re all in your senior year. Dating and romance—does it have to happen at this critical juncture? How did you promise me before, how did you guarantee to me? You begged me desperately, begged me to let you keep the dog, begged me to forgive you for talking back to me. You promised me you’d study hard, obediently listen to me. It’s only been a few days, and you’re being rebellious again?”

Lin Shilan had nothing to say because that wasn’t her promise.

She was equally uninterested in refuting Lu Xiaorong. She had long known that talking with her mom wouldn’t get through.

Lu Xiaorong talked to herself, emotionally pounding the table.

Wisps of white steam emerged from the kettle’s spout. Through the steam, she couldn’t see her mom’s face. They stood in their respective worlds, speaking languages the other couldn’t understand.

Lin Shilan felt mentally exhausted and lonely.

“I don’t even want to talk about you… yet you insist on getting entangled with that kind of boy. He has no intention of studying, his brain only thinks about chasing girls all day. Today I gave him leftovers and he desperately praised how good they tasted—from this alone you can see he’s false and smooth-tongued. Of course he can sweet-talk a silly girl like you into circles. I’m kindly warning you, if you keep fooling around with him, don’t come crying to me later.”

Picking up the kettle, pouring the water into teacups until full, Lin Shilan was neither hasty nor annoyed, her voice level.

“He said today’s meal was delicious, and you find it false. If he said it wasn’t good, you’d find him rude. If you ask me, you just don’t like him. You don’t like him, so no matter how well he does, you look down on him.”

“But what I want to tell you is, I like him.”

The kettle was set on the table with a “clang.” Lin Shilan’s gaze was calm and cold as she said, “Therefore, no matter how much you dislike him, don’t speak badly of him in front of me anymore.”

In the past, Lu Xiaorong was very resistant to seeing Lin Shilan’s tears.

Her daughter, no matter how she taught her, couldn’t reach the strength she expected.

She’d yell at her a couple times, and she would cry and sob, weeping endlessly.

Lu Xiaorong felt annoyed by Lin Shilan’s fragility.

At some point, finally, her daughter stopped crying in front of her. When she became aware of this, Lu Xiaorong also discovered that Lin Shilan had become indifferent to her.

Lu Xiaorong’s mouth was parched. She took a sip of the freshly brewed tea.

The tea was too hot. She was scalded until large tears rolled down.

“We mother and daughter depend on each other for survival. Shouldn’t we be of one heart? But you—your elbow turns outward, and you resent me for speaking badly of him?”

“I ask you, can he amount to anything in the future? Can he give you a future?”

“A while ago you were quite obedient. I thought you wouldn’t act recklessly anymore. How is it that after just a few days, you’ve turned bad again?”

Lu Xiaorong cried sadly. Lin Shilan didn’t interrupt her words.

After her mom finished speaking, she took the teacup from her mom’s side, helped blow on it to cool it, then handed it back to her.

Lu Xiaorong thought her daughter wouldn’t answer her words.

But after a long silence, Lin Shilan stood up, moved a chair, and sat beside her.

Lu Xiaorong raised her eyes, gazing at those round almond eyes that were so similar to her own. Her daughter’s voice was crisp. She placed her hand on the back of her hand, her tone calm and waveless.

“My future has always been in my own hands. I don’t need anyone to give it to me.”

“Mom, I haven’t turned bad. I’ve grown up.”