After Shen Mo left, the apartment seemed to empty out all at once — and fall silent.

Though he’d always been quiet and reserved when he was here, hardly ever speaking, the silence he created had felt grounding and reassuring.

Now that he was gone, everyone felt a bit off-kilter.

Bai Youwei had nothing else to do, so she simply brought Teacher Cheng, Tan Xiao, and Pan Xiaoxin into the dollhouse.

Once inside the dollhouse, naturally, there were gasps and amazement and curiosity and bafflement and joy and excitement and complete overwhelm — those emotional fluctuations won’t be recounted one by one here — the three of them went in and didn’t want to leave.

Shanghai’s summer was brutal. No electricity, no air conditioning — sitting inside a room was like being steamed. The current season inside the dollhouse seemed to be spring — cool and refreshing.

After the rooms were assigned, Tan Xiao couldn’t even be bothered to shower. He lay down on his bed and slept.

Teacher Cheng fetched paper and pen and sat at the dining table drafting a list.

If they were going to be living in the dollhouse going forward, many supplies would need to be gathered from scratch.

For instance, slippers — something they hadn’t needed before. Now… right, they’d need to prepare four pairs first.

Teacher Cheng thought it over at length, and finally wrote on the paper:

*Summer slippers, four pairs;*

*Cotton slippers, four pairs.*

…

Pan Xiaoxin was very excited in the new environment. He finally acted a bit like a child — running up and down the stairs non-stop.

He came running to Bai Youwei and asked: “Youwei-jie, are we going to live here from now on?”

“Mm.” Bai Youwei gave a lazy nod. “Yes~”

“Can I sleep in the attic?” Pan Xiaoxin asked, even more excited.

Bai Youwei frowned at this. “There’s no bed in the attic.”

“I can sleep on the floor!” Pan Xiaoxin’s eyes lit up like little stars. “Youwei-jie, let me have the attic! Please, please!”

Bai Youwei felt a wave of goosebumps rising — she couldn’t handle children begging and pleading. She was on the verge of having her skin crawl off.

“Fine! You want it, you can have it!”

“Woahh! I get the attic~!” Pan Xiaoxin squealed in delight and dashed upstairs. Footsteps went thudding up, and thudding back down, and the whole house could hear him setting up the attic — the commotion never stopped!

“What’s wrong with him — has a bed and won’t sleep in it, insisting on sleeping on the floor?” Bai Youwei said, utterly exasperated.

Teacher Cheng laughed. “He’s a child.”

Bai Youwei pursed her lips and said: “I’m going back out. Don’t want Shen Mo coming back and not finding us. You all stay here and sort through the things.”

Teacher Cheng immediately got to his feet. “Oh wait, hold on — I’ll go out with you.”

Bai Youwei had already opened the front door. Teacher Cheng, worried about leaving her on her own, hurried after her.

The two returned to one of the three bedrooms, and before they’d even found their footing, there came knocking at the outer door — bang bang bang, on and on without stopping.

“Hello? Anyone in there?”

That rough, gruff voice sounded like Lu Ang.

Teacher Cheng walked to the door, looked through the peephole — sure enough, it was him. Besides Lu Ang, Yan Qingwen and Zhu Shu were standing at the door too.

“Coming, coming…” Teacher Cheng unlocked the door.

The moment it swung open, Lu Ang couldn’t help but complain: “What took you so long? We thought you’d all gone out!”

He craned his neck to peek inside, and asked: “Shen Mo not back yet?”

Bai Youwei wheeled herself out and inconspicuously pulled the bedroom door shut behind her.

“Not yet. Tan Xiao and Xiaoxin are asleep. Teacher Cheng and I are inside sorting out the luggage.”

“That explains it!” Lu Ang said. “We came over because we saw that your cars were all unloaded! What, you really planning to settle down here?”

“What else?” Bai Youwei shrugged without much care.

Lu Ang laughed openly: “Of course you’d want to stick close to Shen Mo! Just like Su Man always sticking close to Li Li! But the others might not necessarily need to follow Shen Mo, right?”

He turned to Teacher Cheng: “Old teacher, have you thought about it? Hey, ask that kid too — have him come along too!”

Bai Youwei blinked, looking toward Yan Qingwen in genuine surprise:

“Don’t tell me — you haven’t even warmed up a place to stay yet, and you’re already here poaching people?”

—