The sound of a gas stove being lit drifted from the kitchen. Rong Qian walked over and found Shen Yi taking out a pot to boil water. On the cutting board lay two tomatoes, two eggs, a handful of vegetables, and some sausages.

Rong Qian watched as he skillfully cooked the noodles and prepared the ingredients — slicing the tomatoes and sausages, pan-frying them in oil for a minute on each side, then frying the eggs. He placed the fried eggs into the noodles and broke the yolks, letting the golden, rich egg liquid flow into the broth.

Finally, he arranged the fragrant tomato slices and sausages on top of the noodles, and a steaming, savory vegetable noodle soup was ready to serve.

The aroma made Rong Qian’s appetite surge. She had been starving for a long time — today, apart from a meat bun and a cup of soy milk she’d eaten at the airport, she hadn’t had a single bite of food.

Standing at the door waiting, she had been both cold and hungry, pitifully so.

Rong Qian was ravenous and couldn’t wait any longer. She rushed to the living room and sat down, waiting for him to bring the noodles to the table.

However, Shen Yi only took out one bowl and one pair of chopsticks — nothing for Rong Qian at all.

Well, well! Refusing to give someone food — could a foodie like her endure that? Absolutely not!

Rong Qian flew into a rage and snatched his bowl and chopsticks away, slamming them down on the table. She huffed, “If I don’t get to eat, neither do you!”

Rong Qian had expected him to get angry — angry enough to finally acknowledge her — but instead, he looked at her with an expression of complete astonishment.

His stare made Rong Qian’s skin crawl. She said irritably, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You — are you not a hallucination?” After a long pause, Shen Yi finally managed to say these words in a daze.

Rong Qian was momentarily stunned. A hallucination? So he had assumed she didn’t actually exist?

Shen Yi suddenly reached out and pinched her cheek. The texture was just as he had imagined — soft and pliable — but her face was a little cool, perhaps because his hands were warm.

Rong Qian, who had never once in her entire life had her cheek pinched by anyone, now fixed him with a look that said pinch me one more time and I’ll finish you: “You little brat, what do you think you’re doing?”

It was only then that Shen Yi snapped back to his senses. As though burned, he jerked his hand back immediately!

Rong Qian rubbed the cheek he had pinched and asked him, puzzled, “Why would you think I was a hallucination? Did you assume I wouldn’t show up?”

No, quite the opposite — I always believed you would appear, which is exactly why I thought I was having another hallucination…

Shen Yi answered her in his heart. The word another carried weight, because over the past four years, Shen Yi had seen her appear countless times.

But every time, the moment he rushed toward her with a heart full of joy, she would vanish before his eyes.

Especially when he was alone, he would frequently hear her voice, and the moment he tried to speak with her, she would disappear.

If he pretended she didn’t exist, she would linger a little longer — but then she would huff off in a sulk because he was ignoring her.

Whenever that happened, Shen Yi desperately wanted to call out to her, to beg her not to leave.

Shen Yi felt that he was ill — gravely ill — and had even suspected he was suffering from a split in his mind. Yet he had never once thought about seeking treatment, because as long as he could see her, even if it was only a hallucination, it was fine with him.

It was just that these episodes hadn’t surfaced for a year. Shen Yi had assumed it was because he had been thinking of her again lately, which was why she had suddenly appeared once more.

And in order to make her stay a little longer, Shen Yi had deliberately not acknowledged her.

But he never expected that this hallucination could actually snatch something right out of his hand. In that instant, Shen Yi realized — this was no hallucination. It was her. She had truly come back to find him…

Shen Yi’s heart surged with wild joy. From the force of his excitement, both of his hands trembled almost imperceptibly — yet on the surface, he maintained his cold, impassive expression. He was restraining himself, absolutely refusing to let her see how overjoyed he was to see her.

After all, she had been the one to abandon him first. He could not act as though nothing had happened.

“You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to, but I want to make one thing clear — I am not your hallucination. I am a living, breathing person who needs to eat and sleep. So right now I’m very hungry, and can I please eat?” Rong Qian held the bowl up and looked at him with a pitiful expression.

The noodles really did smell wonderful. And she had to eat them while they were hot, or they would get soggy!

Shen Yi seemed to want to say something but held back. Seeing that she was genuinely famished, he took the bowl from her, ladled out a generous, heaping serving of noodles, and placed a fried egg right on top — as if worried there wouldn’t be enough for her.

Rong Qian ate with great relish, savoring every bite. Even Shen Yi, who hadn’t had much of an appetite to begin with, began to feel a little hungry watching her. He got up and fetched a bowl and a pair of chopsticks for himself.

As the saying goes — no talking at the table, no talking in bed. The two of them focused on eating, neither saying a word.

Rong Qian ate two bowls. Shen Yi refilled hers twice and gave her both fried eggs, but Rong Qian didn’t touch them — she placed them in his bowl instead. Shen Yi didn’t refuse.

But despite Shen Yi’s outwardly indifferent manner, deep inside, he was deeply moved.

He hadn’t expected that after such a long time, she would still treat him exactly the same as before. Shen Yi even had a disorienting feeling that Rong Qian had never left — that she had been by his side all along.

As though she had only been away for a few days, and not four long years.

What Shen Yi didn’t know, however, was that for Rong Qian, it truly had only been a matter of days.

After drinking down the very last drop of broth, Rong Qian patted her stomach and let out a long, contented sigh. “I’m finally full. Happy!”

Shen Yi said nothing, gathered the bowls and chopsticks, and headed into the kitchen. Rong Qian asked, “Do you need any help?”

“No need,” came Shen Yi’s voice — cold and flat.

Rong Qian raised an eyebrow. It seemed this kid still held quite a grudge and was still annoyed with her. But that was fine — this was a rebellious phase, after all. An attitude like this was perfectly normal for a teenager. If she, Rong Qian, couldn’t handle one adolescent, then what had she been doing with her life?

So when Shen Yi finished washing the dishes and came back out, Rong Qian caught his eye and said, “Come here. Sit.”

Shen Yi had been about to go to his room to get his pajamas and wash up, but he also knew Rong Qian had something to say to him. Not wanting to seem too eager to obey her, he deliberately went into his room first and dawdled for a while before coming out.

Then he arranged his expression into one that said I don’t really want to listen, but if you have something to say, get on with it.

Rong Qian could read his thoughts clearly, and couldn’t help but find it a little amusing. This kid was really quite prickly — haughty and contrary, not a straightforward bone in his body. Truly the picture of a rebellious teenager.

“Are you angry with me? Angry that I left without a word, disappeared without warning, and then turned up out of nowhere?” When it came to interrogating — oh, no — questioning people, Rong Qian was an old hand.

Some people couldn’t be approached from an angle. You had to go straight to the point, and the more direct, the better.

Sure enough, Shen Yi was equally direct. “Why did you suddenly disappear back then?”

“Because of factors beyond my control. I didn’t expect to leave so abruptly that day either.” Rong Qian wasn’t exactly lying. She thought for a moment, then added, “But there is one thing I need you to understand — please don’t misread it. I didn’t leave because I didn’t want you. So stop being angry with me.”

Shen Yi lowered his head and said nothing. After a long pause, he finally spoke. “I remember you told me you were a time-space traveler — that you appeared by my side to protect me. Then why did four years pass before you showed up again? Is there some kind of danger I’m in right now?”

Rong Qian certainly couldn’t tell him the truth yet. She could only continue to build on the story she’d already told him. “I am indeed a time-space traveler. But as for why I left so suddenly and why I’ve appeared again now — all of that was decided by the future version of you.”

She thought about it and concluded that tossing the question back to him was the simplest and wisest solution.

Sure enough, Shen Yi’s brow creased. It was all decided by him? Why would he decide that?

When she heard him ask this, Rong Qian deliberately put on an innocent expression. “How would I know? What’s going on inside your own head — don’t you know that yourself?”

And just like that, Shen Yi walked right into her trap.

At his current age, the young Shen Yi was no match for the cunning little fox that was Rong Qian. But give it a few more years, and it would be Rong Qian who would end up completely outwitted by Shen Yi.

Realizing this line of questioning had no answer, Shen Yi switched to a different question. “Then what is the purpose of the future me sending you here this time?”

Rong Qian’s eyes flickered, and she said four words: “Classified for now.”

That was as good as saying nothing. Since she’d chosen to keep it secret, Shen Yi didn’t press further. He only needed to know that she would be staying by his side for the time being — that was enough.

“Now it’s my turn to ask you something.” Rong Qian had actually been wanting to ask him this for a while. “After you woke up that day, didn’t the steward Fu tell you how I disappeared?”

She had always been curious about this. She had vanished back to the present because a photo was taken of her — so the steward Fu should have realized that it was the photograph that caused her to disappear.

Hadn’t he told Shen Yi about that?

Shen Yi told her, “He said he didn’t know anything. By the time he came into the room, you were already gone. Afterwards, when he developed the photographs, he discovered he had taken one of you.”

Rong Qian grew thoughtful. It sounded as though the steward Fu had no memory of the moment she disappeared.

Meaning he didn’t know it was the photograph he’d taken of her that had caused her to vanish.

That was just as well — it saved her from having to come up with an explanation.