Lin Shilan had a dream.

In the dream, it was the summer vacation between eighth and ninth grade, and her mother had signed her up for a math tutoring class.

The tutoring center was located in an office building next to a shopping center, so she had to take the bus there. As soon as she boarded the bus, she noticed a familiar chubby boy had taken the same bus as her. When she got off and walked into the office building, the chubby boy followed behind her.

They took the elevator together to the seventh floor. Lin Shilan thought he was going to the same tutoring class as her, but unexpectedly, as soon as they exited the elevator, the chubby boy strode vigorously toward the ramen shop in the opposite direction from the tutoring center.

A red banner hung outside the ramen shop: **[Grand Opening Special, Big Eater Challenge! Supreme Braised Beef Ramen—If You Dare Finish It, We’ll Pay!]**

When Lin Shilan came out after an hour of tutoring, the chubby boy happened to be waiting for the elevator too. He held a bottle of orange soda in his hand, slurping it down. When the elevator arrived, he got on.

The elevator was packed with office workers. When Lin Shilan walked in, the elevator immediately emitted a beeping overload warning. Everyone’s eyes turned toward the chubby boy standing at the very edge.

The chubby boy took a deep breath and sucked in his protruding little belly.

The overload warning continued ringing incessantly, so Lin Shilan stepped out of the elevator.

Unfortunately, her solo sacrifice was in vain. The elevator door still wouldn’t close, and at this point, everyone looked once again at the belly-sucking chubby boy.

Standing outside the elevator, Lin Shilan and the chubby boy made eye contact.

“You’re my neighbor!” He actually recognized her.

“Hold my drink for me.”

Before Lin Shilan could speak, an ice-cold bottle of orange soda was handed over.

Once she took the drink, the warning actually stopped, and the elevator carrying a full load of people began descending.

Lin Shilan took the stairs down to the first floor, where the chubby boy from earlier was waiting for her in the lobby.

He ran over, his face round, his smile also round: “Hey, neighbor! Where’s my drink?”

She coolly dropped one line and floated away from the scene.

“On the seventh floor, by the elevator entrance.”

…

Lin Shilan laughed out loud.

Her shoulder tilted, and the light shirt draped over her slipped off.

Her waist felt cool, her arms were wrapped around something very warm, continuously providing her with heat.

Lin Shilan struggled to pry open her eyelids and discovered someone was carrying her on their back.

“Tan Jin?”

“Mm?”

He stopped walking and freed one hand to adjust the clothing he’d draped over her.

She straightened up self-consciously: “Put me down, I can walk.”

Getting down from Tan Jin’s back, Lin Shilan hurriedly returned his jacket to him.

“I fell asleep,” she said, looking around somewhat confused. “Weren’t we at the stir-fry restaurant earlier?”

Tan Jin nodded: “They closed, so I just carried you out.”

“Oh…”

She suddenly remembered something funny: “I had a dream while I was sleeping, dreaming about something from the past. In middle school, did you go to a ramen shop that had some kind of big eater free meal challenge?”

He quickly recalled: “Right, the ramen shop, the one next to the department store.”

Lin Shilan laughed: “Did you finish it all and get it for free later?”

“I ate it all,” Tan Jin said with a proud expression, shaking his head triumphantly. “They even gave me a bottle of soda…”

She hadn’t mentioned it, but he remembered on his own first: “The one you left upstairs.”

If she hadn’t dreamed about it, Lin Shilan might never have remembered this incident. She sighed: “Our feud started really early.”

“That’s right.”

Tan Jin laughed, and in his smiling face lingered the shadow of that round-faced chubby boy from that day.

Side by side, they walked slowly down the street.

The street in the early morning hours had no rain, no other pedestrians.

The wind blowing on their faces was neither cold nor hot, very comfortable.

Under the gentle breeze, Lin Shilan’s intoxication cleared considerably, and she gradually recalled a few things Tan Jin had said before she fell asleep.

“At the restaurant, you seemed to mention a ‘vow’? Was that real or was it my dream…?”

“Not a dream.” He openly admitted it.

“Your description of your first year experiencing a return to the past alone gave me a new idea.”

Unlike when Tan Jin had mentioned those bizarre “ideas” in the past, this time his expression wasn’t pretentiously profound or wise. The corners of his eyes turned slightly downward, his long lashes concealing the emotions in his eyes. He appeared inexplicably composed, so composed it was somewhat somber.

“Perhaps we’re trapped in the rainy season because of a vow.”

His unusual demeanor made Lin Shilan, for the first time ever, refrain from showing contempt and choose to listen seriously instead.

“Everything has to have a starting point. Our starting point is after the flood disaster occurred. Last time you told me you’d forgotten the memories of those ten days of disaster… actually, my memories of that time are also very vague. Your nurse said that before you woke up, you kept saying ‘vow’ repeatedly. So I thought, maybe there’s a reason there.”

“We can treat the people who died in the disaster as vengeful spirits. If we promised them something before they died but didn’t accomplish it, it’s possible they would curse us to repeat the days of disaster until we fulfill their wishes.”

After hearing his words, Lin Shilan fell into deep thought.

Before it was the “alien sci-fi” route, now it had changed to the “Chinese classical horror” route… Between the two, if she had to choose, Lin Shilan still believed the latter more.

After all, “vindicating vengeful spirits” had traceable evidence. As Tan Jin said, she had been repeating the word “vow”—this was a fact.

“But I really can’t remember, not even a little bit, what I promised to whom. If I made a promise to someone, who would that person be?”

Her brows furrowed tightly, her mind tied in a knot: “What about you? Can you think of anyone?”

“There is one person.” He said.

“Ah!” Lin Shilan also suddenly had inspiration.

“Who?” He asked.

“My mother.”

Lin Shilan had no friends; her closest relative was only her mother.

Lu Xiaorong was indeed constantly making demands of her, making her promise things.

If the object of the vow was her mother, that would be perfectly normal.

She looked at Tan Jin: “Who did you think of?”

He had clearly said he’d thought of someone, yet he didn’t readily say who.

“I’ll tell you when we return to the past again.”

This suspense, Tan Jin maintained for a full week.

Because the following week, it didn’t rain at all.

Lin Shilan attended classes normally, worked on problems, handled her real-world studies, and even worked part-time jobs in her spare time.

She had many things piled up, and keeping busy, she didn’t contact Tan Jin for the entire week.

Before bed, Lin Shilan checked the weather forecast as usual.

From early this morning through the next week, it all showed rain.

She prepared herself, taking the medication she needed to take first. Just as she was about to turn off the lights and sleep, her phone rang.

It was that unfamiliar number calling again.

Previously at the stir-fry restaurant, Lin Shilan had ignored it, but now she happened to be free, so she answered.

The person on the other end was actually an acquaintance.

“Hello, Shilan, this is Cao A’yi.”

“The rain has started getting heavy again this year. How are you doing?”

Cao A’yi’s tone was warm, as if she had completely forgotten about telling Lin Shilan several years ago to never contact her again.

Lin Shilan felt this was strange, but her tone on the phone didn’t change: “Hello Cao A’yi, I’m doing quite well.”

After chatting idly with her for a few more sentences, Cao A’yi slowly got to the main topic.

“Last week, I accompanied my daughter to a robotics exhibition and met a teacher there. That teacher was really impressive—young and accomplished, has won many awards and even gives lectures. Those lecture tickets are incredibly hard to get. My daughter really admires him and says she wants to research robotics like him in the future. Then when I came back, my daughter told me that teacher is actually from your hometown, also from Yan County. I thought since he’s around your age, I wondered if you know him?”

Lin Shilan roughly understood what she meant, but she probably couldn’t help much with this favor.

“I don’t know many people… What’s his name?”

“Oh my, what was it called? I heard it at the time but forgot.”

After some footsteps, Cao A’yi asked someone on her end: “Sweetie, what was the name of that robotics research expert at the exhibition?”

With the phone pressed to her ear, Lin Shilan heard a few drops of rain starting to fall outside the window and got up to close it.

When Cao A’yi returned, the rain coincidentally intensified.

“Shilan, my daughter says his name is Tan Ziheng. Do you know him?”

Maintaining the motion of closing the window, she froze slightly. Rainwater had already fallen onto the back of her hand.