Jiang Ruoqiao was about to get off work when she received a phone call from the auntie. The auntie’s voice was frantic over the phone, saying that Siyan had disappeared.

For any parent, this was the most terrifying news imaginable. Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng rushed back from the office one after the other. The auntie stood there looking utterly guilt-ridden, her eyes red-rimmed, her hands twisting together helplessly. “I was cooking, and Siyan was playing hide-and-seek with A’Min from next door inside the apartment. I wasn’t paying attention, and the next thing I knew, A’Min came running to tell me she couldn’t find Siyan anywhere. I searched with her, turned the entire apartment upside down, and still couldn’t find him!”

The auntie had been looking after Siyan for nearly three years, and the bond between them was deep. Right now, she was completely beside herself.

Lu Yicheng managed to stay relatively calm. After settling Jiang Ruoqiao’s nerves, he pulled up the security footage from the living room and the front door, confirming that during that time window, Siyan had not left the apartment. It was hard to say whether this was good news or bad news — good, because he hadn’t gone outside and likely hadn’t wandered off; bad, because how could a child simply vanish inside an apartment? Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao mobilized everyone they could, sending people out to search. After an hour or two, even the usually composed Jiang Ruoqiao had broken down in tears, while Lu Yicheng was sick with worry — on one hand managing his wife’s emotions, on the other consumed by fear for the child’s safety.

Just as everyone’s nerves were about to snap, a sound came from the wardrobe in the second bedroom. Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao exchanged a glance, then both scrambled to their feet and rushed into the room.

Lu Yicheng’s hands trembled as he opened the wardrobe door. Crouched inside was a small boy.

The little boy blinked sleepily, rubbing his eyes. “Papa?”

Wasn’t he supposed to be in bed?

The auntie burst into tears on the spot.

She had truly been terrified out of her wits.

Only then did Lu Siyan notice the auntie. He flashed her a grinning, toothy smile. “Grandma, long time no see!”

It felt like it had been such a long, long time since he’d seen her.

Jiang Ruoqiao was the first to notice that something was off about Lu Siyan. “Honey, look at Siyan’s clothes — I distinctly remember this morning he was wearing something different.”

Indeed.

Lu Yicheng registered it now. So did the auntie. Something was very wrong with Siyan. He had definitely been wearing a different outfit this morning. And more alarmingly —

Lu Yicheng said in a low, measured voice: “This shirt wasn’t even in Siyan’s wardrobe to begin with.”

Lu Siyan had just woken up and was still half-dazed. Jiang Ruoqiao had a flood of questions she wanted to ask, but Lu Yicheng caught her eye and gave a slight shake of his head, signaling that everything could wait. Jiang Ruoqiao held back. Lu Yicheng sent the auntie home to rest, and once only the three of them were left in the Shuxiang Garden apartment, he brought Lu Siyan to the bathroom to wash his face. That finally snapped Siyan fully awake. He looked at his father’s reflection in the mirror, noticed the watch on his father’s wrist and the ring on his ring finger, and instantly broke into a smile. “I’m back, Papa, I’m back!”

But the smile faded almost immediately. He said urgently, “Papa, when you woke up this morning and found me missing, you must have been so worried. And Mama was supposed to come over for breakfast this morning — what do we do? Do they know I’m back?”

Lu Yicheng had absolutely no idea what his son was talking about.

Neither did Jiang Ruoqiao.

But they both could see it clearly — they had only been apart for a single day, and yet the changes in their son were enormous.

Lu Siyan had a kind of “jet lag” to contend with today.

From his perspective, he had simply fallen asleep and woken up.

But it was now deep into the night, and he was definitely not going to be able to sleep.

That night, Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao couldn’t sleep either. The whole day had been too strange — they had checked that wardrobe themselves and confirmed no one was inside, so how had Siyan appeared from it again? They had plenty of time, and Lu Siyan was a fairly clear-headed child. He explained the whole sequence of events in his own way: “Oh right! I was playing hide-and-seek with A’Min, and I hid in the wardrobe. A’Min couldn’t find me for the longest time, so I came out — except it wasn’t our home anymore!”

“But I found Papa and Mama! Papa and Mama looked so young. At first they didn’t even recognize me, and they didn’t love me yet! Papa was even too stingy to buy me Lego!” Lu Siyan launched his grievances…

Then he added: “But Papa and Mama were still really nice to me!” He dove into Jiang Ruoqiao’s arms and peppered her with little kisses. “Mama, I missed you so, so much!”

He also pulled out a pocket watch.

Inside the pocket watch were two photographs.

One was their family portrait taken when Siyan was three years old.

But the other one…

Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng looked at each other, and in each other’s eyes they saw pure astonishment. It was truly astonishing — if they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed it. So their child had traveled back to when they were twenty years old???

How could something this strange be real??

And yet, everything Siyan had described, along with this photograph, undeniably existed.

Without this explanation, it was nearly impossible to account for Siyan’s disappearance for those several hours.

The whole thing was far too extraordinary. Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng peppered Lu Siyan with questions. Both of them were genuinely curious, genuinely fascinated… right up until Lu Siyan started counting on his fingers and said, “Great-grandma and Great-grandpa must have been so worried when they couldn’t find me. I miss them so much!!”

Jiang Ruoqiao froze, staring at Siyan in disbelief.

Lu Yicheng cast a worried glance at Jiang Ruoqiao.

After years of marriage, he knew her too well — her maternal grandparents were a wound she couldn’t bear to touch, the people she felt most guilty about, most full of regret over.

“You said…” Jiang Ruoqiao’s voice trembled slightly, her breath unsteady. “You met Great-grandma and Great-grandpa?”

Just thinking about them was enough to make her want to cry.

She had once watched dramas where the protagonist, enduring tremendous pain during childbirth, would cry out for their mother.

She hadn’t called for her mother. She hadn’t called out to anyone. But she had thought of her grandparents — if only they were still here… how wonderful that would be.

Lu Siyan nodded. “I did! Great-grandma had been sick and had surgery, but Great-grandma and Great-grandpa both said she was fine now. Great-grandma loved me so much, and so did Great-grandpa — they took me out every single day, sometimes to the flower market, sometimes to the park. Great-grandma’s eight-treasure rice was so incredibly delicious, though Papa and Mama wouldn’t let me eat too much, saying it was hard to digest — but it was really so good! And Great-grandpa always secretly took me to Kendeji…” He paused and glanced carefully at Jiang Ruoqiao. “Mama, don’t be mad at Great-grandpa — it was me who kept begging to go. Oh no, Great-grandpa and I even pinky-promised, swore for a hundred years never to change, that I wouldn’t tell Mama and he wouldn’t tell Mama either…”

Jiang Ruoqiao was sobbing, unable to speak.

Lu Yicheng held her, gently patting her shoulder.

Lu Siyan was startled, afraid to make a sound, only staring anxiously at his parents.

What was happening.

Jiang Ruoqiao tried to hold herself together, but wrapped in her husband’s arms, surrounded by the scent that was uniquely and comfortingly his, she finally cried like a child. “Yicheng, my grandma… my grandma and grandpa got to meet Siyan. They met him, they really met him…”

After her grandparents had passed away one after the other, she had become a true orphan.

Aside from Lu Yicheng, no one knew how guilty she felt, how deep her regret ran, or how much she grieved.

“I miss Grandma so much… I miss Grandpa so much…” Jiang Ruoqiao wept brokenly, clutching Lu Yicheng’s sleeve — for the first time, without any restraint, letting her rawest emotions pour out in front of their child.

Lu Yicheng ached for her. He held her close and murmured softly, “It’s alright, it’s alright. Look — Siyan told us, Grandma had surgery and she’s doing well. It’s alright, it’s alright…”

Jiang Ruoqiao was also afraid of frightening the child. She gently pushed Lu Yicheng away and went to the bathroom.

Lu Yicheng hesitated for a moment but ultimately didn’t follow her. He understood — no matter how well he knew her, no matter how deeply he loved her, he could never fill the place her grandparents held. She was simply grieving, remembering the past. And she was also overjoyed — overjoyed that her grandparents had gotten to meet Siyan.

Lu Siyan sat looking anxious and uneasy. Lu Yicheng settled in beside him and said gently, “Your mama hasn’t cried in a very long time. The last time she cried was when you were hospitalized at age two.”

“Did I say something wrong?” Lu Siyan asked. “Before too — when Mama asked me if I’d met Great-grandma and Great-grandpa and I said no, she also cried and went to the bathroom.”

Lu Yicheng’s expression was calm and quiet. He lowered his head, was silent for a moment, and then said, “You didn’t say anything wrong. Siyan, your mama simply misses Great-grandma and Great-grandpa so very much. Knowing that you got to meet them — she’s overjoyed, if anything. Siyan, Papa needs to thank you. Thank you for sparing your mama a little bit of that regret.”

A few days later, piecing together the fragmented things Lu Siyan had told them, Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao assembled another story.

In that story, a twenty-year-old Jiang Ruoqiao had encountered a twenty-year-old Lu Yicheng.

The twenty-year-old versions of them must have already developed feelings for each other.

That story had a beautiful ending — Grandma’s illness had been discovered early and treated with surgery, and both grandparents had gotten to meet Siyan.

“I just remembered something,” Jiang Ruoqiao said to Lu Yicheng. “Last week was my birthday — you remember, right?”

Lu Yicheng answered with great competitive certainty: “Of course. I made you longevity noodles first thing in the morning.” He paused, then added, “I also gave you a gift. Even if you complained it had no originality, I gave one. I did.”

Jiang Ruoqiao laughed and moved to swat at him. “Am I talking to a wall? Is that what I meant? You could give me nothing and I wouldn’t be upset.”

Lu Yicheng looked at her. “Can I take that literally?”

Jiang Ruoqiao pinched his arm. “No.”

“Forget about the gift for now,” Jiang Ruoqiao said. “I made a wish. Guess what it was?”

Lu Yicheng said: “Time for another exam question. No, harder than any exam question — a hundred, a thousand times harder.”

He tried a guess. “Not something like winning a hundred million in the lottery, right? Or a large-apartment school district property within the third ring road in Jing Shi?”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “Lu Yicheng, am I that shallow? I’m thirty-two, thirty-two — not twenty!”

“Let me guess,” Lu Yicheng said, taking her hand, his eyes warm and gentle. “I think… it was something like: if there’s a next life, let me find you sooner.”

Jiang Ruoqiao was stunned.

How had he known.

On the day she turned thirty-two, she had indeed made a wish over the birthday candles.

The wish was: if there is another chance, if there is another version of me, let her see Lu Yicheng sooner.

Lu Yicheng smiled softly. “Because that was my wish too.”

They still had such a long, long road ahead of them — yet sometimes they couldn’t help wondering: they had attended the same school, they had known each other at twenty years old, so why had they missed so much time? If only they had gotten together at twenty.

—