After Ke Wenguang woke up, he learned that Rong Qian had saved him, and immediately came to thank her.

Rong Qian said it was nothing — a small effort on her part. What she did notice, however, was that Sheng Wanqing was nowhere to be seen, so she asked him: “Has Sheng Wanqing woken up yet?”

“When I came to, the hospital bed next to mine was already empty. The nurse said she woke up and left.”

“Oh, good that she’s awake.” Rong Qian didn’t think much of it.

But Ke Wenguang said, “Doesn’t it bother you that she didn’t come to thank you? You did save her life, after all.”

“She probably had something urgent to take care of,” Rong Qian replied, not particularly bothered. Ke Wenguang, however, was very displeased — this woman had been saved by her rescuer, yet she had left without so much as a word?

After expressing his gratitude, Ke Wenguang then apologized to Rong Qian: “Those men were after me, and you two got caught up in it because of me. I’m truly sorry.”

“Who said they were after you?”

“Weren’t they?” Ke Wenguang was also confused — from what he had gathered, those men had indeed come for him.

But Rong Qian shook her head. “Not you. They came for me.”

Ke Wenguang froze. What on earth was going on?

After Sheng Wanqing woke up, she left right away. A car was waiting at the clinic entrance, and the moment she stepped out, she got in.

“And this was your brilliant idea?”

Meng Yuxin sat with a cold expression, her attitude deeply arrogant.

Sheng Wanqing’s own expression was no better. “I didn’t know that woman would be so formidable. My investigation wasn’t thorough enough.”

The cup of water Sheng Wanqing had drunk contained no sedative. She had watched with her own eyes as Rong Qian — when the drug’s effects became overwhelming — unhesitatingly picked up a fruit knife and drove it into her own arm.

At that moment, Sheng Wanqing’s pupils had nearly blown wide open. She had almost given herself away by accidentally opening her eyes.

“Not thorough enough?” Meng Yuxin said it as though she had heard a joke, letting out a cold snort. “I’ve investigated that woman for over a decade and couldn’t even find proof that she exists. What could you possibly have dug up in just a few days?”

Sheng Wanqing was taken aback. “She doesn’t exist?”

“Exactly. I’m starting to wonder if that woman is even human.” The more Meng Yuxin thought about it, the more unsettled she felt. “I’ve been seeing her for over ten years, and she’s always looked exactly the same. I’ve aged so much — and yet she’s still young and beautiful. Does that seem normal to you?”

Sheng Wanqing murmured quietly, “It is strange…”

She was convinced that woman was hiding a secret no one knew about. It was a pity this attempt had failed — otherwise, she could have forced it out of her.

“She really hasn’t changed at all?”

At that moment, a man’s voice suddenly came from the driver’s seat. Sheng Wanqing paused. She hadn’t paid attention when she got in and had assumed the driver was a chauffeur. But when she heard the voice and looked, she recognized him — it was Shen Fengran, Shen Yi’s half-brother.

At this point in time, Shen Fengran was twenty-two years old. He was dressed in an ostentatiously flashy suit, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his entire demeanor slovenly and dejected.

His skin was very pale — a pallor that suggested illness — and because he was so gaunt, his cheeks were sunken on both sides.

His left eye was covered by a black eyepatch. The remaining right eye carried a malevolent quality when he looked at people, which became especially pronounced when he smiled — like the expression of someone watching prey writhe in its final death throes. It was unsettling.

Shen Fengran was not bad-looking. He simply appeared unhinged.

Having said his piece, without waiting for either woman to reply, Shen Fengran unclipped his seatbelt and stepped out of the car first, leaving them with only one sentence: “I’m going to have a look at her.” He then slammed the car door shut and walked into the clinic.

Ke Wenguang had other things to attend to, so he didn’t stay long in Rong Qian’s hospital room and left shortly after. By the time Shen Fengran arrived, Rong Qian was the only one in the room.

When Rong Qian heard the door open, she assumed it was Ke Wenguang coming back for something he had forgotten. But when she looked up, she saw a face that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

She was briefly startled, but quickly recognized him — it was Shen Fengran. The fully grown Shen Fengran.

“Truly unbelievable. You really haven’t changed at all.”

Shen Fengran’s smile carried unmistakable ill intent. The moment he entered the room, he turned back and closed the door — and locked it.

Rong Qian kept her expression blank. Strictly speaking, she was supposed to not know who he was, so she asked him coolly: “Who are you?”

“Drop the act. I know you recognize me.” Shen Fengran saw right through her. He openly looked her up and down with a gaze that seemed to want to strip everything away and see her completely.

Rong Qian’s brow furrowed deeply. That look of his made her genuinely uncomfortable.

“You don’t belong to our era, do you?” Shen Fengran’s smile carried a trace of something twisted.

Rong Qian’s eyes narrowed slightly, though outwardly she remained unmoved.

“I’ve seen that portrait — it was painted by Yan Qingyao, Shen Yi’s mother, which means you already existed when Yan Qingyao was still alive.” Shen Fengran wasn’t guessing. He was certain.

Rong Qian remained silent.

Shen Fengran didn’t mind. He continued: “If you already existed when Yan Qingyao was alive, then that’s already eighteen years ago. Yet over those eighteen years, you haven’t changed at all. That leaves only one explanation.”

He paused deliberately for effect, then bent down and leaned close to her face. “You — are traveling through time.”

Rong Qian’s pupils contracted sharply!

Shen Fengran caught that tiny reaction. He burst into laughter. “As I thought — I guessed right! You’ve been traversing through time all along!”

“I have no idea what nonsense you’re talking about.” Rong Qian had no choice but to grit her teeth and deny everything.

She refused to admit it, and Shen Fengran didn’t press her — because he had already worked something out on his own.

“I’ve been wondering this whole time — I’m no worse than Shen Yi, so why can I never get the better of him? Now I understand. It’s because he has you, and I don’t.”

“Your losses to him have absolutely nothing to do with me. You simply can’t beat him — stop making excuses for yourself,” Rong Qian finally spoke.

Shen Fengran’s lips curved into a sly smile, as though he had gotten what he wanted. “You just admitted it.”

“Admitted what? I can’t make heads or tails of the nonsense you’re spouting.”

Shen Fengran shook with silent laughter. “Hey — you don’t actually think this state I’m in is because I overdid it with drugs, do you?”

“Isn’t it?” Rong Qian caught the detail and immediately tried to draw more out of him.

Shen Fengran waved a hand, wearing the expression of someone humoring a naive child, and flatly denied it: “Of course not. But I’m not foolish enough to tell you that. If I had to guess — you came here from the future, didn’t you?”

There it was again. He was guessing again.

Rong Qian pressed her lips shut and would not let a single word slip.

Seeing that she was still holding firm, Shen Fengran suddenly thought of something. With a smile, he said: “Then let’s make a bet. If I see you in the future, that will prove my guess is correct.”

See her in the future?

Rong Qian paused. It suddenly hit her — she had already encountered him in the future. At the nursing home!

A deeply strange feeling came over her. Logically speaking, even if she had seen him in the future, it didn’t necessarily prove anything — that was still something that hadn’t happened yet from where she stood now…

And yet, why did she have this profoundly dissonant, intensely uneasy feeling?