Hot. So hot.

It felt like her body was a piece of raw meat without skin, roasting over a fire. Moisture was rapidly evaporating, her throat was burning, and her skin had become dry and tight.

Thirsty. So thirsty. She wanted water.

Kicking off the blanket, Jiang Xi woke up drenched in sweat in the darkness.

“Lin Jia! Why did you turn off the air conditioner?!”

She grabbed her pillow, ready to throw it at him—but there was no one else on the bed.

Moonlight spilled into the small attic room.

It was a windless summer night, stifling and oppressive.

Looking down, Jiang Xi saw she was wearing a lacy princess-style nightdress.

—She had time-traveled again?!

She hurriedly got out of bed and turned on the lights in the house. Her body had grown compared to when she last returned to being an 8-year-old. The most obvious change was her height.

Jiang Xi dashed downstairs and ran straight to the bathroom mirror.

Yes, Jiang Xi had time-traveled again.

What was even more unbelievable was that this time, she wasn’t in Jiang Xiaochan’s body. She was herself—Jiang Daxi.

Her features were even prettier than the last time, and she looked a few years older.

After touching her soft, collagen-filled cheeks, Jiang Xi stretched her limbs. Her body was full of energy. Her arms and legs were flexible and relaxed.

This felt great. She could now move freely as herself. Unlike last time, when she had to deal with the weird feeling of facing “another version of me,” and had to struggle to act in her younger sister Jiang Xiaochan’s place for her benefit.

Excited as she was, a faint uneasiness began to grow in her heart.

—So where was Jiang Xiaochan? Where did she go?

She looked around, but there was no trace of her. Even her clothes and personal belongings were gone.

There was another notable change in the house: on the living room wall hung a photo of her father—his memorial portrait.

This hadn’t been there during her last time-travel. The photo was new. Below it, on the table, were candles and offerings.

Jiang Xi had an idea.

To quickly understand the current situation, she took the most straightforward approach.

Pushing aside the beaded curtain, she jumped onto her mom’s bed and shook her awake.

Meng Xuemei had just been woken up. Her eyes weren’t even fully open when she was met with Jiang Daxi’s tear-streaked face.

Startled by her daughter’s crying, she asked nervously, “What happened?”

“Mom! I had a dream about Dad. It was terrifying, a nightmare. He kept asking me where Xiaochan was and if she was doing okay. He demanded to know exactly where we had sent her.”

Jiang Daxi’s panicked performance was flawless.

“Your dad appeared in your dream? Xiaochan—Xiaochan is at your uncle’s place. Your dad passed so suddenly, and we didn’t have money. Your uncle took a liking to Xiaochan and offered to send her to a better school…”

Still half-asleep, Meng Xuemei couldn’t make sense of what was going on. Jiang Daxi cried so pitifully and asked so urgently, it was like she was possessed. Whatever she asked, her mom answered. It didn’t take long before she had spilled everything.

Last month, while working in the city, their father suddenly had a heart attack and passed away.

Jiang Daxi was 15, and Jiang Xiaochan was 10. Both were still in school. Their only source of income was the money their father sent home each month.

After losing her husband, Meng Xuemei was left helpless. The family was poor, and she had never worked a day in her life. Supporting two children was overwhelming. During the funeral, a wealthy distant uncle came and offered to take in Jiang Xiaochan.

He saw that she was smart and thought she had great potential for academics. Meng Xuemei agreed, thinking that if Xiaochan went with him to a big city, she might have a better future. If she stayed in their small town, she might not even be able to keep going to school.

Jiang Xiaochan had already been gone for two weeks.

Jiang Daxi said she wanted to write a letter to Jiang Xiaochan and got the address of the uncle’s house from her mom.

Back in the attic room.

Jiang Xi thought seriously.

Should she go look for Jiang Xiaochan?

On the desk and in the drawers, there were drawings everywhere—works by Jiang Daxi. She had clearly worked very hard at her craft, and her skills had improved a lot.

It seemed that over the past two years, Daxi had resumed her art classes.

With the family’s financial condition, their mom really couldn’t afford to raise two kids. Jiang Xiaochan had indeed made space for the both of them.

For a brief moment, Jiang Xi even felt something strange: maybe… things were actually better without Jiang Xiaochan around?

She paced back and forth in the room.

Eventually, she convinced herself.

—No. She couldn’t just ignore it.

—She had to find Jiang Xiaochan!

The chance to return to the past was too rare. She had no idea how long she would stay here. Either way, the worst outcome couldn’t possibly be worse than “losing both her mother and sister.” Only by seeing Xiaochan with her own eyes and confirming how she was doing could Jiang Xi be at peace.

Dawn was just breaking.

Jiang Xi changed into outdoor clothes and quietly took the wallet her mother had left on the table.

As an adult, traveling far alone wasn’t really a problem. However, Jiang Xi didn’t know how to get to the train station from here, and she didn’t have a phone to look it up.

She needed to find someone to ask for directions…

As luck would have it, the moment she stepped outside, she ran into Lin Jia, who was taking out the trash across the street.

“Good morning, Daxi.” He greeted her cheerfully.

It’s him again. Jiang Xi walked over to Lin Jia unwillingly.

“Um, I want to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.” He was easygoing, his face practically screaming how eager he was to help.

It turned out getting to the city was more complicated than she expected.

First, she had to walk 600 meters from home to a small supermarket. Near the supermarket, she needed to find a motorcycle and ask the driver to take her to the bus stop. From there, take the No. 90 bus, transfer to the No. 7, then get off and cross the street to catch the No. 132, and ride that all the way to the “Passenger Transport Center” station. Then buy a long-distance bus ticket and transfer three times…

In the end, after asking for directions, Jiang Xi didn’t remember a single thing.

“Can you come with me?”

She chose the most convenient way to travel — by bringing Lin Jia along as her human GPS.

…

Two fifteen-year-old teens skipped school on a school day, hiding it from their families, and boarded a bus heading to the city.

It sounded like the setup for an elopement.

As for why she was in such a rush to find Jiang Xiaochan, Lin Jia didn’t ask.

He could tell she had to go, so he agreed to help without hesitation.

Lin Jia brought his schoolbag and spent the whole bus ride working on his exercise book.

Jiang Xi leaned against the window, sometimes dozing off, sometimes watching Lin Jia’s reflection silently.

His face was still youthful, with soft and well-behaved features.

Sunlight played at his fingertips, black pen on white paper. He quietly wrote, the lines of his profile clean and striking.

He looked more spirited than his adult self and a little plumper than he was at thirteen — he looked healthier now.

That face… he really was born good-looking.

She stared for too long and got caught.

Without looking up, Lin Jia said softly, “Relax and rest. I’ll keep an eye out and wake you when we’re close.”

“Okay.” Jiang Xi kept watching him.

Whether it was Jiang Xiaochan or Jiang Daxi, he treated everyone with the same gentleness.

They’d had quite a few interactions over the past few days, but to be honest, Jiang Xi still couldn’t figure him out.

Was he a good person? Maybe. Whenever someone needed help, Lin Jia never turned them down.

Was he a bad person? Quite possibly. The tenant auntie said he had been in prison, that he was a local troublemaker. In that photo she saw, someone had written, “All the bad things were forced on me by you,” and “Let’s die together in summer.”

Based on the clues Jiang Xi had gathered so far, his relationship with Jiang Xiaochan had definitely turned unhealthy later on. And his relationship with her — also a mess… though she had to admit, she played a part in that mess too.

But luckily, this was the past.

The complicated entanglements hadn’t formed yet. They were still young. There was still time to change things.

Jiang Xi looked away and closed her eyes.

To untangle this love triangle, she had to start with herself. She silently made up her mind: this time, she wouldn’t fall for Lin Jia.

Since she was back in the past, she shouldn’t follow the same path. That path had already proven to be a dead end.

She’d take the lead — treat it as a way of keeping the promise she once made to “Jiang Xiaochan.”

And of course, Lin Jia had better not try anything weird with Jiang Xiaochan either.

While everyone was still alive, well, and full of energy, why not build a nice, clean friendship between the three of them?