They set out in the morning and didn’t arrive near their destination until evening.

It was a big city, with a constant flow of traffic.

The busier the area, the more tightly packed the residential buildings were.

Crowds of people rushed through the stuffy underground passages after work, the suffocating heat spreading through the air.

“Number 30 Linfeng Road… It should be here. Why can’t I find it?” Jiang Xi squinted at the street signs, comparing them to the note her mother had written.

Lin Jia’s attention was caught by a small shop on the roadside.

“Wait a second, I’m going over there,” he said to Jiang Xi, then walked toward the shop.

“What are you doing?”

Worried that the young boy from the countryside might wander off and get lost, Jiang Xi quickly followed him.

After asking the shopkeeper, Lin Jia picked out a box of fruit-flavored hard candy.

After paying, he handed the nicely packaged candy to Jiang Xi. “Give this to your little sister later.”

Lin Jia really knew what he was doing. He even knew not to show up empty-handed. As an adult, Jiang Xi felt like she had learned something from him.

She took the candy and glanced at it. He hadn’t bought it at random. It was the same kind he had bought for Jiang Xiaochan at the hospital last time. Unfortunately, this time Jiang Xi wouldn’t get to eat any. She kind of wanted some too.

She was curious. “How did you know Jiang Xiaochan likes these?”

“You told me,” Lin Jia replied without thinking.

“Did I…” Jiang Xi muttered, lost in thought.

“Mhm,” Lin Jia said as he turned back and asked the shopkeeper for two popsicles. “Let’s eat something too. They have your favorite—condensed milk mung bean popsicles.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Before Lin Jia could pay, Jiang Xi stepped in and paid first.

The cold popsicles helped ease some of her anxiety. They ate as they walked, and before long, they found the residential complex where her uncle lived—Linfeng Garden.

There was security at the gate. It was a relatively upscale duplex apartment complex.

Jiang Xi and Lin Jia worked together, saying they were going in to do homework with a classmate. Jiang Xi purposely pulled Lin Jia in front to show off the large backpack on his back.

The guard didn’t ask much and let them in right away.

They took the elevator to the 13th floor. There was only one unit on this floor.

Standing in front of the grand dark red wooden door, Jiang Xi felt a little nervous.

She took out the box of candy Lin Jia had just bought. Having something in her hands gave her a bit more confidence.

She silently rehearsed her explanation for why she had come to find Jiang Xiaochan, then pressed the doorbell.

Ding-dong, ding-dong—

On the third ring, the door opened just a crack from the inside.

A cautious face peeked out from behind the door.

She asked softly, “Who are you looking for?”

“Jiang Xiaochan!” Jiang Xi called her name in surprise.

She was incredibly lucky. No need to lie to her uncle’s family—she ran into Jiang Xiaochan directly.

“Jiang Daxi! Wow!” The door flung open. Jiang Xiaochan was just as surprised and happy.

The little girl wore a proper, ladylike dress and had a sparkly pink headband on her head. Her naturally curly hair had been straightened completely, and she looked like a perfectly polished doll.

Overjoyed to see her sister, Jiang Xiaochan jumped out like a monkey and threw herself into Jiang Xi’s arms.

Then, noticing Lin Jia behind her sister, Jiang Xiaochan quickly smoothed her skirt.

She still had some sense of propriety and toned down her movements and voice.

“Did you come all the way from home to see me? How did you get here?”

As she spoke, Jiang Xiaochan took the candy from Jiang Xi’s hands and shoved her own small hand into her sister’s palm.

It had taken a lot of effort—riding buses, making transfers, finding the way. For a moment, Jiang Xi didn’t know where to begin.

“Let’s find somewhere to sit and I’ll tell you slowly. Have you had dinner?”

“I…” Xiaochan quickly swallowed the rest of her sentence and replied, “I haven’t.”

“Then let’s take you out to eat,” Lin Jia said with a smile.

Jiang Xi thought for a moment. As her older sister, she felt she should handle things more responsibly. “Then I’ll go tell Uncle that we’re taking you out.”

“No need!”

Immediately grabbing her sister’s arm, Jiang Xiaochan kicked the door shut in a panic, not letting them look inside.

“Uncle is eating with his friends. Let’s go.”

And just like that, the little runaway team gained another new member without informing the adults.

Jiang Xi on the left, Lin Jia on the right, Jiang Xiaochan bounced along in the middle, happily eating her candy.

Jiang Xi glanced at her out of the corner of her eye.

She felt something was off about Jiang Xiaochan—her overly prim appearance, her overly enthusiastic greeting, and how she was so secretive about letting them see their uncle.

She was certain now—coming here had been the right decision.

…

The three of them didn’t go far and found a McDonald’s near the neighborhood.

As soon as they sat down, the first thing Jiang Xiaochan did was take off her headband and unbuckle her little leather shoes, returning to a relatively relaxed and comfortable state.

She must have felt that her earlier outfit didn’t suit her. In front of her sister and Lin Jia, she felt embarrassed.

“I’ll go order. You two can talk,” Lin Jia said, tactfully giving them space.

“Okay,” Jiang Xi raised her hand. “I want fries and Chicken McNuggets.”

“I want Chicken McNuggets and fries,” Jiang Xiaochan echoed her sister’s choice exactly.

Lin Jia left, and the sisters were alone.

They looked at each other for two seconds.

Just as Jiang Xi was about to ask something, Jiang Xiaochan spoke first.

“You’re acting weird, Jiang Daxi! Why did you come see me with Lin Jia? Didn’t Mom come?”

“Mom doesn’t know I came to find you. Not even the teachers at school know. Lin Jia and I skipped class to come here,” Jiang Xi decided to lay it all out.

Seeing how open her sister was, Jiang Xiaochan also straightened up her attitude.

“Why? Is there something urgent you need to tell me?”

Jiang Xi had already prepared what to say. Strictly speaking, this was her first time seeing her younger sister Jiang Xiaochan in person since she lost her memory. She had to earn her trust.

“Last night, Dad appeared in my dream. It felt incredibly real. He came home and told me you were in trouble in the city and I had to help you. If I ignored it, you would die. Mom would die too. And I’d never have peace for the rest of my life. You’d turn into a ghost and follow me around, but you wouldn’t have a mouth, so I’d never hear what you wanted. I’d never hear you, ever.”

Jiang Xi tightly held Jiang Xiaochan’s hand and looked straight into her eyes.

Jiang Xiaochan was a bit frightened and muttered, “What a weird dream. I’m fine. How could I become a ghost?”

“You’re not now. Thankfully, you’re still okay. But after I woke up, I got really worried about you. Jiang Xiaochan, how have you been these past two weeks at Uncle’s place?”

The concern in her sister’s eyes and the warmth in her hand completely reached Jiang Xiaochan.

She slowly began to recount what she had experienced recently.

“I started a new school. It’s big, with lots of classmates, and the textbooks are really hard. I haven’t made any friends. I talk with a different accent than everyone else, so I’m scared to speak. I’m no longer first in the class. I can tell a lot of the other students are smarter than me.”

She swallowed hard and continued.

“At Uncle’s house, I have to be a well-behaved, polite child. The dresses he picked for me can’t be wrinkled. When guests come over, I have to open the door and greet them. At night, when Uncle talks business with guests, I have to sit beside them. If the guests get drunk, they’ll touch my face, and I’m not allowed to pull away.”

She finished speaking without summarizing whether things were good or bad. She was too young to define what was happening to her—she simply told it honestly.

But Jiang Xi could clearly recognize the horror in it all.

After hearing everything, she was deeply shocked and furious.

Doing her best to stay calm, Jiang Xi asked slowly and clearly, “Besides touching your face, did they do anything else? Including Uncle—did he touch any other part of your body?”

Jiang Xiaochan shook her head without hesitation.

She was ten this year, and it had only been two weeks since she arrived in the city. Those foul and rotten forces had only just begun to expose a tiny crack to her… If she stayed here any longer, things would definitely get worse. Jiang Xi felt a chill down her spine. Maybe this was the reason why Jiang Xiaochan would later take her own life.

Even though Jiang Xi tried to hide it, Jiang Xiaochan, being sensitive, still noticed the anger she was trying to suppress.

“Sis,” she lowered her head and asked softly, “Did I do something wrong?”

“No.”

Jiang Xi looked her straight in the eye and said seriously, “Jiang Xiaochan, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s Uncle and his guests who did wrong.”

She hugged Jiang Xiaochan tightly, shielding her in her arms.

“We’re leaving, Xiaochan. We’re not staying in the city—not even for one more day. I’m taking you home.”

Jiang Xiaochan clearly wanted to go, but she still hesitated. “But… Mom already gave me to Uncle. She doesn’t want me to go back. And she said if I go home, there won’t be any money for you to study.”

“We’ll go home anyway. We’ll figure it out together once we’re back.”

In her heart, Jiang Xi told her: Don’t worry. Your sister came back from the future just to find you. I’ve got plenty of ways to make money.