In the end, Lin Yijian did not tell her parents about the strange experience she had had on the plane that day.

Because after leaving the airport, that inexplicable voice had not appeared again.

Lin Yijian thought optimistically: maybe it was just an accident.

Sure enough, the entire next day passed without incident.

On her first day home after being away for a long time, Lin Yijian received her parents’ meticulous care, the kind where they would practically bring water straight to her lips.

To be honest, this excessive love was a little hard to bear. Deeply moved, Lin Yijian enjoyed it for a while but had to find an excuse to hide away in her room—her parents had already started subtly probing whether she had a boyfriend.

In her parents’ natural view, it seemed that all study-related tasks ended completely after high school graduation, and life had entered a new stage.

On this point, Lin Yijian, who had nearly died from overwork during final exam review, had something to say.

Back in her room, she complained about it in her roommate group chat, and sure enough, received a string of empathetic replies.

The four in the roommate group idly chatted for a while about the feeling of returning home. After some small talk, the topic naturally came to an end. Lin Yijian also put away her phone and took out her graphics tablet.

Although it was not like her parents thought, that academic pressure naturally disappeared after entering university, college life was indeed much richer. After the period of novelty and exploration that every freshman experienced, Lin Yijian gave up those club activities and student jobs that looked either colorful or high-class. Pardon her for saying, those things were not friendly at all to pure introverts. She picked back up the hobby she had been forced to abandon for studies: drawing comics.

The slightly rough sketch lines slowly outlined the character’s form under her pen. Lin Yijian took a sip from her cup but drank only air.

She blinked back to awareness and found that the time in the lower right corner had already passed by more than an hour.

Because she had stayed in one posture for too long, her body had become stiff. Lin Yijian lifted her arm to stretch, then took her cup out to get water.

*

Living room.

Just as Lin Yijian set her cup on the cool water spout of the dispenser, she heard her mother’s voice from the kitchen, “In the middle of winter, don’t keep drinking cold things.”

Lin Yijian: “……”

She should not have made any sound, right?

To tell the truth, Lin Yijian still had not figured out how her mom could always precisely lock onto her position and actions.

Her movement paused slightly, but immediately afterward, amidst that series of rapid, rhythmic chopping sounds, she raised her voice and replied, “Okay,” at the same time naturally twisting open the blue water inlet.

Drink hot water? How could that be possible?

Not eating ice cream in a heated room was already the greatest respect she could give to this household.

As it turned out, lying would indeed bring retribution. Just as Lin Yijian lifted the cup, she heard a voice that could not be called familiar but was definitely unforgettable—[What is this?]

Her hand trembled, and the cup dropped straight to the floor.

Accompanied by a loud “clang,” the sounds from the kitchen stopped, and Mother Lin hurried out, asking anxiously, “What happened?”

Seeing the shattered pieces all over the floor, she first worriedly looked at Lin Yijian and asked, “Is your hand okay? Did it get cut?”

Lin Yijian shook her head with a barely maintained expression.

She wanted to say something, but faced with her biological mother’s obviously excessive nervousness, she swallowed it back down. If she spoke now, it would definitely escalate into a major family incident.

Lin Yijian paused for a moment, then spoke in a deliberately casual tone, “I’ll clean up the pieces.”

But Mother Lin waved her away like shooing off a fly. “Go, go, go, why make more trouble? Stay to the side.”

Lin Yijian: “……”

After “helping” her mother in name, but in reality only “getting in the way,” to deal with the aftermath she had caused, Lin Yijian carried a brand-new cup of steaming hot water back to her room.

She absentmindedly set the cup aside, shook her mouse to interrupt the computer’s sleep mode, and opened a search engine.

Staring at the keyboard with a solemn expression for a while, Lin Yijian took a deep breath and, with trembling hands, typed in the keywords “self-diagnosis of schizophrenia.”

She had looked up some information before and got a pile of professional terms like “auditory hallucinations,” “inner speech,” and “Broca’s area.” Still, none of these descriptions seemed to match her own situation fully. However, an accidental glance at the phrase “perceptual disturbances in schizophrenia” had made her heart skip a beat and kept her tossing and turning for a long time last night.

… It could not be that bad, right?

After that earlier question, the voice had not spoken again, but Lin Yijian still had the feeling of “he has not left yet.” One piece of evidence was the surging, uncontainable emotion in her chest.

Clearly, it was such a heavy and serious moment, yet deep inside, she inexplicably felt a mix of doubt, curiosity, and an eager desire to explore.

——Could he not just let her be solemn for a moment?!

Lin Yijian forcibly endured for a while, but the other party seemed completely unaware. As the page refreshed, that astonished, curious emotion overflowed more and more in her chest. Even though every line on the screen was a heavy pathological description, Lin Yijian’s heart at the moment was filled with emotional exclamations like “Wow” and “Oh.”

When the other party again asked, “What does ‘severe mental illness of unknown cause’ mean?” Lin Yijian finally could not hold it in. She choked back her voice and accused, “You are going too far!”

Li Hui: ???

What had he done? He had only asked a question.

*

Father Lin was not home during the day today, so only Lin Yijian and her mother Zhang Qi were at home.

Although it was only the two of them, because of the special treatment for her daughter’s return after a long absence, Mother Lin still prepared a whole table full of dishes.

Logically speaking, after eating at the school cafeteria for an entire semester, Lin Yijian should have been extremely satisfied when she tasted her mother’s long-missed home-cooked meal—she indeed had been yesterday—but now she was preoccupied and had no appetite at all. Afraid her mother would notice something unusual, Lin Yijian still forced herself to act naturally, picked up her chopsticks, and chewed without taste… No, it was actually very delicious!

Lin Yijian: ???

Of course, she knew her mother’s cooking was good. After all, she had eaten it since she was little, and it had fed an extremely picky eater like her. But what was going on now?

She had just scooped a bite of rice into her mouth when she felt it was soft, the grains full and translucent, with a rich aroma and no trace of husk remaining…

Lin Yijian stared blankly down at her bowl.

This was just ordinary white rice, right? How could it be so fragrant?

Thinking this, her hand uncontrollably scooped another mouthful.

A big one.

Lin Yijian: ???

She struggled to swallow that bite of rice that nearly choked her, then hesitantly looked up and asked, “Mom, did we change the rice at home?”

Zhang Qi misunderstood her daughter’s meaning. “Yes, it was bought during the last big supermarket discount sale. With how picky your mouth is, you could even tell… Just put up with it for now. When your dad comes home tonight, I’ll have him stop by the supermarket and buy some new rice.”

“No, no need.” Lin Yijian quickly shook her head, staring strangely at the rice in her bowl for a while before muttering softly, “I think this rice tastes pretty good.”

Seeing her daughter, who always found eating to be a major ordeal since childhood, shoveling down rice in big bites, Zhang Qi’s expression became puzzled as well. Was it really that delicious?

She uncertainly glanced at her own bowl of rice, tried picking a little to taste, and indeed found it quite fragrant.

“Then we’ll just buy this brand from now on.”

——In the end, she decided like this.

Busy shoveling rice, Lin Yijian mumbled an unclear response.

“Don’t just eat rice, eat some vegetables too.”

Mother Lin said this while picking a piece of boneless fish belly meat and placing it into Lin Yijian’s bowl.

Lin Yijian took the time to give an “Mm” in between mouthfuls, mixing it with rice and putting it into her mouth.

The strong flavor spread across her tongue, moderately salty, rich in layers, with no trace of fishiness…

Lin Yijian: ???

Enough already! She knew her mother’s cooking was good, but it was just home cooking. Why did it now feel like something made by a Michelin-starred chef?!

While she struggled internally, her chopsticks still uncontrollably reached toward the table.

Zhang Qi, who was watching from the side, was quite happy at first. Since childhood, this child had always found eating to be a problem—being able to eat two more bites was already a blessing—and she was extremely picky. The list of foods she refused to eat could almost fill a page. She could not even remember the last time her daughter had eaten with such relish.

But after being so happy for a while, she became sad again.

How hungry must the child have been outside to be eating so ravenously?

As Zhang Qi watched like this, a vague thought surfaced in her mind.

She paused, then tentatively spoke, “How about Mom rents a house near your school?”

Lin Yijian was stunned, instantly frightened into full wakefulness.

She said loudly, “Mom? You’re giving up your job?!”

Zhang Qi was obviously already prepared, “I can take long-term sick leave. If it really doesn’t work, I’ll just quit. I can find work in City A too.”

Lin Yijian: Help!!

She certainly knew her mother loved her, but sometimes it was really suffocating.

After laying out facts and reasoning, she finally persuaded her mother to give up this terrifying idea, and Lin Yijian, physically and mentally exhausted, let out a breath: it was simply more tiring than running eight hundred meters.

This matter itself was already very draining, yet in her heart, there was still a strange emotion that was completely not on the same wavelength as her own thoughts: perhaps it could be called “expectation”?

It was indeed an expectation.

It seemed that when Lin Yijian finally finished dealing with the matter, the other party took the initiative to speak and order food, [I want to eat that.]

Lin Yijian: Mentally exhausted ×2.

Following the thought in her head, she looked over and saw a plate of greasy pork belly.

Lin Yijian: ?

Zhang Qi also noticed where her daughter’s gaze had fallen and “understood” Lin Yijian’s hesitation.

She habitually reached out with her chopsticks to remove the fatty outer layer of the pork belly, then spoke to indicate, “Eat it.”

The meat had been stewed for a long time, becoming soft and tender. With one pinch of the chopsticks, the outer layer of fat separated, leaving only the upper lean meat with a bit of fatty marbling that was not dry. But watching that springy, oily layer of fat being taken away, Lin Yijian felt a wave of disappointment well up from the bottom of her heart.

???

She actually wanted to eat that big fatty layer on the pork belly?!

Is she crazy?

Oh, she really is crazy.

(Statement tone)

Thanks to this overly bizarre thought, Lin Yijian, who had been interrupted by all sorts of messy things the moment she sat down at the table, finally pulled her thoughts back on track and remembered the main matter.

She steadied herself, slowed her pace of eating rice, and asked her mother, “I remember my father’s grandaunt was sent to a mental hospital, right?”

Zhang Qi gave her daughter a strange look, “Why did you suddenly remember this?”

They were originally a very distant relative. Given the current trend of young people cutting off ties, it was rare that Lin Yijian even knew such a person existed, let alone took the initiative to ask.

Lin Yijian stuffed another bite of eggplant into her mouth and mumbled, “It’s nothing, I just suddenly remembered, so I’m asking.”

Zhang Qi did not think much of it, only taking it as her daughter’s curiosity.

She nodded to confirm Lin Yijian’s question, then told her about that family’s situation, “Their family has it hard too, your grandaunt Xiuqin only has that one son…”

Mother Lin was there sighing over other people’s affairs, but Lin Yijian’s mind was full of complicated thoughts.

There it is, the family history of hereditary illness!

…

Lin Yijian was pulled back to her senses by the fullness in her stomach.

She looked at her own hand, which had been “unconsciously” picking up food while she was lost in thought, and was momentarily stunned.

Three seconds later, she forcibly held back the hand that wanted to reach forward again and solemnly placed her chopsticks on the bowl, “I’m full.”

Zhang Qi subconsciously urged, “Don’t you want to eat more?”

Just as she finished speaking, she looked at the empty bowl in front of Lin Yijian and the half-missing dish in that direction. She couldn’t help but pause.

After a long moment of being stuck, Zhang Qi finally spoke again, “…Alright, go play then.”

This child really was starving at school.

She paused, then added a request, “Don’t just sit there when you get back to your room, go out and walk to digest.”

Lin Yijian distractedly responded, “Mm, mm,” her eyes still fixed on the empty bowl on the table.

She made some mental preparation before hesitantly speaking, “Mom, a classmate asked me to hang out, I’m going out this afternoon.”

Zhang Qi looked at Lin Yijian in slight surprise, not expecting her usually homebound daughter to take the initiative to go out.

But, thinking that her high school friends had not seen each other for half a year, it was normal to want to meet.

“Alright, come back early.” Thinking this, Zhang Qi casually agreed without paying much attention, then asked, “Do you have enough money? If not, I’ll transfer some to you.”

“I have enough…” Lin Yijian paused, then changed her words, “Better transfer me some.”

Although the living expenses her parents gave her during the semester still had a surplus, she did not know how much it would cost to see a psychiatrist.

Better to be prepared.