Yu Ning held her umbrella and turned, struggling to walk through the torrential rain.

In such an empty and somewhat vexing situation, her mind could not help but wander. Scenes from her dreams began to surface in her thoughts.

Bionic Wonder House: What was the scene in the dream like?

Hand-Cut Lemon: He kept lighting up his screen, clicking on my profile picture, sending a message, then backing out. He waited for about three minutes before calling me.

Bionic Wonder House: Did it go through?

Hand-Cut Lemon: No, my phone was dead in the dream.

Bionic Wonder House: I see. What happened next?

Hand-Cut Lemon: He stood up. Since I was in his first-person perspective in the dream, I watched him glance at the wall clock and then at his phone screen. Then, he dialed another number.

Bionic Wonder House: He didn’t call you again?

Hand-Cut Lemon: He would never bombard me with calls!

Bionic Wonder House: Whose number was it?

Hand-Cut Lemon: My mother’s.

After the phone gave two short beeps, the person on the other end answered quickly.

“Little Ling?”

It was her mother’s voice.

The first-person perspective remained fixed on the wall clock.

“Ningning wants to invite you both over for a meal this weekend.”

His voice still carried a smile; one could not detect a hint of agitation at all.

“No need to go to such trouble.” Her mother’s laughter came through the phone. “Come to our place to eat instead. I’ll have Ningning’s father show off his skills for you.”

The perspective remained locked on the clock, unmoving.

Ling Wangjin: “Then I will have to trouble you.”

It was slightly different from usual; he didn’t indulge in much small talk. After expressing his gratitude politely and concisely, he hung up.

He then made a call to her colleague.

Once that call ended, he exited the chat interface, swiped through his home screen, and the phone switched into another application.

In this program, Yu Ning saw a map, and on it, a small red dot flickering and moving continuously.

Bionic Wonder House: A tracker?

Hand-Cut Lemon: Yes.

Bionic Wonder House: Sigh… As expected. So that is how he determines your location. Continue with what happened after you tested him during that outing.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Ah… where were we? Let me see. It was raining so hard that day…

The rain had become so heavy that even the umbrella could not block it. Water streamed down the handle, dripping incessantly.

The road, which previously had no puddles, was now covered in a thin layer of water.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I was cold and miserable, and my mind kept dwelling on the tracker from the dream.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I wanted him to come, but I didn’t want him to come.

Bionic Wonder House: Why?

Hand-Cut Lemon: It was probably a conflict between reason and emotion.

Reason-wise, Yu Ning did not want him to come.

If he came and managed to find her, it meant that Ling Wangjin was exactly like he was in the dream—that he had installed a tracker.

But emotionally.

Yu Ning stepped through one puddle after another. Raindrops landed on the ground, and the splashing droplets formed a mist.

There was no one on the road, no cars either, only the patter-patter sound of rain hitting the umbrella.

Then, from somewhere, a gust of cold wind caught the edge of the umbrella and slapped her across the face with it.

Cold and soaked, Yu Ning flew into a rage, then tugged at the umbrella, struggling against the wind.

Hand-Cut Lemon: The umbrella broke… At that moment, I really did want him to appear.

Bionic Wonder House: …

Without an umbrella, Yu Ning used one hand to hold her bag over her head to block the rain. She quickly found that milk tea shop; it was indeed the closest place to take shelter.

When she stepped inside, she let out a sigh of relief.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Then I remembered some details from the dream.

Bionic Wonder House: Tell me. I also have some questions I want to ask you.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Questions? Is it why I didn’t just hide from the rain at the place where I had dinner, but instead ran to another milk tea shop?

Bionic Wonder House: Exactly.

Ling Wangjin had, of course, asked this question indirectly as well.

However, his phrasing had been much more tactful.

“In the future, if it rains when you’re out for a meal, just call me directly. There’s no need to run so far; it wouldn’t be worth it if you got sick.”

Hand-Cut Lemon: I could probably understand the feelings of the ‘me’ in the dream. The rain was so heavy, I didn’t want him to come pick me up, so I ran out to hail a cab first. But I couldn’t get one… I had no choice but to run to the nearest milk tea shop to borrow a power bank and call him…

Bionic Wonder House: You two really are close.

Hand-Cut Lemon: In reality, when I ran to the milk tea shop, I thought of how he looked in the dream.

His hair completely drenched, his hem constantly dripping water.

Yu Ning stood in the milk tea shop. The ‘Yu Ning’ in the dream was completely oblivious, but the real Yu Ning knew everything that might happen in the future.

She thought again of the flooded street and the sound of him wading through the water in the dream.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I couldn’t even be sure that the things in the dream would definitely happen in reality, so how could I be sure that he wouldn’t run into an accident while wading through the water?

Yu Ning turned her phone on.

The moment it booted up, a text message popped up, informing her of two missed calls, along with a news notification that appeared simultaneously.

Hand-Cut Lemon: Sometimes I really have to marvel at how coincidental things are. The news notification was exactly about someone getting severely injured by electric shock while wading through water.

Without a second thought, Yu Ning dialed him back. While calling, she was still worried. She had hesitated for so long on the way; had he already left? Was he already walking on that flooded road?

The call connected quickly.

Yu Ning said urgently, “I’m already on my way home. My phone was dead earlier, don’t worry.”

The other end of the line listened quietly until she finished.

Ling Wangjin: “I’ll wait for you. Are you taking a car or the subway back?”

Bionic Wonder House: He was likely testing you.

Hand-Cut Lemon: I think so too.

Yu Ning was left speechless by his question, remembering that Yanghu East Road was flooded.

“…The subway.”

Ling Wangjin: “The rain is quite heavy. Which station are you getting off at? I’ll come to the subway station to pick you up.”

Yu Ning paused.

“No, no need. You have to wake up early tomorrow, and it’s still raining. Even if you come to pick me up, we’ll both just end up getting soaked.”

The other end of the phone was silent for a few seconds.

Ling Wangjin: “Alright. Be careful on the road.”

Bionic Wonder House: Did he come?

After hanging up, Yu Ning let out a sigh of relief, yet she couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of loss.

She stood at the entrance of the milk tea shop. She was so wet that she felt embarrassed to go inside and get their floor all muddy.

Yu Ning stood there waiting for the rain to let up so she could walk to the subway station.

But the rain showed no signs of slowing. Bored, she fiddled with her phone, watching the time jump forward.

She couldn’t put her feelings into words, until she saw the time pass the moment he had arrived in the dream. She looked up, feeling both relieved and disappointed.

Bionic Wonder House: He didn’t come?

Yu Ning kicked at the puddle at the shop’s entrance. The rain had become so heavy that this area was beginning to flood. The rain mist had draped a veil over the scenery, making everything look blurry.

Suddenly, she saw a beam of light pierce through the rain mist, landing straight in front of her.

Yu Ning remembered that Ling Wangjin had also turned on his flashlight in the dream.

She suddenly heard the sound of her own heartbeat, mixed with the sound of his footsteps splashing in the water as he approached.

—Pah

—Peng

It was as if she were in the dream, yet it also felt like reality.

In the dream, she had seen herself in the first-person perspective, looking up while holding the broken umbrella handle.

And in reality, she followed suit and looked up.

Yu Ning: “Why did you come…”