What exactly is her relationship with the man in the car?
Song Chan had a dream last night.
The dream was fragmented and mundane. She had a busy yet meaningful job, like a white-collar worker in a TV drama, frequenting various cafes every morning and weekend.
And every time she came out of these places, a car would always pull up in front of her, waiting for her. She would rush to get in.
Song Chan heard herself in her dream talking incessantly to the man in the car. Worried that he might be bothered, she tried to observe him. The man’s face was blurry, but she could vaguely see a slightly upturned corner of his lips—he was patient.
As it turned out, Song Chan’s guess was correct. The man quickly responded, discussing things with her, but the content seemed to be work-related.
Song Chan woke up. She sat up and saw people sprawled out asleep on the floor beside her.
She carefully tucked them in, one by one, and finally added a pillow for Meng Mian, who was asleep on the sofa, before going out to buy breakfast.
Song Chan rubbed her head, still replaying the dream in her mind as she went downstairs.
What exactly was her relationship with the man in the car?
They seemed very intimate, but their conversation had nothing to do with personal feelings. His tone was extremely gentle, and she could even feel the intensity in his gaze, yet his actions towards her were never inappropriate.
Song Chan felt dizzy, the light before her eyes blurry and chaotic.
This intense, distorted emotion was clearly too much of a shock for Song Chan, who was still somewhat naive in many ways.
As if sensing something, Song Chan walked absentmindedly, buying breakfast from the breakfast cart at the alley entrance and heading back.
After walking for a while, she felt something was missing from her hand. Looking down, she realized her phone was gone.
Song Chan panicked immediately and ran back to look for it.
She searched around the breakfast cart but couldn’t find it, almost giving up, when suddenly she saw a girl sitting across the street in front of a shop.
The girl looked about fourteen or fifteen, fiddling with something, a wide smile on her face.
Song Chan clearly recognized the phone case; it was her own Sad Frog phone.
With a bad feeling creeping over her, she tentatively approached, “Hi, your phone case is really pretty. Can I look at it a little longer?”
The girl looked up, stared at Song Chan for a long time, then said nothing, turning her back to her, clearly refusing to communicate.
Song Chan, already certain the phone was hers, didn’t mince words: “I’m sure this phone is mine. From the scratches on the case to the screen, if you don’t believe me, just turn it on, and you’ll see the Peach home screen.”
The girl’s expression was disdainful: “What does your lost phone have to do with me? You can’t even take care of your own things. Why should anyone help you? If everyone in this society were like you, wouldn’t it be chaos? I see you’re not young anymore. How come you don’t understand anything?”
Song Chan was extremely bad at dealing with this kind of cold and domineering person; the girl clearly didn’t want to return the phone.
“You can’t even unlock it, yet you’re lecturing the owner. I see you’re not young anymore. Didn’t you have parents to educate you?”
Song Chan turned around and saw a boy; she recognized him as Liang Zhuo, her classmate.
Liang Zhuo was clearly speaking up for Song Chan, his tone neither humble nor arrogant.
The girl tried to run away without a word, but Liang Zhuo grabbed her. She started throwing a tantrum, crying and struggling, “Uncle, Auntie, help me! These are two kidnappers!”
A crowd gathered at the morning market, and hearing this, they came over.
Song Chan saw many people pointing and whispering in their direction.
Even a man, seemingly wanting to help, declared, “The little girl is so pitiful! Why are you bullying her? If you keep this up, I’ll call the police!”
The cacophony of voices drowned out Song Chan’s explanation.
“Then call the police! I have video footage. My classmate dropped her phone, and before I could even warn her, I saw this guy quickly put it in his pocket.”
The girl thought Liang Zhuo was bluffing and didn’t believe he had any video footage, so she cried even louder.
Hearing the commotion, the girl’s family rushed over from the next street, wailing and accusing Liang Zhuo, “Everyone, come and judge! What kind of people are these? They all look like good students. How can they frame someone like this? My family runs a legitimate business; it wasn’t easy for us to come from the countryside to the big city…”
While feigning sympathy, the woman was subtly trying to snatch Liang Zhuo’s phone. She was surprisingly strong and easily grabbed it.
Liang Zhuo was just about to show everyone the video recording, but before he could even play it, the woman deleted it from his phone.
Then she held up Liang Zhuo’s phone, yelling, “Show us the evidence on your phone!”
Liang Zhuo sighed, exhausted from the tantrum of the woman and the girl.
He took the phone, quickly scrolled through it, and handed it to the man who had threatened to call the police.
The woman was dumbfounded, thinking, “Didn’t she just delete the video so quickly?!”
The older man looked up after watching the video, staring intently at the girl, his eyes filled with anger at being deceived.
The surrounding crowd had also watched. “It really was that mother and daughter who stole someone’s phone…”
Liang Zhuo stepped forward, shielding Song Chan behind him. “Don’t you know every phone has a spam folder? Deleted videos can be found not only in the spam folder but also in cloud storage. Times have changed.”
Seeing the situation was turning against them, the mother and daughter tried to escape with Song Chan’s phone.
Before Liang Zhuo and Song Chan could make a move, several older women and men pounced on them and grabbed them.
After this commotion, the matter was resolved, but Song Chan noticed that the steamed bun in Liang Zhuo’s hand was now crushed beyond recognition.
“Come on, I’ll buy you another breakfast.”
Liang Zhuo smiled and waved his hand, “No need, you’re too kind.”
Ignoring Liang Zhuo’s objections, Song Chan insisted on pulling him towards the breakfast shop, “You helped me earlier, I know you did it out of kindness and didn’t expect anything in return, but I at least want you to have a decent breakfast.”
Liang Zhuo didn’t say anything, just smiled as she pulled him along.
They each bought a few more baskets of steamed buns, chatting about what had just happened as they walked back. Before she knew it, Song Chan realized she was almost home.
“You didn’t really need to walk me home; it’s broad daylight, and there’s no danger.”
“I didn’t walk you home, Song Chan, I live here too.”
Song Chan was surprised: “Really? When did you move in?”
Liang Zhuo lived in the building next to Song Chan’s. Logically, they should have bumped into each other on their way to and from school, but Song Chan had no recollection of him, so she guessed he had moved in recently.
Liang Zhuo looked disappointed. “I’ve lived here since I was little. I always knew you lived in Unit 3, Song Chan, and I thought you knew I lived in the unit next door. I didn’t expect you to know.”
Song Chan panicked; she suddenly felt utterly awful.
Liang Zhuo’s expression grew even more dejected: “I was wondering why you never acknowledged me at school. Turns out I’m the only one who thought we were neighbors.”
Song Chan immediately clasped her hands together above her head. “Liang Zhuo, I didn’t mean to! Just pretend I have bad eyesight, okay?”
Liang Zhuo stared at Song Chan expressionlessly for a moment, then burst out laughing. “I really can’t keep up the act anymore, Song Chan, you’re so cute.”
Song Chan cautiously revealed her bright eyes, realizing that Liang Zhuo really seemed to have just been teasing her.
“Aren’t you angry anymore?”
“Do I look like a petty person? Okay, don’t take what I said seriously. Hurry up and go upstairs, the steamed buns are getting cold.”
A few sounds of people coming down the stairs came from deeper in the stairwell. Zhong Xin yawned and asked Song Chan, “Sister Dandan, who are you talking to?”
Song Chan saw Zhong Xin almost stepping onto the broken staircase and quickly stopped her, afraid she would fall. She then replied, “I ran into a classmate.”
She was about to turn around and introduce Liang Zhuo when she realized that no one was at the entrance of the building.
Liang Zhuo had left sometime earlier.
Zhong Xin asked he asked in confusion： “Which classmate is it?”
Song Chan replied, “Nothing, hurry upstairs, my aunt and uncle will be here soon.”
Zhong Xin remembered something and whispered mischievously in Song Chan’s ear, “I’m going to your house to use the toilet later. My toilet isn’t flushing; it might be broken. When my uncle or brother goes to the toilet, I can say they broke it.”
Song Chan was reluctant to agree, but Zhong Xin pouted and started to whine, “It would be so embarrassing for a girl like me to break the toilet if others found out. I promise I won’t laugh at them!”
Song Chan thought to herself, ” Is this really her daughter? Who does she take after to be so mischievous?
While Zhong Xin was contemplating life in the bathroom, she received a message from Zhong Lingyu.
【Are you up? Give me a call.】
Zhong Xin didn’t want to be disturbed, so she simply replied, 【Not yet, I stayed up late watching dramas last night, let me sleep a little longer.】 Zhong Lingyu, already downstairs, frowned upon seeing the message.
Watching dramas all night? Did they really think this time-travel trip was a vacation? They might even lose their focus.
Zhong Lingyu felt these twins needed his attention.
With a stern face, he quickly went upstairs, determined to wake Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng for a proper morning meeting.
He could find Song Chan’s house with his eyes closed; Zhong Xin and Zhong Cheng lived right across the street.
Perhaps suppressing his anger, Zhong Lingyu knocked on the door twice hastily.
His diligent mother-in-law was already out buying groceries, and his father-in-law, often away on business, was probably still on the highway. He couldn’t possibly disturb the Song family across the street.
That’s what Zhong Lingyu thought.
After a long silence, he made a few joking phone calls, but no one answered. His expression grew increasingly displeased, and when he knocked again, his drawn-out tone carried a chilling authority, “Open the door, did you hear me—”
“Oh, coming, coming,” Meng Mian complained impatiently as she opened the door, “Who’s doing this so early in the morning, like they’re chasing after a debt?”
Zhong Lingyu:?
Why is it his mother-in-law opening the door?