Strangely, however, Sister Ran hadn’t contacted her at all before she went to bed. For the first time, their nightly voice calls were mysteriously interrupted. The lack of habit left Xu Yinian tossing and turning with insomnia, her heart filled with an overwhelming worry for Bai Ran.
Then, a sudden nightmare snared her.
It was about a name Xu Yinian had deliberately forgotten for a very long time.
In the early morning, Xu Yinian woke with a start, drenched in cold sweat. Before her eyes was a lingering, boundless sea of red. Even the empty ceiling seemed saturated with the color.
She hadn’t had this dream in over a decade.
She instinctively closed her eyes, her hands shaking uncontrollably. Her entire body was stiff and motionless, as if she were pinned to the bed by restraints. Her lips parted slightly, but she couldn’t make a sound to call for help.
This was a symptom of her childhood PTSD.
At the age of seven, her stress response had been extremely severe. Everything she saw was tinged with red, and every time she closed her eyes, she was haunted by nightmares. She hadn’t dared to tell anyone until her mother, after finishing her father’s funeral arrangements, happened to see her silently crying out for help in the middle of the night. Only then did her mother take her to the hospital for desensitization therapy.
None of the treatments had really worked, and Xu Yinian had developed a massive aversion to hospitals. It wasn’t until she began showing symptoms of dissociative amnesia that she mysteriously “forgot” those events. Even if certain fragments were triggered, her vision would briefly lose focus before her self-preservation mechanisms kicked in to force her back into forgetting.
But last night was the first time she had experienced that nightmare since losing those memories all those years ago.
That name was like a key that had inexplicably appeared in her mind.
“Bo Ren.”
The moment she touched it, more memories threatened to resurface. Xu Yinian bit her lip hard, forcing herself to stop thinking, though the effort left her gasping for air.
Forget it… just forget it, and everything will be fine.
Just then, a knock sounded at her door.
That familiar, lazy, and comforting voice felt like a literal lifeline: “Xu Yinian, are you awake? We have voice acting today.”
Only then did Xu Yinian truly feel like she had returned to reality. Her body finally regained its mobility. She sat up, panting heavily, her pajamas completely soaked through with sweat.
Under her mind’s self-protection mechanism, the memories began to fade rapidly.
…W-what happened to her? She seemed to have had a nightmare?
But why couldn’t she remember it at all?
Right, it was because Sister Ran hadn’t replied to her messages all night! She must have had a nightmare because she was so worried she couldn’t sleep.
Xu Yinian quickly checked her phone. Bai Ran’s last activity was still the voice call from yesterday morning. Not a single reply all night…
Did something happen to Sister Ran?!
Her face turned pale. She wanted nothing more than to rush over to the rented studio right now.
Ji Yan knocked on the door again.
Although Xu Yinian had already forgotten how she had been soothed by that voice just moments ago, she felt an inexplicable sense of reliance and peace.
“I-I’m awake.”
Looking at her disheveled, sweat-soaked pajamas, she suppressed the urge to open the door and see Ji Yan. Instead, she hurriedly added, “Wait for me… I’ll change… then come out.”
Her concern for Sister Ran left her with no appetite for the breakfast Shen Ruoshuang had left for her as usual. She was supposed to go to the recording session with Ji Yan soon, but before that, she absolutely had to visit the rented apartment…
“Poor appetite? Or is the food that woman named Shen made too disgusting to eat?”
Noticing the troubled look on her face, Ji Yan assumed Shen Ruoshuang had finally messed up, and she was practically gloating.
“Ji Yan, I… I want to eat… the sweet mochi from the school cafeteria. Every time I go, they’re always sold out…”
“But I need to shower. By the time I’m done, they’ll definitely be gone.”
Ji Yan was more than happy to do anything for Xu Yinian. Before Yinian could even finish her request, Ji Yan said, “Go take your shower. I’ll go buy them for you. We don’t have to be there until nine anyway.”
“Thank you…”
Guilt gnawed at Xu Yinian, but the moment Ji Yan left, she rushed out and dashed toward the rented apartment a street away.
Facing the empty room, Xu Yinian’s heart nearly plummeted to her stomach. However, she soon realized it wasn’t the worst-case scenario. The apartment was tidy, with no signs of having been ransacked. Bai Ran’s clothes were still hanging on the balcony, and there were handmade dumplings Bai Ran had made herself in the freezer.
The apartment was full of Sister Ran’s presence. That realization calmed her down significantly.
But there was no note, no message…
Xu Yinian suddenly thought of something. Her breath hitched as she ran out to the balcony and fumbled along the edge of the window frame. That was where the spare key was kept.
Sure enough, her fingers brushed against something different—a crumpled ball of paper.
She was so desperate to see it that her finger snagged on the rusted metal of the security bars. She felt a sharp sting of pain as a small cut opened, but she didn’t even notice. She smoothed out the paper.
Tears instantly welled in her eyes—though whether from the pain or the hastily written note, she didn’t know.
[[Niannian, don’t worry. I just went home. There is money in the drawer that I earned from my part-time jobs. It was meant for next month’s rent, so I can finally pay you back. The days I spent waiting for Niannian to come home for dinner were probably the happiest times of my life. I really wanted time to slow down a little more, but unfortunately, I can’t stay any longer.]]
She gripped the note tightly and pulled open the drawer.
Inside was indeed a pile of cash, a mix of large and small bills that looked as though they had been saved up over a long period.
What kind of part-time jobs had Sister Ran been doing behind her back? She didn’t even have an Identification Card…!
Gentle as always, even in her sudden departure, she had cleaned everything up just to make sure Niannian wouldn’t worry.
