"Hey, Mu Yiran, you better confess..."

Mu Yiran turned her head in confusion: "Huh?"

"Are you hiding something from me?"

At the red light, Mo Mumu braked and stopped. Her narrow eyes scanned the area up and down: "Did the police call you for peeking at Grandma's writing?"

Mu Yiran: "..."

#Crooked-mouthed kitten with a question mark face#

Mu Yiran: Are you alright?

Mo Mumu said with a knowing look, "Just tell me, isn't that right?"

"No, is that how you see me?"

"Besides, I'm an adult, okay? What's wrong with me looking at my mother-in-law's post?"

Mo Mumu released the handbrake. "In my eyes, you've always been this kind of person. So, you didn't get a phone call to lecture me? What have you been thinking about these past few days?"

Is it that obvious?

Mu Yiran touched her face. Apart from looking like her mind was blank, everything else seemed normal.

"I-"

"Don't try to fool me, don't forget," Mo Mumu pointed two fingers at her eyes, then turned to Mu Yiran and poked them threateningly.

"All right…"

Mu Yiran considered for a moment, then said, like squeezing toothpaste, "Actually, it's just that I have a friend..."

"You only have me as your friend, my Ran."

"..."

OK.

"That means you have a friend,"

Mo Mumu: "...I do have a friend, what happened to her?"

"She had a very long dream, so vivid and real that it didn't feel like a dream at all. There was a very handsome boy in the dream."

Mo Mumu suddenly realized, "I get it, you're lonely, my Ran. You should have said so earlier. What's the big deal?"

Mo Mumu turned the steering wheel and drove towards the largest club in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

What is all this nonsense? It's true what they say, a heart sees everything as dirty.

"No! Let me finish. I dreamt that I had a painless childbirth, and then I raised that boy in the dream for a long time. It felt so real, not like a dream at all, like... time travel." Mu Yiran stammered out those words while glancing at Mo Mumu's expression.

Mo Mumu raised an eyebrow after listening to her absurd words, and began to discuss them seriously, as if they were discussing a medical condition.

"So, you're saying there was a child in your dream?"

Mu Yiran nodded.

"You think that wasn't a dream, but time travel?"

Mu Yiran nodded twice.

What evidence do you have?

Mu Yiran opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything. If she had evidence, would she be thinking about this?

"Unless you find me a son right now, it's all a dream, no matter how real it may seem."

As the car drove towards the Shenzhen-Hong Kong University Town, Mo Mumu's tone softened, "You're just frightened. Didn't the doctor say that you've been through the gates of hell before? It's normal to have these strange dreams."

"Just treat it as a dream after surviving a catastrophe, and forget about it when you wake up."

Was it all just a dream...?

At some point, fine white snow began to fall from the sky. Mu Yiran rolled down the car window and reached out her hand.

"It's snowing? The first snow! Aren't you cold if you put your hands back in?" Mo Mumu looked at the snow falling heavier and heavier outside the window in surprise, and then rolled up the window on Mu Yiran's side.

"Hmm, this winter seems unusually cold." Mu Yiran leaned against the window, her breath fogging up the glass.

"What are you writing?"

"Huh?" Mu Yiran came to her senses and realized that she had unconsciously written Shi Youxi's name on the fog block.

Mu Yiran stared blankly at that name, a bittersweet feeling welling up inside her for no apparent reason.

It is said that wishes made during the first snowfall will come true.

Looking at those three words, Mu Yiran silently made a wish in her heart. Whether it was a dream or not, Mu Yiran hoped that Shi Youxi in the other world could be loved by more people, that he would not be hurt so often, and that Shi Youxi could grow up happily and healthily.

Hope and hope.

Every wish Mu Yiran made on the first snow of 23 years was related to Shi Youxi.

When you have someone you want to protect, you'll keep praying, a thousand times over, and it still won't be enough.

…

2011, Liguo.

"brush-"

The butler closed the windows tightly; it must be snowing soon, as the weather in the capital has turned icy cold these past few days. "Close all the windows. The young master will be waking up soon, and breakfast can be served now."

The servants served the dishes in an orderly manner.

A moment later, the boy appeared in the restaurant, carrying a doll that was as tall as him.

The dolls are incredibly lifelike.

If Mu Yiran saw this, she would probably be terrified to death by these inexplicably extra twin sisters.

Shi Youxi carefully placed the doll on the chair, then sat down next to it. "Sister, are you hungry? Today we've prepared all of your favorite foods."

The boy smiled and spoke to the doll. The butler and the other maids waiting nearby all lowered their heads, avoiding looking at the boy's strange words and actions at the dining table.

Shi Youxi ate his breakfast with great satisfaction. He elegantly wiped the corners of his mouth and then wiped the doll's mouth as well.

The butler handed over water and a pre-packaged dose of medicine at the right moment, saying, "Young Master, here's today's medicine."

The boy paused as he was about to leave with the doll in his arms, then said to the doll, "Sister, wait for me."

The new maid, Xiao Li, felt a chill run down her spine upon hearing this conversation. She nudged her colleague and whispered, "Is this child sick?"

My companion couldn't help but say, "Holding a doll and calling her 'sister' is terrifying, so creepy—"

Do you think your sister is scary?

The maid looked up and saw Shi Youxi standing right in front of her, holding a doll. The boy had a smile on his face and was staring straight at her along with the doll.

"I...I'm not, you must have misheard me, young master."

The butler silently shook his head. He skillfully called over several bodyguards and heard Shi Youxi say, "Since you think my sister is scary, why don't you become the puppet and let me see if you're scary too?"

The bodyguards stepped forward and took one of the two maids away, without doing anything else.

They were suspended from the ceiling by ropes around their limbs and necks and locked in a room where pets were kept.

As the two women's terrified screams faded into the distance, Shi Youxi swallowed the last pill without changing his expression. "I'm going to the art studio with my sister to paint. Bring up her favorite tea and snacks."

The butler stopped the boy, "Um... the master wants the young master to go to the sanatorium this weekend."

"Does it refer to your father?" the boy asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.

It's been so long that Shi Yan probably only just remembered that he had a son besides his wife. Meanwhile, Shi Youxi, who spends all his time with the dolls, has long since lost any remaining hope for his parents who haven't appeared in a long time.

The butler broke out in a cold sweat. "Yes."

Shi Youxi gave a slight, expressionless twitch at the corner of his mouth, said nothing more, and left with the doll in his arms.

As the housekeeper watched Shi Youxi's departing figure, he organized the medicine while recalling what happened a year ago.

At that time, Shi Youxi firmly believed that his so-called sister was still alive, but after failing to find any evidence several times, the boy's mental state also deteriorated.

He started self-harming and escaped from the hospital during a check-up. He even went to the tunnel and set off explosives. No one knew when he took such a thing from the armory of Shimen.

Fortunately, the bodyguards guarding the villa noticed something was wrong and pulled Shi Youxi out in time. Even so, the boy was still injured.

After being captured, Shi Youxi was imprisoned even more tightly, but even so, it did not stop him from escaping again and again, either to set off explosives or to burn things in the tunnel.

It was as if he had been brainwashed by a cult. Shi Youxi was brainwashing himself. He was convinced that he would see his sister as long as he was hit by a falling object or burned by fire.

How do I see him? Do I see him in the underworld?

The housekeeper couldn't stand it anymore and, risking being fired, called Shi Yan. By then, several months had passed since the incident.

Shi Yan stayed with Bai Shengsheng at the sanatorium during her treatment, never once glancing at Shi Youxi, let alone making a single phone call.

The butler told the other party how bad Shi Youxi's condition was. Upon hearing this, the other party simply asked the butler to give the phone to Shi Youxi. He didn't know what the father and son said.

However, Shi Youxi calmed down after that, stopped self-harming, and started seeing a doctor.

Shi Si and the housekeeper both thought Shi Youxi was better, until one day two months later, Shi Youxi started appearing at the dining table, in the study, and on her bed in the bedroom, carrying a doll...

Shi Yan suddenly called Shi Youxi over the past year, not to inquire about his health, but to ask Shi Youxi to return to his old ways and impersonate Cheng Mo to comfort Bai Shengsheng.

Bai Shengsheng's illness was too severe; she hadn't been lucid for a year and had reached the point of anorexia and insomnia. After Cheng Mo suffered facial burns, he was imprisoned in China by Shi Yan. Forced by circumstances, Shi Yan could only think of Shi Youxi as the "medicinal ingredient."

On the weekend, Shi Youxi carefully placed the doll on the bed, locked the door, and then went out. When the driver saw him come out, he opened the back seat and said, "I'm sorry, young master, all the other cars have been sent for maintenance. You can only ride in this one today."

The black Maybach stopped aggrievedly in front of Shi Youxi. This was originally the car that took Shi Youxi to and from school, but he dropped out of school after the fire, and the car had been sitting in the garage collecting dust ever since.

The sanatorium is located in the suburbs of the capital. It is a stand-alone building with closed management, and the air is filled with a suffocating atmosphere.

The car drove straight into the underground parking garage, where a man with a tattooed arm and a cigarette was already waiting at the entrance.

Shi Youxi was sitting on the left side of the back seat. The driver opened the car door, but the boy did not get out.

Shi Youxi kept staring at the seat next to her the whole way. When it was time to get out of the car, her body reacted before her brain did. Instead of getting out from her side, she stepped over the center console and got out from the right side.

As the car door opened, a small notebook fell to the ground from under the handle.

The wind blew the notebook open.

Upon seeing the patterns and words on it, Shi Youxi felt as if he had been struck by lightning. His pupils constricted as he picked it up in disbelief.