The buses on this route have infrequent service, so the two of them simply shared an umbrella and slowly walked from the middle of the mountain to the foot of the mountain.

As Lin Zhenzhen passed by a pool of water, she saw the two people reflected in it.

The umbrella in Gong Yao's hand was tilted at almost a 45-degree angle, completely shielding her from the wind and rain, while half of Gong Yao's body was exposed to the wind and rain.

You're soaking wet.

"It's alright."

"Of course something's wrong." Lin Zhenzhen raised her hand, trying to straighten the umbrella handle.

Gong Yao gently pressed her wrist: "Stop fooling around, this umbrella is too small. Otherwise, we'll both get wet."

"I'm tough and can handle a little rain. You're so delicate, you'll definitely suffer if you catch a cold."

"Me, being delicate?" Lin Zhenzhen looked up and stammered.

"Yeah, you're delicate. You bruise easily from even the slightest touch." Gong Yao paused. "Didn't you secretly cry last time you got hit by a basketball?"

He looked away somewhat awkwardly: "I saw it by accident when I went back to the classroom. Don't worry, I didn't tell anyone."

However, Lin Zhenzhen could no longer hear what he said next.

The word "delicate" seemed to strike a chord deep within Lin Zhenzhen's mind like lightning.

In Lin Zhenzhen's memory, it seems that someone else cooked glutinous rice balls for her.

He spent a long time watching cooking tutorials and personally purchasing ingredients, but unfortunately, his cooking skills were still terrible.

But knowing he had a sweet tooth, he added a lot of brown sugar to the soup.

In the end, she drank the brown sugar water, while he ate the whole pot of glutinous rice balls that had turned into a mushy mess.

He ate while laughing and said, "You're so delicate, who else but me could put up with you?"

A constant stream of keywords appeared before her eyes, either from her strange dreams or images that suddenly appeared in her mind.

Lin Zhenzhen suddenly reached out and grabbed the hem of the person in front of her, her voice trembling slightly as she spoke: "Gong Yao, glutinous rice balls."

Gong Yao turned around: "You mean the glutinous rice ball shop near the entrance of Kangzhong?"

"Smack!"

A string in her mind suddenly snapped, and then it felt as if a train was rushing past her.

In an instant, Lin Zhenzhen was surrounded by a loud, incessant buzzing noise, and could no longer hear anything else.

"What's wrong? Do you want to eat?" Gong Yao turned his head to look at her, his features blurred by the thick rain behind him.

Lin Zhenzhen nodded blankly.

"Okay." Perhaps sensing that Lin Zhenzhen wanted to eat and had finally regained some energy, Gong Yao smiled more.

"Shall we go there now? I'll text the boss right away and tell him to get ready."

"What flavor would you like? Strawberry, banana, or osmanthus?"

Lin Zhenzhen's mind went blank for a moment: "...Osmanthus, I guess."

“I knew it.” Gong Yao pulled out an old-fashioned flip phone, its casing and screen covered in scratches, clearly indicating it had been used for many years. “I’ll add two extra spoonfuls of sugar.”

Lin Zhenzhen's teeth chattered: "How do you know all this?"

Gong Yao glanced at her quickly, as if he thought the question was a bit redundant: "Whenever you eat osmanthus-flavored glutinous rice balls, do you never ask the vendor to add extra sugar?"

Lin Zhenzhen suddenly felt somewhat lost. Where exactly was she? Was it really just a virtual space created for an experiment, as that person had said?

If all of this is fake, then what is she, with her false memories?

Could it be that... she was just an experiment in the first place?

Like a slideshow, countless possibilities flashed through Lin Zhenzhen's mind in just a few seconds.

"Tsk." Gong Yao frowned slightly. "The boss said he's closed today."

"You probably won't be busy going back to school this week, right? How about we go over this weekend?"

Gong Yao replied to his boss's messages while glancing up.

When my gaze fell on Lin Zhenzhen, I noticed that her complexion was terrible.

His lips were pale, his eyelids trembled uncontrollably, and he felt lightheaded, like a leaf blown down by the autumn wind.

Gong Yao suddenly grabbed her shoulders: "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know." Lin Zhenzhen clutched her head, frowned, and looked pained.

"I don't know what's going on either."

Gong Yao made a quick decision: "Go to the hospital."

As he spoke, he squatted down, stretched his arms behind him, grabbed Lin Zhenzhen's lower back, and with a little force, pushed her onto his back.

Gong Yao has excellent physical strength, something Lin Zhenzhen knew from the very first day she arrived in this small world.

Even when carrying her on his back, running hard on the winding mountain road, it seemed effortless.

The sky was terribly gloomy, and the rain seemed to have gone mad, pouring down harder and harder.

Because Gong Yao was holding her legs with both hands, the umbrella naturally ended up in Lin Zhenzhen's hands.

The rain fell obliquely, dense and thick, pelting the two of them in the face.

Lin Zhenzhen stared at Gong Yao's face, watching the water droplets on his forehead slowly condense into a bundle.

Finally, the water flowed down his cheekbone, across his face, and into his neck, blending into his white t-shirt, which was now soaked through and revealed its flesh color.

Lin Zhenzhen's hand went around Gong Yao's neck, and the tender flesh of her arm gently rested on the back of his neck.

Even through the damp, hot clothes, she could clearly feel the abnormality on that skin.

The surface is uneven, like the gnarled roots of an old tree, extending downwards continuously.

—These are the ugly scars left on his body by the fire.