After being reborn, I gained a childhood sweetheart who appeared out of nowhere.

Lin Chuan opened his eyes but did not get up immediately. Instead, he turned his head to look out the window. The sky was just beginning to lighten, and a gentle breeze was blowing the curtains, causing them to sway softly.

In the months since he "came back," he has been sleeping very well and hasn't even been dreaming at night.

But last night, he had a dream in which he was working overtime for the very last time. He didn't know why he dreamed about that scene, but it seemed like someone was calling him in the dream, so he woke up.

Lin Chuan held his forehead with both hands, sat on the bed for a while to clear his mind, and finally got out of bed and left the room. He washed up quickly and wanted to wake his parents up to see if they wanted to have breakfast, but they were not home in the morning.

It seems they've gone out to work.

The sky outside had completely brightened, so Lin Chuan changed his clothes, put on his shoes, grabbed his laptop, and prepared to leave. Only then did he remember to call Chen Xiyu.

He went directly to the apartment across the hall, opened the door, went inside, and knocked a few times at Chen Xiyu's room, calling out, "Get up."

After a while, the door was opened, and a sleepy-eyed Chen Xiyu stood in front of him.

"Are you awake?" Lin Chuan asked.

Chen Xiyu hummed in response, it was unclear whether she was awake or not.

"Get up, I'm going out," Lin Chuan said.

"Going out?" Chen Xiyu finally realized.

"I need to fix the computer." Lin Chuan held up his black laptop bag.

"Wait..." Chen Xiyu instantly snapped out of her daze and quickly said.

"What's wrong?" Lin Chuan asked, turning around.

"Is your computer in a hurry to be fixed?" Chen Xiyu asked.

"No, it can be fixed this afternoon or tomorrow," Lin Chuan said. For him, it would be fine as long as it was fixed by the weekend. After all, once he started school, he wouldn't have time to run around, so it wasn't a big rush.

"Then let's fix it tomorrow."

"Why?" Lin Chuan asked. Although he wasn't in a hurry, he figured if the repair was done today, he wouldn't have to go to the internet cafe.

"I want to go out today, can you come with me?" Chen Xiyu blinked at him.

"Is today a special day?" Lin Chuan asked.

"You don't know?" Chen Xiyu asked.

"have no idea."

"Let me think about it..." Chen Xiyu frowned in thought.

Knowing her as Lin Chuan did, she seemed to be making up an excuse on the spot: "If you're not busy, I'm going to fix the computer."

"No! If you don't stay with me today, I won't cover for Aunt Wang anymore." Chen Xiyu grabbed his clothes, making it clear that she wouldn't let him leave.

Lin Chuan found it a bit strange. Although his neighbor could be a little willful sometimes, like insisting that he buy her ice cream, this was the first time he had encountered her behaving so inexplicably.

Are you serious?

"Seriously!"

"Then loosen my clothes first?"

"So you agreed?"

"Fine, then." Lin Chuan had no other choice.

Seeing that he had agreed, Chen Xiyu immediately let go of his hand with a grin. She ran into the bathroom to wash up, and while brushing her teeth, she didn't forget to peek out and look at Lin Chuan, saying indistinctly with foam in her mouth, "You're not allowed to run away."

For Lin Chuan, delaying the computer repair by one day wouldn't have a big impact; it would just mean one more day of writing at the internet cafe. He just didn't quite understand what Chen Xiyu was planning to do today.

"I'll take the computer back and put it away first," he said.

"If you sneak away, I'll be very angry," Chen Xiyu said very seriously.

"Okay." Lin Chuan waved his hand and went out.

He put the notebook back in his room, and when he went out again, he ran into Chen Xiyu in the hallway.

"You're moving pretty fast," Lin Chuan said. He'd only gone back to put down his computer for a short while, and she'd already washed up and changed. Her efficiency was astonishing, as if she was afraid he'd run away.

"What if you change your mind?" Chen Xiyu said.

"I never go back on my word," Lin Chuan said. "Let's go."

They left the residential area and walked together on the street bathed in the morning sunlight, where fallen leaves from the previous night rustled softly.

"Where do you want to go?" Lin Chuan asked.

"I don't know," Chen Xiyu said.

Lin Chuan was stunned. "Huh? Then where did you want me to go with you?"

"You'll know your destination once you step out the door, just like in your life. You can't expect to know the destination before you start anything. Besides, the sun is shining so brightly today, we can't waste it fixing the computer."

Chen Xiyu turned around and smiled, saying that she had changed into a light-colored dress and white shoes today. She had slender legs and a skirt that looked like sheer gauze. The sunlight fell on her, making her skirt and skin look fair and translucent.

In the morning, Chen Xiyu took him to the municipal park they had visited before. When they got tired of walking around, they found a random place nearby to have lunch. After lunch, Lin Chuan thought Chen Xiyu was going to go back.

Then she suggested going to the library to read, and so the two of them spent another afternoon reading together. It wasn't boring, though, as he often spent his weekends reading in the library during his university years, sometimes for the entire afternoon.

The setting sun dipped below the horizon outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, its rays falling on the table in front of Lin Chuan.

Music began to play around me: a saxophone solo titled "Going Home," the library's standard closing music, used to remind readers that it was time to leave.

Lin Chuan then put down the book in his hand. "It's closing time. Are you going back?"

Chen Xiyu glanced at the time and said, "Okay."

By the time the two returned to their apartment building, it was already evening, and the night had completely fallen.

The streetlights came on, and Chen Xiyu walked lightly with her hands behind her back, her dark shadow swaying at her feet. She looked like she was having a lot of fun.

"I had a lot of fun today, thank you," Chen Xiyu said with a smile as she turned to Lin Chuan.

"Um."

After spending the whole day outside, Lin Chuan still didn't know why Chen Xiyu had asked him to go out and play. After all, her birthday had already passed, but he was too lazy to ask. Anyway, wasting a day was nothing to him.

Wang Xu had asked him more than once if he liked Chen Xiyu. Lin Chuan didn't think he would like a girl who was so much "younger" than him. In his eyes, Chen Xiyu was more like a younger sister.

So he treated it as spending a day playing with his younger sister. Anyway, in his mother's eyes, Chen Xiyu was also part of their family, so it wasn't a problem to consider her his younger sister. Of course, judging from their current ages, she should be considered his older sister.

When he was in elementary school, Chen Xiyu was the little sister who liked to follow him around, and he treated her like his own little sister back then.

But now that his little sister has grown up, she's more like a rabbit, hopping around and being a bit mischievous. Sometimes he doesn't even know what Chen Xiyu is thinking.

"Oh, right, I forgot something very important," Chen Xiyu suddenly stopped and turned to look at Lin Chuan, her face serious. "Could you go to the convenience store at the street corner and buy me a bottle of water?"

"Water?" Lin Chuan asked. "Don't you have water at home?"

"No," Chen Xiyu said. Her family didn't even have a kettle; they drank bottled water. She clasped her hands together, "Please, please, I need it, it's urgent!"

"Do you want one bottle or a case?" Lin Chuan asked. He had already spent the whole day with her, so he didn't care about doing one more thing.

"One bottle will do," Chen Xiyu waved from where she stood, not forgetting to call out, "I'll be waiting for you at your house."

Lin Chuan waved his hand. It was lunchtime anyway, so there was really no problem for Chen Xiyu to go to his house.

Lin Chuan bought a bottle of mineral water from a small shop on the street and slowly walked back, which took about ten minutes round trip.

Entering the apartment building, Lin Chuan walked up the quiet staircase. The stairwell was deserted, with only a dim yellow light shining down, and his footsteps echoed in the stairwell.

Lin Chuan walked to his front door, but the door was closed. Usually, his parents would open the door when it was close to mealtime, as they were used to the bright and open space.

And there was no familiar sound of a TV or cooking coming from inside the room, which is a bit strange.