When she was seven, Ling Song sent Mei Yanlan away.

Remembering her father’s instructions, she ran and ran, never stopping. She didn’t know how long she ran or where she ended up. She hid wherever she could, too frightened to approach anyone. More filthy than a beggar, she eventually collapsed from hunger somewhere along the way.

When she woke up, she found herself in a stranger’s home.

The woman’s name was Mei Feiying. Though already in her sixties, she looked no older than forty. She had never married, never had children, and spent her life as a free spirit with love for alcohol. She never pressed Mei Yanlan for answers about her past. After they had lived together for some time, she formally adopted her and gave her a new name.

From that day onward, she was no longer Ling Yilan.

She became Mei Yanlan.

She pretended to be an ordinary person, never using her atavist power. She kept a low profile, making herself as inconspicuous as possible and taking care not to attract anyone’s attention.

“Mei Yanlan, take out the trash, okay? We’ll head off first.”

“You can mop the floor. We’re leaving.”

“The restroom’s yours.”

With no parents and only a grandmother, and coming from an ordinary family, she got pushed around from time to time. Mei Yanlan usually endured such things in silence. The school’s discipline was strict enough that nothing worse ever happened.

And so she passed through elementary school peacefully.

Then middle school.

Then high school.

The high school she attended was prestigious, filled with wealthy heirs, daughters of prominent families, idols, and other remarkable students. Xiao Cheng, Wen Can, Fang Bihe, and the others in her class were among the school’s most popular figures.

Compared to them, Mei Yanlan was little more than a speck of dust.

No one noticed her.

Their worlds should never have intersected.

The accident happened during a storm.

The school had organized a trip to a mountain farm where students could interact with animals. A sudden downpour stranded everyone there, forcing them to spend the night at the farm’s lodge.

Late that night, Mei Yanlan heard a faint cry for help coming from somewhere in the distance.

As a high-purity atavist, her senses were exceptional even among atavists. If the voice sounded that faint to her, nobody else would have been able to hear it at all.

The voice belonged to someone young.

Probably a classmate.

Someone sounded like they were about to die.

After a brief hesitation, Mei Yanlan got up and went outside.

Under the pitch-black night sky and torrential rain, she raced toward the source of the sound. As she drew closer, she began picking up voices from several other directions and quickly pieced together what had happened.

Fang Bihe had argued with the boy she liked and run off. Xiao Cheng and several friends had gone searching for her.

As for the boy calling for help, he had apparently slipped off a cliff in the rain and darkness while looking for her.

And nobody had noticed he was missing.

The branch the boy was clinging to slowly slid from his grasp. His arms were growing numb, gravity dragging him downward.

No way.

Seriously?

Was he really going to die young because of something this stupid?

What did Fang Bihe’s love triangle have to do with him?

This was ridiculous.

At last, his fingers lost their hold.

His grip gave out, and he plunged downward.

Then a hand shot out of the darkness above and seized his wrist.

Startled, he opened his eyes.

Rain hammered his face. Combined with the gloomy darkness overhead, he could barely see anything.

Only a silhouette.

And the touch of the hand gripping his.

A girl.

In the blink of an eye, she hauled him back up.

“Wait! Wait…”

The boy reached toward her, but failed to catch her.

A moment later, she was gone.

There wasn’t a single person nearby.

It was as though she had been a phantom.

Yet the cliff remained beside him. His hands throbbed, numb and aching.

There was no mistaking it.

He had just brushed past death.

To Mei Yanlan, however, it was nothing more than an something she had done on a whim.

She didn’t even remember who she had saved.

But at some point afterward, she noticed someone was always watching her.

Turning around one day, she met the probing gaze of a boy seated several rows away.

He had a clean, handsome face.

Bright and refreshing, like the morning sun.

She remembered him.

His name was Wen Can.

Part of Xiao Cheng’s group.

Why was he looking at her like that?

Mei Yanlan immediately became wary.

Wen Can spent nearly half of every day staring at her.

And little by little, his seat moved closer.

Soon enough, he ended up sitting right beside her.

During lunch break, Mei Yanlan would return to the classroom early to work on assignments. Before long, the chair beside her would scrape back.

The boy would appear again.

Sometimes he would suddenly show up while she was cleaning.

“I’m doing this!”

Snatching the blackboard eraser out of her hand, he started cleaning the board himself. Then he would eagerly carry the trash bin away.

“What are you doing?” Mei Yanlan frowned.

She wasn’t pleased.

Wen Can was extremely popular at school. The girls in class described him as the golden-retriever type. She worried his attention would bring unwanted attention to her as well.

“It was you that day, wasn’t it?” he said with a bright, honest smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I remember your scent.”

He looked really pleased with himself.

“My nose is really sensitive.”

Mei Feiying dressed beautifully every day and wore perfume, and some of the scent naturally clung to Mei Yanlan.

Even so, she denied everything and ignored him.

Her denials did nothing to shake his conviction.

Soon drinks, candy, breakfast, milk, and eventually homemade lunches began appearing on and beneath her desk.

Apparently he had noticed she never ate in the cafeteria and survived on bread from the convenience store instead.

Mei Yanlan found it annoying.

At least he kept it quiet.

No one discovered it.

“If you’re trying to repay me, just give me money.”

She wanted to end the matter there.

She didn’t need friends.

She didn’t want attention.

She only needed to grow up, become stronger, and eventually take revenge.

“You need money?”

Wen Can immediately emptied his pockets and handed over everything he had.

Mei Yanlan thought that settled things.

The next day, another lunchbox appeared beneath her desk.

She glared at him.

He responded with an enormous, radiant smile.

Wen Can always did whatever he wanted. Even after causing trouble, he could still flash that sunny, harmless smile.

Like a fluffy golden retriever.

People simply couldn’t bring themselves to stay angry with him.

While teachers lectured at the front of the classroom, little notes passed silently between them.

[What would you like to eat tomorrow? Custom orders accepted.]

At first, Mei Yanlan didn’t even look before throwing them away.

Later, she started replying with six dots.

Eventually, she began placing orders.

Her calm and monotonous school life slowly changed because of Wen Can.

Beyond everyone’s notice, the notes they exchanged grew more numerous.

The words she wrote became longer.

He slipped gifts onto her desk.

Drifted closer bit by bit.

Rested his head on her shoulder when nobody was looking.

Secretly kissed her cheek.

Then, blushing and smiling, buried his face in the crook of her neck.

Looking at herself, Mei Yanlan couldn’t understand it.

Heavy bangs.

Plain black-rimmed glasses.

A drab school uniform.

No one would ever connect someone like her with Wen Can.

On the rooftop, he often lay with his head in her lap.

When she focused too much on gaming, he would tug at her sleeve.

“Pat my head already.”

“Are you a dog?”

“Pat my dog’s head.”

“Why are you so clingy?”

“Because I want you to spoil me.”

After saying it, he would smile shyly again.

Was he rally shy?

Or was he pretending?

Because Mei Yanlan was an atavist with extraordinary senses, their secret relationship remained hidden from everyone.

Sometimes Wen Can threw tantrums about it.

More than once, she had reduced him to tears because he insisted she didn’t like him as much as he liked her.

Then he would comfort himself and drift right back to her side.

In Mei Yanlan’s eyes, the relationship was doomed from the beginning.

She carried a blood feud.

Her future held only a handful of possible endings:

death,

prison,

or life as a fugitive forced to remain in the shadows.

No matter how wonderful Wen Can was, he would eventually become just another passerby in her life.

Sooner or later, they would part ways.

What she never expected was that their farewell would happen like this.

Mei Yanlan looked at the “Wen Can” in the driver’s seat.

The same face.

The same DNA.

But not the same soul.

Wen Can was Wen Can.

No one could replace him.

Still, there was no need to rush.

She would settle everything after they arrived.