Emily Carter suddenly realized she had made a mistake. She never talked about history in front of William Reed, fearing that he would find out the fact that his country had perished. She didn’t know how William Reed would feel, but some things are just better left unsaid. “S-sorry... I-I didn’t mean to, I just...” she hurriedly tried to explain.

“I told you before, instead of hiding it from him, you might as well have told him from the start. Besides, who knows if ancient people thought the same way as we do? What if he just...” Brian Ford chimed in from the side.

“Shut up!” Emily Carter snapped, and Brian Ford immediately fell silent.

William Reed realized his two lifesavers were arguing because of him, so he quickly smiled at Emily Carter and said, “It’s all right. I was just talking to myself just now, you don’t need to worry...”

Looking at William Reed’s smile, Emily Carter couldn’t say anything more. She shot Brian Ford a fierce glare, then sighed.

As for Brian Ford, he just rolled his eyes and turned to go online, as if the whole thing had nothing to do with him.

After saying a few more words to William Reed, Emily Carter left. She didn’t even say goodbye to Brian Ford on her way out, and William Reed also went back to his own bedroom to sleep.

When Brian Ford got up to use the bathroom before going to bed, he found that William Reed wasn’t asleep at all.

“Why aren’t you sleeping yet?” Brian Ford stood at the bedroom door, looking at William Reed sitting on the bed.

Hearing his lifesaver call him, William Reed immediately jumped off the bed and stood there respectfully. Brian Ford found William Reed’s manner amusing. “Can’t sleep?”

William Reed nodded in the darkness.

The bright moonlight streamed in through the window behind William Reed, so the bedroom wasn’t too dark even without the lights on. Brian Ford suddenly remembered that he’d heard Emily Carter mention a few days ago that this year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day fell on the same day. No wonder the full moon outside was so bright. “William Reed, since you can’t sleep, let’s go outside and admire the moon.”

※※※

The best thing about the old house was that it had a fairly spacious courtyard. It was a traditional siheyuan, and the two families living here had made the yard beautiful: grape trellises, stone tables and stools, flowerbeds, locust trees, bluestone walls and paths... Brian Ford still remembered that in the summer when he was a child, his parents and Emily Carter’s family would sit in the yard, enjoying the cool air and chatting. If the conversation got lively, his dad and uncle would bring out a bottle of baijiu and two cups, and keep talking over a plate of peanuts. Even when everyone else had gone to bed, when Brian Ford got up at night, he could still hear the two adults’ deliberately hushed voices in the yard.

Most of the time, it was a playground for him and Emily Carter when they were little—climbing trees, stealing grapes, crawling through flowerbeds, playing hide-and-seek... Both he and Emily Carter were wild as kids, and who would have thought that the grown-up Emily Carter would turn into a lady in the eyes of outsiders... Brian Ford always lamented the tricks of fate.

Now, the grape trellis no longer bore grapes, and ever since his parents went abroad three years ago, his uncle no longer sat at the stone table drinking. As for the locust tree they used to climb several times a day, now Emily Carter said there were too many bugs in it and she’d never climb it again. Brian Ford teased her, saying the real reason was she was afraid the branches wouldn’t hold her weight and would break, which led to Emily Carter chasing him up and down the old alley several times.

Brian Ford and William Reed sat on the stone stools by the stone table. If they had a few dishes and a pot of baijiu, it would really feel like ancient people admiring the moon.

The moon was big, round, and bright. The wind was high, the clouds were thin, and the stars were few.

“So this is the moon hundreds of years in the future?” William Reed gazed up at the night sky.

Brian Ford also thought the moon was unusually bright tonight. He suddenly remembered a classmate once complaining that there was going to be a massive blackout in their area, even the streetlights would be off. It seemed that with fewer artificial lights in the city, the natural light stood out even more.

“So you’re still bothered by that,” Brian Ford said, pouting.

“Actually, I’ve known for a long time. There are just too many differences between this world and mine, I can’t understand it at all.” William Reed looked up at the moon and said, “I’ve read many books, but even the fairylands described in them don’t compare to this place...”

※※※

Emily Carter kept feeling like someone was talking by her ear, but she couldn’t make out what was being said. She thought it must be a dream, until finally the mysterious voice woke her up. Only then did she realize someone was muttering in the courtyard outside. Suddenly interested, she lay quietly in bed and listened...

※※※

“...I really miss my friends, but I don’t know how I got here, nor how to go back. Sometimes I wonder if this is just fate?” After saying all that in one breath, William Reed let out a long sigh.