He knew that somewhere far away in this world, things had already changed, but everything before his eyes should have remained the same. For example, the old residential complex where his family lived hadn’t changed at all.

In the cramped, narrow stairwell, he turned sideways to avoid an electric scooter being charged, passed by a cabinet full of odds and ends, and walked along a wall plastered with ads for drain cleaning and locksmith services.

Ryan Howard even saw the “mural” he had drawn on this stairwell wall when he was in elementary school.

So he was pretty sure that nothing around him had changed.

Still, he held onto a bit of hope—if something had to change, he wished his dad could be different and no longer oppose him playing soccer.

That was the only change around him that Ryan Howard would be happy to see.

After climbing up to the fourth floor, Ryan Howard unlocked the door with his key and immediately heard his mom bustling in the kitchen. He tentatively called out, “Mom, where’s Dad?”

If Dad didn’t go to work today, did that mean he was somehow different?

“Isn’t your dad working the night shift today? He left a while ago.” His mom’s voice floated out from the kitchen.

“Oh…”

Looks like nothing has changed.

Ryan Howard dragged his backpack into his room. The first thing he did wasn’t to take out his books and do homework, but to dig out his phone from the drawer, turn it back on, and check the balance in his WeChat wallet.

Forty-eight yuan and seventy-three cents.

Yep, his account hadn’t been hacked after all—it was the world that had changed.

Ryan Howard fished out the ten yuan that Big Scott had given him from his school uniform pocket and spread it out on the desk.

Now his total assets were fifty-eight yuan and seventy-three cents.

He let out a long sigh of relief.

His life hadn’t changed, which meant it wouldn’t get any worse, and he even had an extra ten yuan.

Ryan Howard felt like he’d made a profit.

Of course, he would never tell Big Scott the truth.

※※※

Olivia Lee had already showered, dried her hair, changed into a loose white men’s T-shirt as pajamas, and was sitting cross-legged on her bed playing with her phone.

All the things she’d moved in that afternoon were still piled up on the desk and floor, basically untouched. The only thing tidied up in the room was the bed.

From outside the half-open door came a knock and her dad’s voice: “Time to sleep, Olivia. You have to report to school tomorrow.”

“What was Mom and Dad’s alma mater like?” Olivia Lee asked.

Standing outside the door, John Lee chuckled, “You’ll see for yourself tomorrow, won’t you?”

“Oh, right.”

“Go to sleep now, everyone’s tired today. We have to get up early tomorrow. It’s your first day at school, you can’t be late.”

Olivia Lee obediently slipped under the covers, leaving only her eyes exposed as she looked at her dad outside the door. “Good night, Dad.”

“Good night, Olivia.” John Lee turned off the light in his daughter’s room and closed the door for her.

Amid the patter of rain outside the window, separated by a door, her father’s footsteps going downstairs sounded distant and indistinct.

Olivia Lee opened her eyes wide and gazed out the window.

Against the black sky, white lines of rain kept falling from the eaves, as if a beaded curtain had been hung over the night.

That was the school where Dad and Mom met…

Olivia Lee felt a bit nervous, but also full of anticipation.

※※※

A modern school gate was reflected in a puddle. The four bronze characters “东川中学” above the gate had been washed clean by the rain, and now, in the morning sunlight, they gleamed as if coated in gold, no longer dull and lifeless as before.

Below the four big characters, the school gate was almost closed, leaving only a small entrance on the far right for people to come and go.

A bustling crowd was usually the most common sight under this school gate, but not at this moment.

The bell for morning reading had just rung, and the sound of students reading could be faintly heard at the gate.

The reflection in the puddle was like a still painting, capturing every peaceful morning at this school.

Until a foot splashed through the puddle.

The tranquility was broken by hurried footsteps and heavy breathing, just like the shattered image in the water.

When the broken reflection in the water re-formed, in the slightly trembling image, a small, thin figure in a Dongchuan Middle School uniform was dashing in through that small entrance.

“Which class are you from!” a loud shout came from the guard room.

“Class 2, Grade 10—” The figure had already run far away, and the reply drifted back from a distance.

※※※

The bell for morning reading had already rung for three minutes. There were few people on campus, but from the distant teaching building came the rising and falling sound of students reading aloud.

John Lee strolled through the quiet campus, glancing around, and then his gaze landed on an L-shaped, four-story teaching building. Right next to it stood a six-story building, its beautiful glass curtain wall and pristine white exterior especially striking in the post-rain sunlight.

Set against the backdrop of the beautiful new teaching building, the shorter building beside it looked even shabbier.

He sighed, “When I first enrolled, this was still called the ‘new building’… Now it’s become the old one.”

A white-haired old man beside him laughed heartily, “Well, that was thirty years ago, after all.”