The review meeting ended. Shen Yixuan was the last to leave the review committee. He sat in his chair without moving. Head lowered. Fingers threaded through his hair.



Shen Zhengye walked over to him and stood there for a long time.



"Yixuan, I know everything you did. You sent people to Shiqiao Village. You stole DNA samples. You attacked her reputation at the bidding meeting."



Shen Yixuan finally looked up. His eyes were bloodshot.



"Dad, I-"



"You call me Dad, and I'll still answer. But what you did, you know it clearly yourself."



Shen Yixuan's tears fell.



"I was just afraid. Since childhood, you and Mom searched for her every year. Every year on her birthday, Mom would make her favorite braised pork ribs, then sit in that pink room and cry. I know Mom's most beloved person in her heart isn't me. I've always just been a placeholder. Once she's back, I'll have nothing. The company, the family, you two-everything will be hers."



Shen Zhengye was silent for a very long time.



"Yixuan, I never treated you as a substitute. Nian'nian is your older sister. Now that she's back, you won't lose this family. You'll gain a relative. But what you did has already crossed the line. Fabricating documents. Framing someone. These things, you know them clearly yourself."



"I know."



"You need to bear the consequences yourself."



Shen Yixuan nodded. He stood up and wiped his face. When he passed by Wanting, he stopped.



"I'm sorry."



He lowered his head.



Wanting looked at him. This younger brother, four years her junior, whom she hadn't even known existed until today. He was afraid of losing, so he desperately tried to block her. This kind of fear-she understood it. She had grown up in Shiqiao Village. She knew all too well the feeling of being afraid of losing the only things you had.



"I don't forgive what you did. But I understand why you did it."



Shen Yixuan was stunned for a moment.



Shen Yixuan nodded and turned to leave.



That afternoon, Shen Yixuan turned himself in.



In the evening, Wanting followed Shen Zhengye and Gu Zhilan back home. The elevator doors opened onto a long corridor. At the end of the corridor, that pink door stood open. She walked in. The gauze curtains were washed until white. The carpet corners were frayed. The cloth rabbit sat on the headboard, a patch on its ear. For twenty-four years, this room had been waiting here for her to return.



Gu Zhilan stood at the doorway and softly said:



"Nian'nian, your room."



Wanting sat on that small princess bed and touched the bedsheet. On the bedsheet was a faint, sweet fragrance-the kind Gu Zhilan put in the wardrobe every season when she changed clothes. She picked up that cloth rabbit. Her fingers touched the patch on the left ear. Two stitches. She looked down at the scar on her own left earlobe. They matched.



She hugged the rabbit to her chest and closed her eyes. This time, that dream finally didn't shatter. A small courtyard. A large tree. Someone lifting her very high. In the distance, someone was calling her name. She heard it clearly.



"Nian'nian, come here."



It was Mom's voice.