On National Day in 2013, the sky was clear and blue, and every street and alley was adorned with red flags and a few banners celebrating the holiday.
During the evening rush hour, when people were leaving work and school, a car accident suddenly occurred on Renmin Road. Countless injured and unconscious individuals were rushed to the hospital.
Lin Baiyu was also among them.
But she was also very lucky; she was just a passerby who was slightly grazed, sustaining a cut on her wrist, but for some reason, she fainted.
Lin Baiyu had woken up ten minutes ago.
She stared at her arm for a long time; the wound gradually shrank, then disappeared.
The nurses were swamped, running around in circles, but finally, it was Lin Baiyu's turn.
When she saw the red mole between Lin Baiyu's eyebrows, the nurse was stunned for a moment.
"Let me see your hand."
After seeing the clean, spotless wrist, she exclaimed, "Where's the wound?"
Lin Baiyu said with certainty, "You must have seen wrong, I wasn't injured."
The nurse heard this, half-believing, half-doubting, but seeing it with her own eyes, it was true. "Could it be that there were too many injured people in this accident, and I remembered wrong...?" she mused.
Only after the nurse had walked away did Lin Baiyu finally let out a sigh of relief.
This wasn't the first time she had encountered this situation.
From childhood to adulthood, Lin Baiyu had essentially never been injured. Or, more precisely, even if she was injured, the wound would disappear very quickly.
Not just injuries, but also colds and other illnesses.
These strange
Seeing the benefits, the uncle's entire family continuously accepted interviews from the start. Later, as the hype gradually faded, he began actively seeking out TV programs, forcing Lin Baiyu to participate.
These weren't good programs; Lin Baiyu became their money-making tool.
If she didn't cry, they would put eyedrops in her eyes or pinch her.
Of course, only a small portion of the donated money ever reached her hands.
Lin Baiyu touched her beautiful eyes; she loved them the most. Yet in the dream, because she cried too much, she could no longer see clearly.
In the dream, she endured humiliation and hardship, wanting to leave her uncle's house.
After finishing high school exams, she didn't see any admission notice. Her cousin took her place at university, and because Lin Baiyu was already eighteen, she was kicked out of her uncle's house.
Lin Baiyu's eyes went from not seeing clearly to seeing everything as blurry outlines.
In her condition, she naturally couldn't live a normal life.
She was utterly miserable.
Perhaps because her situation was so utterly miserable, some good things eventually happened.
For example, her eyes weren't completely ruined. Instead, when Lin Baiyu couldn't see clearly, someone took her in and cared for her wholeheartedly.
She couldn't clearly see the man's appearance, but she heard people call him Brother Sui.
Later, she truly went blind, but she underwent surgery.
But the good things didn't last long.
Because right after the surgery, and while still in recovery, Lin Baiyu was rescued by the police.
The uncle's entire family appeared again, claiming she had been imprisoned.
The person who saved her was charged with various crimes. He was a villain.
Because he was a villain, everything he did was wrong.
How miserable.
Lin Baiyu couldn't take this dream lightly, because she had lived seventeen years smoothly and had never dreamed such a terrifying dream before.
Poverty! And blindness!
Lin Baiyu opened her eyes. The first thing she did was open her handbag, and only felt relieved when she saw a few hundred yuan next to her school ID.
Thankfully, the money was still there.
After summarizing the content of the miserable dream story, Lin Baiyu still harbored doubts about some of the distorted content.
For example, she had just actually looked up Nanhuai Street.
Since moving to Fengnan City, Lin Baiyu had never known about this street.
Lin Baiyu thought it over and over, then got on bus number 39.
She had checked the route; the final stop of route 39 was Nanhuai Street.
As they were about to arrive, the passengers on the bus were all elderly women holding senior citizen cards, out to buy vegetables. Each of them stared unreservedly at the standing girl.
They had been riding this route for decades, basically all knew each other, and had never seen anyone with such a beautiful relative.
Her skin was dazzlingly white, especially the mole between her eyebrows, like a doll in a New Year's painting, or a fairy sitting beneath Guanyin.
"We've arrived at Nanhuai Street. Please exit through the back door."
Lin Baiyu felt a burden lifted and quickly got off the bus.
What met her eyes was a dilapidated alley, at the entrance of which stood a large pagoda tree. This was an old alley, one could even say a slum.
Several houses near the alley entrance had their main doors and windows wide open. Balconies extended outwards, sun-drying laundry, and one could even see bright red underwear.
In the dream, this was where she lived.
Now, Lin Baiyu, wearing a brand-new, pristine white princess dress and small leather shoes, stood on the dirty bluestone slab. Seeing reality and her dream perfectly align, she felt it was truly miraculous.
So, South Huai Street really existed.
Lin Baiyu recalled that dream: her eldest uncle's vampire family lived here, and she had been brought here to be raised, staying for six years.
But watching the "movie" in her head was like a fleeting glance; she couldn't remember too many details.
Lin Baiyu's eyes swept across the head of South Huai Street: an old woman washing vegetables, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law arguing, a mother and child fighting...
All of them matched the people in her dream.
It was as if in this reality, only she was different, having escaped South Huai Street.
Even the convenience store at the alley's entrance was there.
At this moment, inside the convenience store, besides Wang Guihua, whom Lin Baiyu had seen in her dream, there was also a man wearing a gold chain.
"Can this really be on TV?"
Lin Baiyu's gaze fell on Wang Guihua's face, then shifted to the intricately patterned tray in the man's hand.
Recently, a very popular antique appraisal show had been airing. Many people brought out their family heirlooms, hoping they were antiques worth tens of millions.
There were also those who took advantage of this to swindle people. Wang Guihua's family had a tray from the Republic of China era, which was swindled away by a con artist just like this.
Later, the neighbors on South Huai Street saw the Wang family's tray on TV, but by then, it had already become the property of the swindler.
"Of course! As long as the experts appraise it as an antique, you'll strike it rich," the man swore. "You just need to agree."
"Agr—"
"Do you have your work ID?" Lin Baiyu stepped into the convenience store. "Auntie Wang, you must make sure he's actually staff from the show."
Wang Guihua, seeing an unfamiliar beautiful girl, didn't question how the girl knew her. "Right, right, right, work ID!"
The man looked at Lin Baiyu, his expression displeased. He raised his gold chain. "Do I need to swindle you? Look at this! Do I look like someone who needs to cheat people?"
Lin Baiyu raised her chin. "Then show us your work ID."
"Also, sir, the chain around your neck has faded."
Wang Guihua's eyes widened. Sure enough, she saw a dark patch showing through on one of the beads. "It's fake!"
She grabbed the tray and yanked it back, the flesh on her face jiggling with the motion. The other party was stunned and couldn't match her strength.
"What show? Not participating, not participating!"
"You're the one who's faded!" The man frantically let go, seeing his scheme interrupted. Noticing Lin Baiyu seemed to be just a student, he raised his hand. "Mind your own business!"
"Auntie Wang."
The man only felt a gust of wind behind him, and the arm he was about to swing stopped mid-air.
Lin Baiyu turned her head.
The young man standing at the doorway had strong facial features and faded clothes. He glanced at the man with the gold chain, then stepped into the convenience store.
The twilight glow of dusk shone on his face, a clearly warm color, but Lin Baiyu saw indifference and apathy in his eyes, carrying a sense of cold detachment.
Wang Guihua asked, "What do you want to buy?"
"Band-aids."
Lin Baiyu found his voice very familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before.
“Band-aids again. You get hurt every two or three days, why can’t you ever stop?” Wang Guihua said teasingly, taking out a box of band-aids. “Where are you hurt this time?”
“My arm.”
“I told you, I don’t give credit here.”
Lin Baiyu saw the young man place a coin on the counter.
Wang Guihua pocketed it, changing her tone. “Just help me mind the shop for half a day tomorrow.”
As he left the convenience store, the young man and Lin Baiyu’s eyes met.
He glanced at her, his gaze fixed on the space between her brows for a few seconds.
Someone as radiant and beautiful as her didn’t belong in this place.
Lin Baiyu unconsciously took a step back, watching him leave with the band-aid, disappearing into the dirty alley.
As for the swindler who had just tried to hit someone, he had already taken advantage of their distraction and run off.
“Auntie Wang, you’re really kind-hearted.” Lin Baiyu turned back.
In her dream, the convenience store was also a place she often visited.
It was just that today was the first time she saw it in reality, yet she felt no sense of unfamiliarity at all, as if she had known Wang Guihua for a very long time.
“Nonsense! Even if you praise me, I won’t give you credit!” Wang Guihua rejected the compliment, then suddenly remembered, “How do you know my surname is Wang?”
Lin Baiyu couldn’t very well say, *I know you from my dream*.
She quickly came up with an excuse: “I came here looking for relatives from before. I heard about you previously, but I don’t know if they’re still here.”
Wang Guihua didn’t suspect a thing. “I know everyone around here, tell me who you’re looking for.”
“Do you know Lin Youzhi?”
“Never heard of him.”
Lin Baiyu changed the subject. “Isn’t it at number 54?”
Wang Guihua shook her head. “The people at number 54 aren’t surnamed Lin, they’re surnamed Sui.”
That surname made Lin Baiyu think of someone else.
A man with a long criminal record, but who had reached out to save her. He was portrayed as such a villain, so evil, so perhaps in reality, he was very kind.
Wang Guihua observed that the dress Lin Baiyu was wearing was no ordinary dress, and she wondered when the Sui family had acquired such a wealthy relative.
“Are you a relative of that family? I advise you not to go there.”
She lowered her voice. “None of them are good people.”
For some reason, Wang Guihua really liked this girl she had just met for the first time; there were no girls as well-behaved as her in Nanhuai Street.
“Did you see the young man who just bought the band-aid? He’s an example. He’s severely abused.” Wang Guihua said with disdain, “It’s not easy for Sui Qin to survive.”
Hearing that name, Lin Baiyu was stunned.
The same name as the villain in her dream.
What a coincidence.
“May you always be safe, even if the world collapses.”
——oOo——