The encounter between two people is a fate of one in seven billion.

Song Ran used to pay it no mind, thinking the saying was overly sentimental. But now, she was experiencing the minuteness and helplessness of that one-in-seven-billion figure to the fullest.

That man named Ah Zan—she didn't know his name or what he looked like. She had only ever seen his eyes and brows above a black mask.

That was all.

With such a shallow connection, she probably wouldn't even recognize him if they passed each other on the street someday.

She hid her disappointment and began interviewing Luo Zhan with a set of questions she had prepared earlier. She had some understanding of the background, so she wouldn't give herself away.

At first, she wondered if maybe Ah Zan was Luo Zhan. But upon hearing his voice, she was certain he wasn't.

Luo Zhan mistook her lack of focus for nervousness and said with a smile, "You must be a new reporter, right?"

"No." Song Ran concealed her panic and said, "...I've just never interviewed a soldier before."

"Don't be nervous, I'm not a scary person."

Song Ran smiled sheepishly and asked, "I saw in Shen Bei's interview that you encountered an explosion during the evacuation and saved a female compatriot?"

"Yes. She mistakenly got into a car that had a bomb in it..."

Song Ran, still not giving up, asked if there were any other similar dangerous incidents involving explosions that their team had encountered.

Luo Zhan said there weren't any.

'Ah Zan wasn't on their team.'

The drive back to Liang City was over four hours long.

In the morning, traffic flowed back and forth on the highway. Song Ran drove quietly, methodically yielding and overtaking.

On both sides of the road, lush green paddy fields and the blue-green river stretched out. The summer sun was everywhere.

She felt that she would probably never meet him again.

She arrived back in Liang City at noon. Song Ran was hungry and exhausted, and the sun had nearly drained her. It was a rare weekend when she could have rested well, but instead, she had driven for over eight hours.

She leaned back in her seat in a daze, thinking about what she had done that night. It was absurd and futile.

'She must have had a screw loose.'

Just as she was about to get out of the car, her stepmother, Yang Huilun, called and asked her to come home for lunch.

She drove into the Municipal Archives Family Courtyard, where plane trees blotted out the sun. Among them stood a single olive tree, and Song Ran glanced back at it. With the recent abundant rainfall, the olive tree was lush and verdant, its leaves glossy and smooth. It was unlike the olive groves in Dongguo, which were dusty and listless.

She parked her car in the large open space in front of the corridor-style apartment building. As soon as she reached the third-floor corridor, she heard Yang Huilun scolding Song Yang, "What time is it now? It's the end of June. Your diploma has been issued, and you still haven't found a job. I told you before to be more serious about it, but all you know is how to date."

Song Yang retorted, "It's not that I haven't been looking, I just haven't found a good one."

"Wasn't that job Auntie Li introduced to you pretty good?"

Song Yang muttered, "Good for what? Working myself to death for only twenty-five hundred a month. I'm not doing that."

"I think you're just aiming too high for your abilities. You graduated from a third-tier university and you still expect a cushy job? Your sister graduated from a prestigious university, and even she only made three thousand right after graduation. She worked overtime and went on business trips every day, and I never saw her act as spoiled as you. You were born of the same father, why can't you learn something good from her?"

Song Yang said, "I think the problem lies with the genes from Mom's side."

Yang Huilun hit Song Yang on the butt with a broom.

Song Ran walked into the house, and Song Yang ran up to hide behind her. "Sis! She's abusing a child again!"

"Ran Ran's back?" Yang Huilun's face broke into a smile, but her gaze turned fierce as she looked at Song Yang. "You'd better find a job and move out. You do nothing but provoke me from morning to night. Just looking at you is annoying."

Song Yang said, "Where would I move? My sister's mom has a house for her, but my mom doesn't."

Song Ran turned and shot her a gentle glare. Her father, Song Zhicheng, who was sitting on the small sofa reading the newspaper, also looked over.

Song Yang knew she had gone too far with the joke and quickly went to hug Yang Huilun's arm, shaking it. Yang Huilun ignored her and went to the kitchen to bring out the dishes, with Song Yang clinging to her, following her in to beg for forgiveness.

Only the father and daughter were left in the small living room.

Song Zhicheng beckoned his elder daughter to sit down, saying that he had recently been following Pre-war? A Record of Dongguo and liked it very much. For Song Ran, this was high praise. Her father had always loved collecting newspapers and magazines, specifically picking out the reports written by Song Ran to find faults sentence by sentence, study the grammar, and supplement them with supporting information.

But this time, he didn't nitpick his daughter's work. He only spoke about some of Dongguo's cultural background and historical issues related to a few of the short stories.

Yang Huilun was setting the table. She couldn't understand the father and daughter's conversation, but she wanted Song Yang to learn something from it. She turned her head, only to see Song Yang sneaking chicken gizzards by the stove. Yang Huilun sighed and went into the kitchen.

Song Zhicheng glanced in the direction his current wife had left and asked in a low voice, "What did your mom say?"

He was asking about her biological mother.

Song Ran: "She said not to go to Dongguo anymore."

Song Zhicheng fell silent.

Song Ran knew he saw her as his pride and joy, and that he also wanted to prove to his high-and-mighty ex-wife that the daughter he had raised single-handedly was outstanding. But Song Ran felt that in the eyes of her mother, a woman who had seen the world, her small-city achievements amounted to nothing.

"Are you still going to Di City for the summer vacation this year?"

"Yes. I've already requested leave." Back when she was a student, Song Ran would go to Di City every winter and summer vacation to be with her mother. After she started working, she continued to take her annual leave to do so. But this time, she had other business; she was going to meet a best-selling book planner.

Yang Huilun cooked a table full of dishes, all of which were Song Ran's favorites. But she was tired from staying up all night and didn't have much of an appetite. Not wanting to waste her good intentions, she forced herself to eat some.

As she was growing drowsy during the meal, a sentence from Yang Huilun jolted her awake: "Isn't it time for Ran Ran to get a boyfriend?"

Before Song Ran could speak, Song Yang deflected for her, "Mom, how old is Sis that you're already rushing her?"

"You started dating in middle school, how dare you speak up!" Yang Huilun glared at her, then softened her tone. "Besides, I'm just giving a reminder. I'm afraid Ran Ran will only focus on work and forget about this year after year. By the way, Ran Ran, what type do you like?"

Song Ran was stumped. She couldn't answer.

Growing up, she had never once been in a relationship. Her romantic experience was a blank sheet of paper.

She wasn't ugly; in fact, she was quite pretty and delicate, with a natural scholarly air about her. She loved to write when she was a student. Her name appeared in the school newspaper and on the radio station. She had especially good handwriting; the classroom blackboard newspaper and the school's announcement board were always beautifully written by her. Some boys had crushes on her during her school days, but she was completely oblivious. She was usually quiet and reserved, which probably gave people the impression of an aloof and cool temperament.

At a class reunion once, everyone called her an 'ice mountain beauty with talent.' Song Ran was extremely surprised. Firstly, she didn't think she was cold, and secondly, she didn't think she was a talented woman. She was just an ordinary person, as ordinary as could be.

As for that love that was so late in coming...

She suddenly thought of that person, and her heart stung: she didn't even know what he looked like.

Yang Huilun sighed, "You two... one is too quiet, and the other is too much trouble. Neither of you gives me peace of mind." She just wished Yangyang would break up with that good-for-nothing boyfriend of hers.

After lunch, Song Ran took a nap in Song Yang's room. Her family knew she was tired and tiptoed around so as not to disturb her. The only sounds were the chirping of cicadas outside the window and the noise of nearby children playing with marbles.

She slept until eight in the evening. Her parents had gone out to cool off. The food was covered with a mesh screen. Song Yang had gone out on a date, leaving her used bowls and chopsticks on the table.

Song Ran ate dinner alone. After cleaning up the dishes Song Yang had left behind, she sent a text message to her biological mother, Ran Yuwei, telling her she would be leaving at the end of the month.

On June 30th, Song Ran set off for Di City.

A heavy downpour hit Liang City again. The water level of the Yangtze River outside the city kept rising, causing flooding in many areas within the city and bringing traffic to a near standstill. She was drenched when she arrived at the airport, an hour late. But she hadn't missed her flight; it had been delayed.

The airport was packed with stranded passengers, and puddles of water were everywhere on the floor. There weren't enough seats, so large groups of passengers were sitting on the ground with their luggage. The chaos was comparable to a train station during the Spring Festival.

Outside the dome-shaped glass windows, the rain poured down in sheets.

Some people cursed as they left, but most were still waiting for a miracle. Until, at a certain moment, lightning flashed and thunder roared in the sky above the airport. One by one, the flight statuses on the information board turned red, changing from 'Delayed' to 'Canceled'.

The vast airport instantly erupted in a clamor of voices, thick with resentment.

Song Ran stood on the periphery, professionally taking photos with her phone. After a quick recording, she sighed. She definitely wouldn't be able to get a taxi back now, and she wondered if the subway was still running.

She was pulling her small carry-on suitcase, trying to get through the packed crowd. Suddenly, a commotion broke out. Some passengers had started a conflict with the ground staff, and a small scuffle ensued. In an instant, all the anger ignited. The passengers thronged together, pushing, shouting, and cursing, confronting the ground staff, flight crew, and security personnel.

Song Ran tried to raise her phone to film, but she was trapped in the crowd, swept along by the flow, unable to regain her balance.

Both sides were furious, and more and more people joined the brawl. Song Ran was engulfed in the crowd, unable to keep her footing. Her tightly gripped carry-on was kicked and shoved around. Her arm felt like it was about to be torn off, and she couldn't maintain her balance at all.

Just as the situation was deteriorating, a shout suddenly came from somewhere: "The police are here! The police are here!"

The frenzied crowd quieted for a moment, but the troublemakers at the center of the storm didn't stop, continuing to drag and beat several flight attendants.

A team of special police officers sliced through the crowd like a sharp blade, reaching the center in seconds and subduing the brawlers, pinning them to the ground.

Seeing this, some of the people on the sidelines who had been eager to join in didn't dare to step forward anymore. They were all bullies who preyed on the weak and feared the strong.

But people on the outskirts were still pushing their way in.

Several special police officers in black formed a line, separating the crowd. They used their bodies to hold back the constantly surging tide of people, shouting, "Back up! Don't push! Back up!" While holding back the crowd, they created a path to evacuate people in an orderly manner.

"Don't push! Back up!"

Someone shouted at a few foreigners in the crowd, "Stay put!"

Song Ran was startled and immediately looked toward the sound. Through the layers of chaotic figures, she suddenly saw him.

Above the black mask, his brows were tightly furrowed, his eyes bright, as he held back the surging crowd. "Back up!"

That vague memory became clear in an instant.

Song Ran suddenly pushed her way towards him with all her might, parting the dense crowd involuntarily. She saw him about to give his spot to a teammate. He left the human wall and was about to take away the troublemakers from behind it.

Song Ran's heart pounded wildly. In her desperation, she let go of her cumbersome carry-on suitcase and squeezed towards him with all her might.

There were too many people. She used all her strength to push to the edge and reached out to grab him from two or three people away, but he turned to leave at that exact moment.

Song Ran's hand grabbed at empty air. For a moment, she was stunned with anxiety, all the blood rushing to her head. She suddenly shouted, "Ah Zan!"

The surroundings were noisy, a cacophony of voices.

"Ah Zan!!!"

He paused and turned his head, his brows knitted, his eyes filled with confusion.

She pushed forward abruptly, practically lunging, her hand reaching over the human wall formed by the special police, and yanked his mask off in one swift motion.

Face to face, she saw a handsome and youthful face.