Xin Chen looked up and gazed at the house she lived in, her balcony was lush with greenery and vibrant flowers, a stark contrast to the closed-off or cluttered balconies of her neighbors.

  She stayed at home for a few days, completing the most urgent work on hand, after handing it over to the advertising company, she found a restaurant and ordered a seaweed ribs soup and a bowl of rice for lunch, after eating, she went to the supermarket to buy some essential food for staying at home, walking back home lazily, only then did she realize that today was not ordinary.

  The originally sultry and gloomy afternoon, the residential area had few people outside, but now gathered in twos and threes of neighbors, pointing at the new demolition notice posted on the wall, while discussing it.

  This residential area is located in the downtown golden zone, with old buildings that were listed on the planning red line a few years ago. There have been rumors of demolition and relocation, and measuring personnel have been seen taking measurements, but nothing has come of it. Many people still hold the same mindset, but some informed sources have started to release exclusive news in a somewhat mysterious tone: "It's said that a large group from Shenzhen has taken over this land, planning to build a shopping mall and office building, and this time it's for real." Next comes the mutual inquiry about demolition compensation and relocation arrangements.

  Xin Chen wasn't really interested in these things, and that day she said she didn't remember how long she had lived here. As soon as the words left her mouth, she couldn't help but mock herself a little, because the time was actually very clear - she had been living here since birth, for exactly twenty-five years now.

  This is the dormitory allocated to Xin Chen's grandparents. After the two elderly people passed away one after another, Xin Kai Ming gave up his inheritance rights despite his wife's opposition and asked his younger brother Xin Kai Yu to give up as well, putting the house in Xin Chen's name. "If you make money from doing business, you can naturally give your daughter more, but first put this house in your daughter's name, it's a basic thing for her, and it saves you from losing money, so that your daughter has no place to live."

  Xin Kaiyu knew his brother didn't trust him, so he nodded in agreement and went with him to complete the formalities.

  At the age of 12, Xin Chen became a property owner, although it was just an old dormitory with two rooms. At that time, she had no concept of this action, but later she understood her uncle's kindness and couldn't help but feel grateful to him.

  Every time Xindi mentions to Xincheng that she likes her father, Xin Kaiyu, Xincheng feels conflicted. Of course, she loves her father, such a happy and stress-free father who has never scolded her from childhood to adulthood, and has always spoiled her little temper, how could she not love him?

  However, Xinkai Yu is also a man who lives a happy and stress-free life. He would arrange for his daughter to have meals at a nearby small restaurant on account, to be settled at the end of the month, because he simply can't cook and doesn't have the time; he would return home very late, not like other parents who supervise homework and check assignments, even when he's not on a business trip, sometimes he wouldn't come back for the night, just calling to remind her to sleep and lock the doors and windows; he would also rush out in the middle of the night after receiving a phone call, and it was obvious that the caller was a woman.

  He had brought women home before, although the pretty aunt came and tidied up the room, swept the floor and started cooking, behaving very virtuously, but Xincheng didn't think the room was cleaner, and the steaming hot dishes on the table were a manifestation of a normal family order. From childhood to adulthood, too many women had taken care of her, knitting sweaters, hats, and making delicious food for her, only to disappear once they broke up with her father.

  She naturally didn't like this newcomer and after dinner bluntly told her: "Why haven't you gone home yet?"

  The beautiful aunt was embarrassed, Xin Kaiyu acted as if nothing had happened, just smiling and letting his daughter hurry back to her room to do her homework. But Xin Chen wasn't so easy to get rid of, she made a phone call to her uncle Xin Kaoming in front of the two people. Children have the most accurate intuition in some ways, she knew that her aunt didn't particularly like her, while her uncle loved her just as much as he loved Xin Di.

  Xin Kaiyu had always indulged Xin Chen's spoiled nature, listening to her coquettishly telling her uncle on the phone that her father had brought home another strange aunt again and wouldn't leave at night, disturbing her homework. He didn't get angry, just sighed and patted his daughter's head, "Good baby, stop making a fuss, I'll send Auntie home."

  Xin Kaiyu returned home after sending off his girlfriend, and Xin Kaiming also rushed over to check on Xin Chen's homework. As soon as he saw him, he scolded him severely and gave him a good lecture.

  Xin Kaiming held onto a glimmer of hope and first asked his younger brother if he was ready to fall in love and get married. "If that's the case, I won't object to you bringing her back home, letting her slowly get familiar with Xiaochen and cultivate feelings for each other, so they can get along well in the future. However, you must also be self-disciplined and not stay overnight casually."

  Xin Kaiyu shook his head and smiled as usual, "I just want to have a good romance. Get married? I haven't thought about it yet, and I don't plan on finding a stepmother for Chenzi."

  Xin Kai Ming would be strange if he wasn't enraged by this answer, "Then you shouldn't bring all the Zhangs and Lis to your home, Xiao Chen is only 13 years old, girls develop mentally early, do you think it's good for your daughter to expose her to your romantic history so early? It's better to find a gentle woman as her stepmother."

  Xin Kaiyu didn't intend to go against his conservative older brother, but admitted that he had a point. "Alright, alright, big bro, I promise you, from now on I won't bring anyone home again, okay?"

  He did what he said and indeed never brought another woman back home. The household was maintained in a state without a female owner, Xincheng had no concept of motherhood, nor did he feel that this was a huge void.

  In fact, Xin Chen felt that his life was fundamentally flawless.

  If she hadn't met Lu Fei, she would have thought so forever.

  That's because you've never tried having it. You bitterly tell yourself that as long as you've never had it, you can pretend you don't need those things, including a mother, including love.

  But at the age of 14, these things came flooding in like a tide, without asking if she needed them, and then rushed away, leaving her still living in this old dormitory area, like an empty beach after the tide has receded, with only her left to look around in confusion.

  "Has your flower withered, Xin Chen?" an old, hoarse voice pulled her back to reality.

  The one asking questions was Mr. Lü from the opposite building, who was over 50 years old, had a kind and outgoing personality, and had lived there for a long time, watching Xinchen grow up.

  Xin Chen smiled, "Most of the plants I grow are herbaceous and can only live until autumn, so don't worry about them. As for the others, we can give them away when we move. Uncle Lü, what about your pigeons?"

  Lü Shifu has been fond of raising homing pigeons for decades, and many neighbors have been disturbed by it. During the SARS epidemic and bird flu outbreak, he was even ordered to dispose of them himself. However, he didn't give up, always packing the pigeons into boxes and sending them to the countryside, waiting for the storm to pass before bringing them back.

  Before Xincheng, she also hated being woken up by the cooing of pigeons in the morning and couldn't sleep in. But later on, she gradually accepted the existence of this sound. In her spare time, she often sat on her own balcony watching Master Lv train homing pigeons to fly, which relaxed her visual fatigue and calmed her mind.

  Lü Shifu chuckled, "I'm just moving to the suburbs, fresh air, spacious place, and I can also raise more competitive babies. Good riddance, good riddance, I've been looking forward to this day for a long time."

  Xin Chen smiled and nodded, carrying things upstairs, turning on the air conditioner, and the indoor temperature quickly became cool and comfortable. She lay down on the soft couch and suddenly didn't want to work anymore.

  "I should be leaving too."

  Xin Chen wasn't the first time she had this idea, but that day facing Lu Fei was the first time she said it out loud. The sentence echoed in her ears again, and surprisingly, it carried a hint of an unfamiliar echo, not quite like her own voice anymore.

  Then where to go?

  After graduating from Xindi University, she once wanted to work in a place with developed coastal garment industry. She went to practice abroad and was impressed by the famous garment company's design works and awards during her school days. They had intended to sign a contract with her. However, her mother Li Xiang suffered from rheumatic heart disease, which suddenly relapsed acutely that summer. Her father was a busy leader of an organization and couldn't take care of her mother, so she returned home to take care of her mother. With some regret, she submitted her resume to Suomei and was hired smoothly, working there until today.

  Although her development is considered good among her peers, she has always envied her younger cousin's carefree and independent life. "Zhenzi, you can go wherever you want to go, you are much freer than me."

  Xin Chen smiled but didn't answer, of course, that's the theory. Xin Kaiyu started doing business in Kunming when she was in her third year of high school and had already semi-settled there, only occasionally coming back. The only one who hoped she would stay was her eldest uncle, whose reason was simply that a girl shouldn't go out and suffer.

  Everyone thought that Xincheng, who had liked traveling and hiking since college, would go to work outside after graduation. That year, she even said that she was preparing to try out job opportunities in the big city, and Xin Kaiming couldn't stop her. However, contrary to everyone's expectations, she went out for half a month and quietly returned.

  Li Xiang pouted, determined that she couldn't find a job and had to slink back home with her tail between her legs. Xin Kai Ming said: "How did you get so thin? Don't worry about it, we'll talk about it after graduation, I'll think of something."

  Xin Chen, who was called home by his uncle to eat, didn't explain or say anything. A faint smile hung on his thin face.

  Xin Chen returned from his uncle's house, opened the door to his own home, and looked at the desolate and cold house. Suddenly, for the first time, he asked himself: How long have I been living here? How much longer will I live here?

  Later, this problem often lingered in her mind, but she not only settled down, but also renovated the house and started growing flowers after earning some money. The momentum even made her uncle nod in approval. Xin Kaiming had always believed that "those who have a steady income have a steady heart". He felt that this child was finally not following his unstable brother's legacy, and this move was considered to be settling down.

  Only Xincheng herself knew that she did all this, just to comfort herself a little bit. This house had too many memories, and if she didn't thoroughly renovate and change it, she wouldn't be able to live here.

  Xin Chen, in order to rush her current work, had been staying up for several nights in a row. She lay on the soft couch, drowsy and asleep, having chaotic dreams. Her phone rang, she subconsciously answered it, it was a client asking about a detail modification of a design draft. She casually agreed, asking him to send an email as backup. The client thought she was meticulous, but only she herself knew that she was still in a half-asleep state and hadn't taken in anything at all.

  She turned her phone to silent mode and threw it aside, continuing to sleep until the doorbell rang again, waking her up. The sound of the doorbell grew clearer and more insistent, but she was completely paralyzed, feeling only shortness of breath and a numbness that had spread throughout her body, having lost all control over her limbs.

  Xin Chen was not the first time to encounter such a situation, and she had specifically consulted a doctor about it, so at this moment she was not panicked, but tried her best to concentrate, waiting for her breathing to calm down. She slowly moved her arm, and as she gradually recovered her mobility, she got out of bed and walked to the door, looking through the peephole to see Lu Fei standing outside, his face serious, his hand reaching out to press the doorbell again.

  She opened the door, "What's up?"

  "How come you haven't opened the door for so long and aren't answering phone calls?"

  "I didn't hear it, I fell asleep." She said simply, making room for him to enter, pushing the swivel chair in front of the computer desk towards him, and sitting back on the soft couch herself. She picked up her phone with one hand, seeing several missed calls on it, deleting all the unfamiliar numbers, then replying to the familiar ones one by one. "It's done, yeah, I'll bring it over tomorrow for you to see, uh-huh, okay, goodbye." "I've said it before, I won't be able to make her look like Zhang Ziyi, the only thing they have in common is their gender. If you want to Photoshop a celebrity face, don't bother looking for me, you can do it yourself." She paused for a moment, then laughed impatiently. "Fine, just leave it like that, you explain it to her yourself."

  Xin Chen had just put down his phone, but Lu Fei took out her own phone and dialed a number. The phone flashed silently in her hand, an unfamiliar number. He looked at her, "Save my number, don't delete it as an unknown call again."

  Xin Chen hesitated for a moment, did as he was told, then looked up and smiled: "Anything else? I have another task to rush through."

  "Have you been staying up late these past few days?"

  "No, I'm usually asleep by 12 o'clock."

  Her tone was nonchalant, Lu Fei looked at her from top to bottom, "Had another nightmare?"

  Xin Chen's smile froze, she knew that no matter how she pretended, it was all in vain. How could she forget, from the age of 14, she had experienced this nightmare for the first time, and since then, such a situation would appear from time to time, commonly known as "ghost pressing body". The person in front of her had seen her being entangled by nightmares, struggling in horror. He had hugged her tightly, gently patted her back to comfort her, and later took her to see a doctor to determine the cause of this situation.

  Of course, with a scientific explanation, it's actually not scary at all. It's just a case of sleep paralysis, where the brain partially wakes up during sudden arousal, but the neural centers controlling muscles haven't fully awakened yet. Although there may be an uncomfortable feeling, one is unable to move. This can be considered a normal physiological phenomenon and has nothing to do with ghosts or evil spirits, nor will it have any adverse effects on physical health.

  After she started going for regular outdoor hikes and keeping to a schedule, sleep paralysis occurred less often. Even when it did happen, it wasn't a big deal; she just waited quietly for it to pass. But today, facing his deep and calm eyes, she felt like she had lost the ability to move for the first time after waking up completely, as if she had fallen back into the nightmares of her past.