Due to needing several bus transfers along the way, what should have been a two-hour journey on the bullet train would be extended to four or five hours.

But this time, Lin Nan was riding in a carpool.

Holding her cat carrier, she sat on the right side of the back seat, her brow slightly furrowed as she looked at the scenery outside the car window. Her heart was extremely uneasy and anxious, making it impossible for her to feel any joy about going home.

Chen Yao occasionally looked down to check the carpool route on the map, chatting sporadically with the driver about recent international news and national affairs. After a while, the topic shifted to employment issues and work complaints, then the driver started bragging about his recent visit to a bathhouse.

"There's a woman here," Chen Yao interrupted the driver.

"Oh, I forgot." The driver had almost forgotten about Lin Nan, who had been silent since getting in the car.

After more than two hours of driving, Lin Nan finally saw familiar streets in the scenery.

Her hometown was just a county town, no skyscrapers, no tree-lined streets. All she could see were the somewhat dilapidated, old, low buildings on both sides of the street. Most of the buildings here were seven or eight stories tall, with no elevators, all old and worn.

While her family's urban village was located in the county center, it was still just a village after all. The streets were so narrow that even cars had difficulty passing through. Everywhere was dirty water and filth, with the noisy clamor of street vendors.

The car stopped at the entrance to the urban village. Lin Nan silently pushed open the door and took her suitcase from the trunk.

The suitcase contained her computer and several sets of clothes, packed just full. Only Cola's food bowl and litter box would need to be purchased locally nearby.

"Should I come with you?" Chen Yao looked at the departing carpool car, gazing at her with slight concern.

"No need." Lin Nan shook her head and refused.

But her face showed obvious worry. Chen Yao was helpless and could only remind her with concern: "Call me if anything happens."

"Mm."

Lin Nan nodded, dragging her suitcase and carrying her backpack as she walked into the urban village.

She had lived here since middle school. The urban village had a complex mix of people with high foot traffic, but the small stalls on the street and neighbors were still the same familiar faces today. However, these faces now didn't show the same warmth as before when they saw her figure. They were as indifferent as if seeing a stranger, at most just surprised by her youth and beauty.

Lin Nan knew they probably couldn't recognize her anymore.

Passing by the breakfast shop she had patronized every day during middle and high school, she instinctively smiled and nodded at the familiar owner, but saw the owner look up with a confused expression, wondering who this girl in front of him was.

Last time she came back, Lin Nan didn't have this kind of leisure time, but this time, she truly and tangibly felt that the former Lin Nan was drifting away with the wind.

She didn't pay him much attention, lowered her head, and continued toward home.

Walking into the familiar building and dragging her suitcase up the stairs, Lin Nan's emotions became increasingly tense and dejected. It wasn't until she reached the door that she suddenly looked up at the familiar door number.

Setting down her suitcase and taking out her key to try opening the door, she discovered that her key no longer matched the lock at home.

Had her parents moved somewhere else?

Lin Nan stared blankly at the new lock, somewhat confused as she took out her phone to call her mother.

However, she heard footsteps from inside the house, perhaps having heard the light sound of the key against the lock.

After a moment, the door opened, and her father's weary face appeared before her.

Lin Nan looked up at her tall but gaunt father. Compared to two months ago, his face seemed even more aged, with wrinkles appearing more densely across his face and deeper creases around his eyes.

"Who are you?"

Her father looked at the girl at the door. The girl took two startled steps back after hearing his voice, her eyes full of wariness. Looking at that familiar face, he gradually remembered the girl he had seen at the hospital two months ago.

"Lin Nan?"

If he remembered correctly, that's how the child's mother had introduced her then.

"Mm." The girl timidly lowered her head.

"Come in." Her father casually picked up Lin Nan's suitcase, glanced at the cat in her hands without saying much, and turned to walk into the house.

Lin Nan had thought that seeing her father again would make her hysterical, dismissive, or indifferent, but she didn't expect that when they actually met, her heart only carried some fear and wariness.

Her father's reaction also seemed too calm in her eyes.

She walked into the house, watching her father carry her suitcase into her room, but felt at a loss. In this once-familiar home, she felt like a guest.

"Sit down, let's talk..."

Her father sat stiffly with a stern face. Lin Nan quickly put down the cat carrier and walked forward with her head lowered.

The two sat on the sofa. Her father turned on the TV and watched an anti-Japanese war drama with interest.

If she remembered correctly, her father loved TV dramas the most. No matter what drama it was, he could watch it. He seemed to watch dramas without using his brain, just to relax.

Lin Nan had few impressions of her father, only remembering that stern, rigid face that had always been frightening. As a child, she never dared act spoiled in front of her father, and when she grew up, there was no communication between them at all.

"Your mother divorced me." He crossed his legs, leaning back on the sofa, playing with the remote control in his hand. "We split the house half and half. You're an adult now, but I'll support you until you graduate from university."

"Mm."

This time, her father seemed to accept her quite calmly.

Lin Nan's muscles were tense all over, afraid her father would say something hurtful again.

"Your mother said you have some kind of illness?" He suddenly turned to look at Lin Nan.

"Deformity." Lin Nan took out the ID card that Lina had magically processed and handed it to him, answering weakly: "I'm already... a girl now."

Her father only glanced at the ID card before handing it back to Lin Nan, his expression showing no change. He seemed to have already accepted this matter and had no doubts, or maybe he wasn't clear about the surgery at all?

Perhaps her father's words last time were just angry words said during a fight with her mother?

Seeing him like this, Lin Nan felt slightly relieved. Until now, her father had only opened the door for her and carried her suitcase once, always maintaining that rigid expression, yet he had easily made most of the resentment in Lin Nan's heart dissipate.

I'm really cheap.

Lin Nan thought this way.

"So you'll be a girl from now on?" Her father didn't wait for Lin Nan's answer and continued as if talking to himself: "That's fine too... having a son or daughter is the same. Daughters are more filial to their parents."

He seemed to be hypnotizing himself, but still shook his head: "Don't come back for New Year. Can't afford to lose face like that."

"I don't want to come back either..." Lin Nan hung her head low, not daring to look at his face.

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