In the afternoon, Su Liyun and Jiang Ruotang headed to their respective classrooms. During PE class, Jiang Ruotang exercised alongside her classmates—everything seemed ordinary. Meanwhile, in math class, the teacher lectured endlessly on complex function equations at the front of the room, yet Su Liyun's mind remained fixated on those eerie blood-red characters. Suddenly, her desk mate tapped her. "Su Liyun, the teacher's calling you!" Su Liyun snapped back to reality. "Ah! I... Teacher..." The math teacher shot her a fierce glare. "This student, you solve this problem!" Su Liyun's cheeks instantly flushed crimson. She scrambled to her feet, her eyes scanning the problem on the blackboard, but her mind went blank. Just as she was at a loss, a deep voice murmured in her ear: "Take the derivative first, then substitute the values." Instinctively, Su Liyun began solving the problem following this prompt. Miraculously, her thoughts gradually became clear. She swiftly wrote down the steps on the blackboard and arrived at the correct answer. The math teacher looked surprised and snorted coldly, "You got lucky. Sit down." Su Liyun sank back into her seat, relieved, yet her mind was filled with questions. Whose voice was that? She glanced around—her classmates were all focused on the lesson, none had noticed her. After class, Su Liyun walked down the school hallway, still pondering the blood-red words and that mysterious voice from earlier. Suddenly, someone slapped her back hard. Startled, she turned to find Jiang Ruotang standing there. Su Liyun sighed deeply. While Jiang Ruotang seemed to be quietly amused by her prank, Su Liyun appeared deeply troubled. Seeing this, Jiang Ruotang asked, "What's wrong? Was math class that hard?" Su Liyun silently shook her head. Jiang Ruotang looked puzzled. "What's really going on? Tell me. Maybe as your senior, I can help." Su Liyun glanced up at Jiang Ruotang and said, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. Oh, and could you excuse me from class later? Tell the teacher I'm not feeling well and might need to leave school early today. Yeah, that's it. See you tomorrow." Before Jiang Ruotang could react, Su Liyun had already walked away quickly.
Su Liyun exited the classroom building, walking slowly as if each step weighed heavily on her. Before she knew it, she found herself by the school's artificial lake. It felt strange, as if some mysterious force had drawn her here. Exhausted in body and mind, she sat down by the lake without much thought, intending to rest for a moment. She lowered her head, slowly closing her eyes as a thousand thoughts swirled through her mind. Suddenly, a gentle breeze rippled the lake's surface. Su Liyun opened her eyes and glimpsed a shadow-like figure on the water, strangely familiar. She recalled last night's dream and the vision on the morning bus—that familiar shadow. It was it! "Don't worry, I'm not here to harm you. But you'll see me more often from now on, because you need me." The words barely left its lips before the shadow slowly vanished from the lake's surface. Su Liyun stood frozen in place, her face etched with confusion. Silently, she pondered: What exactly was this shadow? Did she need it? Could it be connected to those blood-red characters? The more she thought about it, the more tangled her mind became. She began to doubt whether following her parents' advice to come to this foreign land had been the right choice. Why had so many strange things happened since she arrived? As she pondered, Su Liyun suddenly realized something. Today had been a rainy day, hadn't it? Though the rain had stopped long ago, it still counted as a rainy day. No wonder such strange things appeared on the lake earlier. But it hadn't come to harm her, and she was indeed unharmed now. So why did the fourth school rule forbid approaching the artificial lake on rainy days? Could this rule be connected to her? Or perhaps to the Su clan? Thus, Su Liyun decided that the next time it rained, she would bring Jiang Ruotang to the lakeside to see if anything unusual would happen.
Several days later, on a drizzly afternoon, students hurried to class after lunch as usual. After the first afternoon period ended, Su Liyun dashed to the gymnasium entrance during break to find Jiang Ruotang. "Ruotang, I need to talk to you. I want to take you somewhere." Jiang Ruotang had just finished PE class and hadn't even changed her clothes when Su Liyun pulled her away. On the way, Su Liyun grabbed Jiang Ruotang's wrist and practically jogged, her face showing an urgency Jiang Ruotang had never seen before... and a hint of subtle mystery. "Hey, hey, hey, slow down, slow down! Ouch!" Jiang Ruotang felt like she might fly from the speed Su Liyun was dragging her at. "What's so urgent? Why all the secrecy?" Su Liyun only glanced back briefly. "You'll see when we get there." She quickened her pace again, weaving through two winding paths in front of the classroom building. Before them lay the mysterious artificial lake. Su Liyun stopped at the lakeside with Jiang Ruotang, both of them drenched and damp from the rain. Jiang Ruotang panted heavily from exhaustion, slowly turning her gaze toward the lake before realizing, "This... This isn't the campus artificial lake! Ahhh! Doesn't Rule Four of the school regulations say we're not allowed near this artificial lake on rainy days?!" Su Liyun jumped at Jiang Ruotang's outburst. "Don't be so dramatic! Calm down. It's not that scary. Actually, I discovered something here a few days ago." "What?" Jiang Ruotang leaned in to ask. Su Liyun didn't answer. Instead, she sat down by the lake, silent, as if waiting for something. Jiang Ruotang, still in her gym clothes after class, shivered beside her. "Liyun, can... can I go change first? It's freezing." Su Liyun nodded in agreement. Shortly after Jiang Ruotang left, a sudden breeze rippled the lake's surface once more. That familiar voice echoed in Su Liyun's ears again. She lifted her head and turned to scrutinize the water. Sure enough, she saw that familiar shadow once more. "Nice to see you again. How have you been? Did you need something?" "Find you? I can come here to find you?" Su Liyun asked, her face filled with confusion. "That's right. This is the only place you can find me, and it seems you've already mastered the way to summon me." Su Liyun replied again, "The way to summon you? Could it be... every time I sit by the lake, lower my head, close my eyes, and remain silent... then..." "Exactly! Whenever other students come to the lake on rainy days, I feel disturbed. So I make the ripples on the lake surface behave abnormally. That's why the school principal established that seemingly strange rule. But whenever you come, I don't feel disturbed. Instead, I'm summoned by you. I think... we must share some unknown 'fate'. As I said before, 'We'll meet more often, because you need me.'" No sooner had the words left its lips than the shadow slowly vanished into the lake's surface.
On the way back to the academic building, Su Liyun's mind raced through all the strange occurrences of recent days. "A mysterious shadow? Mysterious voices? That string of blood-red characters... The Su Clan? My family? And the strange rules of this artificial lake are somehow connected to me?" Su Liyun muttered to herself as she walked. Suddenly, she bumped into Jiang Ruotang, who had just changed clothes and was returning. "Why are you back? What happened by the lake?" Su Liyun replied softly, "Nothing much, just some people's superstitions~ That lake... the lake... Ah, I can't explain it clearly. It's chaotic, complicated. Ruotang, once I sort through everything that's happened these past days, I'll tell you all about it, okay? I know you love hearing the 'gossip,' but not now. Give me some time." "Alright, let's head back to class then. I heard we're getting out early today. No students are allowed on campus or near the school after three. No idea why, but everyone's speculating it might be related to the artificial lake today. I don't know either, but getting home early is nice." Jiang Ruotang replied. Su Liyun looked shocked and disbelieving. She couldn't fathom that the school's bizarre rules might actually be connected to her—or to her family, the Su Clan.