Vanessa Sterling finished painting the artwork before her, put down the brush and stretched lazily.

She tidied up the art supplies briefly, stood up, and walked to the window.

The night wind outside was cool, and on the quiet street, only a few moths fluttered around under the streetlights.

Seeing the familiar car parked in the familiar parking spot made her feel inexplicably at ease.

Just as Vanessa was about to close the window and go to rest, she caught a glimpse of the lit-up floor in the high-rise building opposite.

She looked closely and immediately saw the man standing on the balcony.

Standing with his back to the light inside the room, the man was almost just a black silhouette, but Vanessa recognized who it was at a glance.

She froze for a moment, as if she felt the gaze from the other side, then quickly averted her eyes, hurriedly locked the window, and turned away.

Miles Sterling took in Vanessa’s reaction entirely.

He believed Vanessa feared him, which was why she immediately avoided and dodged upon noticing him.

Watching the studio lights go out, the glimmer in Miles’s heart seemed to extinguish as well.

The cigarette at his fingertips burned out, and the bright speck of red disappeared into the night.

He took a heavy breath, dropped the cigarette butt, and turned back inside.

He no longer hoped for Vanessa’s forgiveness, nor did he expect to spend the rest of his life with her.

As long as he could see her doing well, that was enough for him, even if the person by her side wasn’t him.

He even hoped Vanessa could quickly find the love she longed for, dispelling the indelible shadows he once left in her heart.

Having painted late into the night, Vanessa Sterling didn’t wake up until noon the next day.

She opened her eyes and looked outside the window, the sky was overcast, seemingly about to rain again.

Vanessa lay on her side wrapped in the quilt, her gaze fixed outside the window, her mind recalling images from her dream.

In the dream, during a time of cold and hunger, a hand with distinct knuckles handed her a pink paper cup of cake.

She followed that hand with her gaze and saw Miles Sterling’s face.

The childhood scene resurfaced in the dream, evoking many memories.

Thinking about things related to him, it seemed like not everything was malicious.

This seemed to be the first dream about him that didn’t wake her in fright.

Previous dreams were terrifying and bloody, always leaving her in a cold sweat after waking in the middle of the night, making it hard to fall asleep again.

Vanessa lay motionless in bed, staring out the window.

She felt it wasn’t just Miles Sterling who had been changed by time.

"Knock, knock—" A light knock sounded, followed by the voice of the assistant girl outside the door: "Teacher Sterling, are you still sleeping?"

Suddenly alert, Vanessa sat up in bed, turned her head towards the door, and asked, "What’s up?"

"What’s up? You should check what time it is, the takeout has arrived, get up and eat quickly."

"Oh... I’ll be down soon."

Vanessa hurriedly washed and changed, and when she went downstairs to the dining room, the assistant girl had already set the takeout on the table.

As soon as Vanessa appeared, the assistant girl kept smiling and watching her.

"...What’s up?" Vanessa felt a bit uneasy under her gaze, stopped in her tracks, looked down at her clothes, thinking it was a dress she often wore, nothing strange about it?

The assistant girl smiled and pointed to the empty chair beside her: "Sit down. Tell me, what were you up to last night? Those dark circles under your eyes wouldn’t be from secretly having a romantic night with some handsome guy, right?"