Lin Xiaoxiao looked up only when she heard that last remark.

Meng Xiaona, knowing the resemblance couldn’t be hidden, chimed in, "Yes, yes! I also think Teacher Linda looks a lot like Lin Xiaoxiao."

Xiaoxiao frowned at them, a faint, inexplicable sense of anticipation stirring inside her, though she didn't know what she was hoping for.

Zhang Wanqing glanced at Xiaoxiao, then asked Meng Xiaona, "Really? That much alike?"

Meng Xiaona and the other students nodded in unison. "Yes, especially from the side."

Xiaoxiao's mind began to race with possibilities, though she showed no outward sign. When classes ended for lunch, she asked Zhang Wanqing to go to the cafeteria without her. She wanted to see this Teacher Linda for herself.

The foreign teachers' building was easy to find. Teachers recruited from abroad were treated as protected assets, shrouded in an aura of mystery for other students and faculty. To them, these overseas Chinese might as well have been raised on fairy dew.

As Xiaoxiao approached, she noticed a few students lurking across from the building, peeking curiously.

Suddenly, her heart tightened with nerves. The world was full of miracles; could one more be possible?

With trepidation, she entered the building and began searching floor by floor. Paper signs on the doors displayed the teachers' names.

When she found the office marked "Linda," a wave of cowardice washed over her. Her mouth went dry. What if it wasn't what she hoped?

Swallowing hard, she knocked on the office door.

A moment later, a gentle voice answered from inside. "Come in."

The Mandarin was flawless, carrying a soft, southern lilt. Xiaoxiao's heart hammered. It was her mother's voice!

Without a second thought, she pushed the door open quickly. Behind the desk sat an elegant, gentle-looking woman, whose eyes widened in astonishment at the sight of her.

Xiaoxiao panicked for a second, then slammed the door shut with a bang. She stared intently at the woman, afraid she might vanish if she blinked.

"May I help you...?"

Linda—Li Yuling—stared incredulously at the girl who had burst in. She didn't dare believe it. She looked so much like her own Xiaoxiao, yet not quite as pretty, her features lacking that final degree of delicacy.

She stood up, watching Xiaoxiao, struggling to contain her own agitation and anxiety.

Tears welled in Xiaoxiao's eyes as she stepped forward. "Ms. Li Yuling, do you really not recognize me?"

Li Yuling was stunned. Who else would call her by her full name so directly but her daughter? Her hands, resting on the desk, trembled slightly. Still hesitant, she whispered, "Xiaoxiao?"

Tears streaming down her face, Xiaoxiao rushed over and threw her arms around Li Yuling. "Mom! Don't you recognize your own daughter? Wuwu... I've missed you so much."

Held tightly by Xiaoxiao, Li Yuling felt like she was in a dream. She reached up and pinched Xiaoxiao's cheek. "Does that hurt?"

In that moment, Xiaoxiao knew with absolute certainty—this was her mother, in the flesh. No one else would do something so childish.

She pouted. "It hurts, Mom! How could you not recognize me?"

Only then did the reality dawn on Li Yuling, and she began to cry too. Mother and daughter held each other and wept for a long time, both feeling it was all unreal. The meeting had been so sudden, so lacking in fanfare, that it felt dreamlike.

Li Yuling composed herself first. She patted Xiaoxiao's back. "This isn't the place to talk. Are you a student here? Wait for me a moment; I'll take you to my dormitory."

Xiaoxiao rubbed her eyes, then tightly grasped her mother's hand, terrified that if she let go, the dream would end and her mother would disappear.

Li Yuling quickly tidied her desk, then led Xiaoxiao to her single-room dorm. Behind a closed door, they could talk freely.

She sat Xiaoxiao down on the edge of the bed. Looking at her daughter's changed face, she cried again while gently stroking her cheek. "My poor Xiaoxiao... how did you get so... plain-looking now?"

Xiaoxiao: "..."

A bellyful of prepared words vanished, leaving her speechless.

After her emotional outburst, Li Yuling held her daughter's hands. "I really... I never thought I'd see you again. Your father and I thought we'd lost you forever."

She thought back to their initial confusion and grief upon arriving in this world; their greatest worry had always been their children's fate.

Xiaoxiao hugged her mother again, feeling her warmth, real and tangible, yet her heart still felt unsteady.

They cried together some more. Li Yling alternated between lamenting her daughter's current appearance and weeping with joy.

Eventually, they began to share their incredible stories. When Li Yuling heard that her son, Lin Wenbin, was also in this world, her astonishment grew. "You mean... you and your brother have already found each other?"

Xiaoxiao nodded. "Yes, we see each other often. I'll take you to see him soon."

Li Yuling sighed. Asking about the timing of Xiaoxiao's arrival, she realized she and her husband had arrived in this world a full year earlier than their daughter, though they had landed in a country in North America.

Xiaoxiao also found it incredible. "Maybe there was a spacetime error. You're living alone in the dorm—where's Dad? Didn't he come?"

Li Yuling patted the back of Xiaoxiao's hand. "He had some business to finish in Shanghai. I came to Beijing first because..." She paused, unsure how to explain.

After arriving in this world and fearing they could never return or see their children again, the couple had been despondent for a time. Eventually, they decided they must carry on and live their lives as best they could.

Later, she had accidentally become pregnant and given birth to a little one. But soon after arriving in Shanghai, the child had gone missing. Thinking of her lost youngest son, Li Yuling's tears fell again.

Xiaoxiao observed that although her mother's face was the same, she couldn't hide her weariness and sorrow. Seeing her cry again now, Xiaoxiao remembered Meng Xiaona's words about the overseas Chinese couple who had lost a child.

Hesitantly, she asked, "Mom... did you and Dad... give us a little brother?"

Li Yuling looked at her daughter in shock. "How did you know? Unless..."

Xiaoxiao nodded. "Yes. It's just as you're thinking. That child is at my home right now."

Li Yuling gripped her daughter's hand tightly. "Are you serious? You've really seen Tian Tian?"

Xiaoxiao's mind wandered for a second—Tian Tian? She thought Duoduo sounded better. She nodded. "Mhmm, he's at my house. My brother and I were curious why Duoduo looked so much like Wenbin did as a child. We even speculated that you and Dad might be here, but it seemed impossible."

The whole family crossing over together seemed a bit too far-fetched.

But Li Yuling seized on a key point. "Your home? You live with your brother? What do you mean, 'your home'?"

Xiaoxiao considered her mother's capacity to absorb shocks and hesitated. "It means... I'm married. And I have three children."