Suite

A brief silence fell over the attic. Everyone sat in thoughtful silence until Ding Xueyang suddenly realized Miaomiao was no longer by the piano. She snapped back to her senses and looked around, only to see Miaomiao standing on tiptoe by the bookshelf beside the window, tugging hard at something.

"Miaomiao, what are you doing?" Ding Xueyang rose at once. "Don't touch things randomly. It's filthy."

"It's not filthy! There isn't even any dus—"

Miaomiao staggered back several steps. Hesta had already sensed the danger and caught the bookshelf before it toppled over, but the books and documents on it came tumbling down anyway. Miaomiao screamed in fright, and Ding Xueyang and Ding Yuqing hurried over. One picked up her daughter, while the other checked the child for scratches.

"I told you not to mess around!" Ding Xueyang frowned. "Do you know how dangerous that was?"

Xu Ruyi heard the commotion downstairs and loudly asked what had happened. Ding Xueyang carried Miaomiao out of the attic as she answered, "It's nothing, Miaomiao knocked over the bookshelf..."

Ding Yuqing had been about to leave with her sister when she suddenly remembered Hesta. She turned back and saw her crouching on the floor.

"Jane? What are you looking at?"

"This." Hesta picked up a bound volume from the scattered books and papers. "Yuqing, come help me look. Are these three characters pronounced 'Chen Beiyi'?"

Ding Yuqing walked over, her eyes suddenly lighting up. "Ah, this is my mom's undergraduate thesis!"

Then she looked at the section Hesta was pointing to. "That's right, 'Advisor: Chen Beiyi.' What about it?"

Hesta fell silent for a long while.

"...What a small world."

Xu Ruyi's call to come eat drifted up from downstairs. Ding Yuqing and Hesta went down together. Miaomiao was running wildly around