HP: At the beginning, I influenced Snape's childhood.

In a dream.

The rain intensified, and the thunder grew more frequent. The weather remained the same, as did the thunder; only time had passed, and people had changed, becoming less afraid of thunder and more accustomed to darkness and solitude.

As if frozen in place, Snape was unable to move his legs. His steps, which were clearly moving forward, were blocked, as if there was an abyss in front of him, separating the two of them.

He clenched his fists, trembling, and watched the person he longed for walk away step by step, disappearing into the torrential rain and the thick fog that could cover everything.

He wasn't silent. Snape thought to himself, trying to reassure himself.

When Snape woke up, he was shivering. He had been caught in the rain and then threw himself onto the bed and forced himself to sleep.

In the quiet, oppressive darkness, Snape thought of that child again, the child who looked exactly like Merle.

He was the one who dreamed of seeing Mo, and he was also the one who ran away first when he saw a child who looked so much like Mo.

Perhaps it was impolite to leave so abruptly at Malfoy Manor; perhaps I should see him again. Snape thought.

He wanted to see the child, but he had to adjust his mindset first, otherwise he would become a coward who ran away in panic.

……

Snape returned to Malfoy Manor, this time emerging directly from the fireplace in Lucius's study to avoid encountering the boy again.

Lucius was writing something in his study when he looked up and saw Snape. He was somewhat surprised: "Severus, what brings you here? Didn't you just leave? Mr. Lin left too."

Snape glanced at the onlookers, still savoring the scene, and asked, "Lucius, where does this Mr. Lin live? What's he doing here? What do you know about him?"

"I'm not quite sure." Lucius could only reply with this question, seeing his friend's utter disarray.

Upon hearing the answer, Snape frowned, realizing that things were becoming somewhat complicated.

"He was introduced to me by someone I work with, and I had Sugarpaper check his background," Lucius added. Sugarpaper is a house-elf of the Malfoy family.

"Severus, don't be so anxious," Lucius said, looking at his friend's expression with a slight headache. "Mr. Lin's identity is somewhat mysterious. I can only contact his brother, which might be helpful to you."

"I want to see him. I was a bit anxious about what happened today, and I hope he's not surprised because of me." Hearing Lucius's useful information, Snape finally regained some composure and changed the subject, saying, "Draco is seven years old now, and I'm planning to start teaching him potions."

"Alright, I'll have Little Dragon get ready. You rest for a bit," Lucius said. He snapped his fingers, and a house-elf appeared. He instructed the elf to call Draco down.

Seeing that Snape still looked somewhat worried, Lucius said, "Severus, I'll try my best to contact Mr. Lin's brother and see if he'd be willing to meet with you."

"Thanks, Lucius," Snape said.

Lucius found Snape's unusual behavior strange. He knew that Mr. Lin seemed to have some special meaning to his friend, otherwise Severus would not have lost his composure in front of a stranger and was so eager to see someone.

Snape kept his head down, secretly thinking about how to meet her again and how to explain his strange behavior.

And most importantly—find out whether Mr. Lin and Mo have any relationship.

Author's rambling: The next chapter will directly describe Xiao Mo and Si Jiao meeting again, I'll try to speed things up (๑＞؂＜๑).

Regarding updates, I'm thinking of updating once a day for the next few days to try and build up some drafts. I'll aim for three chapters on New Year's Eve, and then my debut will be coming soon. I'll start building up some drafts to prepare for my debut.