On a rainy weekend afternoon, I was flipping through a dusty old photo album.

In the faded film photos, my young mother and father in their 20s were smiling awkwardly. Strangely, my mother's gaze wasn't fixed on my father, and there seemed to be a deep shadow lurking somewhere. How did Mom and Dad really meet? Was it love at first sight?

Just as I muttered to myself and rubbed the photo with my finger, all the noise in the house cut off, and a low, cold voice echoed right behind my ear.

Before I could even turn my head, a terrible dizziness washed over me. My vision twisted mercilessly, and the scenery in the photo swallowed me like a giant wave. In an instant, intense sunlight and the cheers of a bustling crowd hit my ears.

"Customer! Buy a wish paper to write on the sky lantern!"

Through my blinking eyelids, a completely different landscape unfolded. A faded dirt road, colorful lanterns hanging, and a boisterous village festival. The reflection in a passing shop mirror was surprisingly not me, but the youthful face of my mother, 'Evelyn', in her 20s. Did I... become Mom?

As I wandered through the festival crowd, gasping in confusion, someone gently and warmly wrapped their hand around my wrist.