Where was this...?
Who was I?
Amid a hazy fog, Jiang Xuezhou opened her eyes and looked blankly at the vast expanse of pale mist around her.
A faint stab of pain suddenly pricked her brow. She raised a finger and pressed it against her forehead, and the moment her fingertip touched it, her blurry memories gradually began to clear.
The first thing she remembered was her name, followed by the day of her birth. The surroundings changed along with her memories, and the pale haze became an endless blizzard.
"It's a girl..."
"...Her brain cell activity is good, her physical condition is healthy, and all hormone levels are normal. She's promising."
"Thank you, Doctor!"
"You're welcome. It's my duty."
"She looks like you."
"Then... let's call her Xuezhou."
"It would be wonderful if she could get in."
Fragments of memory flashed past like slides.
She saw two kind, smiling faces, then watched their blurry outlines become frosted over, their familiar expressions gradually turning sorrowful.
"Mom... Dad..."
She murmured softly.
She seemed to have returned to when she was very young.
Back then, her family had been poor. Her father worked with a scavenging crew, and her mother worked in a garment factory. Their staples were potatoes and beets that could grow even in the frigid north. Although the settlement raised cattle, they were livestock entrusted to the local authorities by the Science Committee. Most people might not even eat meat once a week...
She only remembered that her one wish at the time had been to pass the Science Committee's assessment and enter the academy to become an explorer.
Other than wandering the wasteland, it had been the only way to change one's fate, and also the only path in life the Science Committee had planned for all survivors.