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"Suìsuì, don't be sad."

Shen Baili shifted into a more comfortable position and held the little orange cat in her arms. "You're warm."

"Thank you, A-Deng."

After a brief silence, Shen Baili asked, "A-Deng, why do you think the system altered my memories?"

At fifteen, she hadn't died on her way to the high school entrance exam. She had gotten into high school. She had ranked first!

But she hadn't been able to continue her education.

Deep down, would Zhou Yu rather have died in that accident at fifteen?

Shen Baili's heart ached for her former self.

A-Deng said, "I know."

Shen Baili listened closely, waiting for A-Deng to go on.

A-Deng offered a rational analysis. "The system's program may have malfunctioned during the Space-Time Storm. Or it could be a human defense mechanism—subconsciously choosing to forget after a devastating setback..."

Shen Baili couldn't rule out either possibility. The despair that had washed over her had shaken her.

"You're so clever, A-Deng." She gave the little orange cat a rub, as if soothing her own wounded heart.

Now that her memories were clear, many of her questions had answers.

In her previous life, family circumstances had kept Zhou Yu from continuing her education. She had found her way through hardship as she grew up, but going to school had become a longing she could never let go.

Shen Baili remembered a fleeting image from earlier: a frail girl pressed against a window, gazing at the students inside the classroom with naked longing.

Every so often, when she felt she couldn't go on, she would spend a while outside the school wall, listening to the sound of students reading aloud.

As she grew older, she appeared outside the school wall less and less often.

*Zhou Yu, what was your eighteenth year