In the pitch-black, silent world, a poppy flower, as vividly red as fire, bloomed. Morning dew trembled on its petals.
The dew drop was perfectly round. The petal, unable to bear its weight, let it fall with a drip. Ripples spread outwards, shattering this overly quiet world.
Yu Mo’s consciousness was awakened. The silence receded, and the sounds of the world rushed in.
Rewinding memories roared through Yu Mo’s mind like a nightmare. Unable to struggle free, she was forced to watch the life-and-death partings of her parents and friends again, scene by scene. Helpless tears seeped from the corners of her eyes, sliding coldly down to her earlobes.
“Don’t… don’t…” Yu Mo murmured these two words repeatedly, helplessly watching those people leave her one after another.
A cold wind blew from some unknown corner. The overlapping stories and human voices were carried away by the wind, leaving only one angry female voice behind: “Yu Mo! Are you getting up or not?! If you don’t get up, I’ll move you out to the car, bed and all!”
“Mom—let me sleep a little longer…” Yu Mo instinctively answered. She had just experienced a nightmare; her body was exhausted and completely drained, she didn’t want to get up at all.
“Yu Mo! Get up!” Yang Aiyuan, wearing an apron and wielding a slotted spoon, burst through the door with a murderous aura.
“Mom, I’m really tired, don’t… Mom?!” Realizing who she had just called out to, Yu Mo shot up from the bed, staring fixedly at the familiar yet strange shabby little bedroom around her.
Packed luggage was strewn messily in the room. On the wall opposite her bed hung a faded, yellowing One Piece poster. There was a large tear in it, accidentally ripped by Yu Mo the previous day while tidying the room and trying to take the poster down.
Yu Mo had been depressed about that for quite a while.
Yu Mo felt this scene was familiar. She leaned forward onto the window and looked outside. It was early morning, just after sunrise; the sky was still dimly bright. An old locust tree blocked part of her view, but she could vaguely make out a massive moving truck parked downstairs.
This scene was even more familiar.
Wasn’t this the day her family moved from District D to District C in the Lower City, eight years ago?
The memory of having her throat slit and dying was still vivid in Yu Mo’s mind, yet her current setting was eight years prior. Yu Mo reached up and pressed her hand over her beating heart. A fact too unbelievable to accept crashed heavily upon her.
I… was reborn?
Reborn at the scorching, fiery age of fifteen.
.
As late winter transitioned to early spring, A City’s Lower City still carried a chill. On the first day of the new semester, Yu Mo got ready early. She took out the red scarf knitted by Yang Aiyuan—one she had previously disliked—and wrapped it around herself. Slinging her backpack on, full of youthful energy, she hopped into Yu Decai’s car.
The girl’s fair, tender face pressed against the clean car window as she looked out. The faded old houses of the Lower City retreated row by row through her vision, gradually replaced by newer style housing.
The cypress trees along the roadsides had already sprouted new shoots. Spring had arrived, and A University Affiliated Girls High School was opening its doors for the new semester on this very day.
A University Affiliated Girls High School was a key all-girls high school ranked nationally, a school countless people racked their brains to enter. However, not just anyone could get into A University Affiliated Girls High School. Apart from outstanding entrance exam scores, one also needed sufficient financial backing.
This one point alone discouraged many families from the Lower City.
Yu Mo, a Lower City resident, originally had no plans to transfer to A University Affiliated Girls High School. She thought the New Sea Road Girls High School near her new home would be perfectly fine.
This was entirely Yu Decai and Yang Aiyuan’s idea.
After changing their house and car, the couple somehow had a sudden enlightenment. Feeling they couldn’t let Yu Mo suffer from a lack of education like they had, they slapped their thighs and decided to transfer Yu Mo to A University Affiliated Girls High School.
Thinking about the more than six-figure sum in pink bills Yu Decai had spent to get her transferred here, Yu Mo let out a long sigh, just like in her previous life.
“Girl, don’t sigh. First day of the new semester, give it your best!” Yu Decai rolled down his car window and gave Yu Mo, who was getting out, a thumbs-up.
“I know!” Yu Mo waved back at Yu Decai with a smile before turning and merging into the crowd entering the school.
This campus was exactly as she remembered it: red-brick, white-tiled teaching buildings, a European-styled stone-carved fountain, a small garden entwined with flowering vines, a sports field for running and playing.
Unlike the classmates rushing to their classrooms, Yu Mo walked slowly. She stood at one end of the teaching building’s third-floor corridor, looking across at the classroom where she would spend the next three years. She felt an inexplicable sense of “near home, timid heart”—a kind of nervous anticipation. All her youth had been, and would once again be, contained within that small classroom. Friends and enemies alike awaited her there. This feeling of the known yet unknown made Yu Mo nervous.
Opposite, a woman with an elegant figure waved at Yu Mo from afar. The Homeroom Teacher, Teacher Chang, had arrived early and was standing at the classroom door waiting for her arrival. Noticing Teacher Chang’s signal, Yu Mo quickly straightened her skirt, took a deep breath, and walked over.
Yu Mo had already met Teacher Chang during the entrance exam, so Teacher Chang wasn’t reserved with her. Patting Yu Mo’s shoulder warmly, she said, “This is our Class A of Grade 10, Class 13. Ready to join your new class?”
Teacher Chang was tall and slender, a classic Omega beauty. When she smiled, her eyes curved like crescent moons holding a pool of spring water. The warm sunlight fell upon her, adding layers of gentleness.
Although Yu Mo hadn’t physiologically differentiated yet, psychologically, she was already a mature Alpha who had tasted the pleasures of intimacy. Thin-skinned as a youth, she had absolutely no resistance to the gentleness of an Omega. Her young face involuntarily flushed with a faint pink hue.
Yu Mo hurriedly nodded, turning her head to deliberately avoid Teacher Chang’s gaze. Yet, her eyes passed through the frosted glass window and caught sight of Shen Shuyu sitting in a seat by the window.
Yu Mo’s previously somewhat relaxed expression instantly froze. Gazing with poorly concealed resentment at Shen Shuyu, who was head-down, casually doing homework, Yu Mo recognized her exactly as she remembered from their first meeting. Shen Shuyu’s long, glossy black hair cascaded down her back. Her slender neck was tilted slightly, sunlight haloing her profile in gold, brimming with the flavor of youth.
If life were a game, Yu Mo had already traversed most of her previous life’s path. She had treated the side-quest of capturing Shen Shuyu as her main mission, crashing herself bloody against it, dying tragically under another’s blade without receiving a shred of Shen Shuyu’s affection.
Since she already knew this branch’s ending, starting over meant absolutely no falling in love with her again. Not even a single entanglement should occur between them.
Yu Mo, you have a grand future ahead of you. Nothing has started yet.
This glorious youth, this vast expanse of time, must be lived wantonly and joyfully—truly live for yourself this time.
Teacher Chang, unaware of the shift in Yu Mo’s eyes, pushed open the door and walked straight in. The classroom, which had quieted drastically upon noticing the homeroom teacher’s arrival, erupted with the rustling of closing books. Even Shen Shuyu, who usually paid little heed to such matters, stopped her pen.
Everyone already knew a transfer student was coming to their class. At fifteen or sixteen, their curiosity was written all over their faces.
Teacher Chang pursed her lips into a small smile, clapped her hands at the podium, and announced, “Class, allow me to introduce our new transfer student for this semester, Yu Mo.”
The name “Yu Mo” resonated in the air. Shen Shuyu’s heart pounded twice heavily, following the syllables of Teacher Chang’s voice. The surroundings seemed to quiet down. Shen Shuyu’s eyes were fixed tightly on the doorway where the familiar figure she had already noticed stood. Her heart beat like a war drum.
She knew, rationally, that Yu Mo would come to her class just as in the memory… But until she actually saw Yu Mo appear, Shen Shuyu’s heart remained suspended. So many pitch-black midnights, Shen Shuyu had awoken sobbing. Countless nightmares paled in comparison to the single image: an empty doorway on the first day of school.
Time seemed deliberately slowed, tormenting Shen Shuyu’s anxious heart. She watched the doorway nervously and anxiously, eagerly awaiting.
Finally, the person outside stepped into the classroom.
Yu Mo wore her hair in the high ponytail Shen Shuyu remembered—the style that never seemed to fall loose. With an upright posture and youthful spirit, she walked in. Today’s sunlight was exceptionally brilliant, paving a golden path for her. Stepping through the light, she walked once more into Shen Shuyu’s world.
Shen Shuyu’s five fingers clenched instantly, her breath trembling. Her eyes, always calm amidst change, now showed a faint, excited red at the corners. A misty layer of moisture clouded her vision.
It was her. Truly her.
She came. She really appeared on the first day of school, just like in the previous life.
Shen Shuyu bit her lip hard, struggling to control her emotions, to not lose composure. But as long as she looked at Yu Mo standing over by the podium, she couldn’t rein in her feelings.
Her voice… when Yu Mo spoke, the voice Shen Shuyu had missed and craved through countless nights—that voice with its youthful spirit—echoed beside her ear again. She wanted so desperately to rush forward, to embrace her, kiss her, melt her into her body, and never be apart again.
But in such a public setting, she could do none of those things. She dared not.
The tears suspended in Shen Shuyu’s eyes hung precariously, threatening to fall. Tumultuous waves of emotion surged within her heart. She could no longer listen to nor look at Yu Mo. She could only retreat in disarray, grabbing a pen and lowering her head, feigning indifference.
The ink-black pen tip trembled as it touched the test paper. Shen Shuyu let it glide, writing two characters blurred by tears:
Yu Mo.
