When Lin Zhixia opened her eyes, a sharp ringing filled her ears.
It wasn't the steady beeping of hospital monitors,
nor the suffocating sound of rain in the middle of the night—
It was the morning reading bell.
She sat up abruptly, her heart pounding, fingers turning cold.
The classroom was noisy.
Desks scraped against the floor, pages flipped, and sunlight streamed in through the windows, scattering across worn tabletops.
The scene was so familiar it nearly stole her breath.
She lowered her gaze.
An open math textbook lay in front of her.
On the cover were printed three clear words—
Senior Year Two, Class Three.
Her breathing stalled.
Wasn't she already dead?
Dead at thirty,
on a rainy night no one knew about,
after finally realizing she had held onto nothing in her entire life.
And yet—
She was here.
Back at eighteen.
Back before everything had completely fallen apart.
"Zhixia, are you okay?"
her deskmate whispered.
The young face before her was clean and real, untouched by the exhaustion life would later carve into it.
This wasn't a dream.
She slowly clenched her fingers, her mind clearer than it had ever been.
In her previous life, at this very age,
she had given all her courage, patience, and humility to one person.
—Gu Chen.
The moment his name surfaced in her mind,
a figure appeared at the classroom door.
Tall and slender, school uniform neat yet effortless,
his eyes distant and indifferent, as if nothing in the world truly mattered to him.
He passed by her seat.
Without stopping.
Without even a glance.
Exactly as she remembered.
But this time, her heart didn't race.
Only a belated exhaustion settled in.
She finally understood.
From the very beginning,
she had never been part of his choice.
"The teacher's here," someone whispered.
Lin Zhixia lowered her head and turned a page, her gaze steady.
In this life, she would no longer lose herself for anyone.
She wanted grades.
A future.
A life that didn't require her to bow her head.
As for Gu Chen—
If fate insisted on entangling them again,
This time,
she would be the one who walked away first.