Zhao Shuhe was just about to speak when another voice suddenly rang out in her mind: “Host 073, location repair detected as complete. Preparing for retrieval.”
Zhao Shuhe jumped. Another one?
The other person, however, let out a sigh of relief. “You finally came! Do you have any idea you sent me to the wrong place?”
“Deepest apologies. Due to a spatial-coordinate deviation, the host was transferred into a non-target vessel. After verification by the System, this incident was caused by an operational error on our part. Under Clause Seven of the Compensation Regulations, one Body-Strengthening Pill may be provided to the vessel as compensation. After taking it, the vessel will receive improvements to appearance, physical constitution, and intelligence.”
Zhao Shuhe’s mind had not yet caught up. What pill? What compensation?
The other person was quick to respond. “Fine, fine, give it to her. Give it to her! This girl’s had a hard enough life. Give her whatever you can.”
“Wait…” Zhao Shuhe had only just formed the thought in her mind when—
While Zhao Shuhe was still hesitating over whether she should eat it, something small and round suddenly appeared in her mouth… Before she could react, the pill was swallowed by the other person.
“You! You stuffed something into my mouth without even asking whether I agreed!” Zhao Shuhe was furious. What kind of nonsense was this? They had not even asked her before shoving something into her mouth!
The other person gave an embarrassed laugh. “Uh… It’s just more direct that way. Don’t take it personally. This thing is good for you. Trust me.”
Zhao Shuhe felt warmth spreading from her stomach, flowing through her limbs and every part of her body. It was wonderfully warm; even the fingers that had been numb with cold all day no longer hurt.
The other person hurriedly continued, “Oh, right, System, can you give her a few days of lessons? This girl is clever. Teach her a few things, so she’ll have some skills to rely on when she eventually leaves this place.”
“Denied.” The mechanical voice was crisp and decisive. “Host 073, we do not belong to this spacetime. The duration of our stay has exceeded the safety threshold. Immediate withdrawal is required.”
“You occupied her body for five whole days, and you think giving her a pill makes up for it?” The other person was displeased.
“Compensation Plan B activated. An educational materials package is being uploaded into the vessel’s consciousness space. It contains complete educational visualizations covering basic education through higher education. The vessel may independently access and view them while asleep.”
Zhao Shuhe was curious. “What are you two mumbling about in there?”
The other person translated, “It means it stored a whole lot of courses in your mind, from elementary school through university and even higher. You can open them and watch them while you sleep, just like… just like watching a movie. Except they’re teachers giving lessons.”
Zhao Shuhe understood only half of it. “Really? I can learn things while I’m asleep?”
“Yes! That’s great! That’s genuinely useful!” The other person was delighted. “System, you’ve finally done something decent.”
“Host 073, prepare for withdrawal.”
The other person sighed, and Zhao Shuhe could feel that she was about to leave. These five days had been neither especially long nor especially short. Zhao Shuhe had gone from being afraid at first, to getting used to her presence, to feeling somewhat reluctant to let her go now…
“Zhao Shuhe.”
“Mm.”
“Live well! Your life shouldn’t be trapped in these mountains! I’m leaving.”
The instant the words fell, Zhao Shuhe felt the thing crammed inside her mind disappear. Her body returned to her control. She could move her fingers again, and her feet were hers once more. Her whole body felt considerably lighter.
The courtyard was quiet and still. Night was about to fall, and the sound of her mother stir-frying food came from the kitchen. Everything was exactly as it had been five days ago—but Zhao Shuhe knew that everything was different now.
She stood blankly in the courtyard for a long while, until her mother called from inside, “Little He! What are you standing there staring into space for? Come eat!”
Zhao Shuhe called back, “Coming!” and ran into the kitchen.
That night, she lay in bed, tossing and turning with her eyes closed, unable to fall asleep. The memories in her mind were still there: tall buildings, wide roads, supermarkets, bright Classrooms… They were all still there.
She tried calling out silently, “Are you still there?”
No one answered. She really was gone.
Zhao Shuhe turned over and pulled the quilt tighter around herself. The mountains were bitterly cold in February, but the warmth in her body had not yet faded. Her stomach still felt pleasantly warm, and in that hazy state, she drifted off to sleep.
After she fell asleep, she saw something. It was different from a dream—the image was perfectly clear. It was a Classroom, with a male teacher in a white shirt standing at the lectern. Mathematical formulas were written on the blackboard.
The teacher was giving a lesson, and his voice was exceptionally clear. To Zhao Shuhe’s surprise, she actually understood him.
That so-called System really had left something for her.
Early the next morning, Zhao Shuhe was awakened by her sister’s voice. “Little Sister, why are you still in bed? The sun’s already shining on your backside!”
Her sister, Zhao Shulan, threw back the quilt and reached to pull her up.
Zhao Shuhe sat up groggily and rubbed her eyes.
Zhao Shulan looked at her face and immediately frowned in confusion. “Why is your face so dirty? It’s all black, like you rolled around in the stove pit.”
Zhao Shuhe touched her face and found a layer of sticky, blackish-gray grime on her hand. She did not know what it was, but when she remembered the pill from the day before, she more or less understood.
“I’m going to wash my face.”
She got up, went to the kitchen to heat some water, carried it into the courtyard, and washed her face over the basin several times. It took a full half-basin of water to remove the black grime, and the water turned gray.
Afterward, Zhao Shuhe dried her face with a hand towel. When she raised her head, she happened to see her mother coming out of the kitchen with a bowl in her hands.
“Little He, your face…”
“What is it, Mom?”
Her mother came closer and looked her up and down several times, muttering, “That’s strange. How did your skin get so much fairer? Your face looks quite a bit prettier than it did yesterday.”
Zhao Shuhe knew it was the effect of the pill, but she did not let it show on her face. She only said, “Maybe washing my face yesterday cleaned it properly.”
Her mother gave a skeptical snort but did not question her any further. She turned and went back into the kitchen.
At breakfast, Zhao Shuhe’s Third Brother, Zhao Manzhu, also gave her a couple of extra looks. With a mouthful of coarse-grain steamed bun, he said, “Little Sister, you look different today.”
Zhao Shuhe lowered her head and shoveled rice into her mouth. “How am I different?”
“I can’t put my finger on it. You just look prettier.” Zhao Manzhu scratched his head, only to receive a slap on the back of it from Zhao Shulan.
“Eat your food!”
With the whole family laughing and bickering, the matter soon passed.
But Zhao Shuhe knew that the pill had truly taken effect. She lowered her head and looked at her hands. Just a few days ago, her fingers had been rough, chapped, and cracked from the cold. Now they were somewhat finer, and the joints were no longer as red and swollen.
She did not tell anyone. Even if she did, no one would believe her. If a rural girl claimed that someone from the future had lived inside her mind and stuffed a magical pill into her mouth, it would be strange if people did not take her for a lunatic.
Only she knew the truth.
After breakfast, Zhao Shuhe sat on a stone stump in the courtyard, breaking a dry branch in her hands. In June, she would graduate from ninth grade.
What would happen after graduation?
Most of the girls in the village simply went home to work and waited for their families to arrange marriages for them. In these great mountains, a sixteen-year-old girl could see her entire life at a glance: getting married, having children, and circling around the cooking stove and a few acres of poor farmland.
The village elders often said that a girl’s fate was like a grass seed from the moment she was born. Wherever the wind blew it, that was where it would take root. She had no say in choosing the place.
In the past, Zhao Shuhe had not thought there was anything wrong with that. Everyone lived that way, and her mother had lived that way too. But during these short five days, at the age when she was most powerless, in this most impoverished of eras, she had glimpsed that other world through someone else’s eyes.
She truly could not accept simply living like this.