Su Nuonuo awoke in thick smoke and searing pain.
Her lungs felt as if they had been filled with burning sand; every breath carried a sharp, metallic taste.
Her skin still bore the scorching heat from the collapsing steel beams, and in her ears echoed the crackling of flames devouring everything, along with… Lu Zhiye’s final roar:
“Nuonuo—go—!”
Then there had been nothing but darkness.
When she opened her eyes again, there was a blinding white.
Not firelight, but warm sunlight, slanting in through the windows of Senior Year Class 1.
Chalk dust floated slowly in the beam of light.
A boy in the front row was secretly playing on his phone.
Above the blackboard, the red countdown to the college entrance exam struck her vision like a heavy hammer:
【101 days】
There were still eight years before Lu Zhiye would die for her.
Su Nuonuo froze in her seat, her fingertips digging tightly into the edge of the wooden desk.
On the desk, there was still the childish doodle she had carved with a compass: a little bear, with the words “Peking University, wait for me” written beside it.
That had been the life planned out for the 17-year-old Su Nuonuo by her parents.
“Nuonuo? Did you have a nightmare?” Her desk mate, Su Xiaoyu, leaned over and poked her arm. “Your face is so pale, it’s scary.”
A familiar voice.
Su Xiaoyu—her cousin—had accompanied her to see a psychologist when she had fallen into depression in her previous life, the one who had held her and said, “Nuonuo, it’s time to move forward.”
At this moment, she wore the blue-and-white school uniform, her ponytail tied high, with a few acne spots still on her face.
Alive and real.
Su Nuonuo lowered her head to look at her own hands.
Her skin was fair and smooth, without any burn scars, and there were no dark circles left by long-term insomnia beneath her eyes.
“Smack.”
She pinched her thigh hard.
A sharp pain shot through her—so real it made her tremble.
It wasn’t a dream!
Not a dying hallucination.
Not an illusion.
She had… come back!
Back to when Lu Zhiye was still alive at seventeen, back to when he would still run across the basketball court, still wear a cold expression toward little hooligans who bullied others, still help her carry heavy trash when it was her turn on duty—the best of times.
Su Nuonuo subconsciously turned her head to look at the seat by the window in the last row… it was empty.
Her heart suddenly sank.
“Nuonuo, what are you looking at!”
Su Xiaoyu waved a hand in front of her. “On the first day of school, you’re either sleeping on your desk or spacing out. What’s going on?”
Su Nuonuo smiled at her and shook her head, but her gaze drifted back to that empty seat.
“Lu Zhiye didn’t come again?” she asked instinctively, a trace of tension in her voice that she didn’t even notice herself.
Su Xiaoyu lowered her voice. “It’s not like you don’t know—when has he ever been on time? I heard he got into another fight outside…”
“Ring—”
The bell for the end of class suddenly rang, and the classroom instantly became lively.
But Su Nuonuo seemed to be burned by the sound. She abruptly stood up.
There was only one thought in her mind—
She had to see Lu Zhiye immediately, to confirm that he was still alive, and from this very second, change everything.
She knew that at this time, if he wasn’t in the classroom, he was probably resting with his friends at the open ground behind the west wall.
If she went around through the main entrance, she would have to pass by the Teachers’ Office and might get stopped; if she took the corridor, classmates would surely block her to chat.
She couldn’t wait at all right now.
The only fastest route—the one where she wouldn’t be stopped—was to climb over the wall.
“Hey? Where are you going? Next class is the homeroom teacher’s lesson!”
Su Xiaoyu called from behind.
Time was urgent, and Su Nuonuo did not turn back.