Teacher Xiao Zhao finally managed to coax Chen Hu into calming down. Turning her head, she saw Bei Yao staring at her and the chubby boy with wide, bright black eyes.

Teacher Xiao Zhao crouched down to examine Bei Yao’s calves—a large area was red, even somewhat scraped. The little girl didn’t cry or make a fuss, quiet and sensible. Yet when she had come to kindergarten this month, this youngest girl had been prone to crying.

Seeing that Bei Yao wasn’t crying, Teacher Xiao Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t expect the two small children to explain clearly what had happened, as long as they didn’t cause trouble next.

As soon as Teacher Xiao Zhao left, Chen Hu’s eyes, red from crying, glared at Bei Yao. Then the chubby boy humphed and walked away.

In the afternoon, the children were folding paper. Pei Chuan stood at the doorway, never once coming over. When Teacher Xiao Zhao pushed his wheelchair, he pressed his lips together and dug his fingers tightly into the door crack. Teacher Xiao Zhao feared injuring his fingers and had to give up.

Bei Yao knew what he was watching for. His father and mother still hadn’t come to pick him up.

She vaguely remembered that in elementary school, Uncle Pei and Aunt Jiang Wenjuan had gotten divorced, with Pei Chuan staying with his father. However, she hadn’t paid attention to him then and had even forgotten which specific grade of elementary school it was.

Bei Yao spent the whole afternoon in a daze.

She wasn’t truly a small child, so naturally she couldn’t possibly be interested in these games like a real child would be. Moreover, she had a fever—the high temperature made her confused and muddled, leaving her spiritless.

If she really had to grow up bearing an adult’s memories and soul, it would actually be quite uncomfortable.

At dismissal time, parents gradually came to pick up their children again.

Chen Hu’s father was still the first to arrive. The chubby boy proudly stood up from his small stool. When passing by Bei Yao, he even shot her a sidelong glance. However, he resented Pei Chuan more. When going out the door, he said loudly to Pei Chuan: “Your dad won’t come pick you up!”

Pei Chuan raised his eyes, a pair of jet-black eyes quietly watching Chen Hu. His pale fingers silently gripped the wheelchair tightly.

The chubby boy ran off in a flash.

Bei Yao was furious!

Bratty child!

Bei Yao’s mother, Zhao Zhilan, got off work from the garment factory a bit late, so usually Fang Mingjun was picked up by her grandmother. In the end, only Bei Yao, Pei Chuan, and Teacher Xiao Zhao remained in the classroom.

Teacher Xiao Zhao swept up the paper scraps the children had left behind. Bei Yao looked at Pei Chuan’s back, her little short legs working hard as she walked over.

The setting sun filled the courtyard. Her chubby little hand held a paper airplane, which she gently placed on his lap.

Pei Chuan’s wheelchair wasn’t high, but sitting in it he was still a bit taller than the four-year-old girl.

Pei Chuan looked at her.

She smiled, her apricot eyes curving, using her soft baby voice to say: “For you. My name is Bei Yao. Our homes are very close. Let’s go home together, okay?”

Pei Chuan’s face turned cold as he unexpectedly threw the airplane away.

Go away, don’t want you.

She actually understood the message in his eyes.

However, little Pei Chuan forgot it was a paper airplane. A light breeze carried the paper airplane, and it floated far away in an instant, landing in front of the plum blossom tree in the courtyard.

Bei Yao looked at the paper airplane, then turned to look at him.

The next moment, she ran on her little short legs to retrieve it. She ran back and cherished the paper airplane, placing it on his lap, the light in her eyes not dimmed in the slightest.

Pei Chuan felt a surge of anger in his heart, though he didn’t know why. He bit his lip and threw it again.

The little girl continued retrieving it for him. Each time she brought it back, she carefully patted off the dust and placed it on his lap, looking up to smile at him.

By the sixth time, she carefully placed it on his lap.

He expressionlessly tore it apart.

Bei Yao’s slightly yellow hair was soft, tied into two little tufts.

Pei Chuan thought she would surely cry, just like Chen Hu had, crying earth-shakingly, then telling on him to the teacher. All the children in the kindergarten didn’t like him. Even before his legs were severed, he had been taciturn with few friends. The children all thought his personality was solitary and difficult to get along with.

Bei Yao knew that all people who had been hurt were like hedgehogs, yet their hearts remained soft.

She used a four-year-old child’s innocent tone to ask him: “If you don’t want to play anymore, then shall we go home? My mommy hasn’t come to pick me up either. Let’s go home by ourselves, okay?”

He didn’t speak, but when Bei Yao reached out to touch his wheelchair, he suddenly raised his hand and struck her hand.

He showed no mercy at all—a crisp “smack” sound. Her soft hand immediately turned red in a large patch.

Bei Yao instinctively pulled her hand back.

She looked down at her little hand. Pei Chuan was also looking at the hand he had struck.

The little girl’s plump hand was white and soft, with several small dimples on the back. When Bei Yao was young, she feared pain—getting injections could frighten her into trembling all over. Pei Chuan had a natural broken palm line, and his merciless strike was unexpectedly painful.

Bei Yao sighed inwardly.

He truly was difficult to get along with.

She wanted to say something more, but Zhao Zhilan’s figure had already appeared on the small path outside the kindergarten.

Bei Yao gently furrowed her brow. Zhao Zhilan came over to pick up Bei Yao and greeted Teacher Xiao Zhao. Passing by Pei Chuan, her heart also softened: “Pei Chuan, let Auntie Zhao take you home.”

Pei Chuan kept his head lowered, his fingers gripping the door crack tightly.

Teacher Xiao Zhao smiled awkwardly: “Bei Yao’s mom, you go ahead first.”

Zhao Zhilan had no choice but to carry Bei Yao away.

She held her soft daughter and sighed softly: “Ai, what sins did those two commit to make the child’s personality turn out like this…”

Only after they had gone far did Teacher Xiao Zhao smile and pat Pei Chuan’s head.

Pei Chuan remained motionless. Teacher Xiao Zhao followed his gaze and discovered he was watching the mother and daughter at the end of the small path.

Zhao Zhilan plucked a small yellow wildflower and tucked it into the little tuft in the girl’s hair. The little girl in her arms had large eyes curved into crescents.

Innocent, happy, and adorable.

Pei Chuan’s gaze fell on Bei Yao.

After a long while, he opened his palm—hidden inside were remnants of the paper airplane fragments. He silently released them.

The paper pieces flew away with the wind.

He knew she had lied to him. Her mother would come to take her home.

~

After dinner, Bei Yao pulled open her bedroom window. While Zhao Zhilan washed dishes, she struggled to step onto a stool to look out.

The light on the fourth floor across turned on.

That was Pei Chuan’s home. His house had people there, so he must have been picked up and taken home. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.

They lived in the same residential complex. Bei Yao’s family lived on the third floor, Pei Chuan’s family on the fourth. Bei Yao had separated from sleeping with her parents early and had her own bedroom. Looking from her side, she could see Pei Chuan’s home.

She developed a fever again in the middle of the night while sleeping. Zhao Zhilan slept beside her and touched her daughter’s body—it was burning hot.

Leaning close, she couldn’t make out what nonsense Bei Yao was saying. Sobbing, tears soaked the pillow. Zhao Zhilan’s drowsiness was frightened away. She quickly got alcohol to cool her temperature.

When Bei Yao opened her eyes near dawn, her forehead was burning hot, but what frightened her more was—her memories were beginning to blur.

It was like originally being able to see the world through a crystal-clear piece of glass, but gradually, that glass was being covered bit by bit, making things unclear.

She vaguely remembered dying at age twenty-three.

A melodramatic death.

Yet now, those deeply engraved memories were also shrouded in a thick fog, as if this four-year-old girl’s body was rejecting these memories.

As soon as Zhao Zhilan went out, Bei Yao struggled out of bed and dug out her grid paper for writing practice and a pencil.

“Bei Yao, 2013, married Huo Xu. Only after marriage did she learn he had someone he truly loved. Bei Yao was his shield against his family to protect his true love. Huo Xu was the descendant of military personnel and businesspeople. He had money and power. Huo Xu never touched her, but when she learned what kind of existence she was and made a fuss about leaving, Huo Xu no longer permitted it.”

Bei Yao wrote this passage from an observer’s perspective. When finished, she was covered in cold sweat, but she knew she had to continue.

“2014. Bei Yao found a way to meet the person Huo Xu truly loved for the first time, but in the blink of an eye, Huo Xu drove her back and slapped her face for the first time. Ms. Zhao Zhilan and Mr. Bei Licai’s hearts nearly broke. In middle age, they still ran around everywhere seeking help for her affairs. In the end, Mr. Bei had an accident and became a vegetable.”

Bei Yao’s tears fell as she recalled these memories.

Bei Yao resolutely continued writing: “Ms. Zhao Zhilan finally went to beg a man. He rescued Bei Yao. That man was called Pei Chuan, a man the whole world saw as very bad. The programs he wrote were all destructive to social stability. He was taciturn. He protected Bei Yao for two years. On the day she died, Pei Chuan told her, ‘She was the heart’s treasure he dared not love in his lifetime.'”

“2015. Bei Yao died a pathetic death, still becoming that woman’s shield.”

Zhao Zhilan’s footsteps drew near. Bei Yao had no time to continue. In the end, she could only hastily tell her future self: “Treat Pei Chuan well.”

As the final stroke of the character “Chuan” finished, she quickly put the notebook into the drawer. Zhao Zhilan pushed open the door and glared at her: “You’re running around when you have a fever!”

Bei Yao wiped away her tears and obediently went back to lie down on the bed.

She didn’t know which day her memories would ultimately stop at. Living with the memories of a previous life already violated natural order. Being able to start over once was already a blessing.

“Mommy, sing me a song.”

Zhao Zhilan laughed and scolded: “Disobedient and still wanting to hear songs!”

But in the end, her heart ached for her daughter. She thought for a moment and sang in a clear voice:

“Gently awaken the sleeping heart

Slowly open your eyes

Look at the busy world

Is it still spinning alone unceasingly

The spring breeze doesn’t understand romance

It stirs the hearts of youth…”

This was an album released in 1985. Bei Yao hadn’t heard such a familiar yet strangely gentle song in many years.

She vaguely remembered this song was called “Tomorrow Will Be Better.”

In Zhao Zhilan’s singing voice, she fell deeply asleep again.

Before sleeping, Bei Yao wondered, did Pei Chuan go to kindergarten today?

In his previous life, because of yesterday’s incident, he had refused to go to kindergarten and would no longer speak. So what about today?

~

Today the sun shone brightly. The kindergarten children were watching a white butterfly that had landed in the grass.

Several children surrounded Fang Mingjun, all wanting to catch that beautiful butterfly.

Chen Hu came running over noisily: “Fang Mingjun, do you want to play hide and seek?”

Fang Mingjun turned her head.

It was a face called a “little jade maiden” in 1996, because it had the embryonic features of a certain Hong Kong star’s face. This made Fang Mingjun’s mother, Zhao Xiu, especially proud.

Fang Mingjun wasn’t chubby and plump like children her age. She had less flesh on her face, which instead made her appear somewhat refined and delicate.

She said: “Okay, but I won’t be the cat.”

Chen Hu agreed immediately.

Then he pointed to a little boy to be the cat. That child pouted but had to agree.

With a cheer, the children scattered to hide.

They played happily. In the corner, Pei Chuan watched coldly.

Amidst the tender laughter and cheerful voices, he looked toward the empty seat at the front where the little girl should be.

He had come to school, but she hadn’t.