In the early morning, the sky seemed covered by a gray curtain, devoid of a single ray of sunlight, resembling a sleeping giant.
Jiang Shengyan, having just finished her night shift, rode her electric scooter back to her rented room.
The moment she entered the bedroom, she threw herself onto the bed, dizzy and exhausted in both body and mind. She had intended to tidy up, take a shower, and then catch up on sleep, but once her body sank into the soft quilt, she had no desire to get back up.
Thinking about her current life, Jiang Shengyan felt a deep sense of despair. As a nursing intern, she received no salary yet had to pay fees just to work. She was exhausted to the bone every day, ordered around for all sorts of tasks as free labor, and forced to pull night shifts from time to time. It truly felt like she was overdrafting her life.
She genuinely disliked this profession, but her high school entrance exam scores had left her no choice. The mere thought of spending her future doing this kind of work made Jiang Shengyan feel utterly suffocated. With no light visible on her path ahead and a bleak future, tears slowly welled up in her eyes.
She often fantasized that if she could start all over again, she would certainly never let herself fall into such a plight. Without realizing it, Jiang Shengyan drifted into a deep sleep, tear tracks still wet on her cheeks.
This sleep felt as though she were floating on a cloud, exceptionally sweet and restful.
With her eyes tightly closed, she recalled how ever since her internship began, she had fallen into an endless night, never once enjoying a peaceful sleep.
Within a single week, two or three late-night shifts would entangle her like demons, throwing her daily routine into absolute chaos. Every day she felt drained of spirit and utterly exhausted. Yet now, she felt as though her body had encountered spring after a withered winter, bursting with renewed vitality and vigor.
Jiang Shengyan fumbled around the edge of her pillow, trying to find her phone to check the time. Meeting with no success, she slowly opened her eyes—and instantly widened them in shock, snapping completely awake.
Why was she at home? To be precise, in her bedroom from many years ago.
Looking at the room that was both familiar and unfamiliar, Jiang Shengyan felt utterly dazed.
Catching sight of the old phone she used in middle and high school resting on the bedside table, she hurriedly grabbed it and pressed the power button. Seeing the date on the phone—July 2019—Jiang Shengyan's eyes widened in disbelief.
What was going on?
Had she returned to the past? Could she have been reborn?
It happened to be the first day after the high school entrance exams. Jiang Shengyan thought to herself that fortunately, she wasn't reborn to a point before the exam; otherwise, dragging a brain that had gone to waste for several years, she wouldn't even have been able to get into high school, having returned all her knowledge to her teachers after years of college.
Looking at her bedroom from several years ago, Jiang Shengyan quickly accepted this marvelous premise, feeling a sense of rebirth and liberation. Perhaps the heavens wanted to give her a chance to start over.
Standing in front of the mirror, Jiang Shengyan looked at the slightly youthful face reflected there and took a deep breath.
She had completely accepted the fact—she had returned to sixteen years old, the very first day after graduating junior high. The young girl in the mirror possessed a cold yet picturesque countenance, though her brows always carried a hint of detachment. She reached out and touched her face, feeling the warm texture at her fingertips.
It was real; all of this was actually real.
With such good fortune falling upon her, Jiang Shengyan suddenly felt a sourness in her nose. Perhaps she truly was fortunate. Since she could start over, she had to seize the opportunity and study hard to get into a good university!
Jiang Shengyan pulled back the quilt, slipped her feet into slippers, and stepped out of the bedroom just in time to see her mother cooking breakfast in the kitchen.
Looking at her mother from seven years ago, Jiang Shengyan felt a pang in her heart.
Ever since her internship began, she hadn't home in nearly a year; because she was so busy with work, phone calls and video chats were few and far between.
Sheng Yue turned her head and was quite surprised to see her daughter standing in the dining room. After all, the exams had just ended yesterday, and last night her daughter had declared she would sleep until the end of time this morning and forbade anyone from waking her.
"Well, didn't you say you were going to sleep until the end of time? How come you're up so early?" Sheng Yue teased with a smile.
Jiang Shengyan smiled and said, "It's because the breakfast Mom is making smells so intoxicating that I was drooling in my sleep."
Sheng Yue turned around carrying the breakfast and placed it on the dining table, chuckling, "I think you only got up because you were hungry. Go wash up quickly and come have breakfast."
After washing up, Jiang Shengyan saw her mother hurriedly finishing her breakfast, getting ready to leave for work.
Sheng Yue picked up her keys and instructed, "Eat your breakfast, tidy up, and don't run around everywhere by yourself at home. Mom is heading to work now, I'm going to be late." With that, she opened the door and left.
Jiang Shengyan ate her breakfast leisurely, pondering her plans for the future.
She vaguely remembered that in her past life, she had spent the entire summer vacation after the middle school entrance exams playing wildly. Starting over, she simply had to make good use of it—after all, the saying that high school is only suited for reminiscing rather than reliving was no joke.
As for high school, Jiang Shengyan still felt quite apprehensive inside. Ever since entering high school, her mindset had grown very sensitive. This was mainly because, having wasted the entire vacation and failed to apply sunscreen properly during high school military training, she had grown chubby and dark. At the time, standing 163 centimeters tall, she weighed nearly 130 catties.
Back then, she didn't understand what kind of clothing suited her and blindly followed trends. Her clothes lacked any shape and were very loose, and coupled with her broader shoulders and relatively well-developed chest, it only made her appear especially bulky.
Although she had many friends in junior high and was well-liked, she hadn't found anyone she clicked with in high school, leaving her constantly walking alone. Focusing too much on interpersonal relationships, she ultimately failed to study properly.
After graduating from high school, she never contacted her high school classmates again. Although she knew it was wrong to focus so excessively on interpersonal relationships during high school, whenever she ate meals or went to PE class and saw others moving in groups while she was all by herself, she truly couldn't help but feel secretly sad.
In truth, once she graduated from high school and crossed that hurdle, she realized it was really nothing much.
Now given a second chance, Jiang Shengyan—having endured the hardships of hospital internships—believed she would succeed at whatever she did. She secretly resolved this in her heart.
After finishing her breakfast and cleaning up, she immediately took out a piece of paper and listed out her weight-loss and study plans.
Although she wasn't extremely fat right now, she wasn't thin either, being slightly chubby. As for weight loss, it would rely on diet control and moderate exercise; as for studying, she needed to preview her high school coursework in advance.
Next, she dug out her old allowance and asked her mother for a bit more, then ran to a nearby bookstore to buy several preparatory books and basic test papers. As for high school textbooks, they were already at home, left over from her cousin on her aunt's side.
Returning home, she first flipped through the high school textbooks.
Mathematics was a subject she considered acceptable and in which she had some interest. She skimmed through the math textbook first, then casually glanced at the others, plunging Jiang Shengyan into wave after wave of darkness. She figured she would naturally forget a portion, but it seemed she had returned everything completely to her teachers.
It was one thing to forget her junior high knowledge, but she didn't remember high school either! Her inner resolve was somewhat shattered—the journey ahead was long and arduous!
Although Jiang Shengyan had balanced studying and playing in junior high, her academic performance was quite good, and she had tested into the best high school locally. Right now the scores hadn't been released yet, but she already knew the outcome.
Even though she had forgotten a lot, she had studied it through at least once, so self-studying again was entirely feasible.
Gathering her resolve, Jiang Shengyan began formulating a study plan, knowing that this rebirth was a precious gift bestowed by fate, and she had to grasp it tightly.