Chapter 29

Countless fragments of memory surged toward her from all directions, piercing her flesh and piecing themselves together in her mind.

With a splitting headache, Chu Ci pressed his temples tightly.

Huo Junyan slammed on the brakes, but before he could say anything, he saw her open the car door and stumble out.

He ran from the front of the car and caught Chu Ci, who was unsteady on her feet and struggling to walk toward the sidewalk. He saw her clutching her head in pain and pointing at a middle-aged man.

The man came out of the store, saw Chu Ci, paused in his act of opening the cigarette, took a few steps toward them, suddenly looked terrified, turned around and quickened his pace, and finally started running.

"Zhao, Zhao," Chu Ci cried out, tears welling in her eyes, as if someone had grabbed her by the throat, "I..."

He collapsed limply, and when he woke up again, he was in the Huo family's private hospital in the mountain city.

Outside the window are goldenrain trees, with clusters of yellow flowers and red berries.

Chu Ci struggled to get up, her whole body limp and weak, as if she were dehydrated. Her lips moved slightly, but she couldn't make a sound. Her throat felt like it was on fire. "...cough," she coughed once, and tears streamed down her face from the pain.

The commotion startled Huo Junyan, who was asleep on the sofa.

He suddenly came over and touched her forehead, then picked up the thermometer to take her temperature. "The fever has gone down."

"I have a fever?" Chu Ci coughed lightly, covered her mouth, and drank some water from his hand. She felt better, slowly sat up, looked out the window, unsure of the time, and asked, "What time is it?"

Two points.

"It's the second day?"

Huo Junyan ordered food. "Let's eat first."

Chu Ci suddenly fainted, and Huo Junyan rushed her to the county hospital, but no problems were found. He could only drive to Shancheng, a journey that usually takes two hours, but only took 54 minutes.

The results of her examination at the private hospital were similar to those in the county town, and an expert suggested "BCI" based on her previous medical records.

Simply put, it involves using a head-mounted device to connect to neurons in the brain and monitoring the brain via microelectrodes. Currently, this technology is still in the research stage.

But at that time, Chu Ci seemed to be trapped in a nightmare, his fists clenched, as if he wanted to duel someone, and he could not be woken up no matter what.

Huo Junyan could only let the hospital give it a try. After connecting the equipment, the experts miraculously discovered that the neurons in her damaged brain were transmitting and connecting, and a huge neural network was being re-formed.

Previous consultations revealed that Chu Ci's medial temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex was severely damaged, and recovery was virtually impossible.

However, this examination revealed abnormal activity in her amygdala. The amygdala is responsible for emotional memory and is also the primary means of stimulating memory recovery.

While eating, Chu Ci looked at the examination report and said, "This instrument is particularly suitable for online AI."

"Medicine is a very rigorous field, and this technology is still in the development stage, so it will be difficult to launch it in the short term."

He put away the report and said, "Focus on your meal."

Feeling slightly annoyed that her hand was empty, Chu Ci picked up her phone and ate something while looking at it. "I remembered something."

Who is Zhao Feng?

Thud!

The soup spoon fell into the bowl, splashing water everywhere.

Chu Ci looked through the images frame by frame. "You... investigated him?"

"He runs away as soon as he sees you, and you faint from anger when you see him."

Chu Ci: ...

"...It's because of the medication. The medicine prescribed by Dean Lu is affecting my mood." She muttered to herself, her face burning with anger. She was so angry and embarrassed.

Five years ago, because she was pregnant, she could not use medication and instead relied on other methods such as hypnosis for treatment.

During the past month or so of taking the medication prescribed by Dr. Lu Wanzhen, she felt that her emotions fluctuated greatly, sometimes irritable and sometimes depressed, sometimes excited and sometimes sad, repeatedly.

But she hid all her emotions very well, and unexpectedly, the outburst after accumulating to a certain extent caused her to faint from anger.

"He sexually harassed me."

Chu Ci looked up and saw a chilling killing intent in his eyes, which he had turned away from. Although it flashed by, she still felt a chill creep up her spine, a fear she had only felt when she fell into icy seawater.

"Now I know why my family looked at me like that."

Chu Ci was a beautiful child from a young age, but she was also unruly and had grown up in the countryside. After entering middle school, she was able to win first place in the county for her school in academics, and she was also good at sports such as ball games, track and field, and parallel bars. She could also keep half of the class in order. She was the teacher's favorite student and the school leader's darling.

But in the Chu family—

Chu Ning was a good student, well-behaved and sensible. She helped her parents with housework from a young age. When she grew up, she obediently chose the major her parents wanted, got into the company her parents hoped for, and married the blind date her parents introduced her to. They lived happily ever after.

Chu Hao is a good student and has inherent advantages.

Therefore, Chu Ci was only better at studying, but nothing outstanding. On the contrary, she was often blamed because she was disobedient, disobedient, and quarreled with Chu Hao.

Chu Ci was in his senior year of high school, while Chu Hao was in his first year. Chu Hao was struggling with the coursework, but Chu Ci tutored him. The two often argued over a few words, so their parents decided to hire a private tutor to come to their home for extra lessons on weekends.

Chu Hao's English teacher, Zhao Feng, also works part-time as an after-school tutor.

At that time, it seemed that there was no strict regulation on teachers teaching outside the home on weekends or during winter and summer vacations. Considering that Zhao Feng himself had tutored Chu Hao and knew his progress, the parents asked him to be their tutor.

One weekend, Zhao Feng went to Chu Hao's house as usual to tutor him. He went to the bathroom and saw Chu Ci standing in the mirror tying her hair.

Chu Ci glanced at him sideways and said, "Teacher, please use it." She then turned to avoid him, but Zhao Feng suddenly grabbed her and started groping her. Chu Ci immediately kicked him with her knee and, taking advantage of his pain, grabbed the toilet plunger and slapped it at his face.

He hit and cursed him as a "filthy scoundrel".

Hearing the commotion, Chu Hao ran out of the bedroom and kicked Chu Ci, who was beating Zhao Feng, to the ground. Chu Ci tried to jump up and hit him again, but Chu Hao kicked her in the chest several times, making her unable to get up.

Just then, Zhao Feng's parents returned home. Covering the injury on his face, he left with the words, "Your kid is ruined."

Chu Hao said he saw Chu Ci hit the teacher.

The parents immediately chased after them.

It took Chu Ci a while to catch her breath. She got up and chased after Chu Hao to his room to beat him. At this moment, her father returned. Without saying a word, he picked up a broom and beat Chu Ci severely, giving her no chance to speak. Chu Hao was also there, fanning the flames.

In a fit of anger, Chu Ci ran out, intending to beat up Zhao Feng, but he was nowhere to be found. She didn't know where he lived, so she went to the school, only to realize it was the weekend.

Back in the residential area, she didn't go inside, but sat by the flower bed across the street until dark. The number of pedestrians on the street gradually decreased. After a while, high school students riding their bicycles home from evening self-study crossed the street, and she saw Chu Hao riding his bicycle back to the residential area.

The young Chu Ci did not admit that she was sitting across the street from the apartment complex, hoping to see her parents come out to look for her.

It wasn't until midnight, when the streetlights went out and there was no one else on the street, that she dragged her nearly frozen body upstairs.

She tiptoed to open the door, quietly went to Chu Hao's room, jumped onto the bed, and kicked and thrashed at him, her howling startling Chu Songbai and Xu Yunhua awake.

When the lights were turned on and they were pulled apart by the ears, both of them had bruises on their faces.

"Chu Ci, you madman, how dare you ambush me?"

"You're out partying until the middle of the night, what are you up to?"

“I can’t control you at all. You even dare to hit your teacher. You’re hopeless.”

...

Amidst three overlapping accusations, Chu Ci stood on a chair and roared, "Zhao Feng molested me!"

All three of them stopped talking at the same time.

Chu Hao didn't understand. "You're disobedient, so you say the teacher threatened you?"

Xu Yunhua and Chu Songbai had already reacted. Xu Yunhua dropped the feather duster, grabbed her wrist, and said, "Get down. Why are your hands so cold? And why are you so temperamental? Songbai, heat up the leftover food."

"Mom, you're just letting it go like this, letting Chu Ci hit me?"

Chu Songbai glared at Chu Hao, "Go to sleep."

While eating, Chu Ci recounted what happened in the restroom and said he would report the situation to the principal.

Xu Yunhua and Chu Songbai both objected, saying there was no evidence. Chu Ci disagreed, so Xu Yunhua said he would leave it to them to handle, which Chu Ci took as agreement.

On Monday, she waited and waited but her parents didn't come to school. During the afternoon extracurricular activities, Chu Ci couldn't bear it any longer and went directly to the principal's office to tell him what had happened.

When the principal saw that Chu Ci's face was covered in injuries and a patch of hair had been pulled out, he assumed it had happened at school and turned pale with fright.

After clarifying the situation, the principal called the parents and then Chen Feng.

Xu Yunhua remained silent, while Chu Songbai looked at her with a very complicated expression.

Much later, Chu Ci suddenly realized that it was disgust, that she was ashamed of her, and that her eyes were reproachful for publicizing her "family scandal."

Without evidence, Chen Feng denied it.

At sixteen or seventeen, Chu Ci had no idea about the pros and cons of adults, and her parents took her home.

Her parents initially advised her that without evidence, she shouldn't do anything to the other person, lest the matter become public knowledge and ruin her reputation.

The Chu Ci refused to compromise and refused to protest at the school.

At that time, she lacked mature thinking; she was only filled with indignation and impulsiveness.

Chu Hao began to be targeted by Chen Feng at school. If he couldn't memorize a single word, he would be made to stand outside the classroom. If he had to pass a homework book to a classmate during class, he would be made to stand outside. During evening self-study, Chen Feng would randomly check the content of the day's lessons. If he couldn't answer, he would be made to stand outside. This caused him to rush to finish his homework until one or two in the morning every night.

But how do I report this problem to the school?

What happens after that? You want to transfer to another class? Just because you couldn't answer a question and the teacher punished you slightly, you want to transfer to another class? No class would be willing to accept you.

More than ten years ago, in a small county town, there was no such thing as casually complaining about teachers.

Chu Ci endured it at home for a week until one night when she went to the bathroom and saw that Chu Hao's room light was still on. He was doing his homework while wiping away tears. She knew that he was being bullied at school every day. She gritted her teeth and decided to make peace for the time being and work together to find a way to deal with Chen Feng.

When she mentioned writing a complaint letter to the education bureau and going to the police to have him testify, Chu Hao said fiercely, "Your parents are going to send you back to your hometown."

...

Chu Ci suddenly choked up, turned her head, and buried her face in Huo Junyan's arms. "That was the first time I felt scared." Young Chu Ci was afraid of being abandoned by her parents, so she "abandoned" them first.

She would go out before dawn, grab a random tree branch, and chase after any stray dogs she saw on the roadside. Even early risers would stumble away when they saw her.

People hate it and dogs despise it.

Following the direction of her hometown, she walked until noon before finally getting a ride on a fellow villager's tractor, which took her home.

Grandma called her parents, and then Chu Ci stayed home to study.

Huo Junyan tightened his arms around her and stroked her earlobe. "You are very brave."

"Yes." Chu Ci also thought she was very brave at the time, her bright eyes looking at him. "I even wrote letters of complaint to the county and the city. Later, Chen Feng received a warning."

However, the reason he received a warning was that he physically punished a student. Chu Hao fainted after running ten laps around the playground, which finally angered his parents, who came to the school to report the situation.

This warning, however, triggered another uproar, completely severing Chu Ci's ties with her family.