The Girl Who Restarted Time

The dream did not end there. Like a movie, one image flashed back after another. She was trying to find her way in the darkness. It was a bumpy road. She was slapped by someone, she cried her eyes out with a portrait of her deceased mother in her arms, she was sent to an orphanage, bullied by someone, protected by Ian, adopted, loved by her foster mother, abused by her foster dad, and she received Ian’s confession of his love to her…

Her life was like a dark, sorrowful silent movie. But in this movie, Ian shed a ray of sunlight.

Lu Jia’er, who was lying on the bed, felt she was riding a spaceship through time. She pieced back her memory bit by bit. Though she had been keeping her eyes closed, tears were coursing down her cheeks.

Right at this moment, the memory flashing by in her mind became blurry and confusing. Lu Jia’er’s eyelids moved and her eyebrows drew together. Then, her facial muscles tightened up…

Professor Chen Ming noticed abnormality in the date shown on the computer in front of him. Next, the VR image began to tremble. Those signs made Professor Chen Ming nervous. He hurried to check the equipment. But before he could do so, he heard a crisp noise. Then, the light of the space capsule bed was turned off and he saw some sparkles. Professor Chen Ming hurried over. Before he reached the space capsule, the entire lab had descended into darkness.

Yuan Miaomiao and Jason, who were standing by the door, were surprised to see the lab descending into darkness.

Yuan Miaomiao tried to push the button to open the door at once. But since it was locked from the inside, nothing she tried could make it work.

“Professor! Professor!” Yuan Miaomiao shouted and pounded the door.

But the door of the lab was made of special materials. It was very sound-proof and was unusually strong. In case of emergencies, not even guns, or welders, or small explosives could blast this door open, if they did not know the password. Of course, the door was not indestructible. After all, mutual promotion and restraint between elements existed in this world.

Yuan Miaomiao only shouted twice or so when the lights outside were turned off as well. It was as if some virus had attacked the computer. The entire lab sunk into darkness and then the entire campus.

Naturally, Yuan Miaomiao did not know what happened on the campus. However, the blackout made the disturbance in her heart deepen. She kept on pounding the door of the lab.

Jason had no idea what was going on in the lab, either. A bad feeling was surging in his heart. “Miaomiao, call and get an electrician here.” He urged Yuan Miaomiao.

Yuan Miaomiao took out her phone. However, she didn’t know a number for an electrician. Plus, she had lost signal.

Of course, nothing about this was strange because in high-level labs, signals could be unstable.

“No signal?” Yuan Miaomiao stared at her phone with worry.

Jason stepped over. He was having messy thoughts as soon as he heard there was no signal. He was anxious but unable to do anything. What to do? What to do?

Lu Jia’er, who was lying in the space capsule, opened her eyes all of a sudden and found herself in darkness. Many images began to flash by in her mind again.

In the darkness, her eyes glowed but at the same time, was tainted with sadness. Just like Ian had said, sometimes, ignorance was better.

In the past, she was like a foundling. Her life was a life of sadness, too bitter to recall.

Even so, that was her history.

Those thoughts, her mind span from confusion to clarity, to chaos, to blurry and then returned back to clarity again.

Was she free from the shackles? Was she free from control? It was uncertain. But one thing was certain, she did get her memory back.

The lights in the lab came back on. The space capsule bed moved out slowly. Lu Jia’er saw Professor Chen Ming’s face. It went without saying that he was nervous.

Lu Jia’er got up from the bed slowly. She stared at Professor Chen Ming and said, “Hello, Professor Chen.”

“How… are you feeling?” Professor Chen Ming asked in a hurry.

“The experiment was successful!” Lu Jia’er said.

Professor Chen Ming gulped. “Do you remember your history and stories of your past?”

“Yes.” With that said, Lu Jia’er got off from the bed.

Professor Chen Ming stared at her and said something. “You are… Professor Lu Jia’er from the Department of Psychology in B University!”

Since Professor Chen Ming recognized her, she did not deny it. “Yes, I am.”

Lu Jia’er had confessed. Professor Chen Ming asked a straightforward question. “Professor Lu, can you tell me what is going on with your memory and the chip in your brain?”

Gazing at Professor Chen Ming, Lu Jia’er asked, “Professor Chen Ming, what do you think?”

“I don’t know!” Professor Chen Ming shook his head

“You do know.” Lu Jia’er argued.

Staring at Lu Jia’er’s face, Professor Chen Ming was completely seized by surprise. “You, you really are…”

Clearly, Lu Jia’er knew what Professor Chen Ming was about to see. She interrupted him, “Exactly what you are thinking!”

Behind his glasses, Professor Chen Ming’s eyes were wide open. The next second, Lu Jia’er smiled at him. Professor Chen Ming blinked and stood there still. He stared into Lu Jia’er’s eyes and his pupils began to dilate.

Following that, something inconceivable happened. Professor Chen Ming walked to the operating console and deleted the data and the video files.

Making sure that everything was fine, Lu Jia’er walked to the door with Professor Chen Ming who opened the door after having his eyeballs scanned.

Yuan Miaomiao and Jason were about to ask the results when Lu Jia’er said first, “Miaomiao, thank you!”

Yuan Miaomiao looked into Lu Jia’er’s eyes. What she did and how she stared at Yuan Miaomiao were just like when she was with Professor Chen Ming. Yuan Miaomiao came back to her senses after staying in a trance for a few seconds.

Jason was at a loss. But soon, the four of them began to depart.

Just as they stepped out from the lab, Yuan Miaomiao’s cell phone began to ring.

Lu Jia’er asked. “Is it from Ace?”

Yuan Miaomiao threw a look and nodded. “Yes.”

“Let me!” Lu Jia’er reached out her hand.

Yuan Miaomiao handed Lu Jia’er her phone obediently. “Ace, it’s me. Where are you?”

Jin Xiangdong was dying to find out the results. Hearing Lu Jia’er’s voice, he seemed to have arrived at some conclusion. “I will arrive at south gate of F University soon.”

“I will be out with Jason right away!” With that said, Lu Jia’er hung up and turned to Professor Chen Ming, “Professor Chen, can you drive us to south gate?”

Professor Chen Ming nodded.

Soon, Lu Jia’er and Jason met with Jin Xiangdong who was no longer driving a Maybach but a business purpose vehicle.

Having bid farewell to Chen Ming and Yuan Miaomiao, Lu Jia’er and Jason got in Jin Xiangdong’s car. They sped away.

As soon as they closed the doors, Jason mentioned, “Something is wrong with Professor Chen Ming and Miaomiao.”

Lu Jia’er did not deny it. “They were hypnotized by me.”

“Hypnotized by you?” Jason, who was sitting in the backseat, and Jin Xiangdong, who was behind the wheel, turned to Lu Jia’er at the same time.

Lu Jia’er went on. “They will recover after half an hour with no recollection whatsoever of things that happened during the events tonight.”

“What?” Jason’s jaw dropped in surprise.

But Jin Xiangdong was more worried about the condition of Lu Jia’er’s memory. “Jia’er, has your memory been recovered?”

“Yeah!” Lu Jia’er responded.

“Great!” Jason shouted.

Lu Jia’er continued, “Not only have I recovered my memory, I believe that from now on, nobody can manipulate me through any background program anymore!”

Hearing this, Jason’s jaw dropped further. “What is it now?”

Jin Xiangdong was overjoyed. Gazing at Lu Jia’er with such affectionate looks, he asked, “Are you saying you have achieved self-awareness?”

Just at that moment when his voice had hardly faded away, Lu Jia’er leaned over to help him adjust the steering wheel. “Look out.”

The three of them were scared out of wits. They almost hit the car in front of them. Things could have gone horribly wrong.

It took them a long while before their wits returned. Jason tried to seek confirmation from Lu Jia’er at once. “Professor Lu, are you… telling the truth?”

“I have recovered my consciousness that belonged to human me and at the same time, I seem to have been upgraded.” Lu Jia’er said.

Jason was struggling to catch up. Jin Xiangdong said right away, “Ian is helping you secretly.”

Lu Jia’er turned to Jin Xiangdong. She was filled with mixed feelings. In her memory as a human being, Ian was the sunlight in her life. At the same time, she had a question she had been wondering about for a long time: how did he turn her into an AI?

Lu Jia’er was conflicted inside, because of Ian, because of Jin Xiangdong.

Then, Jason and Jin Xiangdong heard her voice. “I don’t think there could be anyone else but him. It should be him that induced my coma so that my location could not be traced!”

Jason was startled. Jin Xiangdong took out his phone and opened a message. Then, he handed his phone to Lu Jia’er.

Lu Jia’er seemed to know. She took it from him and stared at the screen.

When she finished reading the text, her hands were trembling. “Did Ian send this to you?”

“Yes.” Jin Xiangdong answered.

Lu Jia’er’s eyes sparkled in tears. Jason reached out from the backseat to take the phone. As he read the message, his expressions changed suddenly.