Pain.
That was the first thing Xiaoyu felt.
Not physical pain.
Memory.
Raw, overwhelming memory.
The underground station disappeared around her as thousands of forgotten moments crashed through her mind all at once.
White hallways.
Locked doors.
Doctors.
Tests.
Children crying in neighboring rooms.
Voices repeating numbers instead of names.
Subject 3.
Subject 11.
Subject 0.
Subject 7.
And—
Subject 1.
Her.
Xiaoyu staggered backward.
The station spun violently around her.
"XIAOYU!"
Lu Shen caught her before she collapsed.
But she barely heard him.
Because she was remembering.
Everything.
The laboratory wasn't a blur anymore.
It was clear.
Painfully clear.
The man smiled as he watched.
"She's remembering."
The woman in white looked disturbed.
"Stop this."
"Why?"
The man sounded amused.
"The truth belongs to her."
Another memory surfaced.
A classroom.
Children sitting quietly.
Doctors observing through glass.
One child solving impossible puzzles.
Another memorizing entire books.
Another predicting outcomes before they happened.
Experiments.
Training.
Evaluation.
Selection.
The memories continued.
Then Xiaoyu saw herself.
A little girl sitting alone at a table.
Drawing.
Smiling.
While adults watched from behind a glass wall.
One doctor spoke.
"Subject 1 continues outperforming expectations."
Another voice answered.
"Decision accuracy remains above ninety-eight percent."
The memory shattered.
Xiaoyu gasped.
Her hands trembled.
Decision accuracy?
What did that even mean?
The man noticed the confusion immediately.
"Now you understand."
"No," Xiaoyu whispered.
"I don't."
The man laughed softly.
"Of course you do."
His eyes gleamed.
"You were never created to remember."
Silence.
Then—
"You were created to choose."
The station became deathly still.
Nobody spoke.
The man slowly approached.
Every step echoed across the tracks.
"Present Subject 1 with enough information..."
Another step.
"...and she consistently identifies the correct outcome."
Xiaoyu stared at him.
"What are you talking about?"
The man's smile widened.
"Your brain processes patterns differently."
The woman in white closed her eyes.
Almost as if she regretted hearing this conversation.
The man continued.
"You solve problems faster."
"See connections others miss."
"Predict consequences before they happen."
Xiaoyu's heartbeat quickened.
Because suddenly—
certain moments in her life made sense.
The strange instincts.
The feelings she couldn't explain.
The times she somehow knew something was wrong before evidence appeared.
The times she noticed details others ignored.
No.
That couldn't be true.
Could it?
Lu Shen stepped forward.
"You're manipulating her again."
The man shrugged.
"I'm explaining her."
"She isn't a project."
The man's smile vanished instantly.
"No."
His eyes settled on Lu Shen.
"She's the future."
Silence.
Then Xiaoyu remembered something else.
A memory buried deeper than all the others.
The night of the fire.
Not fragments.
Not flashes.
The whole memory.
Clear.
Perfect.
She saw her father.
Running.
Bleeding.
Holding a metal case.
Holding her hand.
Then another person.
Standing beside them.
Helping them escape.
Someone she never expected.
The woman in white.
Xiaoyu froze.
"No..."
The memory continued.
The woman had helped them.
She had opened a security door.
She had given her father time.
She had betrayed the organization.
The memory ended.
The station returned.
Everyone stared at Xiaoyu.
The woman immediately understood.
"You remembered."
Xiaoyu looked at her.
Completely stunned.
"You helped us."
The man's expression darkened instantly.
The woman remained silent.
That silence confirmed everything.
The memory had been real.
"You helped my father escape."
The woman finally spoke.
Quietly.
"Yes."
The station erupted with confusion.
Even the armed men looked shocked.
The man laughed.
But this time there was no humor in it.
"After all these years."
His voice became cold.
"You choose now to confess?"
The woman looked directly at him.
And for the first time—
she wasn't afraid.
"I was tired."
Silence.
"Tired of watching children suffer."
The man's eyes narrowed.
The atmosphere changed immediately.
Dangerously.
The woman continued.
"I spent years convincing myself it was necessary."
Her voice shook slightly.
"But it wasn't."
Nobody spoke.
Not even Lu Shen.
The woman looked at Xiaoyu.
Then at Lu Shen.
Then back toward the man.
"I should have stopped you sooner."
The man's smile disappeared completely.
And suddenly—
everyone understood.
The real enemy had finally stepped into the light.
Not the woman.
Not the organization.
Him.
The architect behind everything.
The man who ordered the experiments.
The man who killed Xiaoyu's father.
The man who started the fire.
His expression hardened.
Years of charm disappearing instantly.
"You've become inconvenient."
The woman laughed softly.
"Just now?"
The next second—
a gunshot echoed through the station.
The woman jerked backward.
Blood spread across her white clothing.
Xiaoyu froze.
Lu Shen moved instantly.
The armed men shouted.
Chaos erupted again.
But this time—
nobody knew whose side they were on anymore.