I woke up in the hospital, startled, and sat up to look at the phone on the bedside table.

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

I pulled out the IV needle, then rushed out of the hospital.

"Liyuan, why are you running? You're still on IV..."

I bumped into Li Lifang head-on, ignoring her and ran outside.

Stopped a taxi on the roadside, panting heavily, I said to the driver:

"Uncle, go to Chenyang High School, quickly, I have an exam!"

Running too fast, my chest heaved violently, my throat carried a slightly sweet taste.

"Young lady, are you taking the college entrance exam? Don't worry, I'll definitely get you there on time, don't rush."

My throat hurt so much I couldn't speak, just gasping heavily, nodding vigorously, tears uncontrollably streaming down.

I glanced at my phone from time to time, finally at two forty, the words "Chenyang High School" appeared in my sight.

Took out the change from my pocket to pay the driver, I thanked him repeatedly, then rushed into the school exam room.

Before the exam room was the anxious homeroom teacher, who always favored me as the math class representative.

I didn't show up in the morning, if I didn't show up in the afternoon, the homeroom teacher would be more anxious than me.

"Ziyuan, here is your admission ticket, go quickly, time is running out."

I nodded, no time for words, took the admission ticket and headed to the exam room.

Sitting in the exam room, my hands were shaking, desperately suppressing my emotions, forcing myself to calm down.

After several deep breaths, I finally calmed down.

When I picked up the pen, I regained my usual confident state, the pen flew on the paper, solving each question.

Just an hour into the exam, I had already finished all the questions.

Math has always been my strong suit, and this exam paper was not difficult.

I carefully checked several times, recalculated from start to finish.

While other students were scratching their heads, I finished checking and calculated in my mind how many points I could get without Chinese this time.

The exam bell finally rang, I stood up, handed in my paper, and left the exam room.

There was the worried look of the homeroom teacher in front of me.

"Ziyuan, are you okay?"

No blame, no questioning, just care and concern.

I cried and laughed again.

I cried because even the homeroom teacher, who had no blood relation to me, could be so gentle with me.

I laughed because Li Lifang, as my biological mother, would only blame, insult, and beat me time and time again.

"It will be okay, it will be okay."

The homeroom teacher hugged me, gently stroking my back, with a faint fragrance, like...

The smell of a mother.

I felt the long-lost warmth in the homeroom teacher's arms, tears streaming down my face.

If my mother were someone else, if I could choose, I would never have been born to Li Lifang.