Anyway, the road ahead was still long.


    Even if she had to relive it all slowly in this dream, it only meant she’d be staying here for a while.


    At most, she’d just be wasting a bit of time here.


    With that thought, Aurora began to calmly ept whatever came next.


    She didn’t think there was anything strange about it.


    As long as she was content, anywhere could be a stage and part of her life.


    Besides, after watching those two chapters of her past<b>, </b>she had clearly seen Tessa’s true colors.


    Now, Aurora even found herself looking forward to what came next


    If she wasn’t living it but observing from the outside, would she discover even more things she hadn’t noticed before?


    A faint smile crept onto Aurora’s face, her lips curling slightly.


    She was filled with anticipation for whaty ahead.


    How much more had Tessa been hiding from her all these years?


    Had she always been working against her from the shadows?


    Were the setbacks she experiencedter in life somehow connected to Tessa too?


    That fought darkened Aurora’s eyes.


    The scene before her shifted wildly, like a sequence out of a sci–fi movie.


    Images shed rapidly in front of her eyes again and again until finally, the screen froze.


    Aurora felt a sudden wave of weightlessness.


    When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in a narrow alley.


    For a moment, she was stunned. The ce felt unfamiliar, barely recognizable.


    When had this happened?


    Why didn’t she remember this ce?


    Aurora thought it was daytime and had already braced herself for the sting of sunlight.


    But to her surprise, it was nothing like that.


    Just as she was still puzzled, several excited male voices suddenly echoed down the alley.


    “This is our lucky day. A pretty girl and a fat paycheck.”


    “Yeah, just a middle school girl. Easy to handle.”


    “Whoever hired us must be loaded. Paying this much just to deal with a student?”


    The moment she heard that, Aurora’s heart skipped a beat.


    She remembered now.


    This was the alley where Megan had been cornered by a group of thugs back in middle school.


    Aurora had arrivedter that day, which was why her memory of the ce was vague.


    But now, hearing these men talk, everything suddenly clicked.


    There had been someone behind it.


    She had never known.


    All along, she had assumed it was just a group of local thugs trying to get money, thinking Megan looked wealthy based on how she dressed.


    But now that she heard them mention a payout, she realized that someone had actually hired them to go after her.


    The first person who came to mind was Tessa.


    After what she’d uncovered in those earlier memories, Aurora couldn’t help but link it back to her.


    She didn’t know why, but the moment she heard there had been a mastermind, Tessa instantly became the top suspect in her


    mind.


    It was this very incident that hadter driven her to study martial arts and taekwondo, all to protect the people she cared about.


    And Megan, traumatized by the event, had clung to her even more tightly afterward.


    Aurora clenched her fists.


    If Tessa was truly the mastermind, she would never let her get away with it.