The setting sun spilled across the stone-paved path.

Paula Thompson walked briskly with her head down. There were two small convenience stalls along the way, always with a few villagers lounging around no matter the time of day. She sped up, avoiding eye contact, hoping no one would talk to her.

As she neared home, she lifted her chin slightly and her steps lightened a bit.

Right then, a middle-aged man with a hoe over his shoulder strode toward her. Before she could say a word, he boomed, "Hey! Henry's girl is back—heard you went to pick up your admission letter. Got it?"

Paula’s cheeks flamed instantly.

She absolutely hated it when people called her dad "Henry the Cripple." Even if no one's being particularly mean, the nickname stung.

"Hi, Mr. Davis. Yeah, I got it," she replied quickly.

"Wow, impressive! First college student from our village, huh?" he hollered, setting down his hoe like he was about to settle in for a friendly chat.

Paula felt her face burn even more. She really didn’t want to talk about it. “There’s stuff to do at home, Mr. Davis. I’ve got to run,” she said, already turning on her heel and practically jogging back.

She really wasn’t in the mood to show off. Even though she was the only one from the village who made it into the top local high school, her college entrance score was disappointing—just 42 points over the minimum for second-tier universities. She missed the first-tier cutoff by six points, and all her preferred schools rejected her. She was placed in a private second-tier college, and the tuition printed on the letter was more than three times the typical rate. There was no way her family could afford that.

Behind her, more villagers had gathered around Mr. Davis, murmuring things like, “Wow, Henry’s girl got into college, huh...” Hearing that only made her feel worse.

Her dad, Henry Thompson, was one of the rare folks in the village who'd been to middle school, but his shorter right leg made him walk with a limp. He was short and not very strong, which made manual farm work tough. She was their only child, and in the eyes of some old-school villagers, that basically meant the family line was done.

Still, she'd always been a good student. Her parents were proud. When someone teased them about not having a son, her dad would simply grin and say, “My girl’s a good one.” Her mom, sharper with her tongue, would fire back loud and proud, “My Paula’s smart and capable—she’ll have a better life than any son.”

But this exam result—it crushed all of them. She'd done way worse than usual, missing the mark badly.

She burst through their yard gate, breathless from running.

Usually, Henry would show off proudly with her achievements, but this time, he just stood silently in the yard, chopping wood, his gaze fixed on the admission notice.

In the backyard, Mrs. Thompson was chopping wild herbs. She’d planned to sell the three pigs she’d been carefully raising over the year to cover college expenses. That was the plan—to scrape together enough for tuition and living costs.

Neither of her parents had salaried jobs, no steady income. Raising and selling more pigs—that was the idea. But the tuition? Over ten grand per semester. Henry couldn't earn even that much in a year. And they’d also have to cover living expenses. Where would the money come from?

When Paula arrived, trying to help, she got shooed away.

"Go back and study. You still gotta keep up when you start college," her dad said.

In that moment, Paula felt her eyes sting. The tears were right there, pressing to fall.

She’d grown up in the countryside, but her parents hardly let her do any real manual labor.She always said she was “reading,” but most of the time it was just flipping through some random novels or stuff outside the curriculum. Still, her parents looked at her like she was studying for the bar exam—just watching their daughter bury her nose in a book made them grin ear to ear.

“I could... maybe do another year?” The thought hovered on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it back down. Couldn’t say it.

What did come out were tears.

She didn’t want to repeat a year. She was terrified. She was over it—this whole situation.

Her dad, Henry Thompson, was the type who helped everyone out and never complained, even with his limp. Always being the nice guy made him an easy target for jokes around the village. But their pride, the only real thing saving face, was Paula’s grades.

And if she stayed back to repeat? That would be gone. All of it. She could already hear the villagers gossiping about her parents.

But the tuition fees for the private college? They were brutal. And their family didn’t have that kind of cash lying around.

Compared to the weight of the money issue, what she’d experienced at school almost felt like nothing.

Back in senior year, she had a thing with a boy in her class. The feeling was mutual—they studied together, cracked jokes, exchanged looks across the room. Both ranked pretty high, so no teacher bothered to get in their business. At that age? The more you told kids not to date, the faster they’d fall into it.

They’d made a promise to apply to Beijing Normal University together. But when she went to pick up her notification yesterday, he made it in. She didn’t.

No goodbye. No number. No closure. Probably wouldn’t ever see him again.

She went back to her room—her own tiny space. There was no glass in the window frame, just some plastic sheeting slapped on when they ran out of money during construction. It got insanely hot inside in the summer. She laid down on her bed.

There was a little blue mirror by her pillow, something she’d picked up from a discount store.

In the reflection was a pale girl with a narrow face, long black hair, and those oversized black-rimmed glasses.

That was her.

Not bad-looking, kind of stood out compared to the rest of the villagers.

Some people said she acted too proud.

She didn’t mean to be.

She just didn’t know how to click with the locals after starting school. The gap felt bigger every time she came back.

And now? She had no clue where her life was going.

Go to college? Or start over?

She dozed off, sweat soaking her back. There was no A/C — there wasn't even a real window.

Then came her mom’s voice calling them to eat, and she dragged herself downstairs.

At dinner, trying to sound casual, she said, “Maybe... I should redo the year. Probably just messed up on the exam.”

Her dad didn’t respond right away, just kept chewing.

Her mom picked up some veggies and dropped them in her bowl.

“Go to college. Don’t worry about repeating. I talked to someone—the one you got into has good job prospects. The fees are steep, yeah, but we’ll figure something out. We can borrow if we have to. Just focus on going, okay?”

The surprising part? That came from her usually soft-spoken dad. He said it with a mouth half full, not loud, but certain.

Paula gave a quiet nod.

She kept her head down as she scooped rice into her mouth, but tears dropped into the bowl anyway.

Tasted kind of salty now.

Then suddenly, a weird voice echoed in her ears.

“Match found. Binding host now... Binding complete. Congratulations on unlocking the Level 1 Progress System. This system is active for life. Binding ends upon host’s death. Every step you take earns 0.1 yuan. Daily cap: 10,000 steps.”

Paula froze.

Her brain, still in post-exam fog, did the math. Ten thousand steps meant... a thousand yuan a day? Was she losing it? Had she snapped from thinking too much about money?

“Mom, Dad, did you guys hear that?” she asked, glancing up.

Her parents, still munching away, looked puzzled.

“Nope,” her mom said. “Eat up. After dinner, go stretch your legs. Meet up with some friends or something. Don’t just stay cooped up in your room.”