Memory Rings

In 2057, a "Memory Bridge" biochip is implanted in the back of the human brain. Each person can share memories once every winter solstice. The memories are layered on top of each other, like the growth rings of a tree. Lu Yuan is a top memory restorer who specializes in helping Alzheimer's patients recover their original memories that have been covered by errors - he believes that "memories can be broken, but they cannot be fake." In the hospice ward, he accepted the last commission: to repair the collapsed memory of Lin Sufen, the veteran chip developer. While going deep into the labyrinth of her consciousness, Lu Yuan came across a scene that shouldn't exist - in the thick heat of the kitchen, a young man who looked exactly like him was being held by a woman, tucking him into bed, and listening to her hum a lullaby on a winter night. But Lu Yuan lost his mother at the age of five and has never had such mother-child time. Lin Sufen secretly replaced the face of her only son "Xiao Bei" who died young with the neural signature data of Lu Yuan's childhood, creating this warm memory that never happened on the bottom layer of the chip. She used it to deal with the lifelong pain of losing a child, and to embrace the orphan of her old friend - the boy who was forgotten by his father and left behind by the world. When the restorer's iron rule meets borrowed maternal love, Lu Yuan must answer: If a memory is forged, but the love is absolutely true - should we insist on restoring the truth, or learn to reconcile with the fallacy of tenderness? Technology can edit data, but it cannot delete the growth rings in the heart of the human heart. Some memories never happened, but they make us truly live.