Rebirth: Once Again With You

Li Caiyi woke up feeling sore. Considering how she had slept for a full day yesterday, she guessed this was unavoidable. In fact, she was still very reluctant to leave her bed.

If it weren't for the fact that she needed to prepare for school, she would love to sleep for another day.

"Ugh, I want to skip school, but everyone will worry if I do." Li Caiyi groaned lazily as she dragged her body out of bed and took a quick shower.

After cleaning herself, she grabbed a turtleneck shirt and wore it under her uniform to cover the bandage on her neck. She didn't want anyone to ask her about it later.

Looking at the time, she still had some time, so she whipped some food together and ate her breakfast. While doing so, she checked the recent news regarding the incident that night.

"There was still no news regarding those mysterious people. According to one of the witnesses, they suddenly retreated and left the premises before the police arrived ...."

A day had passed, but it seemed the police investigation was stuck. Or perhaps they did; the media was just not informed about it. Li Caiyi found no new discovery regarding the issue, so she turned off the news screen and opened her inbox instead.

Aside from Dai Zhiqiang, who nagged him to eat and rest well, there were also some from Li Chunhua and Shao Jingfei asking about her conditions. Li Caiyi smiled while reading their messages.

As she scrolled down her inbox, her eyes fell on Meng Renshu's old message for her. The memories of that night when he fought hard to protect her resurfaced in her mind.

"I wonder if he is alright now? He was beaten pretty badly."

She could bluff in front of Meng Shuchun all she wanted, but Li Caiyi was actually terrified.

Meng Renshu had transformed into someone completely different after he began to regain his past life memories. He once said he was in love with Li Caiyi, too, although she took it with a grain of salt.

After all this time, Li Caiyi felt no need to revisit past memories. As long as they lived separately from now on, she wouldn't mind putting everything behind. But Meng Renshu didn't seem to think so, despite saying he would respect her wish.

Undoubtedly, their outcome would be different this time since Li Jirong, who played a significant role in their misfortune, was out of the picture now. Not only her, but Li Chunhua and Meng Renshu could avoid their future suffering and probably lead happier life.

That was what Li Caiyi firmly believed until she saw the desperation in Meng Renshu's eyes that night. It was like he couldn't bear the idea of someone taking her away again.

He had the same desperation when she visited him at his house last time. The day when he revealed that he actually remembered his past life.

Li Caiyi had a bad feeling about this. She could feel her mind swayed by the remnant of her past, which terrified her.

If she met Meng Renshu, she couldn't tell how deep she would fall into this rabbit hole again.

"I'm grateful for what he did, but I'm not ready to face him yet. Once again, I try to run away from everything again. What a coward." Li Caiyi let out a self-deprecating laugh before dumping her plate in the sink.

She wasn't in the mood for cleaning, so she left her house just like that.

***

"Good morning, Caiyi! You came pretty late today."

Zhou Ya approached her with a big smile once she entered the classroom. Li Caiyi raised her head to smile back, but Zhou Ya gasped in shock once she saw her face.

"What happened to your face? You looked exhausted! And that is a big eye bag you got there."

"Oh, maybe because I stayed up late last night," Li Caiyi laughed dryly.

"Are you sure? You even wear a turtleneck shirt under your uniform, even though the weather is still pretty humid."

Li Caiyi said she would attend an important party when they met and hung out together last time, but she didn't give any details regarding the party as she didn't want them to make a fuss about it. None of her friends should have known what had happened to her.

If answering Zhou Ya's question was already tricky, she couldn't imagine what Feng Nian would say once she saw her like this. Chen Ruolan was pretty simple to fool, though.

Zhou Ya didn't miss the troubled look on her face like she wanted to say something but couldn't. Her brain worked fast, and then an idea struck her.

"Oh! I know what happened to you. There is only one reason why you can look this distraught."

Li Caiyi gulped, waiting for her to continue. Zhou Ya gazed sympathetically at her before patting her shoulder. "Did you have a fight with Dai Zhiqiang? Did he go MIA on you again? That's why you were feeling down and couldn't sleep last night?"

Zhou Ya's conclusion couldn't be more off-mark, yet she looked excited about it. Li Caiyi was relieved Zhou Ya was a sucker for romance stories. She provided her with a good reason.

'Let's go along with her for now. And it wasn't like what she said was completely baseless. After all, I hung out with them the other day because I felt lonely. Sorry, Zhi.'

Li Caiyi heaved a long sigh, feigning a lonely look before replying, "Well, he is still answering my calls and messages from time to time, but it feels like we are growing further apart."

"Aww, don't think it like that. Anyone can see Dai Zhiqiang only has eyes for you. No one had ever seen him talk to other girls besides you, or to be precise, he didn't talk to anyone but you!"

"Eh, maybe you are right. But Zhou Ya, could you lower your voice a bit? Everyone is staring…." Li Caiyi said dryly.

"Ignore them. Come, let's have a THOROUGH talk about this!" Zhou Ya exclaimed with sparkly eyes.

In the end, she would still have to answer many questions. Li Caiyi sort of regretted using Dai Zhiqiang as her excuse now.

***

"Xiaoyi, are you sure you don't want to tell Mom about this?" Li Chunhua asked again for the nth time that day.

"How many times do you want to ask that? In the end, nothing terrible happened to me. Telling Mother about it will only cause her to worry unnecessarily."

"But still…" Li Chunhua kicked the pebble beside her feet while pouting. "At least tell Big Brother Jie about this. Even though you live separately from us now, aren't we still a family? You act so distantly from us, and it hurts our feelings."

"I seriously doubt Big Brother Jie will think the same as you. He even probably forgot that she had another sister all along."

"No way, he surely…." Li Chunhua was about to say something but later found it plausible for Li Junjie to think like that, "Nevermind."

Li Caiyi glanced at Li Chunhua. She didn't know if her sister had forgotten about their last fight, but this might be for the best. Li Chunhua never mentioned the matter of Hu Jian anymore after she lashed out at her the other day.

"But still, that Dai Zhiqiang is really a heartless guy! How can he skip school and miss the chance to see you today? Did he not care about you at all?"