The first day of senior year ended just like that.

Mo Xuan walked home with his backpack on, slow and distracted the whole way.

In his previous life, he’d actually been pretty driven. He studied hard every night, all so he could catch up to Yun Jiumo’s grades and make her see him in a new light.

Even after the college entrance exam ended, he carefully memorized the big questions from every subject and checked the answers. A few of the ones he got wrong really shouldn’t have been mistakes, so they stayed burned into his memory even now.

Thinking about it that way, he should have a bit of an advantage on this year’s exam.

He stopped by the traffic light. It was rush hour, and the road was packed with cars. Students from different schools were scattered through every street, their uniforms a patchwork of colors.

Just as he was about to cross, his gaze flicked toward another street with fewer people, and his steps paused.

He thought of someone without meaning to.

He’d been reborn. The people he wanted to see, he’d already seen today. Everyone except that one person.

Only now did he remember her. Did that mean Shen Bingjing was right? Did her older sister really hold no place in his heart?

He scratched his hair, feeling a little troubled.

No matter what, he should still go.

Besides, he’d made that girl Shen Bingjing cry this morning. He’d even gone all the way to Class Six to apologize. She’d clearly noticed him, but she just sat there and refused to move an inch, leaving Mo Xuan completely helpless.

His relationship with Shen Bingjing had been good since their first year of high school, and it lasted all the way into college. If not for everything that happened later, one thing after another, he never would’ve wanted to lose a lively, noisy, adorable girl like her from his side.

Before heading to their house, Mo Xuan stopped by a cake shop and bought a fruit cake. Of course, the main reason was that it was on sale. Buy one, get one free.

After his family went bankrupt, he’d broken his old habit of spending money freely. He started budgeting carefully in every area. He knew that once he got into college, he’d never need to worry about money again. Yun Jiumo would cover all his expenses herself.

But if that happened, wouldn’t it mean he and Yun Jiumo were officially together?

Deep down, he secretly hoped that day would come a little later.

Otherwise, if nothing could be changed, then what was the point of being reborn?

He turned into a quiet alley, passed through a desolate little park, and heard river water flowing down from the hilltop. Mo Xuan crossed a narrow stone bridge. A student rode past him on a bicycle, the bell ringing brightly.

He remembered that Shen Bingjing and Shen Bingyao had always lived in that courtyard. It had been left behind by their grandfather’s generation.

Come to think of it, the sisters really had rough lives.

When they were little, Shen Bingyao had saved Shen Bingjing from drowning, but her own legs were left paralyzed because of it. She lost all feeling below the knees. Even though she eventually recovered through relentless treatment and massage, all she could do in the end was walk.

Later, their parents died in an accident too, leaving only the two daughters to depend on each other.

Back then, they were still very young. Relatives came from all over, planning to adopt them. But because Shen Bingyao needed constant care, almost no one was willing to take in the older sister.

According to Shen Bingjing, there had been a long stretch of time when she was deeply worried about her sister’s state. Shen Bingyao smiled every day and acted like everything was fine, but Shen Bingjing could tell her mind was under terrible pressure. If no one had been watching her, she might even have killed herself on the spot.

Going from a healthy body to being unable to move properly was already enough to drive someone into despair.

Then the people around you naturally treated you like useless baggage, like a burden. Who could stand that?

She wasn’t the kind of person strong enough to bear every blow.

Luckily, in the end, Shen Bingjing insisted they not be separated. The two of them stayed in their grandfather’s courtyard. It was only later, when they needed money for Shen Bingyao’s treatment, that they had no choice but to sell it and move into a smaller apartment.

Lost in memory as he walked, Mo Xuan reached the courtyard before he knew it.

The wall around it was about two meters high, old and mottled. It had probably weathered years of wind and rain. The cement had peeled away, and unknown wildflowers and weeds grew thick at the base.

It enclosed the whole courtyard, looking like an uneven iron barrel, carefully protecting the people inside.

The square iron gate stood there quietly, with a narrow gap left in the middle. Time had left plenty of rust on it. A plain light bulb was fixed above the gate, and red paper lanterns hung on both sides.

The first time Mo Xuan came here, he’d really liked this courtyard. It was quiet and spacious, so comfortable it felt perfect. He’d even joked with Shen Bingyao, saying, “If I ever end up with nowhere to go, don’t refuse me when I come here looking for a place to stay, okay?”

He couldn’t remember how Shen Bingyao had answered back then.

What remained in his memory was only her flushed cheeks and lowered lashes. The girl had seemed to press down the joy in her heart, trying hard to act reserved.

Sigh—

He raised his hand, but just as he was about to knock, he stopped again.

His head felt a little dizzy.

He still hadn’t figured out how he was supposed to face Shen Bingyao.

In his previous life, after learning that she liked him, and after everything crazy she did later, he felt some sympathy for her deep down. But he also wanted to avoid her.

Feelings between people were always complicated. The same person could show one face in public and another in private. You could get along naturally and freely every day, but once you learned the other person had feelings for you, it was hard to keep pretending not to notice.

Even if Shen Bingyao didn’t know anything in this life, from Shen Bingjing’s words and that diary, it wasn’t hard for Mo Xuan to guess that she might already have started liking him back in high school.

Otherwise, why was the first thing that popped into his head whenever he thought of her obedient and well-behaved, followed by gentle and quiet?

That older sister likes me?

How was he supposed to face her the same way he faced Shen Bingjing?

Mo Xuan felt completely at a loss.

He lowered his head and looked at the cake in his hand. No matter what, he’d already bought it. He had to give it to her.

Besides, he’d been reborn. He’d already decided he would pull back the tragedies of his previous life and change everyone’s endings.

How could he just stand by and do nothing?

He didn’t dare say much else for now, but there was one thing he was sure of.

If he let things keep developing like before, then in the end, Shen Bingyao would only fall into madness because of love, become someone unrecognizable, become crazy, then be hurt by Yun Jiumo, and finally end her life by jumping from a building in a psychiatric hospital.

He clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his flesh.

Whether it was for Shen Bingjing or for Shen Bingyao, he had to make a change.

He took a deep breath, fixed his expression, and put on a solemn, serious look. He even freed one hand to straighten his collar.

Like he was showing up to propose marriage.

Then he eased his strength and knocked on the door five times, not too hard, not too soft.

That was also the signal he’d agreed on with the sisters.

The two of them rarely interacted with other people. After their parents passed away, their home became even more deserted. Most of the visitors they got were delivery drivers and couriers.

Sometimes a few relatives would come by. The sisters weren’t exactly happy about it, but they still had to keep up basic manners. Because Shen Bingyao had once been verbally abused by those relatives, it left a shadow in her heart. So whenever relatives visited, Shen Bingjing would be the one to deal with them, while her sister stayed alone in her room.

That way, Shen Bingyao would have a little time to turn her wheelchair and leave.

After the five slightly heavy knocks, there was no movement at all from the gate.

Mo Xuan found that strange.

They weren’t home?

That couldn’t be right.

If Shen Bingjing wasn’t around, that would at least make some sense. That girl was lively and restless, always running around outside. Sometimes she came home late, and that was understandable.

But where could Shen Bingyao go? She was home-schooled because her legs made getting around difficult. Could she be in the backyard? Or maybe she just couldn’t move for the moment?

A few seconds later, the narrow crack in the middle of the gate slowly opened with a rough scraping sound.

Mo Xuan quickly held his breath and forced out a smile, his heart pounding hard.

The gap only opened a little at first. But after the person inside saw who was standing there, the door started opening faster.

Not long after, he heard the sound of a wheelchair turning, and his chest tightened a little.

Then he saw her clearly.

Sitting in a black, cold-looking wheelchair was a beautiful girl in a pure white cotton dress. She had long black hair and neat bangs. Maybe because she rarely saw sunlight, her skin was so pale it was almost transparent.

The girl looked at him with bright, watery eyes full of delight, then quickly lowered her head. A faint blush spread across her delicate cheeks.

That scene, exactly the same as in his memory, made it impossible for Mo Xuan to hold back his smile.

She was still the same as back then.

She hadn’t changed at all.

He lifted the cake in his hand, then raised his other hand and waved.

“Long time no see.”