An Baili curled up in Lu Li’s arms and slowly told him the story of her first reincarnation.

Time slipped by, one second after another. Outside the window, night deepened. The bustling city sank into a long silence, as if time itself had stopped flowing.

The only thing still moving was the faint murmur of the girl in his arms.

An Baili was growing tired, but she still clutched Lu Li’s clothes tightly and refused to let go. In a listless voice, she asked, “Have you forgiven me?”

“Yeah.” Lu Li nodded gently. “I’ve forgiven you.”

An Baili smiled dreamily, then curled up in his arms like a cat and fell asleep.

Her sleeping face looked especially pitiful. Her body had curled into a small ball, like an abandoned animal. Only when Lu Li held her tighter did she relax a little.

With one hand, Lu Li took out his phone and messaged his sister to let her know he was safe. Then he placed An Baili on the shabby folding bed.

A Chuanhai No.1 High School girls’ uniform hung on the clothes rack by the window. One stocking had been taken down, and sewing supplies still lay on the table.

An Baili must have secretly mended her worn-out uniform, right?

“Flowers fade when the wind stills, and their fragrance dies away. Dusk falls, and I’m too weary to comb my hair. The world remains, but the people have changed. Everything feels pointless. Before I can speak, tears come first.”

During the days when he had deliberately ignored An Baili, had she secretly cried at this little table?

She probably had.

Lu Li tucked the blanket around An Baili. He could still hear the girl murmuring in her sleep.

“Don’t leave me…”

His gaze drifted toward the bright moon outside the window, and his thoughts churned.

There were still many things he hadn’t told An Baili. Even Lu Li himself couldn’t figure out whether what he felt for her was more love or more pity.

Or perhaps he had married An Baili from the very beginning because he pitied her.

It was precisely because of that superior, condescending pity that he had tried to change An Baili. It was why he had held his wife to such harsh standards.

I really am an arrogant bastard.

That was what he thought.

Since his reincarnation, hadn’t he always looked down upon the world from some detached height?

But now, Lu Li asked himself honestly: Did he really have the right to look down upon them?

Was he worthy?

The face that flashed through his mind was Chu Jingyi’s.

At this moment, when his heart was being struck so deeply, the first person he thought of was that innocent girl.

Chu Jingyi liked him.

That should have been obvious beyond doubt.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have acted as if nothing had happened after kissing him by force. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten jealous…

Lu Li gave a self-mocking smile.

How could it have been any more obvious? Why had he only realized it now?

Was he worthy?

A person’s growth was a long process of dismantling the self.

To admit one’s own vileness. To admit one’s vanity. To admit one’s ordinariness.

Constantly examining yourself—that was what growth meant.

He liked Chu Jingyi, the girl untouched by worldly grime.

He liked Wen Amber, with whom he shared that strange understanding.

And he also liked An Baili, who was both tragic and pitiful.

Lu Li stared in shock as he realized he had become a greedy man.

An Baili’s sleep-muttering interrupted his philosophical thoughts. She hadn’t woken up. It seemed she was having a nightmare.

Lu Li took her hand. The warmth of his body gave her a little sense of security. An Baili’s long eyelashes stopped trembling, and she looked like a sleeping beauty entering an endless slumber.

“Li… could you love me one more time…?”

It was only something she said in her dream.

Lu Li needed time to recognize his true feelings again, so he couldn’t give An Baili a definite answer yet.

He needed to understand where his heart truly belonged.

*

By the time Lu Li returned home, the night had grown deep. Stars shimmered across the sky, and the Milky Way blazed brilliantly.

The light in his room was still on.

Had his sister come back? Was she still awake?

Lu Li took off his shoes. Sure enough, he found Zou Yameng sitting at home and playing with her phone.

“Yameng, you’re still awake? It’s so late.” Lu Li tidied the shoe cabinet as he spoke.

“You haven’t eaten dinner. If I went to sleep, who’d heat up your food?”

The answer was completely ordinary, yet it was filled with the warmth of home.

Lu Li’s hands paused.

He suddenly thought of something. No matter whom he fell in love with, could he really abandon Sister Yameng?

He couldn’t.

Zou Yameng was the woman bound to him by blood and destiny. She was family he could never give up.

If Sister Yameng got together with another man, could he accept it?

The answer was no.

Was this the price?

Lu Li seemed to understand something.

He felt like a fishing boat trapped in four or five whirlpools, suffering through the agony of choice. No matter what he chose in the future, more people would be hurt.

“You look pretty down today.”

Sister Yameng’s leg had mostly recovered, and she could already walk on her own. She came over and, without giving him a chance to refuse, wrapped him in a huge hug.

It was a heavy, forceful embrace.

Her fragrance drifted into Lu Li’s nose. He remembered how, as a child, he would scamper behind Sister Yameng whenever older kids bullied him.

He’d watch her beat those bigger kids senseless, cheering from behind and waving his arms like a flag.

No matter when, his sister had always been his strongest emotional support.

She was the harbor he could always return to.

Lu Li hugged her back.

“Yameng, I love you.”

He clearly felt her body stiffen at once.

She was like a leopard tensing before pouncing on prey—or a weasel caught helplessly in the presence of its natural enemy.

Zou Yameng knew that Lu Li meant familial love. Yet she still deceived herself, putting on an expression of delighted panic.

“I—I love you too.”

He ate a simple dinner, chatted with his sister for a while, and somehow fell asleep without realizing it.

Perhaps too much had happened that day. Perhaps the information he’d received had come too densely.

Either way, Lu Li slept uneasily.

He dreamed of a peach blossom tree. Beside it stood a prophecy:

“Mad willow fluff dances upon the wind;

Light peach blossoms chase the flowing stream.”

The peach blossoms were in full bloom, breathtakingly beautiful.

But strangely, six red threads hung from the tree trunk, drifting aimlessly in the wind.

Just as Lu Li was about to approach for a closer look, he suddenly heard a faint sigh.

“Destiny has decreed it. This calamity must be faced.”

When he opened his eyes, it was six o’clock the next morning.

Sister Yameng’s sleeping posture was still terribly improper. Her right leg rested across his stomach, trapping him like an octopus.

Faint morning light spilled through a gap in the curtains and fell across her thighs and slender waist.

Her already fair thighs looked dazzling beneath the sunlight, like fine white jade.

His movement seemed to disturb Sister Yameng. She smacked her lips and unconsciously tightened her right leg downward.

Lu Li sucked in a breath. He bent slightly and carefully lifted her somewhat fleshy thigh, freeing Little Lu Li from its restraints.

To be honest, it had been a little uncomfortable being crushed.

Sister Yameng’s sleeping posture was awful. She was wearing only a tank top and shorts, and even one strap had slipped from her shoulder.

Most of her full, bowl-like curves were exposed. Lu Li could faintly smell a milky fragrance.

Maybe it was just his imagination.

She was becoming less and less mindful of the boundary between men and women.

He grumbled inwardly, then quickly tidied himself up, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and prepared to leave for school.

Lu Li took out his change and counted it. He decided to skip breakfast today.

Also, he needed to make things clear with An Baili. Although he had forgiven her suicide attempt, that didn’t mean he intended to rekindle their relationship.

At the root of it, the problems in their marriage hadn’t been solved.

A brief compromise would only bring lasting pain.

As Lu Li’s thoughts wandered through all sorts of messes, he suddenly noticed an unread message on his phone.

It was from Secretary Long.

[Uncle Long: Are you free to come to the Chu family for dinner this Saturday?]

Lu Li gave him an affirmative reply. He couldn’t exactly put on airs with Chu Xiaodong, after all.

The other party replied with a smiling emoji. It had a distinctly elder-like feel to it.

On the way to school, Lu Li kept rehearsing what he would say when he met An Baili.

He had to calm her emotions and explain everything clearly.

Maybe he could suggest that they start as friends. Or perhaps start over as ordinary friends.

But when he thought about it carefully, all of it sounded fake.

It had been a long time since Lu Li had felt this tense, as if he were facing a great enemy.

The last time had been the entrance examination from high school to university.

Seven interviewers had sat there with stern faces and asked him all sorts of questions.

Why did you choose our school?

What are your flaws?

Tell us about your family…

Back then, Lu Li had felt like a mayfly—small and insignificant.

An Baili must be devastated, right?

His endless inner rambling was cut short, leaving only that single thought.

His footsteps slowed without him realizing it.

The image of a country girl appeared in his mind.

She deliberately wore her hair in braids and put on black-rimmed glasses. Her bangs were thick, making her look like a rustic girl from the countryside.

She understood nothing and possessed nothing.

She could only cling to her one and only lover like a drowning person clutching a lifeline.

Suddenly, his phone began chiming again and again.

It was the alert tone for a special contact.

[Sister Yameng: Ruan Qian came knocking first thing this morning. She says she needs to see you!]

Then came a voice message.

Sure enough, it was Ruan Qian using Sister Yameng’s account to send it.

“Brother Lu! Haiming took Chen Shiwei to An Gulai’s place to cause trouble! Please, you have to stop them!”

Boom!

It was as if lightning had struck Lu Li’s mind.

The carefully woven speech he had prepared was instantly blown apart. Every thought scattered and converged into a single name.

“An Baili! An Baili!”