Chapter 1: Rebirth in the 1990s

Smack.

A sharp slap landed on Lin Wei’s face.

She struggled with all her might, but couldn’t push away the beast pressing down on her.

“Mom, help me, please help me.”

“Help you? Stop dreaming. Don’t you get it? Your mother brought you to my bed on purpose.”

“That’s impossible, it can’t be.” Realization dawned on Lin Wei, and desperate for confirmation, she almost screamed, “Mom, did you drug me? Why? Why would you do this to me?”

Feeling the weakness in her body, Lin Wei fell into deep despair.

After Lin’s father passed away, a rift had grown between her and her mother because of her uncle’s affairs.

Later, when her younger brother went missing, her search for him kept her even more distant from her mother. She hadn’t even met her mother’s new husband until years later.

She’d thought her mother invited her over simply to meet her stepfather. But before the meal was even finished, her stepfather had taken her to his room.

Without hesitation, Lin Wei kicked him hard in the groin.

“You bitch, how dare you trick me!” he howled.

Writhing in pain, her stepfather curled into a ball. Seizing the chance, Lin Wei bolted for the door.

Her heart pounded—just a little more and she would be free.

But suddenly, with a bang, her mother slammed the door shut and locked it.

Her own mother had cut off her only hope of escape.

“Mom, open the door, open it!” she pleaded.

Perhaps her cries were too desperate, because at last her mother’s cold voice sounded from outside, “Weiwei, stop struggling. No matter what, you’re not leaving this room today.”

“Your stepfather and I have been together for some time. He has no children, and I’m too old to give him any. I can’t give him an heir, and it makes me feel terribly guilty.”

“But you’re different. You’re thirty this year, at the prime age for childbearing. You won’t even have to raise the child yourself. I’ve cared for him as if he were my own son. Weiwei, you’re my good girl—fulfill your mother’s wish, won’t you?”

Her mother’s words stabbed into her like a knife, making every hair on her body stand on end.

“Mom, what are you saying? Are you insane?”

Seeing her resistance weaken, her stepfather grinned and approached her.

“Stop begging. Do you think your mother is a good person? Your own brother died because of her.”

Lin Wei stared at him in shock, unable to believe it. “What do you mean? My brother…”

Outside, her mother’s voice sounded again, “Since things have come to this, I might as well tell you the truth. Your brother didn’t go missing all those years ago. Your uncle’s son needed a kidney transplant for uremia. He drove us out of his house just for a chance to get your brother’s kidney.”

“I checked with the doctor beforehand—donating one kidney wouldn’t hurt him. He could have grown up just fine. But then, your brother died from infection and organ failure. That wasn’t my fault; his body was just too frail.”

“That was your own son! You did this to your own flesh and blood for someone else’s child. How could you?”

Lin Wei’s anguished screams fell on deaf ears—neither of those heartless monsters were moved in the slightest.

She pulled a hairpin from her hair and stabbed it deep into her stepfather’s neck.

“Aargh!”

He hadn’t expected her to go so far; reeling from the pain, he staggered backward.

But in the next moment, his face twisted with rage.

“You think refusing me will let you leave here alive? Don’t dream.”

He pulled an axe from under the bed and brought it down on Lin Wei again and again.

Blood splattered everywhere. In that instant, a young life was forever extinguished.

—

“Lin Wei, your acceptance letter is here! Jiangcheng University—this is the first one in our whole county! You’ve made the Lin family proud.”

Lin Wei opened her eyes, still dazed, and instinctively accepted the university notice from the postman.

The sensation of the paper felt so real, as if this wasn’t a dream at all, but she was truly holding the acceptance letter she’d never reached in her previous life.

Tears slid down her cheeks. Suddenly, a little boy hugged her tightly. “Sister, why are you crying? Is it because you’re happy?”

Sister?

Lin Wei looked at the boy—and there was her brother, Lin Yuan, his delicate little face just as she remembered.

How long had it been? How long since she last saw Lin Yuan?

In that moment, she didn’t care if this was a dream—she just wanted to hold her brother and weep.

Overwhelmed by her embrace, Lin Yuan was at a loss, but tried to comfort her by patting her back, just like their father used to.

Halfway through her tears, Lin Wei suddenly realized—

The acceptance letter in her hand—

Her lively, comforting brother—

Wasn’t this all too real?

If this wasn’t a dream, there was only one explanation:

She had been reborn. She’d returned to 1990.

That is—

The very day her father fell to his death at the construction site.

The thought that her father might still be alive sent Lin Wei running madly toward the site.

Faster.

Faster!

Would she be able to save her father’s life?

But—

When she arrived, her father’s body was already cold.

The workers saw her and quietly made way.

“Weiwei, your father…”

“Dad—!”

Clinging to her father’s corpse, Lin Wei wept bitterly. “The acceptance letter is here, Dad! Jiangcheng University! Didn’t you say you wanted to see it? Please, get up and look at it!”

“Weiwei, don’t do this. If you keep this up, your father won’t rest in peace. It was an accident, just an accident…”

“Yes, you need to be strong. Your father’s gone, your brother is still young—you have to keep this family together.”

But she had been reborn.

She had returned to this point in time.

She was just one step away from saving her father—

Wait.

Something wasn’t right.

According to what the workers said in her previous life, her father had fallen from the construction site around 11 a.m. and died on the spot.

She’d received her acceptance letter at just past 11 a.m., so she’d assumed that was the time of her father’s death.

That was why she’d rushed over, hoping to save him.

But the construction site wasn’t far from home—it only took a few minutes to run there.

A body doesn’t go cold that quickly.

Yet by now, her father’s body was already icy.

If she thought carefully, the time of death didn’t match up at all.

Suddenly, a terrible thought surfaced in Lin Wei’s mind.

Perhaps her father’s death… was never an accident.