Now, her soul seems to have traveled through time and returned to the past.
She thought to herself, this time, she must put in her best effort and remember her benefactor's face vividly!
The flow of memories accelerated, as if a fast-forward button had been pressed.
Finally, the image once again focused on that rooftop.
She saw the thin, soaking wet little girl with a look of despair in her eyes walk up to the rooftop once again.
Rusty iron railings, birds yearning for freedom, the light extinguished in their eyes...
Everything was exactly the same as I remembered.
The little girl trembled, stood on tiptoe, gripped the railing tightly with her small hands, and tried to lift one leg up to step over...
This is it!
Zhou Qiqi held her breath, staring intently at the entrance to the rooftop.
The direction in which her benefactor sister would surely appear in her memory is also the position where her soul is standing right now!
Time passed by, the wind howled, and the sounds of commotion could be faintly heard from downstairs.
However, the rooftop entrance was empty, and the warm figure I had imagined... never appeared.
Another flock of birds flew across the sky, but the older sister who should have appeared in my memory was still nowhere to be seen.
On the rooftop, only that small, shivering figure, soaked to the bone, remained, standing alone on the edge of life and death.
She tentatively released one hand, closed her eyes, leaned forward slightly, and was about to...
"No! You can't!"
Zhou Qiqi's soul could wait no longer!
She heard a cry from the depths of her heart, and almost instinctively, she rushed forward!
Finally, she managed to do so before the girl completely let go of her other hand.
He pulled that small, thin body tightly into his arms!
In the instant they embraced, Zhou Qiqi suddenly understood—
turn out to be...
It turns out that the older sister who appeared in her life time and time again, giving her strength and guiding her direction, was not a mysterious angel or benefactor at all.
It was herself!
It was always her subconscious self that was protecting her!
The little girl, held in her arms, didn't struggle. She simply raised her cold little hand and timidly touched Zhou Qiqi's tear-streaked cheek, asking softly:
"Sister, who are you? Why are you crying?"
Zhou Qiqi quickly wiped away her tears, forced a gentle smile, looked at her former self in her arms, and softly said:
"Sister is fine. Sister just suddenly realized that love... is indeed the greatest magic in the world, including loving oneself."
The little girl seemed to understand, but not quite; her big eyes still held a sense of confusion.
Zhou Qiqi tenderly tidied her dirty hair, carefully wiped her smeared face with her sleeve, and said in a more firm yet gentle tone:
"Remember this: from now on, you must learn to protect yourself! Your life has endless possibilities and is full of wonder! And you are never alone; you will always have... my most complete love."
These words might be too profound for a small child, and the little girl only vaguely understood them.
But she knew that she finally had someone who loved her.
The pent-up rage within her suddenly found an outlet, and she fiercely avenged herself.
From then on, she used the life she had been given back from the rooftop, along with that fierce determination, on the right path, and worked hard to live her life.
She gritted her teeth and persevered, transforming herself from a despised wild child into someone who got into a good university and found a job that could support her.
To truly begin to take control of one's own life.
But only Zhou Qiqi, who was observing from the sidelines at this moment, knew that as this little girl became stronger and more independent, she also built a high wall around her heart.
She no longer believed in family ties, no longer longed for love, and was filled with doubt about marriage, wrapping herself up tightly in a hard shell.
Zhou Qiqi's soul tried to persuade her, but found it was useless; the deep-rooted wounds could not be healed by a few words.
It wasn't until a few days before the time travel event that she suddenly realized:
Perhaps only by allowing this closed-off self to personally experience a genuine relationship and have a warm home can the trauma of childhood be truly healed and become a complete person.
Perhaps it was because her inner desires were strong enough that the turning point in her fate arrived ahead of schedule.
She saw herself working overtime late into the night in the modern city, and the air in front of her suddenly distorted, cracking open a gap that emitted a faint light.
Without the slightest hesitation, she pulled her confused self along and resolutely stepped inside!
After a moment of dizziness, she opened her eyes again.
Suddenly I felt a burning pain in my back, as if I had fallen hard.
She groggily opened her eyes and saw a dimly lit bathroom in front of her.
A man was standing at the door, looking down at her.
The man had just taken a shower, with a towel casually draped over his shoulder. Water droplets, not yet dried, trickled down his bulging chest muscles, converging into thin streams at the creases of his abdominal muscles, leaving dark water stains on his army green polyester trousers.
On his side, a hideous old scar lay dormant, rising and falling with the man's breath.
"you..."
The man's thin lips were pressed into a straight line, his Adam's apple slid heavily in the shadows, and his eyes gleamed with cold light.
This person is Shen Huaichuan!
I'm back!
She returned to where the story began!
The immense shock left Zhou Qiqi speechless for a moment, and she gazed deeply into Shen Huaichuan's eyes.
In that gaze, there was deep affection and longing, complete dependence, and even a hint of grievance and coquettishness.
However, before Zhou Qiqi could say anything or show anything...
She felt a terrible headache, as if several little people were fighting inside her head.
She couldn't hold on any longer, her vision went black, and she fainted again.
Faintly, she heard a piercing sound beside her ear.
He was talking incessantly.
Phrases like "take responsibility," "must marry her," and "your innocence is ruined" were used.
The man seemed afraid the other party would disagree, and he chattered on and on, his tone full of calculation and coercion.
At that moment, a deep and magnetic male voice rang out, uttering only three simple words:
"I agree."
She knew it was Shen Huaichuan's voice.
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