Chapter 1 Rebirth, Back to 18 Years Old
Just as dawn was breaking, a sudden downpour began, accompanied by thunder.
This perfectly masked the piercing scream that ripped through the sky.
Inside an abandoned house near the coast, Luo Yunqing wiped the blood splattered on his face expressionlessly. His voice was rough and hoarse, as if he were sawing back and forth next to his ear: "Can you talk now? Or do you want to test how sharp this knife is again?"
The blood-stained dagger slammed heavily onto the wound that pierced through the entire face.
Song Xuechen was no longer as arrogant as when she was first captured. Her lips were pale and she stammered, "I'll talk, I'll talk! It was me... who pushed Pei Yanli down."
Sobs erupted from his throat as he hastily tried to excuse himself, "Who told him to take those contracts to sue Ah Heng? Ah Heng is his own nephew! I only acted rashly and accidentally pushed him... Ahhh!!!"
The dagger made another cut on his face in the opposite direction.
The two wounds intersected, forming a large red cross.
"Accidentally? Accidentally, pushed down from the 28th floor!" Luo Yunqing grabbed his hair fiercely and swung it back and forth.
His brains were practically splattering out.
Having been pampered for over twenty years, the young master of the Song family had never suffered such hardship before. He immediately cried out in pain, tears streaming down his face, but he did not receive the slightest pity from the other party.
Luo Yunqing continued to stroke back and forth on that fair and tender baby face.
He kept cutting, one cut after another, until the bone was visible, his hands stained with blood, but he didn't stop.
He'll die if this continues!
Driven by a strong will to survive, Song Xuechen made a very unwise move, viciously biting the skin-and-bones wrist in front of her.
Luo Yunqing didn't utter a sound or even blink; she simply calmly knocked out two of his teeth with the hilt of her knife.
"...Hahaha! Hahahaha!!!" Song Xuechen spat out the broken teeth and blood in her mouth, collapsed to the ground, and laughed maniacally. "Luo Yunqing, Luo Yunqing, what are you doing? Hmm? Seeking revenge for Pei Yanli?"
He propped himself up, his upper body still bound, and roared ferociously, "You're nothing but his mistress, what right do you have to avenge him?!"
"Wrong."
Luo Yunqing squatted down, brandishing her knife.
A conspicuous, glaring silver chain adorned her neck.
Two gold rings are also strung on it; with the slightest movement, the rings will clink together.
This was found in Pei Yanli's palm after he fell to his death.
During the autopsy, the forensic doctor used a great deal of effort, almost breaking all the fingers, to remove them.
Two rings, the initials of two names, and a will that was drawn up early on, bequeathing all his property to his beloved Luo Yunqing.
How could they just be lovers?
Luo Yunqing repeated each word forcefully: "No, it's not, lover."
"You like him!" Song Xuechen exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.
Shaking his head and muttering "impossible," he suddenly went berserk, "If you liked him, you should have gone through with the arranged marriage back then! If you had gone through with the arranged marriage back then, none of this would have happened! In the end, it's all your fault, all your fault! You killed him, it was you!!"
It was Luo Yunqing's fault.
Yes, it's all his fault! If it weren't for him...
The knife tip landed directly above her eyeball, and her pupils suddenly shrank to a single dot. Song Xuechen, like a rooster whose throat had been choked, fell silent instantly.
A hand as cold as ice grabbed his neck, rubbed it back and forth on his strong pulse point, trimmed his not-so-neat nails and then slowly embedded them under his skin.
"You're right." Luo Yunqing regretted the outcome more than anyone else. "If only I had known it was him, if only I had known... But it's too late."
Pei Yanli is dead.
He has been dead for five years.
Today marks the tenth anniversary of his meeting with Pei Yanli.
It's time to end this.
His disfigured face gradually turned a deep liver color. Song Xuechen let out two "heh heh" sounds and kicked his legs incessantly, "If you kill me, Aheng and Big Brother will not let you go!"
Luo Yunqing: "I know."
Aheng, Pei Hengzhi, Pei Yanli's nephew, and his childhood friend. His elder brother, Song Moyan, has lived with him for so many years and has also loved and protected him for just as long.
Everyone likes Song Xuechen.
If they knew that Song Xuechen had been tortured like this, even skinning her alive and tearing her bones out wouldn't be enough to quell their hatred, so...
Luo Yunqing had worked since she was a child, and even though she was as thin as a sheet of paper, she still had plenty of strength in her hands. She forcefully grabbed his neck and turned him to the other side.
Just then, the sky crackled with thunder, and the room was briefly illuminated, revealing the two people tied up not far away.
One person had their knees shattered while being hung upside down, while the other was tied to a chair back, blood still trickling from their lower abdomen.
He was Song Xuechen's childhood friend and elder brother.
"They definitely won't let me go, so I'll strike first." Luo Yunqing whispered devilishly close to his ear, "You killed my brother and sister, you killed the dean, and Pei Yanli. What makes you think I'll only torment you, just one person?"
"You're insane, Luo Yunqing!!"
Yes, he's gone mad.
No one can hold him back anymore.
"Don't worry, you won't die. What's the point of dying? I want you to live well." With this scarred face and incomplete body, he will live his whole life under the strange gaze of others.
Blood spilled onto her hand, and Luo Yunqing disgustedly threw the person away.
I first carefully wiped my hands clean, then turned on my phone screen. The screen displayed "110," indicating that I had been on the call for seven minutes.
"That's the situation. The location has been pinpointed, right? I won't say anything more." Before the dispatcher could speak, Luo Yunqing abruptly hung up the phone.
Instead, she carefully picked up the sandalwood box from the table and walked into the downpour without looking back.
There is a cliff not far away.
As Luo Yunqing walked towards the edge of the cliff, she hummed an off-key tune amidst the lightning and thunder, a strangely soothing, peaceful, clean, and pure melody.
This was a lullaby the director hummed to him when he was five years old, the year he first entered the welfare home. His parents, who had died in a fire, often had nightmares all night.
Later, whenever it was cloudy or rainy, Pei Yanli's legs would ache so badly that he couldn't sleep. While massaging people, he would hum a few lines from time to time.
Just like now—
Withered fingertips tapped lightly on the wooden box, again and again.
“Pei Yanli…I’ve come to find you.”
"Wait for me."
The sirens wailed as they arrived.
Luo Yunqing turned around, like a white butterfly with broken wings, clutching the wooden box and falling backward off the cliff.
…………
…………
The icy, bone-chilling seawater filled my lungs.
Time seemed to be paused, and the progress bar, which was nearing its end, suddenly began to play back at double speed.
The film reel images flashed by like a slideshow, one scene after another, and were rewound and collected into the projector. The play button was pressed again.
The cicadas chirped in my ears, and an old, large fan hung overhead, whirring and working hard.
Luo Yunqing twitched her ears and slowly opened her eyes. How strange, she neither encountered Wuchang nor saw Pei Yanli who had passed away, but instead saw Song Moyan, whose manhood she had destroyed.
What is he doing here?
Did they not survive and die?
That shouldn't be the case; he stopped the bleeding and ensured the person could live.
Soon, Luo Yunqing noticed something was wrong. The Song Moyan in front of her was far too young, at most twenty-four or twenty-five, and there were no fine lines around his eyes yet.
Wearing a well-tailored custom-made suit, his hair was slicked back, exuding confidence and charm. On his wrist was a luxury watch worth millions, with a dark green dial and several small, exquisite diamonds.
He wore it.
When she was 18, she learned that her biological parents were rich, so she shamelessly asked for them to come.
I only wore it once before selling it.
Then air conditioning was installed in every room of the welfare home, including the large kitchen.
I remember the secondhand shop owner who bought the watch saying that it was a limited edition worldwide.
A globally limited edition watch, his expression as calm and collected as Song Moyan's when they first met... Was he dreaming?
Do people dream even after they die?
“I know you’ve suffered a lot of injustices over the years.”
Before he could even understand the situation, Song Moyan's mouth opened and closed, "We've investigated what happened back then. It really was just an accident, and it had nothing to do with Xiaoxue. He feels very guilty now, always feeling like he's taken your place, and he can't eat or sleep at home..."
The sound seemed to come from a distant horizon, through cheap, soundproof glass.
I've heard that somewhere before.
To verify that absurd conjecture, Luo Yunqing touched her right arm, which was wrapped in gauze, and pinched it hard. Her eyes immediately stung and tears welled up with tears.
There's no mistake, he's been reborn!
Back to when I was 18, the summer after the college entrance exam.
That year, while delivering food, he bravely rescued Song's mother from an armed assailant, risking his own life and sustaining three cuts from the blade.
As a result, he unexpectedly discovered that he bore a striking resemblance to Song's mother, who was known as the most beautiful woman in Yanjing when she was young, and took the opportunity to have a DNA test done at the hospital.
The result was predictable.
He is the true child of a powerful and wealthy family, while the pampered young master who was so frightened by the thugs that he collapsed to the ground and could only cry was a fake who was mistakenly taken in.
But even if it's a fake, I've still kept it for eighteen years; the emotional bond is something he can't easily match.
After learning the result, everyone surrounded the fake young master to comfort him, and Luo Yunqing could tell that.
Later, I overheard outside the hospital room that the Song family was going to marry into another wealthy family, whose partner was a disabled person who had lost his leg in a car accident.
The eldest son, Song Moyan, was the unanimously recognized heir of the Song family, so he was obviously unsuitable. The marriage naturally fell to the second son.
Originally, Song Xuechen was unwilling, but now that this has happened, Madam Song, who had hugged him and cried when she learned the truth and said that he had suffered, said without hesitation: "The original horoscope that Master Pei matched was Yun Qing's."
...Perhaps he wasn't used to staying in a VIP ward, or maybe the air conditioning was set too low, and he left after less than half a day.
He's not that despicable or stupid. Knowing full well that the other party is only using him, he wouldn't still give in for the sake of so-called family ties.
Finally, they demanded an exorbitant sum of five million to completely buy out the relationship.
Song Xuechen will always be the esteemed young master of the Song family, until his death. As for the arranged marriage, they want the second young master of the Song family, so what does it have to do with Luo Yunqing?
But if they knew their arranged marriage partner was Pei Yanli...
"Xiao Qing".
A magnetic voice reached her ears, pulling Luo Yunqing out of her reverie, a chill running down her spine.
Xiaoqing, he's also the White Snake.
“It’s understandable that you resent us now.” At this moment, Song Moyan was far less shrewd than he would be ten years later; his emotions were written all over his face. He unconsciously rubbed his watch, his patience gradually wearing thin. “But you should at least give us a chance to make amends, shouldn’t you?”
compensate?
Recalling his past life, when he deliberately cut off the kidney source to avenge Song Xuechen's marriage, causing Xiaoyu, who suffered from congenital kidney disease, to miss the best time for treatment and die, Luo Yunqing calmly pinched the wound hard again.
Her eyes instantly reddened, and she stammered, "Is it just my brother? Why aren't Mom and Dad here?"
Crystal-clear teardrops hung from her eyelashes, her expression a mixture of innocence and resentment.
Neither of the two people who should have been there showed up.
It was the same in her previous life. She wanted to acknowledge him as her husband so that Song Xuechen could arrange a marriage, but she didn't want to make a big fuss about it. After all, once it was made public, only the Song family and Song Xuechen would suffer damage to their reputation.
How could this loving older brother bear to let his precious younger brother be caught in a media storm?
The best way is to quietly take him back and then quietly send him to the Pei family.
How could that be?
If he's going to leave, he has to do it in a big, noisy way!
…………
Song Moyan's thumb, which was resting on his wristwatch, suddenly stopped, and he subtly sized up his younger brother.
Its thin eyelids drooped, and it would occasionally steal a glance at him, just like a kitten that had been accidentally abandoned by its owner, wandered for a long time, and then been found.
As soon as the DNA test results came out, Song Moyan immediately sent people to investigate his past.
Just over five years old, his adoptive parents died in a fire, which traumatized him and caused him to stutter. He was swindled out of his inheritance by greedy relatives and then abandoned, eventually ending up in this Blue Sky Welfare Home.
The fact that the exterior walls were peeling and had not been repaired for a long time showed that the welfare home was not in good condition and that it housed mostly seriously ill and abandoned children.
Aside from attending school, Luo Yunqing had to work odd jobs whenever she had free time. The place she visited most often was the hospital, and her biggest expenses were for medicine and surgery. Sometimes she even had to work for nearly 20 hours straight a day.
Song Moyan couldn't imagine what kind of life his Xiaoxue would lead if she lived in such an environment.
Although it's unfair to Luo Yunqing to say this, it's fortunate that the wrong baby was switched at birth.
Xiaoxue is really too delicate.
“Father has to go to the company for a very important meeting. Mother was supposed to come today... and she even prepared a lot of gifts for you, but Xiaoxue fell ill when she was leaving.” It sounded like an excuse, so Song Moyan added, “He has never been in good health.”
Are you unwell?
Oh!
While she was dating Pei Hengzhi and entangled with him, why didn't Song Xuechen seem to be unwell?
"So Mother is a doctor." Luo Yunqing lowered her head further, her voice tinged with bitterness. "Since Xiaoxue is sick, take care of him first. I'll be fine."
As he spoke, he placed his injured right arm on the table.
Song Moyan could easily see through his little scheme; it was because his mother hadn't come that he was jealous.
Such a childish mentality.
But it's not necessarily a bad thing.
"How about this?" He thought for a moment and said, "You should focus on recovering first. In a couple of days, I'll have Mom come to pick you up herself, okay?"
Luo Yunqing looked up, her eyes lighting up: "Really!"
"certainly."
As they were talking, Song Moyan's phone rang.
Upon receiving a message, a subtle smile curved his lips as he hurriedly explained that there was an urgent matter at the company and he had to leave immediately.
Luo Yunqing nodded sensibly, "Brother, go ahead, making money is the most important thing!"
His words successfully amused Song Moyan, who left a card with a limit of 200,000 before leaving.
He probably felt that 200,000 was already enough for him.
Luo Yunqing stood by the second-floor window, watching the phantom drive away at the courtyard gate. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a secondhand cell phone.
The touchscreen isn't very sensitive; it took me ages to finally open the phonebook.
The contact list contains 118 names from top to bottom. Nearly 100 of them are the bosses he has worked for over the years. Sliding down to Y, the first name is Yang Kang (a reporter for Tianxiang Entertainment Weekly).
I dialed the number and waited a long time.
"Hello?" A lazy voice came through the receiver, yawning repeatedly. "Yang Kang from Tianxiang Entertainment, who is this?"
"Brother Yang, it's me, Xiao Luo."
Yang Kang closed his eyes for a moment, but upon hearing the clear, youthful voice, he snapped awake and looked at the caller ID. "Oh, oh! Xiao Luo! Weren't you delivering takeout? How come you have time to call your brother? What, missing your brother?"
"Yeah." Luo Yunqing gave a mischievous smile and got straight to the point: "Exclusive scoop, Brother Yang, do you want it?"
“Exclusive—” Yang Kang drawled, lit a cigarette, took a drag, and slowly exhaled. “That depends on what kind of stuff it is.”
"The Song family of Beicheng".
“The Song family? Oh! The ones that made their fortune in chips.” Yang Kang held a cigarette between his fingers, sat down in front of his desktop computer, and moved the mouse. “Isn’t their family… about to form a marriage alliance with the Pei family? Little Luo Luo, this isn’t exactly breaking news.”
"What if their young master is a fake?"
"Fake!" Yang Kang paused, remembering that he had saved Madam Song not long ago, and became interested. "We can't make things up without evidence. You say it's fake... but what if it's real?"
"I."
"What?"
"I am Luo Yunqing, the real young master of the Song family."
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