Chapter 7 Rebirth
When I opened my eyes again, what greeted me was not the stark white ceiling of the hospital, but rather the dazzling sunlight streaming in through a small, dusty window.
Warm yellow light dappled the smooth wooden floor, and the air was filled with an intense, almost overwhelming fragrance of flowers, mixed with the scent of earth and water.
Jiang Yining sat up abruptly, her vision blurring from a severe headache. She instinctively raised her hand to rub her temples, but froze when she saw her outstretched hand.
This is not her hand.
Slender and fair-skinned, with symmetrical knuckles and neatly trimmed nails, bearing a slight reddish tinge from being constantly wet. Her hands seemed even more plump, possessing a softness honed by the pampering she had received from her family.
Her heart pounded wildly in her chest. She threw off the thin blanket and stumbled toward the only small mirror hanging on the wall in the room.
A face was reflected in the mirror.
She had an extremely young face with delicate, ivory-white skin, a small chin, and a pert nose. What struck her most were her eyes, which were clear and bright with slightly drooping corners, giving them an innocent and bewildered look.
This face... is beautiful, strangely beautiful, yet it evokes a sense of familiarity. This is definitely not Jiang Yining's face.
"Ningning? You're awake?" A gentle female voice came from the doorway, filled with concern.
Jiang Yining turned around abruptly, her heart almost stopping.
A middle-aged woman in an apron stood at the door, holding a watering can for watering plants, her smile simple and honest. She called her… “Ningning”?
“Aunt Chen…” A name slipped naturally from her throat, and then countless fragmented memories that didn’t belong to her flooded her mind like a tide. The loneliness of growing up in an orphanage, the hardships of struggling alone in H City, the joy of finally taking over this small flower shop… and her name: Jiang Yining.
Also known as ginger lemon.
She should have died, in that horrific car accident eight years ago, in the body of Ayan who saved her. But she came back to life, eight years later, in the body of a twenty-five-year-old florist girl also named Jiang Yining.
The soul is old, the body is new, but the names... strangely overlap.
Jiang Yining walked out of the flower shop. The glaring sunlight made her raise her hand to shield her eyes. The sunlight illuminated the wooden sign hanging at the entrance, on which the shop's name was engraved in soft lettering: "Ning·Yuhuafang".
Below the sign and along the windowsill, lush potted plants were everywhere. The most eye-catching were several pots of thriving lemon mint. The vibrant green leaves unfurled in the sunlight, emitting a rich and unique lemon scent, mingled with the coolness of mint.
"This is unbelievable..." Jiang Yining murmured to herself, her voice hoarse. The rebirth plot, which only existed in novels, had actually happened to her in a bloody way.
She stared blankly at the street. Eight years had passed, and H City had become both familiar and strange. Skyscrapers stood tall, and traffic flowed like a river, so bustling that it made her uneasy.
A wave of confusion washed over her. How were her parents? How much pain must they be in to lose their daughter? Was her younger brother, Jiang Yunting, taking good care of them? Her brother Shi Yan… how was he? And Xiao Xiao, Nian An… eight years was enough to change so much.
A jumble of thoughts pierced her chaotic mind like sharp needles. A severe headache struck again without warning, even worse than before. Everything before her eyes began to spin and blur, and a piercing tinnitus instantly overwhelmed her hearing.
"Ningning, Ningning, what's wrong?" Aunt Chen's terrified cry seemed to come from the depths of the water.
Jiang Yining felt dizzy and her body slumped forward uncontrollably. Before her consciousness plunged into darkness, she only vaguely saw Aunt Chen rushing towards her in a panic.
Her consciousness drifted, and she found herself in a mountaintop pavilion shrouded in mist. A cool mountain breeze blew. A slender figure stood with his back to her at the edge of the pavilion.
"You've come." A familiar yet unfamiliar voice rang out. The figure slowly turned around.
The moment Jiang Yining saw that face clearly, she felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave—it was her, her original appearance. Young, vibrant, wearing the white dress she loved most before the accident.
"Who are you?" Jiang Yining's voice trembled.
“I am ‘Jiang Yining’,” the other person said, their voice calm yet tinged with deep weariness and despondency. “Jiang Yining from the flower shop, I’m so tired… Living is so tiring… Orphanage, odd jobs, debt, all alone… I can’t see the end…”
She raised her hand, looking at her translucent fingers. "I don't want to live anymore. I really don't."
Her gaze shifted to the real Jiang Yining: "Live on for me, guard that flower shop for me... and see this world properly for me."
There was no resentment in her eyes, only a sense of complete relief and surrender. "I'll reincarnate in your place, and you can live well in my place, okay?"
Sadness and a strange sense of responsibility welled up inside her. Looking at the extinguished light in the eyes of her other "self," Jiang Yining nodded forcefully, her throat choked with emotion: "Okay."
The image instantly distorted and spun, as if being thrown into a turbulent whirlpool!
The rhythmic sound of the instruments, "Beep...beep...beep...", entered my ears.
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