After being attacked by the rich young ladies with hatchets, I chose to enter "sage mode".

He opened WeChat and looked at the messages from Si Yu, Qing Sisi, Su Rongxue, and Murong Liyue. He wanted to send a message to confirm, but the fear in his heart made him dare not, fearing that after sending the message, it would all be fake again.

As he remained silent, unable to believe yet wanting to believe what was happening before his eyes, a soft tapping sound came from the other side of the wall, sounding so rhythmic.

The rhythm reminded him of a song, an old song he had listened to countless times on his worn-out MP3 player.

Looking at the wall behind the bed, if this was his rented room in this island nation, then the room opposite should be Lin Ying's room. Their beds were facing each other, which meant she was knocking on the wall, right? It should be, right? It must be, right?

As he questioned himself and tried to encourage himself, Bai Yu slowly climbed onto the bed and went to the wall. He reached out and touched the cold wall. This time, he didn't feel that the other side was disturbing his sleep. Instead, he gently tapped along with everything. The rhythm of the song was exactly the same as the one in his mind, and that made his tears well up uncontrollably.

I spread my fingers and pressed them tightly against the cold wall. The wall was so cold, and my heart ached just as much.

He knew that if his memory was correct, Lin Ying must live across the street, but he was also so afraid that it wasn't Lin Ying living across the street.

Sitting quietly on the edge of the bed, Bai Yu listened to the rhythm of the tapping on the wall opposite her, feeling both expectant and uneasy.

At this moment, he desperately wanted to rush out and knock on the door next door to see if it was Lin Ying, the gentle and virtuous landlady he had always admired.

But he knew very well that if he wasn't dreaming, then Lin Ying probably wouldn't recognize him, right? Should he still have contact with her? Did someone as selfish as him deserve to?

He sat on the edge of the bed for an unknown amount of time. The rhythm of the knocking from next door gradually disappeared, but he really wanted the knocking to continue. However, his outstretched hand stopped in mid-air.

He dared not have too high expectations for his current judgment, because the more he expected, the greater the disappointment would be. He really did not want to experience despair again, since he had no reason to live again. It was a thousand times more painful than death, a pain etched into his soul that drove him mad, even making him seem like a madman whom no one understood.

Time passed second by second, and Bai Yu sat blankly on the edge of the bed like a motionless puppet until dawn the next day, when a ray of light pierced the room and shone on his face.

Feeling the faint light shining on her skin, warm rather than cold, Bai Yu, who had been afraid all night that it was all an illusion, finally confirmed the reality of her rebirth.

After all, he was no longer so afraid of pain and was even somewhat numb to it, so he could only use temperature to judge the reality more reliably, and sunlight was more real than anything else.

Standing up, Bai Yu opened the wardrobe and looked at his somewhat disheveled appearance. Although he no longer cared about his image, if the person next door was really Lin Ying, she probably wouldn't recognize him. Although thinking this caused Bai Yu a sharp pain in his heart, what did it matter compared to loss and sadness?

After tidying up her clothes and quickly washing her face, Bai Yu rubbed her stiff lips and mustered up her courage to open the door and stand in front of the next room.

Looking up at the name Lin Ying hanging by the door, he felt a lump in his throat, but he held it back.

He raised his hand halfway through the air and then pulled it back, repeating this several times before gently knocking on the door. Each knock sounded like a muffled blow to his heart. The tension, unease, and anticipation made Bai Yu's hands tremble involuntarily.

Ta-ta-ta~

The footsteps approaching the door grew closer and closer, and soon after the footsteps paused for a few seconds by the door, a click rang out, and the door was opened.

The door slowly opened, and what came into Bai Yu's view was a girl with long, golden hair reaching her hips and wearing a pink apron. Her blue eyes were so beautiful, and her temperament was so gentle and elegant. Everything about her seemed so familiar.

"Boss... hello..."

Bai Yu's voice trembled involuntarily, and there was even a hint of sob in it. His reddened eyes made him seem so strange to Lin Ying.

But for some reason, when she saw Bai Yu, whose eyes were red and whose hands were trembling, say something as inexplicable as "boss" and "hello," her heart ached. The person in front of her looked so familiar yet so strange.

Turning around, she picked up the familiar black fountain pen and pink notebook from the shoe cabinet beside her. While Bai Yu suppressed the urge to hug her, Lin Ying wrote a paragraph and carefully turned the notebook over to show him.

Hello, how can I help you?

"I..."

Looking at the familiar handwriting, Bai Yu seemed very timid. This was the first time he had faced Lin Ying, and he found that he couldn't even utter a complete sentence.

He raised his hand, reached out, and then withdrew it. At that moment, he didn't know what he was going to do, what he needed to do, or whether he felt excited or sad.

The first sign of true love is timidity in boys and boldness in girls.

Just as Lin Ying mustered up the courage to express her love in the past, Bai Yu is now so timid, reserved, and nervous, trying to hide her love that she can't conceal.

Just as Bai Yu himself was wondering what to do, Lin Ying looked at him and inexplicably shed a tear. She didn't know why she felt sad when she saw the person in front of her, as if she really didn't want him to be sad.

Chapter Two Thoughts

Their eyes met. Bai Yu was trying her best to hold back the tears welling up in her eyes, while Lin Ying was wiping away tears that she didn't know why were flowing. But no matter how she wiped them away, she couldn't stop them. In the end, she could only use her notebook to cover her face to hide her inexplicable state. But even so, her delicate body, which was trembling slowly from sobbing, could not be hidden and was all reflected in Bai Yu's eyes.

"Um... I... my name is Bai Yu. Hello, I'm a new resident. What's your name?"

After taking a deep breath, Bai Yu suppressed her nervousness and excitement, and introduced herself in a halting manner like someone with social anxiety.

Lin Ying felt a strange familiarity upon hearing this, yet upon reflection, it felt equally unfamiliar. She couldn't recall ever knowing this boy before her; he had simply accepted her silent flyer when she was handing it out on the street.

Although she didn't quite understand why she felt like she knew someone from the past, Lin Ying still politely wrote her name on the notebook.

"Hello, my name is Lin Ying."

It was a very simple line of text, but it made Bai Yu both happy and sad. He was happy that he could see her again, to see her gentle and virtuous self, but he was sad that they had to recognize each other again.

In his previous life, his attempt to save Lin Ying was entirely based on a whim and hypocrisy. He didn't offer her any real salvation, and in the end, he didn't even notice when she left.

He looked up and quietly gazed at Lin Ying's pretty face, half of which was covered by her notebook. He was captivated by her pair of bright blue eyes and slightly misty appearance.

"Are you alright?"

Bai Yu stepped forward, instinctively reaching out to wipe away the tears that had brought on Lin Ying's eyes—tears he didn't know why she was crying. But Lin Ying, seeing this, took a step back warily, her hand half-closing the door, forcing him to stop.

The feeling of loving someone you can't have, yet having no choice but to get to know them again, is truly unbearable. Bai Yu, feeling miserable, stood there like a child who had made a mistake, holding her hand up and pursing her lips, unsure whether to go forward or retreat.

After bowing slightly to Bai Yu, Lin Ying closed the iron gate.

Kata~

The sound of the lock closing the security door startled Bai Yu, who was standing there in a daze. Only then did she realize that her hand, which had been raised in mid-air, was awkwardly but politely withdrawn.

Inside the door, Lin Ying clutched her clothes tightly, staring blankly at Bai Yu through the peephole. It was the first time she had ever felt this strange sensation upon seeing a boy; her heart even ached. Why did she feel like crying when she no longer had much attachment to the world?

Lin Ying couldn't understand any of it. All she knew was that her heart was always in turmoil whenever she saw the boy named Bai Yu. Strangely, his every word and action always made her heart beat faster.

Bai Yu stood outside Lin Ying's door for over an hour, without moving an inch, like a pervert fixated on Lin Ying.

Turning back to his room, Bai Yu felt a little lost, but he was now quite certain that he had returned to the summer vacation when he first arrived in the island nation.

If Lin Ying was still alive during this period, then Si Yu and Qing Sisi must also be still alive; they are all still alive.

Sitting on the bed in the room, Bai Yu took out her phone and sent a message to Si Yu.

"Are you there?"

The message was sent quickly, but he waited anxiously in front of the screen, feeling a growing sense of emptiness every second he didn't receive a reply.

"What's wrong? Are you missing your sister?"

Si Yu replied to the message as quickly as ever, but Bai Yu felt as if she had been waiting for an eternity.

If in his previous life he was indifferent to Si Yu at this time, now he is like a sycophant, unable to resist replying to messages instantly.

"I want to, I really, really want to..."

Picking up her phone, Si Yu looked at the message Bai Yu had sent her. She was eating fruit and watching a drama when she was so surprised that her mouth formed an "o" shape, and she was completely dumbfounded.

In her mind, Bai Yu would never say he missed her, since this brat liked to avoid her. But the reply to her message was such a pleasant surprise. Had he suddenly come to his senses?

"Bai Yu, you sent me a voice message saying you miss your sister, and your sister wants to hear you say it to me in person~"

A joyful voice came from the voice message. Bai Yu listened to the sentence no less than five times. Every time he heard it, he couldn't help but want to cry. He was a grown man and he didn't know why his tear threshold had become so low.

"I miss you, Sister Siyu, so much, so very much..."

With emotions that were hard to describe – whether from excessive excitement or joy – Bai Yu sent these cheesy and somewhat childish words to Si Yu. For the first time, she felt so happy to be able to express her true feelings to Si Yu so freely.

Si Yu listened to Bai Yu's voice message at least five times, laughing more and more excitedly each time. However, after listening to it several times, she could hear a hint of timidity in Bai Yu's voice, which was weak but well concealed. She listened very carefully.

"What's wrong? You sound a little aggrieved, sister. Do you miss me too much?"

Hearing the familiar gentle and mature female voice, the familiar doting tone, and the familiar coquettish manner, everything felt so familiar, so real, yet so unreal and surreal, like a dream.

"Sister Siyu, do you... ever miss me?"

Bai Yu's voice trembled slightly, like a shy and naive boy confessing his feelings to his older sister, his timidity tempered by a surge of courage.

Upon hearing the slightly shy and nervous voice, Si Yu involuntarily reached out and covered her alluring red lips, which resembled rose petals, while her beautiful, seductive eyes sparkled with a captivating brilliance.

"Yes, I miss you too, I miss you so much..."

Si Yu's answer was also somewhat nervous, a nervousness that seemed out of place with her usual carefree attitude, yet it was also exceptionally gentle and doting.

Upon hearing this reply, Bai Yu suddenly collapsed onto the bed in the room and burst into tears, like a fool.

Perhaps he was the only one reborn with memories of his past life, and perhaps only he could truly experience the profound loss and reunion that comes only after experiencing separation and death. To hear Si Yu's voice again, to hear her say she missed him, to feel her soul-deep affection and tenderness—he was overwhelmed with gratitude.

Chapter Three: Body Follows Mind

After an unknown amount of time, Bai Yu calmed down her easily agitated emotions before opening Qing Sisi's WeChat.

In her previous life, she was so lively and playful, so carefree yet with a hint of violence. In the end, she couldn't even see him one last time. She never had a good life. Her smile was the only mask she wore, like a silly girl.

"exist?"

"Hey senior, I'm here. If nothing unexpected happens... I'll still be here for the next few decades."

The message was replied to very quickly, literally instantly. I wonder what this girl was doing at that moment, to be able to reply so quickly.

"Nothing will go wrong, it's good that you're here."

Bai Yu's reply was baffling; at least Qing Sisi couldn't understand the meaning behind the sentence and could only grasp its surface meaning.

"Senior, senior, let's video chat?"

Seeing the lively atmosphere between the lines, Bai Yu took the initiative to make a WeChat video call to Qing Sisi.

After the call connected, Bai Yu saw Qing Sisi, with short pink hair, fair and delicate face, and a pair of captivating peach blossom eyes, appear on the screen.

He rarely paid attention to this girl before, but when he looked at her closely, he realized that she was more and more beautiful, more and more likable, and more and more heartbreaking to look at.

"Oh! Senior, why do you look like you're about to cry? What's wrong...?"

With her lips slightly parted, Qing Sisi didn't know why Bai Yu's eyes had reddened as soon as the video call connected, looking like she was about to cry, which made her speak with a bit of caution.

Sniffing, Bai Yu quickly composed herself, her emotions somewhat fragile. Just as she was about to smile, she knew she had to hold back.

Although I am very happy to see Qing Sisi, I am also a little sad. I must maintain my original image. If I change too much, the variables may also increase.

But Bai Yu underestimated her emotions. Her mind was clearly analyzing the optimal route, but the corners of her mouth were uncontrollably turned up. Seeing Ren Neng Huanyu again, touching the long-cherished wish in her heart, her body's instincts outweighed her reason.

"Senior, you...you're looking at her and laughing...what are you laughing at?"

Qing Sisi felt that Bai Yu was acting strangely today. First, she saw her about to cry, and then she saw her laughing for no reason. She wondered if Bai Yu had a little problem with her brain.

Bai Yu had no time to care about Qing Sisi's doubts; instead, she subconsciously gave Qing Sisi a surprising and delightful answer.

"Because... Sisi is very pretty."

Covering her face, Qing Sisi blushed instantly at Bai Yu's sudden compliment. It was the first time Bai Yu had praised her beauty so earnestly. Although she had heard the word "beautiful" many times since she was a child, the words of someone she cared about were worlds apart from those of others, and the feeling was completely different.

"Senior...something's wrong with you..."