Chapter One: The Apology
The plane crash marked the end of the nightmare.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself back in the old mansion—its white walls standing uneasily against the restless winds of a turbulent era.
Xiu Zhu lifted a hand to her forehead, her thoughts heavy, as though she had just awakened from a dream that had lasted a lifetime. She remembered clearly: she had never made it to England. Whatever her ending had been, it was swallowed by fire and silence.
And yet, she had seen everything afterward.
As if untethered from flesh, she had watched the world from above—tides rising and falling, nations shifting, mountains reshaped by time. Once, her world had been painfully small. It had revolved around a single name, a single man. She had loved him with a devotion so complete it erased everything else, and hated him just as deeply for the weakness they both shared.
He had never truly loved her.
His heart belonged elsewhere, to a woman who represented everything quiet and unreachable. Their romance had been praised as beautiful, tragic—yet it, too, had ended in ruin. In the end, none of it mattered anymore.
Because Xiu Zhu was no longer a drifting spirit watching history unfold. She was alive again.
She rose quietly from her bed, careful not to wake the household. Barefoot, she crossed the cold floor and stood before the mirror. Reflected back was not the woman she remembered, but a girl—too short to see herself fully without standing on her toes. Her hair fell loose around her shoulders, chestnut in the morning light. Her frame was slender, unfinished, delicate in a way time had not yet taken from her.
On her wrist rested a coral bracelet. She recognized it instantly: a birthday gift from her brother when she was fourteen.
Fourteen.
The realization struck her all at once. She had been given years—years to change everything.
She stared at her reflection, as if the glass itself divided two lifetimes. In the past, she had lived for love alone. In this life?
She was tired of that story.
Childhood promises could not compete with sudden infatuation, and she would no longer beg fate for fairness. After a moment, the chill crept up from the floor. Early spring was still unforgiving. She returned to bed, pretending sleep, waiting for the day to begin.
At breakfast, the lady of the house greeted her with concern, remarking on the shadows beneath her eyes. Xiu Zhu smiled politely and dismissed it as poor sleep. The explanation was accepted—but not believed.
Everyone assumed the same thing: the absent young man who had failed to appear at her birthday celebration.
Once, she would have defended him. This time, she said nothing.
She ate quietly, considering how carefully she would have to move. She could not appear too wise, too distant, not at her age. As for him—she would let things unfold as they wished.
After changing into a pale green dress, she stepped onto the balcony. A black car approached along the road beyond the trees.
She already knew why it had come.
She had waited on this balcony countless times in another life, hoping, always hoping. More often than not, she had been disappointed.
Now, she felt nothing at all.
The car stopped below. A young man stepped out, handsome and visibly annoyed, stifling a yawn as he looked up.
“Xiu Zhu,” he called, irritated, “they made me come apologize. Honestly, it’s exhausting.”
She rested her hands on the railing and met his gaze calmly—without longing, without expectation.
And for the first time, he was the one who felt unsettled
