Chapter 1: Returning to the Moment of Lost Innocence

"Rrrrip..." The sound of tearing fabric accompanied a man's crisp, cool voice as it pierced her ears. "Ran-ran... give yourself to me..."

Ye Siran was so stimulated by the scene before her that she nearly had a nosebleed. The man's eyes were bloodshot, his pupils burning with overwhelming lust. His neck was arched, his body taut, and his forehead glistened with fine beads of sweat; even his breathing was searingly hot.

Yet, this was the very man who had just driven her to her death in her past life. No one could feel a spark of affection for the man who had caused their demise.

She angrily reached out to push him away, but the man was much faster; he pinned her arms above her head. He whispered coaxingly, "Be good, don't move. Isn't this what you wanted?"

His words caused the grievances Ye Siran had suppressed for over twenty years to gush forth. Her nose stung, and tears fell before she could stop them.

"Don't cry... we'll be married tomorrow," the man said, his voice dropping to a gravelly, sandpaper-like rasp.

Married?

Ye Siran stared at the man with his reddened eyes, one hand pinning hers while the other tore at her clothes. The handsome face—thin lips, sword-like brows, and a sharp, blade-like jawline—belonged to a man in his prime, just over twenty years old.

Her pupils suddenly dilated. She clenched her fists so tightly that her fingernails dug into her palms, causing a sharp pain that nearly made her cry out. Was she... reborn?

Living a second life, she absolutely could not let this happen again. Since this man loved her stepsister, she would stay far away from him.

On this day in her previous life, she had woken up later, jolted by pain, and by then it was too late to stop anything. Besides, having been fond of this childhood fiancé since she was small, she had complied without struggle and hadn't offered an explanation. She had accepted it with a full heart, even though he had publicly declared at their engagement party that he wanted to break off the engagement to marry her stepsister. It was only because the neighbors in the courtyard had caught them in such a compromising position that they were forced into a hasty marriage.

She had become the villain who tore apart "star-crossed lovers," while her stepsister, the true culprit, became the "white moonlight" he could never possess. After they married, her husband was shamelessly partial to her stepsister and her son. Because of her guilt, she had to pretend she didn't care; her tolerance only made the stepsister more insatiable. In the cycles of heartbreak, she had asked herself countless times: if heaven gave her another chance, would she still be a willing doormat? The answer was, she probably would have, because no matter how much it hurt, she had never considered divorce.

But the most cruel part wasn't just his favoritism; it was the betrayal from her own mother.

Did heaven truly take pity on her, granting her a chance to start over?

A whirlpool of emotions flowed through Ye Siran's amber eyes, eventually settling into a deathly stillness. She shouted, "He Hongwen, get up! Don't do something you'll regret!"

"Ran-ran, why would I regret it?" the man asked, confused, his brows furrowed tightly.

"If you like my sister and want to marry her, you shouldn't have provoked me! I hate you to death!"

Perhaps it was the intensity of her hatred, or perhaps the man was simply stunned by her expression, but she managed to push him over, sending him rolling onto the floor.

He Hongwen lay on the floor, dazed. His body was wracked with discomfort, as if thousands of ants were biting him, bringing him to the brink of losing his sanity. The fall helped him sober up slightly. He looked in shock at his fiancée, to whom he had been betrothed since childhood.

As a boy, he had grandly declared he would marry her when he grew up, calling her his "wife" with full-hearted joy. But as he matured and understood the true meaning of the word, he began to distance himself. He was unwilling to accept his fate—why were his classmates free, while he was shackled by a betrothal born of a debt of gratitude his father owed? Knowing he couldn't defy his father, he had used their engagement party to vent his frustration by claiming he wanted to marry Ye Ruyue. Though Ye Ruyue was much bolder than Ye Siran, he hadn't actually liked her enough to break off his engagement for her.

Taking advantage of his daze, Ye Siran nimbly tied the torn ends of her clothes together into a knot. She quickly put on her shoes, and without hesitation, stepped firmly on his chest, grinding her heel into him. Having lived through one life already, she knew that since he was drugged, talking to him was useless. The wisest move was to get away and prevent the tragedy of her past life; she would settle other scores later. Before leaving, she stamped on his chest one last time just to vent her malice.

Ye Siran was also affected by the aphrodisiac and felt weak, but the joy of her rebirth filled every cell in her body. It gave her a burst of energy. She sprinted to the door, but it was locked. She quickly moved to the window; fortunately, windows in this era didn't have iron security bars. Her stepfather was a university student who had moved to Beijing from the countryside. After marrying her mother, the Ye family had helped him secure a good government position. Since her mother was the widow of a martyr and had the Ye family as a backer, they didn't live in a tenement, but in a small, single-story courtyard.

Ye Siran nimbly climbed out the window, poking her head back in to look at the sweating man with glee. She took the initiative, repeating the insults he had hurled at her in her past life, but changing the targets.

"He Hongwen, you said you wanted to break our engagement to marry my sister, and now you’ve drugged me? Are all the women in the world dead? I never imagined you were this shameless!"

He Hongwen, his body burning from the drug, could not utter a word, his eyes bloodshot. Her two fierce kicks had brought him a moment of clarity, and he bit his lip, struggling to suppress the urges rising within him. He watched her mouth move, her clear eyes filled with rage and hatred.

"Hmph! You and my sister locked the door from the outside to frame me—isn't it all for my recommendation for the Worker-Peasant-Soldier University? She wanted beautiful clothes, I gave them to her. She wanted the textile factory job Uncle He gave me, I gave it to her. She wanted you, and I gave you to her too! But to harm me like this for a university spot? Are you even human?"

In her past life, Ye Siran would never have realized this. Only someone who had lived through it could pinpoint the truth so sharply.

So it was Ye Ruyue who wanted her university spot, and had drugged them and locked them together. The very same Ye Ruyue who claimed to love him and want to marry him had framed him for a mere university spot! What was even stranger was that before this, Ye Siran’s gaze had always been filled with love and obsession whenever she looked at him.

But now?

The way she looked at him was like shards of ice, and the heartless words she spat out smashed into his already wounded heart. Her clear eyes seemed to have weathered countless hardships, as if someone had snuffed out the light within them, leaving behind only endless exhaustion and sorrow.

After she finished speaking, she slammed the window shut and left, no longer caring whether he lived or died.