Xincheng.
Even after the beginning of autumn in August, the weather remained unbearably hot.
There was an osmanthus tree in Mei Mengzhen's yard. In her childhood memories, it took two adults to wrap their arms around it; lush and thick, when flowers blossomed, the canopy looked like a yellow umbrella—shielding from the sun, filling the air with its sweet fragrance.
The osmanthus tree kept growing, its branches gradually stretching into the house.
A gentle breeze would stir the petals, scattering them all over the house, the entire room infused with the osmanthus scent—pure fragrance, entering the lungs, bringing a sense of calm and peace.
In such intense osmanthus aroma, one's spirits were always soothed.
That pure and mellow fragrance—even after so many years—lingered in her mind, never dissipating.
...
'Creak'
The old wooden door was pushed open slowly. A little boy poked his head in, cautiously calling, "Sister, sister, are you asleep?"
Mei Mengzhen was a light sleeper, so whenever she rested, the door and windows were always tightly shut. When she heard the sound of the door, she lifted her head and asked, "Mm, I'm not asleep yet. What is it?"
This little boy was her younger brother, named Mei Mengchen. At this moment, Mei Mengchen weakly said, "Sister, I'm scared to sleep alone. Can I sleep with you?"
"Alright."
Receiving her approval, Mei Mengchen quickly jumped onto the bed and burrowed into Mei Mengzhen's arms.
After he wriggled left and right for a while and finally found the most comfortable position, he calmed down and asked, "Sister, why aren't you sleeping yet?"
Mei Mengzhen glanced at the Little Douding in her arms, sighed, and said, "Shouldn't I be asking you that? I clearly just coaxed you to sleep, so how did you end up awake again?"
At this, Mei Mengchen became a little sad: "I used to sleep with Mom and Dad, and when I woke up just now and found no one next to me, I got scared. Sister, I'm still little. Don't dislike me. When I grow up, I won't be afraid anymore."
"I don't dislike you. Go to sleep."
"Sister, you sleep too."
"Sister still needs to think about something. You sleep first."
Mei Mengchen didn't know what Mei Mengzhen needed to think about, but it was clear he couldn't help. Without that previous fear, sleepiness swept over him, and even before he finished his sentence, he was already deeply asleep.
Mei Mengzhen looked at her brother's sleeping face, feeling amused, but more than that, she felt pity and heartache.
A week ago, their parents took her brother out traveling. On the way back, they got into a car accident. The parents were severely injured and did not survive. Her brother, sitting in the back child's seat, suffered only minor injuries.
As for why a four-member family went traveling with only three, the reason wasn't hard to guess.
The parents had blatantly "forgotten" Mei Mengzhen at home, and so Mei Mengzhen escaped this fatal disaster.
But calamity isn't something you can evade so easily.
When Mei Mengzhen rushed to the hospital, all their relatives were already there.
Some were crying, some anxious—everyone seemed immersed in their own sorrow, busy, very busy. No matter how much she asked, not a single person would tell her what had happened.
After a long while, it was Auntie who couldn't bear it and finally told her the truth.
The news came so abruptly that Mei Mengzhen was stunned for a long time, unable to process it.
Just then, the relatives, citing her lack of grief, cursed her for being heartless and gave her a severe beating in the hospital. Even Auntie couldn't stop them.
No exaggeration—she was beaten into unconsciousness on the spot, her injuries more severe than those from her brother's car accident.
Yet when she woke up in the hospital, her soul had been replaced by the Mei Mengzhen who fell to her death in a later life.
That's right, she was reborn.
She returned to the age of seventeen and in such an awkward time; she needed time to adapt.
That adjustment took days—until after she handled her parents' funeral and brought her brother home from the hospital, she finally had time to sort through her chaotic memories.
In her previous life, she fell to her death at thirty-one. In her memory, it had been fourteen years since her parents passed. Yet she had no clear recollection of her parents' funeral, but she remembered life in her upcoming senior year vividly.
The seventeen-year-old Mei Mengzhen was about to enter her last year of high school. However, neither she nor her brother was of age. With no adults left in the house, their relatives couldn't just let the two siblings fend for themselves, so after the funeral, everyone gathered to discuss how to place them.
The relatives couldn't take them both, which meant from now on, she and her brother would live apart.
Her uncle's youngest son was four; her brother was three. The two were nearly the same age, so everyone thought they'd make good companions growing up together—so her brother naturally went to live with her uncle's family.
Auntie had twins—a boy and a girl—both in university, rarely home, so there were no kids at home. Mei Mengzhen went with Auntie.
She and her brother lived in their relatives' homes for a whole year, and during that year, neither had an easy time.
Because those irresponsible parents refused to rest even in death, Mei Mengzhen not only had to cope with her senior year's studies and college entrance exam but also handle her parents' mess, leaving her with little energy for the brother she wasn't especially fond of.
And just a year later—right after the house they'd lived in was torn down—her brother died.
Swamped by endless troubles and failing the college entrance exam, she didn't linger. After burying her brother beside their parents, she left the city, working odd jobs to pay off debt.
For years, she thought her brother's death was an accident—until one day, her uncle got drunk and revealed some "truth," and only then did Mei Mengzhen learn there was a huge secret behind it all.
She had looked for evidence at the time, but so many years had passed; not a trace remained, not even the slightest sign of her brother's life before passing. Remembering how he secretly confided in her, in the end, his death became Mei Mengzhen's deepest regret.
But the poor relationship between her and her brother, when all was said and done, was mostly their parents' fault.
When she was born, her parents resented her being a girl. Not long after birth, they handed her to Grandpa to raise, making her a "left-behind child." Even though she lived in the same city as her parents, they only saw her once a year. One could imagine how distant their relationship was.
Before Grandpa died, afraid she'd have no support, he transferred ownership of the house to her. Grandpa passed away at the start of the year; her brother was born at the end. After her brother's birth, her parents teamed up with relatives to force her to transfer the house to her newly-born brother. The blow to her was immense.
She resisted, tried her best, but it was all in vain. Within days, the house was transferred to her brother.
Mei Mengzhen already felt estranged from this brother, and with her parents' favoritism…
All in all, in the end, Mei Mengzhen was full of regret.
Now, coming back to life, nothing else mattered for now—the most urgent thing was to keep her brother alive.