1 – Sweetie, I’m late, I’m sorry, I love you
In an unknown black-market private hospital.
A young girl, her face pale with a deathly gray hue, lay on a hospital bed stained crimson with blood.
The pure white sheets were soaked with a large patch of bright red blood, still dripping steadily downward.
The white floor tiles were covered in pools of blood that had flowed from the girl’s body, one puddle after another, while the air churned with the foul stench of blood.
And on her chest, right over her heart, a massive, gaping hole had been brutally carved out.
Ruan Tiantian did not die peacefully—she didn’t even want to die.
She was murdered, lured by her stepmother to an overseas black-market private hospital and forced to undergo a heart transplant surgery.
Her heart was brutally transplanted into the body of that wicked stepmother’s own daughter!
The malicious stepmother not only drove away her mother but also began gaslighting her from a young age, instilling a slave-like mentality.
Her body and soul were confined in an unknown, dark little room—damp, cold, perpetually unventilated, filled with the smell of mold and the rotting stench of the young girl’s corpse.
Bang, bang, bang—
The dark gray door was violently slammed from the outside.
Ruan Tiantian’s heart jolted as the door was forced open from the outside.
A sliver of light streamed in.
Her spirit seemed to see a tall man rushing inside.
She struggled to make out his face but couldn’t see it clearly no matter how hard she tried.
The man held her broken, lifeless body and wailed, crying as if his heart were being torn apart.
She could even see his trembling form, and from his sobs, Ruan Tiantian could feel his utter despair.
Ruan Tiantian drifted closer, trying to see his face clearly, but it remained blurred.
Shen Xiuyu held her corpse, his bloodshot eyes filled with red veins, and gently kissed her forehead.
“Tiantian, I’m too late.”
His hand caressed Ruan Tiantian’s face, his pale, slender fingers trembling uncontrollably, and even his words were fragmented.
“I’m sorry… I love you.”
Hearing this, Ruan Tiantian’s heart skipped a beat. She leaned closer to the young man, reaching out her hands to grasp him, but they simply passed through his body.
“Who are you?” Ruan Tiantian couldn’t hold back her tears.
She desperately tried to see the young man’s features, but they remained indistinct.
Shen Xiuyu’s eyes were filled with a bloodthirsty chill.
Ruan Han! Ruan Guoqiang! An Meirong! I won’t let you get away with this. I’ll make you pay with your lives for my Tiantian!
Suddenly, Ruan Tiantian was torn away by an inexplicable force and plunged into darkness.
When she opened her eyes again, she found her spirit had returned to City B.
The weather was gloomy that day, with dark clouds hanging low, making it hard for Ruan Tiantian to breathe.
Just as her spirit was about to dissipate, she saw Shen Xiuyu clearly.
The young man’s eyes were lifeless, his gaze unfocused, his brows drooping, his lips pale, and his pristine clothes stained with dried blood.
A tattoo coiled from his forearm up to his bicep, and his hands were handcuffed as he was led by police into a patrol car.
Ruan Tiantian covered her mouth in shock. In her previous life, this young man who always loved to tease and block her path—how had he suddenly become a murderer?
The moment the car door closed, Shen Xiuyu shifted slightly and suddenly glanced in Ruan Tiantian’s direction.
She was frozen in place by the boy’s gaze, not daring to move, even her breathing grew faint.
Then Shen Xiuyu shifted his gaze away, saying nothing. She couldn’t tell whether he had seen her or not.
The wailing sirens of the police car tugged at Ruan Tiantian’s heart, one after another. For some reason, she felt an intense pain and overwhelming sorrow, even an urge to cry.
Ruan Tiantian watched as the police car drove away, while passersby around her were all discussing him.
“That boy is Shen Xiuyu, right? He actually killed someone!”
“That family of three died so tragically, especially the girl. I heard he stabbed her thirty times!”
“What kind of hatred must it have been to drive him to do something like that?”
“That family is so unfortunate. I heard Shen Xiuyu went insane, completely lost his mind!”
“He was such a promising young master from a wealthy family, so talented at racing—how did he become a murderer?!”
…
Ruan Tiantian listened numbly as the people around her talked about Shen Xiuyu. Her impression of him was that of a young master from a wealthy conglomerate family.
Extremely rich, fond of racing cars, and accustomed to smoking with a group of boys at the corner of the staircase every day.
Whenever she passed by, Shen Xiuyu couldn’t resist teasing or startling her.
He had a crowd of girls at school who adored him, but every time she saw him, she couldn’t help but want to run away.
She didn’t like boys who were so bad and rebellious.
Moreover, he was too conspicuous. From the very first moment she laid eyes on him, she felt that Shen Xiuyu was not someone to be trifled with.
Ruan Tiantian had been reborn.
She jolted awake in bed, drenched in cold sweat from fright. Sitting up, she gasped for breath in heavy, ragged pants.
Ruan Tiantian stretched out her fair, delicate hands and examined them. Everything felt as unreal as a dream.
She even pinched the back of her hand.
“Ouch, it hurts!”
At that moment, Ruan Tiantian’s blood began to boil with excitement. She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and glanced at it.
The screen clearly displayed the year 2019!
To think she had truly been reborn.
She had returned to the age of eighteen, just as she was starting her freshman year of college.