After speaking so much, Ming Lan felt exhausted. Yi An helped her drink some water and checked the time.
“It’s really late. Get some rest first. We’ll talk about the rest tomorrow.”
Yi An slept on the companion bed next to Ming Lan. Under the dim nightlight, the hospital room quieted down. Ming Lan looked at Yi An and finally felt a bit more at ease. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
But even in her dreams, she could not find peace. The memories from her past life came flooding back like a tidal wave. Heart-wrenching scenes played one after another. She dreamed of being in that lounge again. The scene shifted, and she was suddenly in a pitch-black basement. Li Jue was covered in blood, walking toward her. She was hiding behind a cabinet with nowhere to run.
Frantically looking around, she saw a baseball bat propped up beside the cabinet. She heard footsteps approaching, getting closer and closer, and then she heard her parents’ voices. They had been caught by Li Jue. In that instant, she gripped the bat tightly. She would never let that tragedy happen again.
Stepping out of the shadows, Ming Lan swung the bat with all her strength and hit Li Jue. She didn’t stop, again and again, until he vanished. When she looked down, the bat was gone too. Looking around, she found herself on a swaying boat.
Dark clouds covered the sky. The sea churned violently. Standing on the shaking deck, Ming Lan saw a familiar figure at the edge of the ship. In the next second, that figure jumped without hesitation, disappearing into the waves.
“Ye An, no!”
Ming Lan jolted awake, her mind still trapped in the nightmare. Her eyes were wide open, and all she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. The ringing in her ears pierced her brain. Her hands were tense, but someone reached out and gently held them.
She looked slowly at the person beside her and met a pair of familiar eyes. The fear in her chest hadn’t yet faded. She immediately grabbed the person in front of her and hugged her tightly.
“Ye An…”
Yi An had come to her side the moment she saw Ming Lan caught in a nightmare. She had tried to wake her, but then she heard that name, “Ye An.” It was like a jolt of electricity shooting through her body. That name, so familiar, made her stare at Ming Lan in disbelief.
“Ye An” was a name that had no connection to her current life. It only belonged to her past. How could Ming Lan call her that in a nightmare?
She almost thought she had misheard. But when Ming Lan woke up and threw herself into her arms, she said it again.
Holding Ming Lan tightly, Yi An’s heart stirred with a bold guess. If she had been reborn, then could it be that Ming Lan had too?
Under Yi An’s gentle comfort, Ming Lan finally calmed down. She didn’t realize anything unusual, only leaned against Yi An and slowly closed her eyes again.
“Ming Lan,” Yi An said hesitantly, “are you…”
There was no response. Yi An looked down and saw that Ming Lan had fallen asleep again.
She would have to wait until Ming Lan woke up to talk about it. She thought of laying her down, but Ming Lan’s arms were still wrapped around her. Not wanting to disturb her, Yi An adjusted herself and leaned against the headboard, letting Ming Lan rest comfortably in her arms as she fell asleep too.
The next morning, as soon as Ming Lan woke up, she heard that Li Jue had regained consciousness. He had immediately arranged for a hospital transfer and left the facility.
Let him go. She had no intention of doing anything to him in her family’s hospital anyway.
On the way home, Ming Lan was already making arrangements for hiring personal bodyguards. Something like this only needed to happen once to be enough. There could never be a next time.
“I want to personally interview and select one or two who can really protect me closely.”
Ming Lan was still shaken. Now that Li Jue had completely revealed his true nature, he would no longer have any scruples. She had no idea what insane thing he might do next. Even her parents might be in danger.
“Yes. Your safety is the most important thing.”
Yi An sat beside her, watching closely. She was still looking for the right moment to ask Ming Lan about what happened last night. But this was something no one else could ever know.
“And also, finding out who drugged us might depend on you now. After all, it happened in the Ye family home, and outsiders can’t easily interfere.”
Ming Lan didn’t notice Yi An’s gaze. She was still speaking on the phone with a security company.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
As they spoke, they arrived at the Ming residence. It was Yi An’s first time there, and she was slightly nervous when she got out of the car.
The Ming family was always low-key and rarely made enemies. The security staff was sparse, just a few housekeepers and busy servants, each doing their job. There were far fewer people than in the Ye family, but everything was still orderly and well-managed.
Ming Lan led Yi An into her room. Everything inside was soft and warm. Now and then, there were small handwritten notes left by Ming Lan herself.
Back in her own space, she clearly relaxed. Curled up on the soft single-seater couch by the carpet, she smiled.
“Make yourself comfortable. If you want anything to drink, I’ll have it sent over.”
“No need. I’m fine.”
Yi An sat beside her and looked serious.
“I need to ask you something very important. No one else can know. Can we talk here?”
Ming Lan was a bit puzzled.
“You’re being all mysterious. What is it?”
Seeing Yi An’s serious expression, Ming Lan knew she wasn’t joking. She got up to take the fruit tray that had been delivered and told the servants not to bring anything else. Then she closed the door tightly.
“Alright. We’re good now.”
Ming Lan sat back down, waiting for Yi An to continue.
Yi An took a deep breath.
“Why did you call me Ye An?”
Hearing that, Ming Lan’s heart skipped a beat.
“I didn’t call you that…”
Before she could finish her denial, she suddenly remembered what had happened the night before. After waking up from the nightmare, she had seen Yi An beside her and blurted out that name.
That was bad. In this life, Yi An hadn’t changed her name. What she had said must have sounded strange. Ming Lan frowned slightly, trying to think of a good explanation. But Yi An spoke first.
“You’re afraid of the dark. You sleep with a nightlight. You have claustrophobia. You hate the cold.”
Yi An looked at her seriously.
“Miss Ming, do you really not remember me?”
Maybe afraid that these clues weren’t enough, Yi An moved closer and repeated the last thing she had said to Ming Lan in their previous life. It was said that when someone is dying, the last sense to fade is hearing. Ming Lan should remember.
That one sentence shook Ming Lan to her core. She stared at Yi An in shock, unable to react for a moment.
They locked eyes. Ming Lan’s fingers trembled as she slowly reached up and touched Yi An’s face.
“It’s really you. Ye An… you came back too?”
“Yes.”
Yi An no longer hid anything. Hearing Ming Lan confirm it with her own voice, her heart trembled with emotion.
“I almost thought everything from our past life was just my imagination. But as things started happening again, one after another, I finally realized I really had come back from that ship to the apartment.”
“I did too,” Ming Lan said, nodding with excitement. “I heard you ask me that question. I wanted to answer you, but I couldn’t… and then I…”
Thinking of that strange space and the book she had torn apart, Ming Lan wasn’t sure if Yi An had experienced the same thing.
“By the way, did you return directly to the present after you died? Did anything unusual happen in between?”
“Nothing else happened. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I was waking up in the rental apartment. What about you?”
Yi An asked curiously.
Ming Lan wasn’t sure if she should tell Yi An about the book. It felt even more surreal than being reborn itself. After thinking for a moment, she gave a more cautious answer.
“After I died, I went to a strange place. I saw fragments of things there—events involving Li Jue, Bai Tingqiu, Xiao Shaoyan, and Cheng Yurong. But after checking some of it myself, I realized not everything might be accurate.”
“Even Cheng Yurong was involved?”
Yi An thought about it carefully and realized it made sense. In their past life, Cheng Yurong ended up with Li Jue, so she would definitely be connected.
The two compared their memories and the contents Ming Lan had seen in that book. Most of it matched. The first half of the book covered the two years when Yi An was mostly absent, while the second half focused on Yi An’s conflict with Li Jue, which Ming Lan had little involvement in. Now that they shared their experiences, it was like putting together pieces of a puzzle. Everything finally became whole.
There was still something very important.
Ming Lan looked at Yi An seriously.
“I saw you jump into the sea. Was that real?”
Since she had been reborn after dying, it made sense that Yi An must have died too. Her ending must have been just like what was written in that book.
When Ming Lan brought it up, Yi An’s eyes wavered slightly.
“It’s in the past.”
“Why would you do something so foolish? You were so close to escaping. Couldn’t you have just gone somewhere new and started over?”
That confirmed it. Ming Lan’s heart ached. She felt sorrow and frustration. How could someone be so selfless and reckless?
Yi An gently comforted her.
“But wasn’t it because of that choice that I had the chance to come back and see you again?”
Yi An had only needed to spend one day living alone to realize it was unbearable. Her life had no attachments, no direction. Out on that endless sea, she couldn’t find a single reason to keep living.
Not wanting to dwell on the subject and make Ming Lan even sadder, Yi An shifted the topic.
“So, it wasn’t a coincidence that you showed up at the rental apartment. You were looking for me?”
“Yes. I had just returned as well, but my memory was still foggy. I thought you had already gone back to the Ye family, but I couldn’t find any news about you. So I used an excuse to get close to Cheng Yurong and used the chance to drive her home in order to meet you.”
As soon as she said this, Ming Lan suddenly realized something.
“Then that means your return happened…”
“A little more than a day after yours. It was the same night I moved back into the rental apartment. The timing matches exactly with when we died in our past lives.”
Yi An nodded, confirming Ming Lan’s guess.
“My god…”
Ming Lan felt a sharp pain in her chest. She reached out and wrapped her arms around Yi An.
“Thank goodness we both made it back safely.”
“Promise me, no matter what happens this time, if we’re alive, we have to live well.”
Ming Lan didn’t believe she was worth Yi An giving up her life for. Yi An should have her own future, her own life, not lose everything just because of her.
Yi An responded softly and hugged Ming Lan even tighter, as if holding onto the very meaning of her life.
Now that everything was out in the open, Ming Lan looked at the two of them holding each other and felt a bit awkward.
In their past life, she had seen Ye An as a stranger. Even though they had relied on each other, she had always kept a respectful distance. She was full of gratitude but maintained a sense of proper boundaries.
After being reborn, she had assumed that Yi An didn’t remember anything. So it felt natural to treat her like a long-lost friend, using that as an excuse to get closer. With a deep need to make up for her past regrets, she clung to Yi An constantly. Leaning on her became a habit.
But now she knew Yi An had been reborn too, with all her memories intact.
What did that make all of her past composure and politeness? What was the point of trying to act so dignified and distant before?