Three kilometers away from the library, on the top floor of a luxury apartment building.
Zhu Yawen swirled her red wine glass, stepping barefoot across the soft cashmere carpet toward a wall sized bank of surveillance monitors.
The screen was divided into dozens of small frames, each corresponding to a different location: the library, classrooms, the cafeteria, and even the cramped, simple room that Xia Yaojin rented.
In the center, on the largest screen, was the exact scene from the terrace moments ago. Xia Yaojin handing her a tissue.
Zhu Yawen pressed play, rewinding the footage to the moment Xia Yaojin recognized her. She zoomed in on Xia Yaojin’s face, meticulously observing the emotions in those eyes.
Calm, detached, polite, and a hint of something hard to detect… impatience?
Zhu Yawen smiled.
It wasn’t a weak or pitiful smile, but one filled with the predatory interest of a hunter discovering fascinating prey.
“Completely different from the previous life,” she whispered to herself, taking a sip of the red wine.
The previous life.
The phrase echoed in her mind.
Yes, Zhu Yawen had been reborn.
After enduring the entire plot of the novel All for You, suffering heartbreak and physical abuse at the hands of Gu Mingyuan, watching her family go bankrupt, experiencing a miscarriage, being betrayed by her best friend, and finally “forgiving” Gu Mingyuan’s infidelity and illegitimate children to live “happily ever after” with three kids, she had died of depression at forty-five.
She had returned to the time before it all began.
The first thing she did after being reborn was to investigate everyone who could potentially influence the events she had lived through.
Xia Yaojin wasn’t originally on her watchlist. An extra who only appeared once wasn’t worth wasting energy on.
Until this Xia Yaojin began demonstrating extraordinary abilities.
Registering for six different academic competitions and crushing professional students in every single one. Rapidly improving her own circumstances, decisively cutting off all inefficient part time jobs, and pivoting toward high-stakes scholarships. A disciplined schedule, clear goals, completely unlike an ordinary college student.
More importantly, it was the way this Xia Yaojin looked at her.
In their encounter on the terrace in her previous life, Xia Yaojin had been awkward and sympathetic, offering clumsy words of comfort.
But this time, Xia Yaojin simply handed over a tissue and wanted to leave.
That feeling… it was as if she knew who Zhu Yawen was and wanted absolutely no involvement with her.
“Are you reborn, too?” Zhu Yawen asked the Xia Yaojin on the screen softly. “Or are you simply not the original Xia Yaojin at all?”
The Pattern of a Machine
She switched screens, pulling up Xia Yaojin’s recent activity logs.
06:00 AM: Morning run.
07:00 AM: Library, classes, competition prep.
11:00 PM: Sleep.
As regular as a precision machine. The only changes were an improved diet and a conscious effort to exercise.
“Afraid of death?” Zhu Yawen laughed. “Interesting.”
She set down her glass and walked to the floor to ceiling window, looking down at the night view of Jing City. The neon lights flickered and traffic flowed like a river; the city was as prosperous as she remembered, and just as cold.
In her past life, she was a fool. A fool who believed love could conquer all, a fool who repeatedly forgave those who hurt her, and a fool who eventually lost herself.
In this life, she would control everything. Gu Mingyuan? Nothing but a chess piece. The Zhu family? She would take back everything that belonged to her.
And Xia Yaojin… this sudden variable gave Zhu Yawen a sense of excitement she hadn’t felt in a long time.
A person who was smart, calm, and goal oriented. Someone who wanted nothing to do with the “protagonists.” Someone seemingly ordinary but exceptionally capable.
“A little canary…” Zhu Yawen murmured the words, a dark glint flashing in her eyes. “Capturing her and keeping her would be quite interesting, wouldn’t it?”
The Gilded Cage
She returned to the monitors and pulled up Xia Yaojin’s full profile.
Background: Both parents deceased.
Support: Living on scholarships.
Residence: An old neighborhood near the school, rent: 800 yuan.
Financials: Tight, but rapidly improving.
Zhu Yawen thought for a moment and dialed a number.
“Director Li, this is Zhu Yawen. Regarding the ‘Yawen Scholarship’ selection next month, I’d like to add a special slot… Yes, Xia Yaojin from the Economics department. The reason? She entered six competitions and made it to the semi-finals in all of them. A well-rounded student like that deserves encouragement. The amount? Let’s set it at 50,000.”
Hanging up, Zhu Yawen looked back at the screen.
Xia Yaojin was sitting in the library, focused on writing something. Her profile looked serene and determined under the lights, completely unaware that she had been targeted.
“Let me see how high you can fly,” Zhu Yawen said softly, a playful smile curving her lips. “The higher you fly, the more exquisite the cage needs to be.”
Meanwhile, in the library, Xia Yaojin suddenly felt a mysterious chill.
She looked up and glanced around. Everything was normal, students were buried in their books, and the only sounds were the turning of pages and the rustle of pens on paper.
Strange.
Xia Yaojin shook her head, attributing the feeling to the air conditioning being too low. She lowered her head and returned to solving a complex physics problem.
Outside, the night deepened. Two life paths that were never meant to cross drew closer in the silence of the night.
The semi-finals for the six competitions would be held in three days. Xia Yaojin didn’t know that the audience would soon include a very special observer and her peaceful academic life was about to be shattered.