Zhan Yahui stood motionless before reality, crushing every part of her heart. She thought that Ouyang Haitao had lovingly baked the cake for her but it turned out to be a store bought one in which he added some sort of a liquid, grinning evilly to himself.
What she thought was one of the warm and loving moments of her life turned out to be a horror when she fell unconscious after eating the cake.
Ouyang Haitao picked a fainted Zhan Yahui and immediately carried her outside. For others outside, it looked like she fell sick and a worried father was taking her to a hospital. But nobody could have imagined that behind the mask of a concerned father laid a selfish and greedy man who was about to sell his daughter.
"You are his son. I saw you that day in the base."
Zhan Yahui saw the man outside Jun's school, towering over the little boy as he carried Zhan Yahui.
"Who were you going to call?"
"She will suffocate," Jun narrowed his eyes. "Stop holding her so hard."
She stared at Jun calmly talking to Ouyang Haitao.
"Who were you going to call?"
"Mom. I am waiting for her to pick me up."
Ouyang Haitao stared at him. His movements were slightly fidgety. "You were going to call because you saw me, right?"
The conversation between them continued and Zhan Yahui felt her breath stop when she saw him holding a blade in his hands.
"I have a small blade in my palm. If you don't listen to me, don't blame me for stabbing this girl with it."
Tears fell down her eyes, watching, staring and understanding the situation before her. The truth was exposed by Jinhai and the twins before, but it was now that it was getting hammered in her brain.
This cannot be real…What is this place anyway?
This is a dream…This is ridiculous…
Why is this happening to me? I don't want to be here anymore.
"You have to," a voice echoed in the space.
Zhan Yahui heard that ringing voice in her ears, and she froze hard. She looked left and right, baffled.
"Wh-Who? Who is talking?"
"You don't need to know. The only thing that matters is you have to see the truth. You are not going anywhere until every last bit of your illusion is shattered."
Those words sounded extremely cruel, and her heart pounded faster in her chest.
The memories around her came crashing before her and even if she shut her eyes, those images continued to flow.
"Shut up!" She gritted her teeth, her eyes reddening. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
That voice whispered in her ear, "A little respect, young lady. Because we are going to meet very soon. You wouldn't want to be in my bad books. Open your eyes and watch. Keep watching until reality gets imprinted in your heart."
Zhan Yahui collapsed on her knees as she was forced to watch the past.
She saw little Jun gently trying to wake her up but went back defeated when she didn't. This text is hosted at novel[f]ire.net
When Ouyang Haitao returned to take Zhan Yahui and Jun, she saw Jun's fierce struggle against him and every attempt to protect her. In that scuffle, Jun pushed him hard to force him get away from Zhan Yahui and he hit his head on the wall.
But he wasn't dead. He woke up sometime later and realizing that too much time had been wasted, grabbed her and Jun and ran out of the house.
The final confrontation between him and the twins came before her and every word that Ouyang Haitao spoke, stabbed her heart ruthlessly.
"You kidnapped my brother, hurt him and planned to sell your own daughter as if it wasn't a big deal so are you really in a position to talk back to us?"
"It's your father who didn't leave me with any choice! He reduced my time to just three days!"
Zhan Yahui felt tired. She knew what was coming and felt exhausted to watch anything further. She had no vitality left in her and the moment she heard the gunshot that killed Ouyang Haitao, the last bit of light dulled away from her eyes.
It was over. She had realized the truth but now she had seen it with her own eyes or been forced to.
"Let me…go already…from this place…"
"Not yet," the mysterious voice was heard again. "This was just one part of the past that was necessary to show you."
Her brows slightly crinkled.
"The second part is how it shaped you to become evil and how you eventually destroyed the Liu family."
She wryly laughed. "I don't think that you see who is the fallen one over here."
"That is because history didn't repeat itself this time. Because fate was made to change and time was made to turn back. You can say that whatever that happened NOW is the second iteration of your lives going. You have to see what you did in the first."
The memories floating before her changed to show that of the past life's. Things like Zixin's accident or bribing the judges in the Authors' Summit was familiar to her because she had done this in this life too.
But some memories were too different.
"When did Guiying win the Summit?" She stared wide-eyed. "It was Ai who won…"
Things were different in the sense that instead of Ai winning and getting popular, it was Guiying who went ahead as Zhan Yahui pulled the strings at the back to flourish her career while destroying Ai's at the same time. Ai still worked at Dream High but Zhan Yahui's constant interference in her work never allowed Ai to go further. She did this only for the sake of killing all the competition against Guiying so that she could gain power in Dream which she could then use to enter and control Shi Publishing.
The last thing that was joyous in Ai's life was her relationship with Yating. But that changed too when he broke up with Ai one day and got together with Guiying, breaking Ai's heart beyond repair.