Rebirth: Once Again With You

When she opened her eyes, she stood on top of the building. A very familiar building.

Li Caiyi blinked her eyes a few times, but the sight in front of her didn't change. This was the same abandoned building where she and Shen Qiang met!

She looked around and gasped in shock when a familiar figure was standing in the same spot she first found him. It was the same as she remembered.

He stood on top of the broken part of the wall while looking far ahead, completely ignoring the harsh wind around him. He had his back on Li Caiyi, so he didn't notice her presence.

It was like a repeat of their first meeting.

"Shen Qiang!" Li Caiyi shouted at him, but the man seemed like she couldn't hear cause he didn't react at all.

Li Caiyi didn't give up and ran over to him with eyes glistened with tears.

She missed him so much.

She wanted to see him so much.

A sense of happiness and loneliness just burst out from her heart uncontrollably as she reached out her hand, trying to grab his figure.

"Shen Qiang!" Li Caiyi called out to him again. She was practically screaming out his name at this point. However, her voice couldn't seem to reach him at all because he just stood there motionless.

Li Caiyi also noticed that no matter how much she ran, the distance between them didn't close in at all, as though an invisible force separated them. She ran while shouting his name, but the only thing waiting for her was the sight of Shen Qiang letting the gravity pull him downward.

It happened in a split second, but it felt like a movie repeated in slow motion many times before her eyes. Shen Qiang disappeared from her sight again and reduced into light particles, like fireflies.

Li Caiyi fell to the ground helplessly with her gaze still nailed on the spot where Shen Qiang once stood before letting out a bitter laugh. "This nightmare is just too much…."

She sat there for a while. When she raised her head again, she had a confused look on her face.

"Wait, what am I doing in this place again?"

***

Li Caiyi slowly opened her eyes, and the first sight she saw was a familiar white-nuanced room.

"Ngh…" She let out a low grumble as she tried to collect her wits together. When she was finally sober enough to form a coherent thought, she realized she was leaning against something warm and firm.

Li Caiyi raised her head, and what appeared before her eyes was a close-up of Meng Renshu's beautiful and fair face. She was so surprised she almost screamed.

Another thing she noticed was that Meng Renshu clasped her hand tightly in his. His fingers were interlocking with hers as though it were the most natural thing to do in the world.

'What's with this situation? What happened while I was asleep?' Li Caiyi thought was in disarray as she tried to pry her hand off his hold. However, it only made his grip on her hand tighten instead.

She looked up and scrutinized his face closely. His eyes were tightly shut, and he was breathing steadily. It did not seem he was faking his sleep at all, so was this something he subconsciously did in his sleep?

After she slowly organized her thoughts, her panic subsided, and she could think calmly again. Judging from their sitting position, Li Caiyi had an idea of what had happened. Hence, she didn't try to pull her hand anymore and used this opportunity to inspect his face instead.

"He is a guy, but he looks prettier than most girls. What's with those thick eyelashes and thin lips? I'm jealous." Li Caiyi muttered in awe.

No matter whether it was in the past or present, the one thing she couldn't deny was that Meng Renshu was blessed with a good gene in his vein. You can put a woman's wig and clothes on him, and nobody would notice he was a man all along. However, Li Caiyi could never speak about this out loud in front of him.

Meng Renshu had developed a heavy complex regarding his looks ever since some guy teased him for looking like a girl in their elementary school days. Even though he put on an indifferent front, she knew how much he hated being called pretty.

Until this day, Li Caiyi never understood why he hated his feminine face so much because she genuinely thought he was an angel when they first met. He shone so brightly like he had a halo on top of his head, making her couldn't look away from him.

"Ngh…"

Li Caiyi almost jumped in her place when Meng Renshu suddenly stirred in his sleep. She didn't even know why she was so flustered. It wasn't like she did him any harm by staring at his face!

"B-Brother Renshu? Are you awake yet?" She asked nervously.

Meng Renshu slowly opened his eyes before turning his head her way. Their gazes met for a few seconds before his lips curved up in the most dazzling smile she had ever seen from him.

"Xiaoyi… You are here," Meng Renshu said in a low and husky voice before reaching out his hand to pull her into a tight embrace. "Good morning."

Li Caiyi's mind stopped functioning altogether from information overload. She couldn't react immediately due to shock and only sat there dumbly, letting Meng Renshu hug her like a teddy bear, and even nuzzled his head on her thick hair.

"Hmm, you smell nice…. I like it." He said sultrily beside her ears, and her cheeks heated up, sensing the humid sensation in her ears.

"B-brother Renshu?! Are you still half-asleep? W-wake up!" Li Caiyi stammered because Meng Renshu suddenly put his whole weight onto her as if he was ready to drift into sleep again.

Although Meng Renshu was slender and pretty like a girl, he was still heavier than Li Caiyi. Added with her awkward sitting position, it didn't take long for them to topple onto the couch together, with Meng Renshu pressing down against her.

If Li Caiyi was flustered before, now she was clearly freaking out. "Brother Renshu, please get off of me! You are heavy!"

"No. I don't want to let you go. Not again…" Meng Renshu mumbled as he buried his face in her hair. "I'm scared."

Li Caiyi couldn't understand what he was saying at all. The only plausible explanation she had in mind was that he was still on the border between reality and dream.

'Wait, didn't he say he always seeing nightmares when he sleeps lately?' Li Caiyi thought as she recalled their previous conversation. At that time, Meng Renshu wanted to tell her something but was interrupted.

She sneakily turned her head to check on his condition, only to find he already slept soundly again. His face looked so peaceful and angelic from this distance that it made her heart tremble slightly from how picturesque the sight was.

Li Caiyi quickly shook that weird thought out of her mind and squirmed little by little until she finally got out of his hold. He was very heavy, so it was pretty hard to push his body aside. This time, Meng Renshu didn't stir at all, and only the sound of his steady breathing could be heard from him.

Li Caiyi looked down at his sleeping figure with a helpless look. She couldn't even get angry when he slept innocently like that. It made her realize once again how weak she was against beautiful people.

"Fine, I'll let it slide this time," Li Caiyi finally said with a resigned sigh. "Sleep well, Brother Renshu."