Rebirth: Once Again With You

Her bad premonition only worsened when Li Chunhua told her that Dai Zhiqiang was absent today. No one knew what happened to him since he wasn't the most approachable person. Even the teachers were also wondering what happened to him.

Li Caiyi was restless all day and couldn't wait for school to end. Her friends kept trying to cheer her up, but it brought little to no comfort to her mind. She was distracted to the point she almost accidentally threw her lunch box into the trash bin instead of the actual trash.

She had never felt so happy when the bell signaling the end of the class rang. She dumped all her stuff into her bag with lightning speed before picking it up and rose from her seat.

"Guys, I'm going to leave first. See you tomorrow!" Li Caiyi said to her three friends.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow!" Chen Ruolan replied with a wave of her hand.

"Be careful on your way, don't rush too much," Zhou Ya exclaimed with a worried look.

Meanwhile, Feng Nian giggled with a teasing grin on her face. "Good luck finding your special person!"

Li Caiyi had no time to retort, so she quickly waved her hand and bade them goodbye. While walking briskly, she took out her phone to recheck it, but there was no new message. Not even Dai Shenqiang replied, much less Dai Zhiqiang.

Her worry peaked, and she couldn't feel tiredness and drowsiness anymore. Li Caiyi hastened her step and even walked down the stairs two steps at once.

If she didn't know that Dai Zhiqiang was frequently injured in his line of work, she probably wouldn't feel this worried, but everything about this situation was too unsettling for her to stay calm.

Li Caiyi was about to take a turn in the corner when a figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere and blocked her way.

"Oomph!" Li Caiyi let out a weird grunt when her whole face bumped into something. When she raised her head, her gaze met with Meng Renshu's astonished face.

"Xiaoyi? Why are you running in the hallway? That's dangerous," he said while keeping her body steady by holding her shoulders.

Li Caiyi groaned as she thought inwardly, 'Out of all people, why does it have to be him?'

"What makes you in so much hurry? Did something happen?" Meng Renshu asked with a concerned face.

"Nothing's happened. Sorry for bumping into you," Li Caiyi replied while taking a step back to gain some distance from him.

"No, that's okay. I'm just worried something happened to you."

"Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine. Now, if you'll excuse me."

Li Caiyi wanted to walk around him so she could quickly stop a taxi and go to the Dai family's household, but Meng Renshu grabbed her hand before she could walk further. She frowned as she looked down at their connected hands.

"What is it? I'm in a hurry right now." Li Caiyi grunted impatiently.

"Do you need a ride? I can take you to wherever you want to go."

For a second, Li Caiyi thought it was a good idea before she remembered that getting involved with Meng Renshu was a bad idea. If her rebirth theory was true, further interaction with Meng Renshu would only cause his memory to return faster, simultaneously causing her to lose her memories.

Li Caiyi absolutely didn't want that to happen.

So she slowly retracted her hand from his clasp while politely declining, "Thanks for your offer, but I can take care of my business myself. Brother Renshu, you don't have to worry about me."

Li Caiyi didn't want to delay time anymore, so she quickly walked away, ignoring Meng Renshu's call behind her. The only thing in her mind right now was the fastest route to get to Dai Zhiqiang's place as soon as possible.

***

Li Caiyi used a taxi instead of the subway train to save time, unlike the usual. After she finally arrived in front of the Dai family's house, she wasted no time running over and knocked on the door.

"Zhiqiang, Shenqiang, are you in there? It's Caiyi!"

There was no sound coming from the inside. She tried knocking and calling out several times after that, but there was still no response. If she was anxious before, now she has completely panicked.

Li Caiyi attempted to call the brothers' phone again, but her call couldn't be connected or directed to a voicemail. It wasn't reassuring, to say the least.

"What actually happened to them? It couldn't be that loan sharks are targeting them again?" Li Caiyi muttered.

Even though Meng Renshu said he had taken care of everything and made sure those people wouldn't appear around the school anymore, there was no guarantee they wouldn't do something drastic and ransacked the Dai family's house.

Li Caiyi pressed her forehead to the window, trying to see what was inside, but the curtain blocked her vision. It didn't seem there was any trace of forced entering, though. She tried to think positively about it.

"I wish I knew where Dai Zhiqiang works," Li Caiyi grumbled while biting her nails. As much as she wanted to do something, there was nothing she could do in this situation except to wait for them to contact her first. At this time, she realized that she only knew so little about them and regretted it a bit.

Li Caiyi walked back and forth in front of the front door while racking her brain out. She thought about checking on Dai Shenqiang's school to ask whether or not his classmates knew what happened to him when a voice she didn't expect to hear came from behind her, interrupting her train of thoughts.

"When you said you were in a hurry, it turned out to wander around in front of other people's houses?"

Li Caiyi was stunned and slowly turned her head. Standing on the gate was Meng Renshu, who was looking around curiously. "Whose house is this? Is it one of your friends?"

"What are you doing here? Don't tell me you were following me all this time?" Li Caiyi questioned with an incredulous expression on her face.

Instead of feeling ashamed, Meng Renshu only smiled while shoving both hands into his pocket. "Yes, I'm here to check on you."