Rebirth: Once Again With You

Days passed by, and Li Caiyi had become accustomed to living in Shao Jingfei's place, which she already considered her second home. Li Chunhua also came to hang out with them almost every day, so there was no dull moment there.

It distracted her thoughts from the crucial upcoming event for a while.

Li Caiyi stared at the calendar on her phone before sighing deeply. "Tomorrow is finally Big Brother Jie's birthday."

Tomorrow, Li Junjie will officially turn 19 years old, and this was what she had been targeting all this time. The reason why she kept delaying confronting Li Jirong's affair against the person himself was also because of this.

"I have to talk to Brother Jie as soon as possible."

Li Caiyi was pretty nervous about this because this would be her first time revealing this to anyone. She didn't dare to do anything in her previous life. However, now that she had ample time to prepare, she felt more confident.

"Caiyi, are you ready yet? If we don't go now, we will be late for school."

Shao Jingfei's voice from outside her room snapped her out of her thoughts. Li Caiyi slapped her cheeks lightly twice before she stood up.

"Yes, I'm coming!"

***

Li Caiyi gingerly poked her head into the 3-A classroom and looked around. She quickly spotted Li Junjie sitting on his chair while fiddling with his phone. It was a good thing he was here, but the bad thing was that Meng Renshu was also there.

Li Caiyi was reluctant to approach them and contemplating whether she should just contact her brother via phone call or text message when Meng Renshu's turned his head her way.

"Xiaoyi?" Meng Renshu called out to her in a pleasant surprise while waving his hand.

Li Junjie, who was sitting behind him, also pried his eyes from his phone to look at the class entrance.

"Urk.." Li Caiyi groaned in a low voice. Now that they had spotted her, it would be weird if she went away.

Holding back a grimace, Li Caiyi walked over to them, feeling people's gaze on her. With the rumors about her and Meng Renshu circulating nowadays, this much attention was expected. Still, it didn't make it easier to deal nonetheless.

"Xiaoyi? Why did you come to our class?" Meng Renshu was the first one to ask instead of her brother. His face was brimming with cheerfulness and joy. It bedazzled almost every girl in the class, except for Li Caiyi, who had grown a slight immunity to it.

"I came here to talk with Brother Jie." Li Caiyi replied, a bit louder than it was supposed to be so people wouldn't misunderstand.

"Ah, is that so? I'm disappointed you aren't here for me, but Junjie is free now. You can talk to him." Meng Renshu said regretfully. However, he didn't appear to be surprised at all.

"Why are you answering it like I'm your subordinate?" Li Junjie sighed before putting down his phone and staring at her sister. "Do you need something from me?"

"Yeah. Can we talk for a bit, Brother Jie? Just the two of us," Li Caiyi emphasized the last sentence.

Meng Renshu quickly picked on her cue and said, "Ah, I need to go to the bathroom, so go ahead, you guys. I'll see you later, Xiaoyi."

Li Caiyi was bewildered by how nonchalant Meng Renshu was but decided that this wasn't the right time to mull over that matter.

After Meng Renshu left, leaving the siblings some space to talk, Li Caiyi sat down on Meng Renshu's chair and faced Li Junjie. She made sure no one was nearby to eavesdrop on their conversation before speaking, "Big Brother Jie, you are hiding something from all of us, right?"

There was no ripple on Li Junjie's face as he replied in his usual flat tone. "What is it this time? It was rare for you to come looking for me, and the first thing you did was to interrogate me?"

"I'm asking about the 'promise' you made with Father. Brother, I need to know what promise you made to him."

Li Junjie tapped the desk with his finger while his other hand propped his chin. "I have a feeling you will ask me that sooner or later. I don't mind answering, only if you tell me everything you know."

Li Caiyi's heart felt like it could stop from shock. Li Junjie squinted his eyes as he studied his sister's reaction before adding, "You knew something about Father. Humans are not creatures that can change easily. At least, that's what I believe. If there is a chance that even someone as timid as you could go against Father, there must be something more than it looks on the surface."

Li Caiyi gulped nervously as she tried not to cower under Li Junjie's pressuring gaze. She felt like a frog that was being preyed upon by the snake.

Sure enough, her brother was a formidable opponent to deal with. Li Caiyi wasn't confident that she could beat him in an argument even with her current mental age, which was supposedly much older than her teen brother.

"Rebirth concept…." Li Junjie mumbled.

Thump!

Li Caiyi couldn't breathe for a second upon hearing Li Junjie mentioning that. Her heart was beating fast, and her palms became clammy with cold sweat.

'Don't tell me, Brother Jie also became suspicious of me after reading my work?' Li Caiyi couldn't help but think that after being cornered by Meng Renshu not so long ago. However, the shock she got this time was probably twice bigger.

After all, Li Junjie didn't suffer from recurring dreams of his previous life. Or, perhaps, he did? Li Caiyi had never really paid attention to her brother to be able to tell.

Li Caiyi pressed her lips into a hard line before asking tensely. "W-what of it?"

Li Junjie tilted his head as if confused before asking, "Why are you sitting stiffly like that? Did you want to go to the bathroom too?"

"No, but why did you suddenly bring up my first work?"

"Ah, that? Nothing, I was just impressed with how you pictured human changes in your work. It made me think of you every time I read that."

"How so?"

"To me, you look like a person who has gone through a rebirth, considering how much you changed in the past two months. It is scientifically not possible, but theoretically interesting."

His words were akin to a punch to her gut of how scarily accurate it was, even though he said them without deeper meaning.

'Scary! These genius people should stop attacking my heart like this!' Li Caiyi whined inwardly, feeling that the gap between their intelligence was unjustly too wide. If only she had a quarter of her brother's intelligence, she wouldn't have had so much trouble dealing with everything.

"Anyway, that's beside the point. To put it simply, I want to know what makes you change so rapidly in such a short period."

Li Caiyi was grateful because he returned the topic on track. "I don't know you are so interested in this, Brother Jie. You always look like you are not interested in anything besides your study."

"Well, you are kind of correct there. However, I can't just pretend nothing happened when your change is also slowly affecting our family."

"I…am?"

"Yes, you are. When we are sharing the same living space together, a person could bring a change to another person's life. For better or worse, the change in our family began because of you."