Rucheng said they were going to the kitchen but led him to her bedroom.

They had moved into the new home, that’s how Juimin had found her, but at least it looked like they had been living here as the house wasn’t empty or a mess.

She sat down on a chair in her room, followed by him.

Rucheng didn’t say anything. She just stared at him.

Juimin took out a box and opened it. Inside was a silver hair pin with beautiful vine engravings on it, giving off a white glow.

He picked it up, saying, “This hair pin helped my mother heal after she gave birth to me. She gave it to me on my tenth birthday after I got into an awful fight that led to me breaking my arm as a reminder that I should keep on fighting and that everything will be okay.”

She didn’t need him to tell her he was giving it to her so that she could get better. 

He placed the hair pin through the pony tail and immediately she felt a cooling sensation enter her body. Touching it, she picked up that its healing properties were exceptional.

“Did it help mend your arm?” She asked.

He nodded his head. “It did. I thought I wouldn’t be able to use it again and that I would be disabled. My father had no hope too, but look, it moves and has become my most powerful weapon.”

“So why give me such a treasure?” She asked.

Juimin touched her cheek, that was still slightly pink with a palm print, saying, “I hoped it would heal this, but now I hope it would help you heal.”

Rucheng chuckled as she leaned against his hand, surprising him. She closed her eyes, feeling his fingers rub against her cheek.

As she took in this feeling, she was reminded of someone of her past but also; she picked up on the sadness coming from him and the spiritual essence of flame.

She chuckled and said, “I’m getting tired of this.”

“Tired of what?” He asked softly.

She opened her eyes and saw that he was staring into hers tenderly. “Of you caring about me.”

She sat up straight as he asked, “Why?”

“I can’t help but wonder what your intentions are. I won’t make a good daughter-in-law for your family, nor will I make a wonderful lover with my reputation and behaviour,” she said.

“Don’t belittle yourself. You deserve everything and more. I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you. If it’s anything but convincing, then you must know, I want this more than anything,” he said.

Rucheng stared at him and knew what he was talking about, but where it came from, she didn’t know. 

She placed her hand over his on the table, saying, “I’m certain there is someone out there who will do a better job of loving and caring for you. Why not look for her?”

“Who said I wasn’t looking when I found you?” He answered without a thought.

She didn’t expect those words.

Standing up, she walked over to her bed and sat down. Turning to the window, she said, “Before, I loved a man name Lou Feng Xu. He and I met when I had just entered university where I discovered I had a passion for children. Everyone admired our relationship and even I couldn’t believe that he was my lover. He was perfect and eventually I even thought of forgetting my goals because of him.”

As he listened to her, he didn’t like hearing that she was in love with someone named Lou Feng Xu.

“I was the perfect woman, too. I knew how to cook, clean, manage the house and all because of him, I destroyed myself.”

“There’s no Lou Feng Xu in the Heavenly University,” he said after thinking it over.

Rucheng smiled as she turned to him continuing, “Then there was the time I had to get my working experience in the education field and I mistakenly chose a school out of my city, making me stay away from home for a month. My relationship had gotten bad with my mother over the years because I was obsessed with him and, surprisingly enough, his family didn’t think I was the right one for him.”

“When I returned, I found out that my mother had died and when I sought him for comfort, he had turned into the most distant person, telling me it was his turn to focus on his future. I was ignored, belittled and neglected, but still, I carried on and became a leading woman in my community. Our relationship became nothing and two years had passed.”

She wiped a tear as she recalled all the hurtful memories. “Then we went on a class trip to the zoo, and who did I see? The man I loved with someone who I considered a friend. I was so heartbroken, but I had my duties to perform and pretended that I didn’t see them. Mind you, they had a little family, so you could just imagine how I felt. I had given him my everything in those five years and yet he still chose to be with someone other than me?”

“But as fate would have it, just as I thought I would ignore them, they made sure to rub it in my face that they were married and happy. I paid them no mind because I knew that my job would be at stake.”

“So when I got home that night, he was there waiting for me. It seemed he had a guilty conscious and told me the truth. He and my friend had been secretly dating for over a year because I was too busy and couldn’t keep up with him sexually, and that is why their daughter looked older than their marriage years.”

She placed her hand on her chest and stared into Juimin eyes with her own turning red, saying, “I felt so disgusted and sorry for myself. I should’ve known better. I shouldn’t have lived my life the way I did, leaving my mother to be in debt and dying because the only person she had as a family gave up on her. Juimin, if I could go back in time, I would go on my knees and beg my mother to forgive me and to give me a second chance. No parent deserves what I did to mine, and that’s why, with me being given a second chance at life, I will do right by my mother and myself. It’s not because I don’t want to accept your affection for me, but because I am too scared to have the past repeated.”

“I have to start over with everything and I won’t bring you down with me in case something happens, so please, think of your happiness because with me, you won’t be happy.”

Juimin had been so confused and even at a point terrified as he listened to her speak. How could Mrs Qin be dead when she was right outside and looked at her child with love and care?

Even the way Rucheng treated her mother, it showed that she really cared for her.

Then to hear that she had given herself to another man, and he wasn’t Wol Ryeong, something about this story didn’t add up, nor did her words make sense.

Standing up, he walked over to the bed and asked her, “Why do you speak as if you’ve died?”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Take it how you see it. I can’t explain something I don’t understand.”

“Then the new characters? What about you? Are you a new character? The Qin Rucheng everyone knows and the Qin Rucheng I know. Are they the same or different?” He asked.

Wiping the tears away, she asked him, “Did you ever find yourself liking the Qin Rucheng everyone knows?”

Juimin sat down beside her. Taking her hands in his, he stared into her eyes as she turned to him and shook his head. “It never crossed my mind.”

“Then why the Qin Rucheng in front of you?” She asked.

“Because the Qin Rucheng I met that night looked as lonely and sad as me. Under the moonlight, I fell in love with you and didn’t realise it until I was angry when they belittled you in front of me.” He answered sincerely.

She lied down on the bed staring up at the ceiling and said, “To answer what’s confusing you, yes, I’m not the old Rucheng. When I died, I woke up in this body and now I have to pay the price of cleaning up her mess.”

She looked at him as he turned to her, saying, “And your previous question, I’m like this because the old Rucheng preserved her consciousness and tried to take back what was hers.”

“You didn’t let her?” He asked.

She shook her head.

Sitting up, she said, “My stepfather calls it transmigration. When she died, she should have transmigrated into my body, but she didn’t, so if she killed me in this life, I would’ve died. I killed her, which led to me getting rid of my spiritual orb as well.”

Juimin felt overwhelmed with all the information he was just given, but this was nothing compared to what Rucheng had to go through.

“If given time, would you allow me to prove to you that I am a better person than this Lou Feng Xu?” He asked.

Smiling gently, she said, “I won’t push you away anymore but I have one condition.”

“What is it?” He asked.

“Don’t force me to do anything I don’t want to.”