Chapter 5#

Wang Zheng was beautiful.

But whether in my past life or in this very moment, I felt that his most beautiful feature was his eyes. Not because they were large or particularly dazzling—his eyelashes were long, and he always had a way of looking at people sideways, giving him a lazy, seductive air.

However, when those eyes truly gazed at you, they were like a deep pool, enough to make you feel an illusion.

An illusion that could make you sink.

I had always known that Wang Zheng’s personality and physique were wildly mismatched with that face of his, which was far too pretty for its own good. Sitting in the car, his hand tightly clasped mine as the scenery outside the window kept shifting. When the car drove through the gate—ornate, exaggerated, and as luxurious and imposing as the Prime Minister’s official residence—Wang Zheng didn’t say a single word from start to finish.

As I stepped out of the car, I looked up. Even though I had been reborn, I still had to tilt my head and glance around to take in everything before me.

The Ren family’s main residence. I took a deep breath. It still gave off a scent of decay.

Wang Zheng pulled me along for a few steps, his pace a bit hurried. I felt a little dizzy, and when I stumbled, my body tilting forward, something steady propped me up at my shoulder.

I blinked open my eyes and met those dark pupils, the ones that had once made me sink.

“Ren Qiri!” Wang Zheng was still much taller than me, just like in my past life—completely unlike a boy who had only just started middle school.

I smiled, feeling more than a little jealous on the inside.

I waved my hand, then rubbed my eyes—they were too dry.

I walked a couple of steps ahead, only to feel warmth at my side again. I looked down and saw that same delicate hand, as exquisite as its owner, holding mine once more. But this time, our palms were pressed together.

My heart skipped a beat. I pulled my hand back, a little forcefully.

“Ren Qiri—” Wang Zheng turned his head, raising his voice. I let out a dry laugh and said, “It’s too hot.”

I’d been burned once. I really didn’t dare try a second time.

Wang Zheng pressed his lips together and turned around, quickening his pace. I was short, with short legs to match, and I almost had to jog to keep up with him.

From the parking spot to the main house was still a bit of a distance. Wang Zheng had been walking pretty far ahead at first, but then he gradually slowed down. By the end, he was walking right beside me, close enough to make me uncomfortable.

We didn’t have to open the door ourselves.

Almost at the same moment that Wang Zheng and I stopped in front of the door, the Ren family’s main gate quietly swung open, silent as a whisper. For an instant, it felt like my breath had stopped too.

The one who opened the door was Uncle Jing.

The Ren family’s main residence had three stewards. Besides Aunt Zhang, who managed everything big and small, and Old Lady Ru, who attended exclusively to Old Madam Ren, the last one was Uncle Jing. In the entire Ren household, he only listened to one person—the Third Master of the Ren family.

Uncle Jing was just like the entire Ren mansion itself. At my age back then, he was only a little over fifty, but his sideburns were already completely white. He was always dressed in a straight-pressed black suit, standing ramrod straight. In my past life, my impression of Uncle Jing was limited to that mechanical voice of his, completely flat and devoid of any Singaporean accent. When he faced me, he would bend deeply at the waist and address me unhurriedly: “Young Master, Young Cousin.”

The moment I saw Uncle Jing, it felt like my breath caught in my throat. The next second, I quickly looked around.

The Ren family’s main hall was enormous. On both the left and right sides were spiral staircases leading up to the second and third floors. But right now, it was eerily quiet, giving me the creeps.

Uncle Jing seemed to read my mind and said slowly, “The Third Master is resting in his room.”

“Oh… is that so…” I suddenly felt my ears burning. Awkwardly, I turned my head away. Just then, rapid footsteps came from upstairs, echoing through the entire hall. Right after, Aunt Zhang’s voice rang out, loud enough to shake the whole mansion: “Young Master! Young Cousin! You’re finally back! Hurry, hurry, hurry—come upstairs and see the young mistress!”

What came into view was Aunt Zhang’s face, twenty years younger. Her dark hair only had a few streaks of silver, and the mole at the corner of her eye was not yet hidden beneath layers of wrinkles. Aunt Zhang came rushing down from the second floor, her footsteps going tap-tap-tap in a hurry. Normally, she prized decorum above all else and walked just like Old Madam Ren—graceful as a lotus blossom. But when she was truly anxious, all that grace flew out the window, and her voice carried full blast.

“Young Master, really! You’re always outside and never come home. Madam’s health has been poor since early on, and you don’t take better care of her. Sigh!” Aunt Zhang snatched a wet towel from the tray being held by a young maid at the side. Without a word, she rubbed it all over my face. After she was done with me, she turned and hurriedly examined Wang Zheng, letting out a startled cry: “Ah! Young Cousin!”

Wang Zheng usually had the air of a peacock, but there were only three people he couldn’t put on that act in front of—Old Madam Ren, Third Master Ren, and the last one was Aunt Zhang.

“Young Cousin! How did you get so thin? Oh dear—let Aunt Zhang have a look! It breaks her heart! Sigh, it’s not that I want to scold you, but how could you be so foolish as to go to that terrible school! Look—” Aunt Zhang had been with Old Madam Ren ever since she married into the Wang family. When Madam Ren gave birth, Old Madam Ren had sent Aunt Zhang back to the Wang residence to attend to her nearby, so it was only natural that she doted on Wang Zheng more than she did on me.

Later, when I became the Ren family’s CEO, Aunt Zhang never gave me a single good look. There was one time, out of nowhere, when she pointed at my face and yelled, “No one who gets involved with you ever ends well! How many more people do you want to destroy? Huh!”

That was unfair of her.

Wang Zheng had been letting Aunt Zhang cup his face, but then he frowned slightly and glanced at my expression with a sidelong look. It was Uncle Jing who spoke up: “First, take the Young Master and Young Cousin to see the young mistress.”

In this mansion, there were only a handful of people who could rein in Aunt Zhang’s endless chatter. One of them happened to be Uncle Jing, standing by the gate like a guardian god.

My mother’s room was at the easternmost part of the mansion.

The Ren family’s main residence was enormous. Old Madam Ren’s and Third Master Ren’s rooms were both concentrated at the westernmost side, and that was where all the hustle and bustle usually happened. The eastern staircase was quite peaceful. When I was a child in my past life, I heard Aunt Zhang say that Old Madam Ren felt sorry for my mother, who couldn’t stand crowds, so she found her a quiet place to recover.

When I got older, after my mother passed away, every time I walked past the east wing rooms, I would realize that the place where I had grown up for over twenty years was what the servants called the “Ren family’s cold palace.”

In my past life, that thought used to make my heart tighten a little. In this life, I felt quite grateful. At least in the first two years after my rebirth, I only truly crossed paths with that unlucky man once a year during holidays.

My mother’s room was at the very end of the east wing. They said it was so that when she had her episodes, there would be enough distance from the west wing to give the security team time to intervene and prevent Old Madam Ren and Third Master Ren from getting frightened.

“Ren Qiri.” Wang Zheng stood still behind me, his eyes holding something I couldn’t quite make out. In my past life, Wang Zheng had always been fairly heartless and unbothered. He never missed a chance to mock me about my mother.

He said, “I’ll wait for you here.”

Huh…?

I turned my head in surprise to look at him. Wang Zheng seemed very uneasy. He turned his face away, his expression unreadable.

I walked in slowly.

When the door closed behind me, it seemed to shut out everything from the outside world.

The room’s furnishings were exactly the same as when I had left—or rather, no different from the memories of my past life.

I looked at her. She was sitting on the bed, busily folding colorful pieces of origami. When the door closed with a soft click, she paused and looked up.

Then she smiled gently—innocent, pure.

Have I ever mentioned something?

My mother, when she wasn’t having one of her episodes, was the most beautiful woman in the whole world.