Chapter 1: Rebirth

The summer heat in City A was like being trapped under an upturned, red-hot iron wok. The air was so hot it felt as if it could be wrung into flames, and even the cicadas outside the window were buzzing with a feeble, listless noise.

Lin Yumo was nestled under the cool, air-conditioned quilt, her consciousness like a wad of cotton soaked in warm water. In the haziness, two familiar voices brushed against her ears like the tickle of feathers.

“Little Jasmine just finished her high school entrance exams yesterday. Let her sleep a bit longer.”
The man’s voice carried an unquestionable authority, yet the tail end of his words was quietly wrapped in tenderness.

“She’s worn herself out these days. We’ll reheat breakfast when she wakes.”
It was her father. He always called her “Little Jasmine” in a low, soft tone, as if weighing some rare treasure in his hands.

“Got it, I wouldn’t dare disturb our little princess,” a gentle woman’s voice followed.

“I left a note by her bedside. Aunt Wu has been told too—porridge and milk are in the thermos, keeping warm.”

Her mother’s voice carried a smile, accompanied by the faint rustle of movement—likely tiptoeing to place a note on the bedside table.

“Thank you, Ruru.”
Her father’s tone suddenly softened, as if afraid of startling something delicate. “That apricot-colored dress looks beautiful on you today.”

“You and your sweet tongue.” Her mother gave a light, playful scold. Her laugh was like a wind chime swaying in the breeze, tinged with a girl’s shy delight.

“Come on, let’s go. Don’t just stand here—let Little Jasmine sleep in peace.”

The door and frame met with a gentle kiss, leaving behind a barely audible click, followed by footsteps fading away into the distance.

Lin Yumo’s lashes trembled. She recognized them.

It was her father and mother’s voices. But… hadn’t she moved out after graduating from university, living in an apartment near her company?
How could she possibly be hearing them right by her ear?

She sat up in confusion, her gaze sweeping across the room—the pale pink walls, the desk piled with review materials, the teddy bear that had accompanied her all through junior high…

The rabbit-shaped desk lamp was still in its old spot, beside a half-man-high stack of workbooks, the cover scrawled over in messy green marker with the words “Final Sprint for High School Entrance Exams.”
This was her home from junior high until she graduated from high school—a spacious apartment just ten minutes from school.

Later, when she entered university, her family moved to a villa with a garden. That was almost ten years ago now.

She slowly sat up, her head heavy and fuzzy, like it was stuffed with waterlogged cotton. Her fingertips brushed the bedsheet—the pure cotton fabric carried the warm scent of sun-drying, a fragrance she hadn’t known for years.

Her gaze drifted to the calendar on the desk corner. The date circled in red was: June 15, 2017.

2017?

Lin Yumo blinked, then rubbed her eyes hard. The numbers still stubbornly clung to the paper.

Did I… come back? Returned to the day after the high school entrance exam?

Suddenly, a flood of memories burst into her mind.
That summer had been unusually hot. The ceiling fan in the exam room spun feebly, blowing warm air mixed with chalk dust straight down her throat. On top of that, her period came during the exam, making her lower abdomen ache as if weighed with lead. The cold sweat on her forehead had even soaked through her admission ticket.

In the end, her score just scraped past the cutoff line for City A’s No.1 High School, and she was placed in a regular class.

The three years of high school were like a long uphill climb. She clung to her dream of getting into A University, staying up until after midnight every day, her desk lamp shining like a lone star.

But in class she’d always feel sleepy, the graphs of functions floating in and out of her vision. She bit down on her pen to keep awake, filling sheet after sheet of scratch paper. In the end, she was admitted to a decent university, but still fell short of her original goal.

After graduation, with her father’s connections, she opened a clothing studio. The dresses she designed gradually gained recognition.

That day, like usual, she went to the central shopping district to do research.

As a rising fashion designer, she made a habit of visiting every week to check out the latest style trends.

Her clothing brand Moyu had already gained a small reputation in the industry. Several of her signature dresses inspired by moonlight elements had not only been recommended by fashion influencers, but also sold over 100,000 units a month.

She stood at the entrance of the mall, tilting her head to look at the summer outfit worn by the mannequin in the display window, wondering whether she should switch next season’s main color to mint green.

While still deep in thought, she walked out of the mall. Sunlight streamed through the glass dome above, and she squinted, instinctively raising her hand to shield her eyes—

Bang!

A shadow, swift as a gust of wind, fell from the sky.

Her final conscious thought was the faint scent of jasmine—that morning’s perfume.

When she opened her eyes again, it was the summer of 2017.

—Death had come so lightly.

In the very last moment before her consciousness faded, her mind had been full of her parents’ faces.

Her mother always liked to pinch her cheeks and call her “Little Jasmine.” Her father would hoist her onto his shoulders to watch fireworks… They loved her so dearly, yet now they had to bury their own child. How heartbreaking that must have been.

“What bad luck…” she muttered softly, her voice tender, almost like she was acting spoiled.

Her career had just begun to take off, and “MoYu” was about to debut on an even larger platform…

The cicadas chirping outside suddenly grew clear. Lin Yumo ran barefoot to her desk, her fingers trembling as she flipped open her diary.

On the very last page, she had written:

“The high school entrance exams are over! No matter how I did, I’m going to sleep for three days and three nights first!”
Beside it was a crooked little smiling face.

She couldn’t help but chuckle, but before long, the laughter blurred into tears. She hadn’t realized how adorable her fifteen-year-old self was.

This time around, she would never make the same mistakes—
She wouldn’t let one setback in the entrance exams make her doubt herself. She wouldn’t push herself into sleepless nights and hair loss just to catch up with others.

At that moment, Aunt Wu seemed to hear the commotion from outside. She knocked on the door with her familiar, gentle voice:
“Miss, are you awake? Madam left a note for you. Breakfast is still warm. Remember to eat after you wash up.”

Only then did Lin Yumo notice she was still standing barefoot on the floor, the chill creeping up from the soles of her feet.

She quickly tiptoed back to her bed, and sure enough, found a pale purple sticky note next to her pillow.

“Aunt Wu, I’m up! I’ll eat right away~” she called back instinctively in the sweet, soft tone she’d had at fifteen, her words ending with a honeyed lilt.

When Aunt Wu’s footsteps faded, she lowered her gaze to the note in her hand.

Her mother’s handwriting was delicate and neat, with a little jasmine flower drawn at the end:

“Little Jasmine, I’ve saved breakfast for you. Remember to eat after you get up—don’t skip it on an empty stomach. Dad and Mom have gone to work.”

A simple reminder, yet it made her eyes grow warm again.

She carefully tucked the note into a drawer, and her fingertips brushed against a thick stack of papers—it was her test papers.

Flipping through them absentmindedly, she suddenly froze.

Hidden among the various subject papers was a folded sheet of paper.

When she unfolded it, she found it was her midterm exam report card from her previous life, crumpled and thrown away back then.

“So, it was at this time…” she murmured, gently tracing the glaring “80” in the English column.

“This time, I will change everything…” she vowed, clenching her fist.