Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Jun stared at his father, slowly beginning to understand what he was getting at.

Jinhai propped his arm on the armrest of his seat. “You are not looking at the bigger picture here, Jun. I have trained you, Jin and the idiot twins in the Underworld myself. If you want to take revenge on someone, what would you do?”

Jun answered in a calm but firm voice. “Finish them completely.”

“Yes. There is no leeway. There is no kindness. It’s applicable for other people in general too. If they hate someone so much that they want that person dead or see him completely destroyed, then they would stop at nothing to achieve that. But strangely enough for Zixin as you said, his life after the accident didn’t have any hiccups and I question why? He went so far to bring Zixin on the brink of his death and then what? Did that culprit not hate him anymore? What happened that he didn’t interfere with his life anymore?”

Jinhai squinted his eyes. “Or should I ask, what changed after the accident that he just didn’t feel the need to target Zixin anymore?”

Jun froze.

The only thing that changed…

“His memories…” he whispered.

Jinhai thought so too. “Yes. Zixin doesn’t remember anything. I don’t know if that’s how it was planned or was it a convenient byproduct that worked for the culprit’s favor, but there was a reason why he didn’t bother with Zixin because he simply wasn’t a threat anymore. I think there was something Zixin knew, knowingly or unknowingly, that threatened to jeopardize the culprit in some or the other way. Something…is there within his memories that is the answer to our questions.”

—

Zixin slowly opened his eyes and saw the white ceiling of his room once again. He blinked his eyelids to wake himself up from his nap.

“Zixin!” Serena quickly came to his side and gently held his hand. Her tear-rimmed eyes looked at him with concern. “Are you okay? Do you need anything, dear?”

Zixin stared at her in silence and hesitated. He was told about his family but calling her Mom was still uncomfortable to him. There was this strange sense of barrier he felt between him and everyone else.

“…I am a little tired of staying in this room. Can I go outside for some fresh air?”

“But you are still weak,” Serena’s heart broke. “Wait, let me check with the nurse.”

The nurse came in a few minutes later, bringing a wheelchair with her. “Mr. Chen can use this wheelchair to go outside. He is still too weak to walk on his own until he completely recovers.”

The male nurses helped Zixin on the wheelchair, and Serena took him outside.

The atmosphere was a little cloudy today with beams of soft sunlight passing through the clouds at times. The gentle breeze felt cool and pleasant.

Serena softly smiled and brushed her fingers through his hair. “I know it must feel lonely in the hospital. But don’t worry, Zixin. I am here. Yunru and Yubi will be here too soon. They went back home to fetch some stuff for you.”

He nodded in silence.

Serene affectionately smiled but mixed with a tinge of a strained smile too. More than anybody else, she understood that Zixin was suffering the most. She caught his hesitation to call her Mom just before. Zixin didn’t express it, but it was frightening to live like this knowing nothing about himself. All blank and clueless.

No, no. I cannot cry in front of him, she quickly wiped her eyes that were beginning to tear up.

She softly said, “I will bring some juice for you to drink. You will enjoy it in this nice weather.”

Zixin paused and nodded again. As she left, he exhaled a long and tired breath. He looked around him with families of other patients spending time with them. But it was something that he couldn’t connect to. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t remember anything about anyone.

It was all white in his mind. A long stretch of desolate and lonely white and as such, he was slowly beginning to detest the color white.

Zixin took a deep breath with a slight pain numbing his head. His gaze fell on a faraway cherry blossom tree. The warm color of the pink cherry blossoms felt refreshing to his conflicted heart.

He slowly strolled the wheelchair with his hands, taking it nearer to the tree. He glanced up at the branches and the blossoms and felt mesmerizing. Unknowingly, a soft smile came upon his lips.

Zixin saw many cherry blossom petals scattered on the ground. They rustled in the direction where the wind took them. He thought about it and leaned.

He stretched his hand to pick one blossom. But the nearest one was a little farther away from his feet. He bent more but couldn’t do more than that in his weak state. His fingers kept stretching to grasp the cherry blossom when somebody else caught it.

Zixin slightly widened his eyes in surprise and looked up. The moment his gaze fell on the woman staring at the blossom she just picked, he felt a new and an odd feeling enveloping his chest. He didn’t know why but he couldn’t break his gaze off her, who stood silently in front of the cherry blossom tree with a beam of sunlight illuminating from behind her but which didn’t match with the sense of melancholy etched on her face.

Guiying stared at the cherry blossom petal with an unreadable expression. Her daze broke, and she looked at Zixin. She smiled and offered the blossom to him. “I think you wanted this.”

Zixin slowly took the petal from her. “…Thank you.”

“Do you like cherry blossoms?”

He neither accepted nor denied it. “I don’t know.”

Guiying blinked. “You don’t?”

“I don’t. I don’t remember anything. I was feeling lost but when I saw this tree, I just…felt like holding a cherry blossom. I don’t know why.”

Memory loss…

Looking into his eyes that looked doubtful, confused and in search of answers, pain swelled in her chest at his helplessness.

She looked at the cherry blossom tree and smiled. “I know why. I think you like cherry blossoms. Your mind may not remember it, but your body does. That’s why you reached out towards it.”

Zixin slowly nodded at that conclusion. “Maybe.”

He then asked in his low, soothing voice, “Do you like cherry blossoms?”

Guiying couldn’t immediately answer. She slightly lowered her gaze. “It’s strange that my answer is the same as yours. I don’t know. Not anymore…”

Zixin detected the sorrow reflecting in her eyes, making him strangely feel uncomfortable.

Guiying noticed a middle-aged woman coming towards Zixin. Thinking her to be someone from his family, she said, “I will take my leave. It was nice talking to you.”

“You…what is-“

“Zixin,” Serena came to his side and smiled. “I brought juice for you.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

Zixin looked back, but she was already gone. Serena noticed his gaze searching for someone. “Was somebody here?”

He softly blinked. “Yes. A woman.”

But…what was her name?