Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

“You saw the golden clock too?” Jun asked, incredulous when Ai gave a quick recap of today’s events. The golden clock and the voices that whispered something of the unknown was all too similar with what Jun had gone through.

“That’s exactly how it happened to me,” he slowly emphasized, lost in his own recollection of that day. “But before going into it any further, can you tell me what is this about this…cat?”

Jun’s brow twitched as he glanced at the cat with dark brown eyes perched inside the crescent swing. The cat was way at the back with his eyes and movements extremely cautious of his new surroundings, which was completely different from the alley where he lived until now.

“It’s the same cat I told you about.”

“Why is he here?”

Ai explained as she recalled what happened when she went back to the library. “When I came back, I saw a mishap had occurred around that area and the alley was all filled with broken concrete and stuff. There was no space to go anywhere inside,” she pursed her lips, “the cat was just wandering outside. I felt bad and I wanted to take him home here. But I knew he wouldn’t like being put into a new environment. So I left to find some shelter for him when I noticed him sneakily following me. Though he was trying to hide from me, I caught him anyway.”

Ai looked like she achieved the greatest victory of her life. “Then he seemed as if he wanted to escape, but he kept following me. See? I told you he secretly likes me. Eventually I took him to a vet, got him checked and brought him here!” The vibrant edge in her voice was hard to miss. Clearly, Ai was thrilled to have the cat home.

“He is cute, isn’t he?” She eagerly probed.

Jun threw a casual glance at the cat, who was staring back at him with his big, watery eyes. Sensing Ai’s excitement, he understood where she wanted to go with this.

“He is very cute.”

Ai bobbed her head.

Jun smiled and patted her head. “But we cannot adopt him as a pet.”

That splashed ice cold water on Ai’s expectations which were slowly taking root in her heart ever since this adorable cat who reminded her of Jun entered her life. “I didn’t say anything about keeping him as a pet.”

“I can see it in your eyes.”

Ai wasn’t ready to give up. “What is wrong even if we adopt him as a pet? He is so cute, and he is healthy too.”

Jun let out a sigh. “I am not sure if we can handle a pet. It’s a pretty big responsibility.”

She pursed her lips again. “Won’t we have to take our children’s responsibility in the future too?”

Jun was left dumbfounded. “Are you comparing our children to pets?”

“While they are toddlers, everything’s the same as taking care of a pet. You have to feed them, wash them, vaccinate them, protect them, make them sleep, play with them and much more.”

Jun had this urge to argue, but he felt like he couldn’t.

This is…

He released another sigh. “Let’s talk about this in depth later. Until the alley is fixed up, the cat can stay here. I cannot make any promises for the future though.”

Ai’s shoulders drooped.

“But I also promise that we will openly discuss this idea.”

That made her face shine again. As long as he was willing to discuss, she was confident that she wouldn’t lose in any argument.

“For now, I want to know more about the golden clock and the voices you heard.”

Her countenance turned grim, and she slightly shuddered remembering Xie Nuying’s heartbroken voice. “There was a moment when I felt as if I heard Mom’s voice…She was calling Dad as she was crying. It just felt so…”

Jun took her in his hug and brushed his fingers through her hair. His gentle movements soothed her heart.

“Jun, there were too many voices coming and going back and forth.”

“It’s the same as what I experienced.”

“When I thought about it more deeply, I felt that those were the memories of the events that happened in our past lives where we weren’t a part of.”

He had arrived at the same conclusion too.

“Jun…is it possible that we can know what happened in our past lives? What happened when we were alive and unaware of the mystery surrounding us and what happened…after we died?”

That raised a hope in his heart too. “That elderly woman at the carnival said that it’s possible. Since we died at the same place and same time, maybe that’s why we had that vision near Dream High. Since you saw it today too, I wonder if…”

“If?”

“If Jin faced anything similar? He is also reborn though he died at different times and places than us. But he never talked about anything like this happening…”

He took out his phone and dialed Jin’s number. “Let’s ask him anyway.”

She agreed.

When the phone clicked, Jun could sense the distaste and fury in his brother’s voice. “Why do you sound so frustrated?”

“All because of Zhou Ai’s father!”

Ai chimed in. “Dad is not bad at heart.”

“Heh. Is he hearing our conversation? I hope he does. Then I will explain thoroughly about how ‘good’ his heart is.”

Jun said, “Mom and Dad are not staying at the condo. Since they will be staying for some more time, they insisted they will live somewhere else,” he coughed.

It was more because they didn’t want to disturb the young couple in their private time, so they decided to stay at a different place. In the end, Jun and his in-laws decided to have dinner together every night after his insistence to have at least one meal together.

“Aren’t you lucky, Bro?” He sneered.

 “Really, what happened?”

“Too much useless shit going on. I will tell you in detail when I hop by your place sometime. Why did you call me by the way?”

“Well, you will feel this is unbelievable. It’s a strange phenomenon that happened with Ai and me.”

“We three died and came back to life by some inexplicable miracle. I can believe any phenomenon at this point. What are you talking about?”

Jun said, “A golden clock and it seemingly showing ur our past memories which we didn’t know.”