Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Jin stared between the card and the elderly woman back and forth. “Sorry what? Touched by time?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on!” He grabbed the card back from her and pointed at the clock. “This golden clock…how is this here?”

“This card represents your past.”

The card in his hand trembled. The golden clock in the card looked exactly the same as he had seen in his vision.

“You didn’t answer me. How…H-How is this clock in this card?”

“It’s not just the clock, dear. You are missing out on two more entities in this card.”

Jin looked deeper and realized that there were two more things besides the clock.

At the left side of the clock, there was a wheel and on the right side, there was a dark figure carrying a scythe.

“That’s the wheel of fortune,” she pointed at the left side. “It represents fate. On the right is the grim reaper that represents death.”

Jin felt clueless. He was more focused on the golden clock because that was what he saw. “How can I see this clock again? What does this card mean?” He pointed at it. “Why…does it feel so…”

Real…How can the clock in my vision be in this card?

“Real?” She completed his question. “The cards are your fates. This is what you have gone through, are going through and tells what future you hold. Naturally, they will feel real,” she smiled.

Jin looked at her, flabbergasted. “My fates? Then this card is wrong. Why is this clock showing up in my past? My past life never-“

He stopped himself just in time before revealing about his past life and his rebirth. She was just another elderly woman for him who wouldn’t believe in this fantasy.

“That’s what makes you so special, dear,” she gazed at him with an air of mystery. “Not that only you see the clock. The others had the golden clocks in their cards too. But it’s only you where three entities appeared on your card.

The golden clock which signifies the passage of time. It serves as the window between your past, present and future worlds.

The wheel of fortune which signifies your life’s destiny. The fate that you carry and are bound to live.

And lastly, the grim reaper which signifies death. It’s the cycle of birth and death that it governs.”

She stared at the card and whispered. “And you are at the epicenter between these powerful entities.”

Jin felt a dull pain in his head. “I don’t get it…Who are these others you are talking about? Who has seen these golden clocks apart from me?”

“The ones other than you who have been touched by time.”

He knitted his brows. Her cryptic words were hard to decipher.

Touched by time…Does it mean going back in time like Bro Jun, Zhou Ai and I did?

He suddenly froze.

Bro and Zhou Ai…

*Meow*

A soft meow from below brought his attention to the cat resting in his lap. It was now that he got a closer look at her eyes and strongly felt that they resembled Ai’s eyes for some reason.

He jerked his head towards the woman, throwing suspicious glances at her.

Impossible. The others who have been touched by time…She cannot be talking about Bro and Zhou Ai? Of course not…

The cat softly meowed again and touched the back of his hand with her paw when a sudden flash of a vision gripped his mind.

He was there. Right before the three entities kneeling before them and crying hard. He saw something whitish floating in the air. There were two of those bright balls and below them were two shadows that faintly resembled the outline of two animals.

Before he could get a clear look, the very next thing that he felt was immense pain that came at him from nowhere. Pain that he suffered as if he was burning in hellish fire. It ripped his soul from within where he was hardly able to breathe.

“Ahhhh!!”

Jin snapped out from that vision with a loud scream. He looked left and right and saw that he was back at the church.

What…what was that?

He lowered his gaze and saw his body shaking. But what petrified him more was he felt his skin was burning. There was no fire anywhere, yet he felt that hot, stinging sensation enveloping him in its entirety. He gasped hard, wiping his sweat.

“Are you alright, dear?” The elderly woman asked.

He threw her a frenzied look, unable to respond when he couldn’t comprehend what he saw himself.

The cat softly meowed again and began licking his fingers as if wanting to give him relief from his pain.

“This card…The whole scene appeared right before my eyes just now. It looked exactly like this card,” he heaved breathlessly. “How can my vision and your cards be in sync like that? Who are you…?”

The woman slowly raised her brow. Then an enigmatic smile greeted her lips. “Someone who knows you all too well, my dear.”

Knows me?

“I don’t…I have never met you before,” he was instantly cautious.

“No need to be on your guard, my dear. I mean no harm for you. I simply want to help you.”

“Why do you want to help me?”

“Because I know you too well. I have seen your grief. You were pivotal in letting others touch time. That’s why I wish to help you seek your answers.”

There were a million questions in his head for which he had no answers. It felt like this woman was answering him but at the same time, she wasn’t. There was a lot more hidden in the words that she spoke.

Jin took a deep breath and calmed down. “Okay. So tell me. How should I find my answers?”

“Will you pick a second card for that?”

He reached out his hand, paused for a moment and threw her a thoughtful look. He took out one card and laid it before her.

The card that denoted the present showed two people in it. A woman in white who stood at a distance from a man. They faced each other, standing on opposite sides of a land where the middle was broken and cracked into a deep cliff.