Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Alix had expected to see a look of disbelief and confusion etched on his face and she was prepared to explain everything to him. On the contrary, he seemed as if the revelation and the mere impossibility of a reincarnation to happen in real life had hardly fazed him. A tear rolled down on his cheek as he struggled to move his lips.

"...Don't tell me that you actually believed me?"

He froze.

"Y-You are not Zhan Yahui?"

"I am talking about the reincarnation part."

A visible sigh of relief escaped his lips. "I do…I believe you. I…"

More tears continued to slip down his reddened eyes. His cheeks and jaw ached with the overwhelming realization of her being alive. He eventually broke down, his soft sobs echoing his years of repressed agony in the room.

"You are…alive…" he choked. "You are alive…"

He gently pulled her into his embrace, hugging her firmly as if he was afraid to lose her the next moment. He wanted to feel that this wasn't an illusion and that the words sweetly chiming in his ears weren't a trick of his mind.

Alix pressed her lips and only stood awkwardly in his embrace.

"You believed me way too easily."

She didn't get a response in return. After what it seemed like a long time, Lin pulled back, wiping his eyes.

"...It seems like you already knew?"

How can that be possible? We look completely different, she thought.

"I wasn't sure but…I just felt that…you felt a lot like Yahui. You ordered the same coffee as her, you talked and acted like her, you seemed to know a lot about Cai and me too…"

Alix grimaced. She wasn't sure if she was too obvious in leaking her previous self or was Lin just too sharp to not miss anything.

"I know it was impossible but I just…couldn't help but wonder if y-you can be really…her. I felt foolish thinking about that possibility. I know you were gone, yet at times…I felt your presence as if you were always beside me. In the six years I spent in prison, it felt as if you were always watching me…"

She pressed her index finger and thumb together and pursed her lips.

"You…were there, right? You press your fingers like that when you lie."

"No, I don't."

His heart raced thinking about all those times where he really never felt so lonely. Some convicts had called him crazy but only he knew that he always felt a presence, always there by his side as if accompanying him through his tough prison time.

"Yes, you do. You were in-indeed beside me. I know because I have felt it. And I always wanted to ask but couldn't. Why…" his eyes ached, "Why did you kill yourself?"

She stiffened.

His fists balled thinking back to that fateful day of Yahui's death.

"Why did you leave me alone? You..you could have lived and repented," his jaw clenched, "I know it was hard b-but I would have always been by your side. No matter how harsh things might have turned out, I would have never let you deal with it all alone. We could have…overcome it together. So why would you…Do you know how I lived in the past six years without you?"

She slightly lowered her eyes, unable to meet his gaze.

"Do you know how it felt to keep realizing that I won't ever be able to see you again? I dreamt about you everyday but when I opened my eyes, it would rain down on me all over again how…how you are n-no more…And even now, you didn't tell me until so many months had passed since your new body woke up from the coma."

"You and Cai had found a new life so I-"

"So what? So you thought you should stay away from us?"

"That was for the best."

Alix didn't feel any remorse. Even if Lin wasn't aware, she knew how painful his ending had been in the past life - in the dark underworld base where they had taken their last breaths, tortured to death. Only because she was in his life that he met with such a tragic fate. Now without her in their lives, she wished they would live their respectable and dignified lives they had always meant to live.

"My happiness is not without you, Yahui…" his voice broke. "Whatever you assumed was the right reason was completely wrong."

"No, it wasn't and that is not the point here. I just wanted you to know the truth."

He stared at her. "...Why now after so many months?"

Alix was silent for a moment before she said, "Liu Jin confessed to me."

It was that point where Lin exhibited the expression Alix had expected in the beginning.

"Con...confess?" He asked with a barely audible voice.

It was difficult to accept that Jin held feelings for Alix when it was so clear that he loved Shui with all his heart. Shui, in turn, loved him back. It was only a matter of time before they would sort their differences and eventually come together.

"H-How is that possible…? Sir Liu loves-"

"It was supposed to be that way but circumstances have…changed."

He felt a chill run in the back of the spine. He was only beginning to sink in the happiness of Alix's return when he was already drowned in ice-cold water.

"Does he know that you are…"

"No. That's why I came here. It's impossible between us. But he won't," she slightly but her lip, "give up until he knows the truth. He will automatically back off once-"

"N-No! You cannot reveal this to Sir Jin," he breathed hard. "Yahui, you don't understand. They m-might not let you go once he knows who you are..! He might punish you for all that we did and we don't know what will happen…" his voice trembled, "No, Yahui. I don't want to see you suffer when you have already…"

"I know that, Lin and I am prepared for that," she smiled.

Stunned, he said, "I am not, Ya-Yahui. I am not prepared to lose the woman I love again."

She froze.

Lin tremblingly held her hand as he continued with jittery breaths.

"I could never say this before because I thought that I was happy just being your friend. I thought..we could stay like this forever but I was wrong. When I held your cold body in my arms, I realized that I cou-couldn't be just your friend anymore but it a-already was too late by then. That's why…please, Yahui," his gaze begged with desperation, "D-Don't go back to Sir Liu. Don't go back to a fate where you could be…dead again because I won't be able to bear it again."