Chapter Two: An Unexpected Rebirth

... Shu Ke Ju ...

Dong Yanyan saw the innocent look on his face and thought he was teasing her again. Gritting her teeth, she asked once more, “Didn’t you see my third sister here? She wants to see Lulu.”

Xu Cheng looked at her, puzzled, still smiling, and asked the others nearby, “Heh, who in our class is called Lulu? I don’t recall anyone.”

Dong Yanyan flared up at that, just about to lose her temper, when a boy beside her spoke, “Little one, come over here, sit on this side.” Dong Yanyan turned and saw a slender young man with a slightly melancholic air. Her heart was instantly awash with a thousand feelings—she recognized him at once as Lin Feng, the class monitor she had once liked for two years. Why was he here as well? All these years, why hadn’t time left even a trace on his face?

Lost in her thoughts, she was suddenly startled by a heavy pat on her shoulder. A crisp, slightly childish voice with a soft, lingering tone reached her. “Fifth sister, were you looking for me just now? You missed me already after I’d been gone only a moment?”

Startled, Dong Yanyan turned around to see a petite girl in an off-the-shoulder white top, cute pink pants, and thick platform shoes, about her height, smiling with two sweet dimples in her cheeks.

“Tian Tian?” She widened her eyes in surprise. This was Lu Tian, the youngest in their dormitory, only fifteen when she’d first entered their vocational school, looking exactly the same now.

Just two months ago, she had seen her. Though still pretty, she no longer had that pure, innocent charm, and even had a daughter now, with freckles she could not quite conceal. No amount of makeup could bring back this youthful glow!

She glanced around the banquet table, noticing for the first time that all her classmates were dressed as students, some even still in their school uniforms. This scene—where had she experienced it before? Was she dreaming again? She looked down at her own clothes: a pink blouse, white skinny pants, and thick platform shoes... Good heavens! She was dressed the same way. When had she changed?

She rubbed her eyes and tentatively called across a few seats to Liu Qiang, who looked noticeably younger, “Liu Qiang, where’s your wife?”

Liu Qiang blinked at her, his face flushing instantly, stammering, not knowing what to say. The other students, meanwhile, burst out laughing, teasing him mercilessly.

Dong Yanyan sighed inwardly: Why did she keep dreaming of her school days lately? Maybe it was because the class reunion was coming up; what you think of by day appears in your dreams by night. But even in a dream, she needed to find her daughter—otherwise, she couldn’t rest easy. She pinched her arm hard, yelping in pain, but still didn’t wake. Oh no, she was trapped in a nightmare again!

By the timing, this must have been their first dinner together after starting school. The classmates were all cheerful and laughing... only Dong Yanyan was distracted, still worried about Lulu. Lulu had kindergarten tomorrow—she couldn’t let herself sleep in just because she was happy tonight! Seeing Xu Cheng’s carefree manner, she wanted to kick him. Even in a dream, how could she be so happy as to forget her own daughter?

After dinner, they returned to school. It was her familiar old dorm room, 103. She found her upper bunk without a second thought, climbed up, pulled the covers over her head, and drifted into sleep, not caring what the others were up to.

*

In the early morning, Dong Yanyan was awakened by the hubbub of noise. She instinctively reached to her side, not finding Lulu. The girl must have slipped over to her father, she thought. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up and immediately caught sight of the girl across from her, dressing—her old bunkmate, Third Sister Liu Ying. Instantly, Dong Yanyan clapped a hand to her mouth in dismay: Oh no! She was still dreaming?

She hated the feeling of being trapped in a nightmare, as if it would never end. She pinched her arm hard—yow! The pain made her cry out.

Liu Ying stared at her in surprise and laughed, “Fifth, are you still groggy? Why pinch yourself as soon as you wake up?” Her words made the other girls in the dorm laugh as well.

“You two hurry up and get dressed! Only five minutes until seven o’clock!” came the commanding voice of Li Hui, their old dorm leader, from below. Dong Yanyan had never liked her—she was one of those people with no real taste but a high opinion of herself, and Dong Yanyan, spoiled as she was, always found her self-importance and unfashionable clothes irritating.

For a moment, Dong Yanyan felt disoriented—she’d lived through this before. In a while, the teacher would come with the class reps to inspect the dorms, wouldn’t he? At the thought, she hurriedly divided her bedding into three, shaping them into neat squares as best as she could. She threw on her school uniform, grabbed her washbasin and toothbrush from under the lower bunk, and dashed out—only to nearly collide with the homeroom teacher and the tall, elegant student council president Lin Mei and several class reps coming to check the dorm.

She froze, basin in hand, unsure whether to step out or stand aside like a fool.

It was exactly as she remembered: awkward and utterly real.

Back then, their homeroom teacher, Mr. Chen, was a cultured man in his thirties, with fine features and a gentle face—his temperament, too, was all softness. He glanced at Dong Yanyan, his expression a shade stern, lips pressed together.

Dong Yanyan remembered how, back then, her heart would pound with fear at the sight of him. But now, she felt nothing of the sort. After four years together, she’d come to realize that, in this school of fierce competition, he was as meek as a lamb—so gentle that his students often suffered for it, and in the end, even the students no longer feared him.

Lin Mei, the student council president from the class of '95, jotted a few notes in her book, and after a quick survey, the group left. The girls in the dorm all let out sighs of relief, tidying up and getting ready for class. Their two-week military training had ended just yesterday, and today was their first real day of lessons.

But what Dong Yanyan cared about most was this question: Had she crossed into another time, or been reborn? As an avid reader of online fiction, for the first time she had a hazy guess at her own situation. Carrying her washbasin down to the first-floor washroom, she gazed into the mirror at her own face: a delicate, fair oval, her hair freshly cut and tousled. She took her little wooden comb and brushed it—so pretty, so cute. She’d always thought of herself as cute rather than beautiful (narcissistic Yanyan...), but the realness of this face told her she was seventeen again! Back fifteen years!

She touched her belly on instinct—smooth and flat! And to her delight, her waist was slender enough to encircle with one hand—a genuine wasp waist! So real! Even though her chest had shrunk considerably, she knew it would grow in time. She looked herself up and down, thrilled by the youthful vitality of her body. Luckily she was alone—otherwise, what a sight it would be, a little girl so openly admiring herself.

Once her excitement faded, a troubling question returned: If she had truly traveled back, did that mean there was still another her in the timeline fifteen years from now? And if she disappeared as a mother, what would happen to Lulu?

Lost in these thoughts, she was startled by a sudden, melodious chime echoing through the building. She paused, then realized at once—it was the bell for class.

... Shu Ke Ju ...