“Where is this…”
Qing Hanyin woke up in a simple, crude hut. Pressing one hand against her still-throbbing forehead, she used the other to push herself up slowly from the icy cold floor.
Looking around, it felt both familiar and distant. This… was her old home, a place she could never return to.
‘I succeeded… I really have returned to the moment everything began.’
Tears fell without warning, drop after drop, spreading wet stains on the ground. Qing Hanyin clenched her fist and slammed it hard against the floor. A lifetime’s worth of suppressed regret and wild joy churned violently within her at this moment.
“This time, I will absolutely not lose you again, Lili.”
It was all her fault. In her previous life, she realized her own feelings too late. By the time she finally dared to face her heart, she could only watch helplessly as Bai Lili was forcibly taken away by that damned bat.
That’s right. The ultimate winner of the previous life was Lilith.
Relying on the information advantage brought by her system and her series of direct, forceful confessions, Lilith easily stole Bai Lili away. And Su Ruo perfectly demonstrated what an incompetent wife looked like.
As for Qing Hanyin herself, she bet everything to find that divine artifact in ancient texts—the Hourglass of Time.
At the cost of the hourglass completely dissipating, she reversed time and space, returning to the present.
The creator of the hourglass had said that reversing time itself defied the laws of the world. Once time was reversed, the hourglass would be utterly shattered by the rules, and all traces of it in the world would vanish.
In other words, she had only this one chance.
Qing Hanyin suddenly clenched her fist, her nails digging deep into her palm. She looked up at the clock on the wall, her heart pounding wildly.
Today was the day of the Awakening.
That meant today, she could see Lili again.
She quickly got herself ready and hurried towards the Awakening Academy. On the way, she ran into a few clueless thugs. Without mercy, she took action, venting all the frustration she had swallowed from Lilith in her previous life onto this group.
Suddenly, an idea flashed into her mind.
In her previous life, Lilith fell in love with Lili at first sight the moment Lili awakened her ability.
What if… what if she made Lilith arrive a little late, so she couldn’t witness Lili’s awakening moment with her own eyes? Wouldn’t that cut off their fate right at the root?
The more she thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed.
She immediately turned back and found the thugs she had just beaten up.
“Hey, you lot. I have a job for you.”
The leader of the thugs immediately showed a lecherous grin.
“Miss, that’s not the attitude for asking a favor. What are you planning to offer in exchange?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, his head was slammed hard into the ground by Qing Hanyin.
A cold smile hung on the young woman’s face.
“You social trash, you think you’re qualified to bargain with me?”
She pressed down harder, making the thug scream in pain. The others were scared out of their wits, not daring to resist at all.
Only after Qing Hanyin finished explaining the task did she leave, satisfied.
When she arrived at the Awakening venue, Bai Lili hadn’t appeared yet. She immediately hid in a secluded corner, holding her breath and waiting in secret.
But reality, as if on purpose, refused to go her way.
In her line of sight, Bai Lili and Lilith collided unexpectedly.
The love at first sight she had tried so hard to prevent… had actually happened ahead of time.
Qing Hanyin gripped the tree trunk beside her so tightly her knuckles turned white, the force almost enough to crush the bark.
‘I specifically told them to delay her a bit longer… these useless trash.’
Not long after, the Awakening ceremony officially began.
The moment Bai Lili stepped onto the stage, Qing Hanyin’s world narrowed down to that single figure.
The soft, dazzling golden fur, the angelically pure face, and that tsundere personality.
She only hated that in her previous life, why hadn’t she held on to her sooner.
The thought of how she had once begged Lilith on her knees, just to see Bai Lili one more time, only to be met with the other’s wanton mockery, made Qing Hanyin grit her teeth in hatred.
Time flew by.
The day before formal enrollment, Qing Hanyin took the initiative to find Bai Lili’s mother, Li Meng, offering herself as Bai Lili’s personal maid. She successfully stayed.
During military training, Bai Lili proactively handed her an ice cream. In that moment, a long-lost sweetness welled up in Qing Hanyin’s heart.
It was also at this time that she remembered a key person: Bai Lili’s aunt, Bai Ting.
To securely win over Lili, Bai Ting’s help was crucial.
Lilith always had a weird way of foreseeing opportunities. Su Ruo relied on her family background to get close. But Qing Hanyin? She was just someone who crawled out of the slums.
She had no way back.
Every connection she could use, every opportunity she could seize, she had to hold onto tightly.
In this life, she would not let anyone take Bai Lili away from her side again.