Death
A loud clap of thunder echoed in the distance.
For a few seconds, there was nothing but darkness.
Then came the faint sound of someone sobbing.
An Ning’s eyes shot open.
She sucked in a sharp breath and sat upright in bed, one hand pressing against her chest as if she could force her heart to slow down.
It didn’t.
Her pulse thundered beneath her ribs. Cold sweat clung to the back of her neck, dampening the collar of her nightshirt. Her fingers tightened around the bedsheets as she tried to understand what she was seeing.
The room was dark except for the pale blue light slipping through the curtains.
A familiar wooden desk stood near the window, with several books stacked neatly beside it. A small lamp rested in the corner.
Her old wardrobe.
Her old curtains.
Her old bed.
An Ning stared at her surroundings, her breathing becoming shallow.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
She knew this room. She had spent years here.
But she hadn’t slept in this bedroom for a very long time.
Her gaze stopped on a framed photograph sitting on the bedside table.
Her seventeen-year-old self stared back at her.
An Ning froze.
“No...”
Her voice came out hoarse.
She raised both hands and examined them.
Smooth skin.
No scars.
No faint mark near her wrist.
Nothing.
Her breath caught.
“Wait...”
A horrible memory slammed into her without warning.
The staircase.
Feng Yue.
Her fiancé.
Their bodies standing far too close together.
The way Feng Yue had looked at her—not guilty or ashamed, but almost satisfied.
An Ning remembered standing there, unable to breathe. She remembered demanding an explanation.
The argument.
The shock.
The betrayal.
Then her heel had slipped.
For one terrible second, the entire world had tilted.
She remembered falling backward, the ceiling spinning above her before a sharp impact struck the back of her head.
Pain.
Warm blood.
Distant voices.
And then—
Nothing.
An Ning’s fingers trembled.
“Wasn’t I dead?”
The words escaped her in a whisper.
She remembered dying.
It hadn’t been a dream or something she had imagined. She remembered lying at the bottom of those stairs while everything around her blurred.
She remembered Feng Yue’s face.
She remembered fragments of voices.
And worst of all, she remembered the truth she had discovered before everything ended.
Lan Yue wasn’t her real mother.
Feng Yue wasn’t truly her sister.
The people she had spent her entire life trying to please had never considered her family at all.
An Ning closed her eyes.
For a moment, she wondered whether she was trapped inside some final hallucination.
Then—
Buzz.
Her phone vibrated loudly against the bedside table.
An Ning flinched and turned toward it.
Slowly, she reached for the device. Her fingers were still shaking when she picked it up, and the bright screen illuminated her face.
One new message.
From Lan Yue.
Don’t embarrass your sister at the ball at Master Qiang Hao’s house tomorrow. Your sister will be playing the piano, so behave yourself.
An Ning stared at the name before opening the message.
Tomorrow?
Her brows drew together.
“Qiang Hao’s ball...”
The words felt strangely distant.
Then recognition struck.
Her eyes widened.
That ball.
Of course she remembered it.
Feng Yue had spent months preparing for that night.
The dress.
The piano performance.
The endless conversations about impressing the Qiang family.
Lan Yue had treated the event as though Feng Yue were preparing to perform before royalty.
And An Ning had been warned repeatedly not to cause trouble.
Not to embarrass Feng Yue.
Not to draw attention.
Not to ruin anything.
Her heart started pounding again, but this time for an entirely different reason.
“No.”
She unlocked the phone and checked the date.
Her entire body went still.
Exactly two years before her death.
“This is impossible.”
She checked again, but the date remained unchanged.
An Ning swallowed and looked around the room.
The furniture, the books, the clothes folded over the chair—everything was exactly as she remembered. Even the small crack near the corner of the desk was still there.
She had returned two years into the past.
One day before the Qiang family’s ball.
One day before the beginning of the chain of events that would eventually destroy everything she had once believed in.
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
“Why?”
Her voice trembled.
“Why did I come back?”
No answer came.
Only another distant rumble of thunder.
An Ning lowered the phone slowly.
For several minutes, she simply sat there, uncertain whether she wanted to laugh or scream.
Maybe both.
Was this punishment?
A miracle?
Some cruel joke from fate?
Had she been sent back to correct something? To save someone? To change her death?
She didn’t know.
And suddenly, she realized she didn’t care.
Buzz.
Another message arrived.
This one was shorter.
Colder.
Worthless girl, answer me right now!
The words seemed to burn against the screen.
Once, a message like that would have immediately made An Ning anxious. She would have called Lan Yue back, apologized and promised not to embarrass Feng Yue.
She would have promised to behave.
To try harder.
Always harder.
Because no matter what she did, it had never been enough.
Her grades hadn’t been enough.
Her manners hadn’t been enough.
Her obedience hadn’t been enough.
Nothing about her had ever satisfied Lan Yue.
But Feng Yue could make one mistake after another and still be praised, protected and loved.
Something inside An Ning shifted.
Slowly.
Quietly.
The fear disappeared.
In its place came something colder.
“Lan Yue...”
Her voice was barely audible.
Then—
“Feng Yue.”
Their names tasted bitter.
Feng Yue.
The girl who had smiled at her, hugged her and called her sister. The same girl who had pretended to comfort her whenever Lan Yue criticized her.
And eventually, she had taken everything.
An Ning’s reputation.
Her future.
Even her fiancé.
Lan Yue had not merely allowed it.
She had helped her.
Fragments of An Ning’s previous life surfaced one after another.
Feng Yue crying whenever she wanted sympathy.
Lan Yue immediately blaming An Ning.
Her fiancé accusing her of being unreasonable.
Relatives whispering that Feng Yue was kinder, more graceful and more suitable.
An Ning had spent years defending herself against lies she hadn’t realized were being carefully constructed around her.
And she had lost.
Completely.
A bitter laugh escaped her.
“So that’s it.”
She looked at the message again.
“Worthless.”
She had heard that word so many times.
Once, it had hurt.
Now it almost seemed ridiculous.
An Ning pushed the blankets aside and stood. Her legs felt weak, forcing her to hold on to the edge of the bed until the dizziness passed.
Despite the storm outside, the room felt strangely silent—as though the entire world were waiting to see what she would do next.
She walked into the bathroom, turned on the shower and stepped beneath the warm water.
For several minutes, she simply stood there as steam slowly filled the room and water ran over her hair and shoulders.
Her mind, however, refused to quiet.
She was seventeen again.
Before the engagement.
Before Feng Yue had fully sunk her claws into that idiot.
Before everything had become impossible to undo.
An Ning slowly opened her eyes.
“If I’m really seventeen again...”
She stared at the tiled wall.
“Then I still have time.”
Time to recognize the traps before stepping into them.
Time to protect her future.
And most importantly—
time to make them regret everything.
An Ning turned off the shower, wrapped herself in a towel and stepped toward the mirror.
The glass had fogged completely.
She lifted one hand and wiped away the steam.
A young girl’s face appeared beneath her palm.
Soft features.
Clear skin.
Long dark hair clinging wetly to her shoulders.
The same face she remembered.
But the eyes were different.
Those weren’t the eyes of the girl who used to wait anxiously for Lan Yue’s approval.
They weren’t the eyes of the girl who had trusted every one of Feng Yue’s smiles.
They belonged to someone who had already died once.
A faint smile touched An Ning’s lips.
“Before I got engaged to that idiot.”
She tilted her head slightly.
“Before Feng Yue sank her claws into him.”
The smile disappeared.
The weight of everything she had learned before her death settled inside her.
They had lied to her for years.
Used her.
Humiliated her.
Discarded her.
All while hiding behind the word family.
An Ning stared at her reflection.
“But not this time.”
Her voice became quieter.
Colder.
“This time, you won’t take anything from me.”
For the first time since waking, her mind felt completely clear.
She didn’t know what force had brought her back. Maybe someday she would search for an answer.
Tonight, only one thing mattered.
She had another chance.
And she wasn’t going to waste it.
Lan Yue’s first message returned to her mind.
The Qiang family’s ball.
An Ning narrowed her eyes.
Tomorrow, Feng Yue would play the piano.
Lan Yue would spend the entire evening trying to make everyone notice her precious daughter.
An Ning remembered every detail.
The dress Feng Yue had chosen.
The piece she had practiced obsessively.
The compliments she expected.
The attention she desperately wanted.
In her previous life, An Ning had done exactly what she was told. She had remained quiet, made herself small and allowed Feng Yue to shine.
Somehow, even then, she had still ended up being blamed.
An Ning laughed softly.
Not this time.
“Let’s start there.”
She walked back into her bedroom and opened the wardrobe.
“Lan Yue is desperate to impress Grandpa Hao tomorrow.”
Her fingers moved slowly across the dresses hanging inside.
“And Feng Yue...”
Her lips curved again.
“She’s been practicing that damn piano piece for months.”
She selected an outfit and placed it on the bed.
A plan was already beginning to form.
It wasn’t complete yet, but that didn’t matter.
An Ning knew what was supposed to happen tomorrow.
That alone gave her an advantage no one else possessed.
Feng Yue would walk into the ball believing the future belonged to her.
Lan Yue would expect An Ning to remain obedient.
Her future fiancé would still think she was the same foolish girl who revolved around him.
They were all going to make the same mistake.
They would underestimate her.
An Ning dressed slowly. When she finished, she picked up her phone again.
Lan Yue’s unanswered messages still waited on the screen.
An Ning looked at them briefly before locking the phone without replying.
A strange satisfaction settled over her.
Such a tiny act.
Yet in her previous life, she would never have dared.
She wasn’t the frightened girl they remembered.
She would no longer fight Feng Yue for scraps of affection, nor would she remain silent while they tried to destroy her again.
This time, An Ning would be the one making the moves.
And everyone who had betrayed her would finally understand what it felt like to lose everything.
