Chapter 2

As soon as Mom and Mason left, my aunt hinted that I should move to campus early, using the excuse that they needed to renovate the room.

Before, when Mom worked as a live-in housekeeper at the Sterlings', she had us temporarily stay at my uncle's house.

She gave my aunt money for expenses every month.

In my past life, after Mom and I went to the Sterlings', she added more money and asked them to take good care of Mason.

Mason lived at my uncle's house like half an owner.

Now it seemed Mom had stopped the payments to my aunt.

I didn't argue. I packed my few belongings and left.

Before school started, I had one important thing to do.

After leaving my uncle's house, I went to the bank.

Before Dad died, he'd set up a small trust fund for me every birthday. Only I knew about it.

I withdrew the money and took an intercity bus to a quiet cemetery on the city outskirts.

The wind and rain were fierce that day. I hid behind an old oak tree in my raincoat, waiting.

Near dusk, sixteen-year-old Jade ran in through the rain.

Several security guards with troubled expressions followed behind her.

Jade was soaked through, her eyes stubborn. She walked straight to a gravestone and began pulling aside the grass next to it with her hands.

"Miss, the rain's too heavy. It might have washed away. Let's come back when the weather's better."

Jade acted as if she hadn't heard.

Not until she was exhausted, her eyes dimming, did I step out from behind the tree.

"Excuse me, are you looking for this?"

I pulled out a necklace from inside my coat.

Jade's eyes lit up. She quickly walked over.

Seeing how soaked she was, I raised my umbrella higher to shield her from the rain too.

Jade carefully took the necklace, her tense expression finally relaxing.

"How did you get this?"

In my past life, after Jade and I got together, she once said her biggest regret from her youth was losing this necklace she'd made with her mother the summer she turned sixteen.

So I came here to help her make up for that regret and create an opportunity for us to meet.

I shrank my shoulders and said softly:

"The rain washed it to the roadside just now. I picked it up. I saw you'd been searching for a long time and guessed it might be something important to you."

"Thank you. It's very important to me. What do you want as a reward?"

Though Jade thanked me, her tone still carried distance.

My voice trembled slightly:

"Then... treat me to a bowl of hot soup, will you? I'm cold and hungry."

Jade paused, then couldn't help but laugh softly.

"Okay."

Half an hour later, at my insistence, Jade and I ate her first-ever cup of instant noodles together at a gas station convenience store.

"I didn't expect hot soup could taste this good."

When we were together before, she always said this kind of simple food was the most relaxing.

After eating, Jade wanted to get my contact information to thank me properly.

I smiled and shook my head.

"If we're meant to, we'll meet again."

The moment I turned away, I bit my lip hard to keep the tears from falling.

How I wanted to rush over and hug her tight, to tell her everything from our past life, to tell her how much I'd missed her.

But doing that would probably just make her think I was crazy.

I didn't leave my contact information because I knew her trajectory for the next few years.

We were destined to "run into each other."

Jade would think it was all fate's arrangement, not my calculated plan.