Chapter 5: The Call

That night, alone in my bath, my phone rang. A strange number, but I knew. It was him. After five years of avoidance, Xie Yao called. His voice, so familiar, felt like a ghost. "Miss Xin, you don't need to keep trying. Your family helped me, but some things can't be forced. I have a fiancée, my future wife."

He thought I was chasing him, that my actions at the gala were about love. I laughed bitterly. "Why do you think I like you?" Silence. He didn't know I was reborn, but he knew everything I'd done—saving him from his stepfather, sending him money, renting him a cheap apartment near school, warning off his bullies, boosting his part-time job. He knew I'd been searching for him.

I laughed until tears fell. Five years of devotion, and I'd been a fool. "Miss Xin, please stop bothering me," he said. I hung up, blocked his number, and let go. If we were starting over, I'd do it clean.