Chapter 1 (1/2)

Luo An Hai didn’t expect that one day she would witness her own funeral.

The last thing she remembered was being on a plane to England for business negotiations. If she had succeeded then the majority of shareholders would vote her way, and she would become the CEO of Luo’s company.

But she didn’t expect the plane crash.

Her last thought was that ten years of hard work fell down the drain. She had endured ten years living at the Luo Mansion, and fought to keep the homewrecker and the homewrecker’s son, Han Ting Hua taking Luo’s company from her hands.

She couldn’t accept the moment her dream was within grasp, her life would end in a plane crash.

A second after the plane crash, she was standing in front of her tombstone.

Her father had aged since the last time she saw him.

She froze. Unexpectedly her father was sobbing at her funeral. She hadn’t called the aged man her father since their estrangement the day he brought home the homewrecker and Han Ting Hua.

She resented her father for marrying her mother for money. Her mother loved her father deeply. But what did her mother receive? Her mother ended up dying of a lonely heart.

Three months after her mother’s death, her father had the audacity to marry the homewrecker. She didn’t doubt her father would have divorced her mother if her mother didn’t cling onto their loveless marriage.

She didn’t want her father to live a happy life with the homewrecker and Han Ting Hua if her mother had to live a miserable life of pain because of them.

Even at the funeral the homewrecker was a good actress, but she wasn’t fooled by the homewrecker’s fake tears.

She hated the three of them. Her father treated Han Ting Hua as if he was her father’s biological son. Living at the Luo Mansion, she was the outsider while the three of them were a happy family. She was her father’s biological daughter yet he had wanted to give Luo’s company to Han Ting Hua.

She scoffed at the young man’s indifference. Han Ting Hua didn’t need to attend her funeral if he just wanted to gloat at her downfall.

She fisted her hands. She was powerless to do anything to change her fate. What could she do six feet under?

Instinctively she followed the three of them back to the Luo Mansion. It was their home, not her home. Even if the Luo Mansion wasn’t her home, it rightfully belonged to her after her mother’s death.

The dark empty spacious room at the Luo Mansion was her bedroom. Suddenly someone stepped into her bedroom.

Why did Han Ting Hua enter her bedroom? He couldn’t see her while he was stroking the photo of her on the bedside table. Did he want to tear her bedroom apart and renovate it? She waited for him to make his next move, but he only sat on her bed and stared at the photo of her.

He didn’t leave her bedroom until sunrise. She didn’t understand his odd behavior. But she expected he was plotting to steal everything that belonged to her, including Luo’s company.

She didn’t expect he would return to her bedroom after work, and that he would sit solemnly on her bed staring at the photo of her again.

She didn’t understand why he didn’t break everything in her bedroom. Why did he keep everything in her bedroom at the same spots she left them before her plane crash? How could she get answers if he couldn’t hear her? All she could do was watch events unfold in front of her eyes.

A year later, on her birthday, Han Ting Hua brought a birthday cake into her bedroom. He stared at the photo of her until the candles waned.

During that year, her confusion and suspicion turned to curiosity and acceptance. She silently watched Han Ting Hua’s odd daily routines.

Years later, her father and the homewrecker died. Han Ting Hua was living alone in the Luo Mansion. Why didn’t Han Ting Hua get married? She didn’t understand why Han Ting Hua turned down all the hot young women who chased after him because of his good looks and status.

For years, Han Ting Han maintained her bedroom in its original condition, and he stared at the photo of her at night. She was frustrated she couldn’t understand Han Ting Hua’s odd behavior.

The next year, Han Ting Hua adopted an orphaned boy, and raised the orphaned boy like a biological son.

After Han Ting Hua’s adoptive son grew up, Han Ting Hua fainted often. She heard Han Ting Hua’s doctor say he had lung cancer. Despite the doctor’s advice, he didn’t undergo lung cancer treatments and his health rapidly deteriorated.

She didn’t understand why Han Ting Hua didn’t fear death. It was as if he wanted to die sooner.

Her frustrations grew as Han Ting Han’s body withered away. What was wrong with him? Why didn’t he undergo lung cancer treatments? Why did he skip meals? Why did he sit in her bedroom and stare at the photo of her after every time he fainted?

Finally she witnessed Han Ting Hua’s funeral. She ran to his tombstone, and didn’t know why her hand instinctively touched tenderly the photo of him on his tombstone.

She remembered Han Ting Hua’s last day. He had held the photo of her, his usual solemn lips actually smiled, he whispered ‘An Hai’ and he died.

‘Idiot,’ she said and sobbed.

She clutched her chest. Why did her heart hurt immensely when she was dead?

***

In the midst of Luo An Hai’s continuous sobbing, she heard someone calling her.

‘Mistress,’ Mrs. Chen called.

Luo An Hai’s eyes opened widely, and a blurry face of a younger Mrs. Chen appeared.

‘Mrs. Chen?’ Luo An Hai asked.

How did Mrs. Chen see her? She remembered Mrs. Chen left the Luo Mansion to live with Mrs. Chen’s daughter-in-law and to take care of Mrs. Chen’s grandchildren when she was a twelve-year-old.

At her funeral, Mrs. Chen had sobbed as much as her father. She looked at her surroundings. Why wasn’t she at the cemetery? What was she doing in her bedroom at the Luo Mansion?

‘Mistress, did you dream about your mother?’ Mrs. Chen asked, looking worried. ‘Your mother was stubborn. What good did stubbornness do for your mother? I can’t believe your mother hasn’t been gone that long, and yet your father remarried. Your father told the household that he’s bringing his new wife and her son here today.’

Mrs. Chen’s heart hurt for Luo An Hai. How could Luo An Hai’s father be that inconsiderate and bring home a step-mother for Luo An Hai so soon after Luo An Hai’s mother’s death? What if Luo An Hai’s step-mother mistreats Luo An Hai?

While Mrs. Chen worried about Luo An Hai’s well-bring, Luo An Hai’s heart was full of confusion and suspicion. She didn’t understand what Mrs. Chen meant by her father’s new wife.

‘Mrs. Chen, did my mother pass away three months ago?’ Luo An Hai asked.

‘Yes mistress,’ Mrs. Chen said. ‘Your father isn’t a man. How can a man marry another woman just three months after your mother’s passing?’

Mrs. Chen’s reply confirmed Luo An Hai’s chaotic suspicion.

‘Mrs. Chen, can you go outside?’ Luo An Hai asked. ‘I want alone time to clear my head.’

‘Mistress, you look pale,’ Mrs. Chen said. ‘Do you want me to call a doctor?’

‘I’m fine,’ Luo An Hai said, smiling faintly. ‘Mrs. Chen, I think I heard someone at the front door. Perhaps they’re here. You should go greet them.’

‘Mistress, have you forgotten?’ Mrs. Chen asked. ‘Your father told you he wants you to greet them at the front door.’

Mrs. Chen was angry at Luo An Hai’s father. What sort of a father demanded their grieving daughter to welcome a step-mother after losing their mother three months ago? But Mrs. Chen understood a servant like her had no right to lecture Luo An Hai’s father.

‘Mrs. Chen, I’ll come downstairs soon,’ Luo An Hai said calmly, but there were goosebumps on her legs. ‘I just need to wash my face and brush my hair to look presentable.’

Luo An Hai jumped out of bed after Mrs. Chen left her bedroom. She rushed to the bathroom, and her younger self that was looking back at her made her body tremble.

A familiar wrinkled blue nightgown was baggy on her younger lanky body, her hair was naturally black and sad autumn brown eyes reflected out of the mirror.

Her fourteen-year-old self looked so naive, self-righteous and rebellious. Her heart couldn’t believe what her eyes proved. She had heard of wormhole theories and time travel, but they belonged in movies and books. She didn’t expect time traveling to the past would happen to her.

For years her soul had roamed around the Luo Mansion after the plane crash. Yet when her soul was reborn, it entered her fourteen-year-old body on the same day her father brought home the homewrecker and Han Ting Hua.

Memories of her resentment toward her father and the homewrecker flooded her mind. She had hated her heartless father who gave everything that belonged to her to the homewrecker and Han Ting Hua. She had caused tension in the Luo Mansion to make their lives miserable. Only her mother’s servants were loyal to her, and everyone else had hated her.

But memories of Han Ting Hua living like a foolish monk after her death also flooded her mind. She couldn’t forget even on his last day, he had held the photo of her.

‘What a foolish man,’ Luo An Hai whispered.

She fisted her hands. Even if she had travelled back to the past, she couldn’t let go of her resentment. The difference was Han Ting Hua’s foolish behavior softened her resentment.

She heard her father’s car, and the sounds of footsteps on the pavement. Without hesitation she ran barefoot downstairs, and met them at the front door.

‘An Hai,’ Luo Cheng Hua called.

Luo Cheng Hai couldn’t believe his daughter would greet his new wife wearing a nightgown. But he was happy his daughter listened to him, and came downstairs so he let it slide.

‘An Hai, come here and greet your step-mother,’ Luo Cheng Hua said.

Luo An Hai took a step closer to them.

‘Hello An Hai,’ Mai Fang greeted nervously.

Luo An Hai wasn’t dazzled by the forty-year-old gentle looking Mai Fang in a conservative dress. She never understood why her father loved a plain woman like Mai Fang compared to her beautiful mother.