The skies above the Zhou estate were a pristine blue—the kind that mocked the heaviness in her chest. As the black car rolled to a stop before the grand gates, the girl who stepped out didn't belong to this world anymore.
Or maybe, she never did.
Luo Xinyi adjusted the strap of her bag, the worn canvas one she'd used all through country school. Her shoes crunched against the white gravel of the driveway as the guards opened the iron gates without a word. The sprawling mansion ahead, with its silver arches and whitewashed columns, gleamed in the morning light like a palace from another life.
Because it was.
She had been sent away from here when she was barely five.
They said it was to heal, to simplify her upbringing. But she knew why.
Because her mother had died giving birth to her. Because people whispered she was unlucky. Because every time someone looked at her, they remembered loss.
And so, a quiet decision was made—to send her far away.
Then came the adopted daughter. Zhou Yuxi. One year older, one year wiser, and the perfect replacement. She was introduced as a comforting companion for the grieving family. But Xinyi knew the truth.
They brought in someone to erase her.
In her first life, she never questioned any of it. She tried to win approval. Smiled when it hurt. Swallowed when words choked her. Until the accident. Until she learned how deep betrayal could run. Until she died.
She remembered lying on the road, bleeding out from a car crash caused by a fake phone call. One placed in her sister's voice.
In that moment, all she had wanted… was to be loved.
Now, she had returned. Reborn into her sixteen-year-old self.
And this time—she would not beg.
The heavy doors of the mansion opened. A few servants stood near the entrance, stiff and awkward.
"She's really back?" someone murmured.
"I thought they'd forgotten about her."
"No one even told us to prepare the guest room."
Xinyi walked past them with a calm face, but her heart grew colder with every whisper. Every face that looked past her like she was a ghost.
Her eyes scanned the grand hallway. No one.
None of her four brothers were there.
No one waiting at the door.
Only one.
Zhou Yuxi appeared at the top of the staircase like she owned it.
"Xinyi," she said, her tone soft but lined with steel. "You've arrived. I didn't expect… so soon."
Xinyi met her eyes. "I came as requested."
Yuxi hesitated. "It's been a long time. I thought maybe… you'd stay there longer."
A silence hung between them—awkward, brittle.
"Afraid I'd come back and take what's mine?" Xinyi asked, voice still calm.
Yuxi stiffened. "I didn't mean it like that."
But the tension crackled. Yuxi had reason to be afraid. If Luo Xinyi returned and the family accepted her again… the adopted daughter might be sent back to where she came from. The orphanage.
She had fought too hard for this place. For the warmth, the dresses, the name.
"I've lived here for ten years. I'm part of this family," Yuxi said, voice rising slightly.
"So was I," Xinyi replied, turning toward the stairs. "But that didn't stop anyone from throwing me out."
Zhou Yuxi couldn't respond.
Xinyi's footsteps echoed as she walked up the staircase on her own. The house looked the same—but it no longer felt like hers. It didn't feel like anything.
She knocked on the door of the study. It opened before she could even lower her hand.
"Xinyi." Her grandfather, Zhou Hengyuan, stood up from behind his desk. His cane trembled slightly in his hand. "You've come back."
She stepped in and closed the door quietly. "Why didn't you stop them?"
The old man froze.
"I was five, Grandfather. I remember asking the driver why I had to go. He said the family decided it was better for me." Her voice trembled once, then steadied. "Why didn't you stop them?"
He looked away, shame written all over his wrinkled face.
"I failed you," he whispered. "I thought… maybe they were right. That you'd be better off away from the gossip, the pressure. But I missed you every single day."
Xinyi swallowed.
"I kept hoping someone would come for me," she said quietly. "But no one ever did."
The words dropped between them like a stone in still water.
Zhou Hengyuan sat back heavily in his chair. "I was wrong. I see that now. And I've called you back because I want to set things right."
She gave a small nod. That was all she could offer right now.
"You have a place here. This house… this family… it's yours by blood. No one can take that from you again."
Outside the study, Yuxi stood in the hallway, her hands clenched tightly.
She had always known this day would come.
But now that it had, she was terrified.
Because even the servants had begun to whisper.
"None of the young masters came to greet her?"
"They were out of town, probably."
"Or maybe they just don't care."
The whispers stung more than they should have.
Xinyi stood at the top of the stairs once again, looking down at the grand hall. Everything gleamed like polished silver—but felt cold as marble.
She turned back toward the guest wing. The same room they used to lock at night when she visited during New Year's.
Now it would be hers again.
She opened the window.
The wind smelled of lavender and distance.
She had returned.
Not for reconciliation.
Not for pity.
Not even for family.
She had returned for herself.
And this time, she would not be erased.