Rebirth: Once Again With You

Li Caiyi took another sip of her drink. It tasted like fresh grape juice with a pretty strong smell, but it wasn't unpleasant. She relished the sour after-taste it had on her tongue so much she didn't notice Meng Renshu's grave look.

"Xiaoyi, I told you before that I have a hard time sleeping lately, didn't I?" Meng Renshu asked as he leaned on the pillar beside her.

"Yes. Did it get better?"

Meng Renshu smiled. "I don't know yet. But one thing for sure, the time where I had the most peaceful sleep lately was when I slept beside you."

"Cough!" Li Caiyi was caught off guard when she heard that. After her violent cough subsided, she recalled when both of them accidentally fell asleep beside each other at the hospital. She got embarrassed for thinking that Meng Renshu probably regained the memory of sleeping together in their previous life.

"I-I see," she replied awkwardly.

"Are you okay? You should drink slowly. Even if it isn't alcoholic, this juice is a pretty strong one."

"Yeah, I'm fine. More importantly, what do you mean by that?"

Meng Renshu caressed the rim of his glass while looking down. "The other day, I said I was afraid you wouldn't believe me, even if I told you about my dream. Can I say it to you now?"

"Well, if it's only listening, I can lend an ear."

"Thank you." Meng Renshu took a deep breath before looking at Li Caiyi with a complicated gaze. "Actually, I have a hard time sleeping because of you."

"Huh?" Li Caiyi tilted her head in confusion, "You mean because I gave you headache lately, that's why you can't sleep well at night?"

Meng Renshu shook her head. "No, not that. I had a dream. A bizarre yet familiar dream. About you and incidents which never occurred but vividly shown in my dream."

"Dreams are usually like that. You would occasionally dream about an event that has yet to happen but later occurred in the future. That's where the déjà vu feeling often came."

"At first, I also thought like that. But later, I noticed that the scenery and sensation I felt in my dream were so familiar like I had ever experienced it before. It was more like a memory rather than a vision."

Li Caiyi didn't want to sound skeptical and asked him carefully, "Hmm, do you remember what kind of dream you see in your dream? Am I also included in it?"

"Yes. You are always there in my every dream, to the point I think you are a ghost haunting me."

"Well, that's… Must feel horrible for you." Li Caiyi said sarcastically.

Meng Renshu chuckled. "No, I don't mean it in a bad way. It's just… I have this strong feeling in my heart every time I wake up. It felt like my dream was trying to tell me something because it kept repeating every night without fail."

"So, you are saying you are having the same dream every night consecutively?"

"Not necessarily. I can't remember the dream quite well, but I know my dream always ends in the same way." Meng Renshu gazed at Li Caiyi hesitantly.

"How did your dream end every time? Is it related to me again?"

Meng Renshu slowly nodded his head. "At the end of my dream, you are always there. I think this is the reason my dream scared me so much. It was a sight I never wanted to see again."

It surprised Li Caiyi to see a genuine fear flickered in his eyes. It was rare to see him feel afraid of something. For as long as she can remember, she never saw him looking this frightened. What kind of dream did he see that reduced him to this state?

"What was I doing in your dream?" She asked carefully.

Meng Renshu bit his lips. The fear in his eyes now mixed with a hint of anguish and sorrow.

"You did nothing. Because in my dream… you were dead."

Thump.

Li Caiyi felt the time suddenly flowing slowly in front of her. She could feel her heart beat clearly as it sped up with each breath she took. She was very familiar with this nagging and uneasy feeling.

It was a sign of bad premonition.

Li Caiyi swallowed her saliva nervously as she asked in a stiff voice. "How? In your dream, how did I die?"

Meng Renshu's face looked like he was in pain. He hesitated a lot before finally answering, "You were in awful shape in my dream. I think it was suicide by jumping from a tall building. There was barely anything left in your head at all."

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Li Caiyi felt suffocated by how hard her heart was beating. Her breath became short and labored, and her head felt dizzy. The hold on her glass loosened as her hand trembled involuntarily.

Meng Renshu, who saw that, immediately became alarmed. He moved forward and clasped her hand, which held the glass, to prevent it from falling. His eyes widened in surprise once he felt how cold and shaky her hand was.

"Xiaoyi… Are you okay?" Meng Renshu asked urgently. His tone was laced with concern.

Li Caiyi's mind was spinning. A firm grip on her hand brought a sense of warmth, and it calmed her heart down a bit.

"I-I'm fine…." Li Caiyi said quietly, although she still felt a bit shaken.

"You don't look okay at all. Your face is pale, and you are cold like ice!"

Li Caiyi forced herself to stand steadily and inhaled a lot of oxygen to clear her thoughts. Meng Renshu stood close to her throughout all that because he was worried she would fall if he let her go.

His words earlier kept echoing in her brain. She already had a bad premonition the second he said he saw her die in his dream. Still, she didn't expect him to even know how she had died in her previous life!

But why? Why did he dream about such a thing? This was too good to be a mere coincidence.

Meng Renshu's dream…. Could it be?

What if he also… kept his memory from the past?

"Xiaoyi, how about we go in? I'll ask the maid to prepare a room for you to rest." Meng Renshu didn't quite understand her condition, but he assumed she was probably too shocked when he told him how she was dead in his dream. He wanted to know what made her so frightened like this?

However, his primary concern right now was Li Caiyi's health. Nothing was more important than that.

His gaze subconsciously fell on how Li Caiyi held on his arm gingerly, as though she was reluctant to lean on him wholly. Meng Renshu wouldn't mind even if she did, though.

"Brother Renshu…. Could you tell me more about those dreams of yours?"

"Xiaoyi, that can wait for next time. I think you need something to sit on—"

"No, please." Li Caiyi clenched on his suit, "Just say it here. I want to know more about what happened in your dream. Do you… I mean, is there anything else that happened in your dream? What else do you see?"

Meng Renshu was very confused now. Despite her condition, he didn't understand why Li Caiyi was so adamant in wanting to know about it. Her expression looked like she could cry anytime if he refused.

"....Alright," Meng Renshu said reluctantly, and her hold on his suit loosened.

"I can't remember much, actually. It's like a cut scene of a movie replayed in my dream repeatedly. However, everything is gone from my mind once I wake up. One thing for certain, no matter which cut scene I witnessed in my dream, it always ends in the same way…."

"I see…."

Li Caiyi felt lighter when she heard that. Meng Renshu didn't have any reason to lie about this, so she took his words as it was. However, her relief was short-lived after she heard his following sentence.

"Nevertheless, I feel like I can remember it much better than I did lately. I don't know why, though."

"What did you remember?" Li Caiyi asked nervously.

This time, Meng Renshu was still hesitant, but his countenance was more embarrassed rather than sad. He averted his gaze from Li Caiyi's before replying, "I dreamt about our wedding day."