The street scene before her was both familiar and strange. A thick, nostalgic air of a bygone era washed over her, leaving Gu Nuan Nuan stunned and horrified for a moment.
'What's happening?'
She clearly remembered lying on a hospital bed just a moment ago... 'Shouldn't I be dead? Or is this what the afterlife is actually like?'
Gu Nuan Nuan looked at her mother, Zhang Minzhen, and her scum dad, Gu Lihui, who were standing right there—very much alive and so much younger. Then she held up her own hands, which had suddenly become small and delicate, and examined them again and again. She shook her head.
'Impossible. This can't be the afterlife. I'm sure that I died, but Mom and my scum dad are still alive and well.'
'Especially that scum dad of mine.'
Gu Nuan Nuan grit her teeth at the thought of her scum dad, his mistress-turned-stepmother, and their two children, Gu Jiayi and Gu Jiabao. Those two were impossibly arrogant, the product of their mother's affair with her father. In the early years, they would constantly show up just to flaunt their existence, making her sick to her stomach. And in her previous life, they were all still living comfortably, enjoying the picture-perfect image of a loving father and doting children.
For a long time, those two brats and their mistress mother had held the top spot on her list of most-hated people in the world.
Unfortunately, when she was little, her mother was very strict. She felt a child shouldn't be affected by adult matters. To prevent her paternal grandmother's family from calling her "ill-mannered," her mother would repeatedly instruct her every time she was sent over to her scum dad's place, warning her not to show any negative emotions, like disgust, toward the woman and her two children.
Back then, even though not a single person in her scum dad's family or among her paternal grandmother's relatives actually liked her, they still used child support and custody rights to threaten her mother, forcing her to send Nuan Nuan over every Sunday and on all holidays.
They called it "bonding" with them, but in reality, they were just summoning her to be their free maid. Lin Jiayi had once bluntly told her, "We can't just let our family's monthly handout of child support to your mother go to waste."
What was even more ridiculous was that every time she went over, besides giving her an endless list of chores, they also tried to brainwash her. They would whisper lies in her ear, twisting right and wrong, saying that if it weren't for her own mother's unchaste behavior, she could have stayed in the Gu Family. She could have been living a good life just like Gu Jiayi, with her own beautiful princess room, nice clothes to wear, and frequent trips to the park and amusement parks.
'I knew exactly what they were trying to do back then. Weren't they just trying to use me against my own mother to make her suffer?'
'So malicious. They were utterly shameless, with no sense of decency.'
To be honest, she was truly glad that back then, her head had been on straight. At least she was old enough to know clearly that her mother was not the one at fault in the divorce. That's why she hadn't been brainwashed into resenting her mother, just as they had hoped.
'Something about this situation is very wrong. Have I been reborn into my childhood?' Gu Nuan Nuan frowned in thought. 'But this isn't scientific at all. Isn't rebirth something that only happens in novels? Could the saying 'art imitates life' actually apply to something like this?'
Before Gu Nuan Nuan could figure it out, her mother's gentle voice sounded by her ear, "Nuannuan, sweetie, don't be upset anymore."
Perhaps sensing her daughter's low spirits, Zhang Minzhen looked down, lovingly stroked her head, and explained softly, "The park isn't going anywhere. Dad and Mom can take Nuannuan boating again next Sunday. But your second uncle and his family rarely come back for a visit, so we need to change our plans and go see them at your grandparents' house today."
Hearing her mother's gentle voice and seeing her flawless face and smiling, blossom-like eyes, Gu Nuan Nuan's gaze dimmed for a moment before quickly brightening again.
'If this is rebirth, then I haven't come back too late. At least, Mom right now is still the version from before she was disfigured—the gentle mother who was always attuned to my feelings, who wasn't moody and unpredictable, and who hadn't yet started making all those strict demands of me.'
'This life, I have to stop that tragedy from happening. I refuse to let Mom live her whole life with a disfigured face, trapped in self-pity and sorrow like in my last life.'
She gradually felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with the scene before her. It seemed this had happened once in her childhood and had left a deep impression, but for the life of her, she couldn't recall any more details at the moment.
As she grew older, she had deliberately tried to forget the memories of her family of three, from before her mother and scum dad divorced. Those had once been her most beautiful childhood memories, but they were also a hidden wound from her past life that she couldn't bear for anyone to touch.
Gu Nuan Nuan narrowed her eyes, glancing at the veiled impatience on her scum dad's face. She sneered inwardly. Unfortunately, her mother clearly hadn't noticed his mood yet.
Right now, she was walking beside her husband and daughter, her smile full of happiness and joy.
She had not yet been selfishly and unhesitatingly used as a human shield by her scum dad, which led to someone throwing sulfuric acid on her right cheek and leaving a hideous, uneven scar. Nor had she been hurt by his subsequent actions, which dealt an even greater blow and left her with deep psychological trauma more severe and indelible than the scar itself.
For some reason, a sense of panic began to rise in Gu Nuan Nuan again. Her heart started to THUMP-THUMP erratically. She had a nagging feeling this memory was important and she shouldn't have forgotten it, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't recall it.
Subconsciously, she extended her consciousness into her personal space to check on the nameless plant within. She didn't know what to call it, but it always had a strange way of calming her emotions.
Seeing that everything was normal inside her lackluster space, Gu Nuan Nuan quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Stop spoiling her. She's a big girl, almost ten, but she's still so unreasonable and sensitive. Not like..." Gu Lihui frowned, shooting a dissatisfied glance at the mother and daughter. A flash of disgust crossed his eyes. 'A doting mother spoils the child.' He seemed to realize he had misspoken, pausing before correcting himself. "I've seen other children, kids half a year younger than her, who are far more sensible."
'Heh. Other children half a year younger than me? My scum dad must be talking about his illegitimate fraternal twins, right?'
She thought of his two illegitimate children. They looked so much like their scum dad, as if carved from the same mold. Their grades were good enough for him to show them off everywhere. The only problem was their characters, which were just as terrible as his. Gu Nuan Nuan glanced at her father, her lips curling into a sneer she couldn't suppress.
"What's with that look? Is this how your mother taught you to treat your elders? No wonder everyone says you're vulgar and ill-mannered. I see they were right."
That one glance from Gu Nuan Nuan's seemingly all-seeing eyes made Gu Lihui feel inexplicably guilty. A deeply uncomfortable feeling washed over him, as if his disguise had been stripped away.