The gentle tap on her shoulders and the sound of a soft voice stirred Jingyi up. In a groggy state, it took her a moment to realize she fell asleep. With her heart pounding erratically as a result of the dream, she raised her eyes to look at the woman in a white coat who was hovering over.
"Are you okay?" the senior resident asked with a hint of concern.
With her mind still caught up with her dream, she sounded stupid to ask the question, "What happened?"
"You were screaming."
Jingyi looked down for a moment and tried to remember. After her back to back surgery, she ran to her office to write reports but had fallen asleep and started dreaming of that horrible day. By reflex, she pushed the nail on her index finger to her thumb, marking the white skin with red. The pain helped her calm her nerves. Moments later, she regained her gaze on her. Jingyi apologized.
"Was it a bad dream?" the other doctor asked as she handed her a bottle of water.
The words 'it was' was stuck in her throat. But she didn't voice it out, after gulping half of the content of the bottle, she simply said, "It was nothing."
The truth was, it was far from nothing. But she didn't want to delve on it at the moment. She stood and entered the bathroom. Dr. Lin wanted to ask but as everyone knows, in the hospital, Luo Jingyi wasn't close to anyone. Make a step closer and she'll step back 5 steps farther. There's always that impenetrable barrier around her.
"Go and check your interns. Don't just stand there!" came a yell from the bathroom. Dr. Lin left.
Jingyi let cold water run over her face before grabbing a clean towel to pat it try. As she coiled her long hair into a workable ponytail, she stared at herself in the mirror.
What's staring back at her is the original body's appearance which somehow looks like her old self but not quite the same. She is called Luo Jingyi. Where she was petite in her last life, the original was tall. Where she had an angular chin, this one has a perfectly sculpted v-line, making you think the original body had chin augmentation. However, she didn't.
With deep-set eyes and high cheekbones, the original is what people in ancient times would say calamitous beauty.
Her trance was disrupted by a loud bang coming outside.
....
"Don't think because I'm a woman, you can easily bully me. " Luo Jingyi scoffed. Her hand gripped the man's arm before his slap landed on her face and pushed him aside.
The man fell on his bottom, feeling vague pain radiating from his coccyx up to his spine.
He looked up and stared at her beautiful face which made him think she's a perfect specimen. Beauty and brains.
But Dr. Luo isn't a gullible person so he scratched her name off the list of potentials.
Chen Guozhi didn't understand why she seemed to hate him. She didn't mask her contempt and disgust when talking to him. She blocked him at any cost. One time, chased her but the woman told her, "I'll never date skunks." This left a bad taste in his mouth till now.
He is Chen Guozhi. As the son of Minister Chen, he can never allow anyone to trample him. Especially a woman. As proud as he was, he stood up and eyed her sharply.
"Why has my application been rejected for the second time?" He was referring to the open position at the Medical University where Luo Jingyi lectures from time to time. He wanted that assistant clinical professor spot badly. But Luo Jingyi as the program director of medicine in that university passed up his application twice and given it to someone else. His father said, as long as he can take that position, his grandfather's opinion of him will change.
Luo Jingyi shrugged her shoulders and sat on her swivel chair. She looked at him in the eye and spoke coldly, "If you're success outweighs your failure rate, come back and I'll put it into consideration."
"What do you mean?" With brows furrowed, he asked.
"Up to your interpretation."
His nostrils instantly flared and his face reddened. His ego couldn't accept that. "Are you saying I'm an incompetent doctor?!"
"Are you?"
"Answer me!" Anger made him forget that the woman in front of him ranked higher than him in this hospital.
"Well, if you think you are an incompetent doctor, then you are. After all, without your family behind you, you are nothing."
The taunt in her voice and that mirth in her eyes made him snap. He slammed her desk, almost creating a crack on it. Nobody ever dared to say these things to him. People would always bow down their heads to him. After all, he is the son of Minister Chen. Then there's his grandfather. Even if his grandfather retired from his political career, he can still influence lawmakers in their decisions.
That's why people would inadvertently treat him with respect except for this woman. Dr. Luo had always treated him blandly. While others clamor to be his friends, she refused him immediately.
Being called 'nothing' and labeled as 'inept doctor' is a sore spot for him.
"Take it back!"
"Or what?" Luo Jingyi sneered.
The man strode to the shelf that contains awards she won, papers she published and important books. He grabbed one by one and threw them onto the floor. Crashing sounds and pages being torn echoed inside the office.
Luo Jingyi curled her lip in contempt as she watched him threw a fit in rage. He was like a child stomping his feet when he couldn't grasp his favorite toy.
"Very immature." she murmured.
Looking at him, an image overlapped in her head. Someone in her past life. He looked exactly like the best friend of her brother. Like him, he was spoiled rotten to the core that when he didn't get what he wanted, he threw a temper. And because of greed and jealousy, he backstabbed his very own best friend. In front of her and her brother, he defiled her sister-in-law.
Her poor sister-in-law's whimpers were ringing in her ears like it just happened yesterday. Without realizing it, her nails dug into her skin and her stomach clenched.
Snap out of it!
Snap out of it! A voice in her head screamed.
Seconds later, she took a deep breath and calmed herself.
But whether he was the reincarnation of him or not, that was not the deciding factor to turn him down.
He trashed everything. But when he heard nothing from her, he turned and saw her resting her head on one palm like she was very bored.
"Done?" Her voice was laced with mockery.
He clenched his jaw. He can't accept this.
Seconds later, he reminded her. "I think you are forgetting something. I'm Chen Guozhi."
"So?"
"My family owns this hospital."
Luo Jingyi let out a soft laugh and jeered, "Not anymore."
"What do you mean?" His eyes blinked in bewilderment.
"All of your grandfather's shares are on my name now."
"What?!"
The Chen family owned the hospital in the beginning but they suffered setbacks in the past so they sold shares to other people. But still, with them holding the largest, they are the decision-makers in the hospital. To be precise, it's his grandfather.
All industries under the Chen family have gone bankrupt due to poor management of his children and grandchildren. Therefore, the old man became cynical and untrusting in parting his last shares to his family.
"Impossible!" He shouted. He didn't dare to believe what she was saying was true. If it's gone, then the Chen family is nothing but an empty shell.
"He will never give it to an outsider," he added seconds later.
"It's possible. All I did was give him a nudge." Luo Jingyi took out a brown envelope from her drawer and threw it to him.
There was a foreboding feeling in him when her beautiful lips were drawn in an arc. Without hesitation, he opened it and his eyes instantly widened when he saw its contents.
"Where did you get this?"
Everything in this folder contained detailed records of his illegal dealings and transactions using company funds, including his other crimes. If his grandfather had seen it, then he's really dead.
"Don't tell me you showed it to him?"
"Of course. Why shouldn't I?"
When the epiphany sank in, his posture slackened as he shook his head. He screamed NO repeatedly. He can't believe this. Everything he worked for will go to the drain. He must get the hospital shares no matter what. It's all because of this woman that he couldn't.
"You evil wench!" The man fuming in anger marched to her direction, wanting to wring her neck. But odds were on him today because the door flew open and men in uniform marched in.
"Chen Guozhi, you are under arrest for multiple murder charges."
Chen felt his world crumble. Unsettled to the outcome of his years of hard work, he attempted to escape. He struggled even with handcuffs as they dragged him out.
"Remember this, I, Chen Guozhi will never let you go. Just wait, I'm going to kill you!" his threat reverberated inside the office.
"Do your worst." Luo Jingyi smirked.
….
"Dr. Luo, thank you for your cooperation." The man in uniform said.
Luo Jingyi nodded. It was nothing because she wanted to deal with the Chen family. It was killing two birds with one stone. She got the shares she wanted. At the same time, she sent Chen Guozhi to prison for murder. He lured interns and used them as experimental specimens. The original body's sister was one of his victims.
When her assistant closed the door, Jingyi murmured, "Ah, it's finally quiet." She told the assistant to leave the mess and give her 10 minutes on her own.
Luo Jingyi ambled to the floor to ceiling windows and looked at the horizon. Towering buildings, billboards that advertise business and products, big LED TVs, multi-lane traffic, a large chain of stores greeted her eyes which weren't as startling as they were the first time she'd seen them 8 years ago. Until now, she couldn't believe how much the world has changed. Compared to ancient times, the present world lived in comfort and convenience. Luckily, the original body's memory was retained. It helped her learn the ropes of this society.
However, she's left baffled. This bizarre phenomenon of rebirth was something science can never explain. Questions linger in her head.
Why was she reborn in this body? For what purpose? Was it to relive her past life over and over again?
Was she given the chance to right her wrongs?
Or perhaps, the gods just pitied her?
Whatever the answer is, one thing is certain. She, Jingyi will never waste this hard-won chance.
And if there's someone she's grateful for, it's this woman's body. The original Luo Jingyi was silenced for the secrets that have to be buried into the graves.
"Are you happy now? Go and be at peace. Your grievances, I'll collect them one by one. I'll let them get a taste of their own medicine." Luo Jingyi whispered as if someone's around listening to her.