"Ah Li, close your eyes."
Han Jifeng's gentle voice was still lingering in her ears. The sound of a gunshot was heard soon after. Boom!
Tang Li suddenly woke up from her dream.
Now, she was sitting on her bed. Her face was pale and her forehead was covered in sweat.
She held her head. There was a bad headache. When she looked up, she saw her reflection on the TV screen.
She was confused for a moment.
Then, she moved the blanket away from her and got down from the bed.
She stood in front of the mirror to take a better look at herself.
Her face was as small as the size of a palm. Her skin was white and soft and her eyebrows were as black as ink. She had curly and messy hair that was the color of the ocean with some greyness in it. It made her tired face rather gentle and beautiful at the same time. She did not seem at all like a girl who had just been kidnapped.
What about her headache?
She stroked her bandaged wound on her forehead softly.
It was not a bullet wound.
Tang Li remembered that she was like that when she had returned to the Li family after two years. She seemed to look like she was nineteen years old.
But, she was, in fact, already twenty-six years old.
She realized that there might be something wrong. She quickly left the washroom.
She looked around the bedroom.
Her heartbeat quickened.
It was neither the Li family nor the Han family.
It was not the place where Han Jifeng had married her and where she had stayed on her own for six years.
She had been reborn back to seven years ago.
All of the images before her death were coming back to her now.
She had an elder sister and they shared the same father but a different mother. Her elder sister, Li Shengxia was kidnapped back then. Han Jifeng had lied to Tang Li and she had gone to save her elder sister because she looked a little like Li Shengxia. Han Jifeng had told the kidnappers that Tang Li was the real daughter of Li Wenyan and Ou Yangqian. She was the eldest daughter of the Li family.
However, Han Jifeng had ordered the police to fire their guns when she was kidnapped by the kidnappers.
When the gun went through her brain, she had seen Han Jifeng's cold and emotionless face.
At that moment, she finally understood that Han Jifeng felt nothing for her.
He had married her just because she looked like Li Shengxia.
He had married her because his love for Li Shengxia was an unrequited love.
So, Tang Li became his most hated person when he had gained enough power and Li Shengxia had returned to their country after her divorce.
Suddenly, Tang Li wanted to laugh. But, her eyes were filled with warm and bitter tears.
Why could she not go back to the time when she was living with her mother in Dian Nan?
Back then, her mother was still alive. She had not succumbed to her illness. Tang Li still had not gone to search for her father.
She could hear voices from outside through the window. Tang Li soon recovered her senses.
All of a sudden, the past came back to her like a wave of the water.
She remembered now how she had gotten the wound on her forehead. She was arguing with Li Wenyan and Ou Yangqian's youngest daughter, Li Yuan'er. They had stumbled down the stairs during the argument.
She had hurt her forehead while Li Yuan'er had broken one of her arms.
Li Yuan'er had cried loudly in the hospital.
Hence, Li Wenyan had locked her up in her room when they went home.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of someone knocking at her door.
"Miss Li'er, the birthday party is about to begin soon. The parliament member has asked me to inform you about this. He wants you downstairs."
It was the Li family's nanny, Aunt Wu, at the door. She was using a key to open her room.
She pushed the door open and soon she saw Tang Li who was sitting in front of the vanity table.
Tang Li put the comb back into the drawer. She smiled softly. "So, my father is not going to lock me up then."
Aunt Wu was a little stunned. She had never thought that Tang Li would smile like that. Since Tang Li had come to the Li family, she seemed like a girl who was quiet and sensitive with low self-esteem. She had never smiled that brightly in front of them. It happened after she had fought with Li Yuan'er.
Aunt Wu was surprised for only a split second.
Soon, she recovered her composure.
She put a neutral color dress on the bed. "Madam has prepared this dress for Miss Li'er. She asked you to dress up nicely and go to the backyard on your own. Madam needs to accompany the old lady to greet the female guests. So, she won't ask anybody else to come and fetch you."
Tang Li smiled happily when she looked at the long dress that was covered with little diamonds. Then, she looked up at Aunt Wu. "Thank my aunt for me. I'll be down soon."
Tang Li got up and walked to the bed when the door was closed behind her.
There was an exquisite brooch on the dress.
The dress was designed especially for Li Yuan'er for her eighteen birthday's present.
Li Yuan'er liked the dress very much. She had only worn it once for her eighteen birthday party.
But, she did not attend Li Yuan'er's birthday party so she had never seen that long dress.
Even after so many years, Tang Li still remembered what had happened during the birthday party. It was this party that had exposed her identity as an illegitimate daughter of the Li family. The rumors about her great vanity and villainous act as a thief were also spread during the party.
Tang Li closed her eyes and suppressed the great emotions in her heart.
She was no longer the little girl who believed everyone. She was not rushing into anything now.
She would never let that happen again given that she had been reborn.