1 Rebirth

The walls were pristine white and the curtains were blue. Snow hung from the treetops outside the windows. The sun rays shone through the windows intermittently. A strong smell of disinfectant filled the air.

This was a single ward in a hospital.

The incongruous sounds of a young couple quarreling resonated through the hospital floor.

"Didn't I tell you that I was too busy with the crew to leave? I gave you the gift you wanted. What are you still upset about?"

"Is Christmas only about presents? Is it still Christmas when your husband isn't around? If I only wanted presents for the holidays, I could have bought them myself."

"Xia Youqing, can you stop kicking up a fuss? I'm tired as a dog every day. How do I have time to go home for Christmas? Can you grow up?"

"You just don't want to go home or spend time with me. Just tell me directly. Why are you using your job as an excuse?

"You… "

"Stop arguing!" Youguang struggled to sit up in the hospital bed. She was a little stunned to see her parents so young.

"You awake, baby?" Hearing his daughter's voice, Ning Yi hurried to her bedside.

"Why are you guys here?" She reached out and tapped on her head. Only then did Youguang realize that there was a needle tapped to her hand.

Because she had moved too abruptly, there was some bleeding.

Don't move. What do you need? Tell Daddy. There's a needle on your hand." Ning Yi quickly held on to his daughter's little wrist, afraid that she would rip the needle off accidentally and hurt herself.

"What time is it now?"

Youguang was not worried about the needle in her hand. She was more concerned about the situation she was in.

She remembered that she was driving around to avoid the paparazzi…

No, it was because a child suddenly ran out at the intersection. She had steered the car in the opposite direction, but unfortunately she crashed into a large car coming from the other side.

So… was she reborn?

"It's after one in the afternoon. Are you hungry, Baby? Shall I get you some porridge?"

"I'm not asking about the time. I'm asking for the date."

"January third of '04. Baby, why are you asking?"

"Oh…" Ning Youguang lowered her gaze. She was barely five years old now. No wonder her hands looked so small.

Depressing…

After a long silence, she made her decision.

"I want to be discharged."

How can you do that? Baby, you're still sick."

"No, I want to be discharged now."

Perhaps it was because of what she had experienced in her previous life. Since she was young, she would stay in the highest-class ward in the hospital whenever she fell ill. But her parents were never by her side.

Although it was her grandfather's hospital and the doctors and nurses always took good care of her, she still hated the lonely, cold feeling in the hospital ward.

"Can you wait until you're better before you leave the hospital?" Xia Youqing coaxed her daughter.

"No, I'm leaving the hospital now. It's just a fever, and nothing serious. I'll write a prescription later. Just help me get the medicine and I'll take them."

"Wow, baby, you're amazing. You even know how to prescribe medicine." Ning Yi was very patient with his precious young daughter and did not take her childish words seriously.

Seeing her parents' responses, Youguang couldn't be bothered to explain and attempted to recall her childhood in her previous life.

Growing to adulthood wasn't easy. It was truly annoying to live again as a five-year-old child.

But her nature was such. Even if fate dealt her a bad hand, she had to play it the best that she could.

"Where's Auntie Huang?"

"Auntie Huang is on leave. Her daughter has given birth and she has returned to see the baby. She won't be back for a few days. Do you miss her?"

Youguang couldn't help but roll her eyes at her father who was coaxing her in a cliche manner.

"Why would I miss her? Should I miss her for sitting at home and watching TV everyday, or for giving me tomato and egg noodles for every meal?"

Ning Yi and Xia Youqing were dumbfounded.

"Don't look at me like you've seen a ghost. That's how I spend my time when you guys aren't home. I watch TV and eat noodles at home everyday." That was why she'd been malnourished as a child in her past life, and was as thin as a bean sprout.

However, Ning Yi and Xia Youqing were used to seeing skinny girls in the entertainment industry and did not think that there was anything wrong with their daughter being so thin.

Auntie Huang even managed to wheedle red packets from them and have them arrange work opportunities for her daughter.

She was young at that time and followed the nanny at home every day. She had no idea that a nanny like Auntie Huang should have been fired eight hundred times over for all her deeds.

Jin City, Yunshan District.

Ning Yi and Xia Youqing drove their sick daughter home in a daze.

They also stopped along the way to get medicine from the pharmacy under their daughter's guidance.

At this moment, the air was filled with the bitter smell of Chinese medicine brewing in the kitchen.

"Well, let's talk about the arrangements from now on." The fair and pretty little girl sat firmly on the sofa, clutching a cartoon thermos in her hands.

This should have been an extremely cute and adorable scene.

However, this cute child was too sharp and calm to the extremes that Xia Youqing and Ning Yi couldn't help but sit across from her in all seriousness.

"What else do you need us to do? Just say it, Baby."

"Call Auntie Huang first. Tell her she's been fired."

"Okay, I'll call her in a bit."

"Call her now." There was no way Youguang was going to drag this out. "Don't believe anything she says even if it sounds good. If she makes a fuss about not wanting to be fired, tell her we can meet in court."

"Okay, I'll call now." In a panic, Ning Yi took out his phone and called Auntie Huang.

As soon as the call went through, a gentle and loving voice came from the other end. A flurry of words sounded from the phone expressing concern and care for Ning Yi.

As this call was made at his daughter's request. Ning Yi had put the phone on speaker mode.

Auntie Huang had always shown concern for them, hence Xia Youqing didn't think much of it.

But on the other hand, Youguang had goosebumps all over.

It was too disgusting.

She was such a two-faced character.

Youguang signaled Ning Yi with her eyes to ignore the small talk and cut straight to the point.

As expected, as soon as Ning Yi spoke of firing Auntie Huang, cries came from the other side of the line.

Ning Yi recalled what his daughter had told them earlier on the way home—about Auntie Huang's evil deeds while taking care of her. He endured his mounting anger and coldly recited his daughter's instructions. As expected, the cries from the other end of the line stopped quickly.

"Baby, I'm sorry. Mom and Dad didn't know Auntie Huang would be like this…"

"She's just paying lip service, right? There's a lot you guys don't know. Just let her go now. We can't hold her accountable for anything else."

Aunt Huang was bad, but her actions could not be considered as child abuse. It was at most poor care administered for a child.

Youguang felt that since she was reborn, she should just fire this nanny who did no good for her childhood. All she had in mind was just damage control.

No point crying over spilled milk and getting too involved with garbage.

"… "

To think that his daughter even knows about the nanny's two-faced behavior. There was indeed something odd about her, but Ning Yi did not dare say it.

"The second thing is, when do you plan to get a divorce?"

"You You, you know about it?" Xia Youqing's heart almost stopped beating.

"Haven't you been planning a divorce for some time?"

It was better to get a divorce as soon as possible, while the relationship had not reached its tipping point yet—before the both of them had any affairs or hated each other to the core.

"Baby, do you want Mom and Dad to get a divorce?" Ning Yi took a deep breath.

He'd just realized that he couldn't regard his daughter as he'd usually do. And that her words were spoken with purpose.

"Yes. If you can, I want both of you to get a divorce immediately, right now, without any further entanglement."

In her previous life, their relationship status had been in the midst of divorce, marriage, divorce, and marriage. Their patchy marriage had been in turmoil and had contributed to many headlines in China's entertainment news.

In the parking lot of the Civil Affairs Bureau's administrative building.

They had argued every day about getting a divorce and now that they had done it, Ning Yi and Xia Shiqing could not explain the feeling of emptiness they were experiencing.

"Where are we going now?" Ning Yi asked after a quiet moment in the car.

"What do we do with You You?" This was hanging on Xia Youqing's mind. "I'm returning to the crew in two days."

The nanny had just been fired. There was no one left to take care of the child.

"Just drop me off at Grandpa's." Youguang had considered this issue long before she dealt with the immediate sequence of events.

"How will that be possible? Your paternal grandparents definitely won't agree." Ning Yi sighed.

"If they don't agree, I'll have to trouble you to deal with them."

Anyway, she was not going to stay at her paternal grandparents' house again. Over there, she had no freedom or autonomy at all.