8 Reborn

A crow called out. Its harsh, high-pitched caw used to be one of the signature elements of Anoi's winter.

Normally, Anoi would snuggle down in bed with her thick blanket and carry on sleeping, but not today.

Today is destined to be one of those days that turn everything around.

And so, the first "caw-caw", that the crow let out slowly, as if tasting how it sounds, jolted Anoi wide awake. She sat up in a daze and then her body stiffened. Something was off, but she couldn't figure out what exactly. Her back felt as if it was asleep for a whole decade, and then her gaze inadvertently inspected around the room.

Realization quietly trickled into her mind.

There weren't supposed to be any crows. Indeed, she once did live in a place where there were crows. Those birds nested near the house. Thus, in cold mornings , when everything else was serene and silent, they were the only thing disturbing the world's slumber.

It's just that she moved away from that place. And quite a while ago.

Moreover, the room's interior...

This… Wait a moment, it's wrong. All of this is wrong!

This room, it's indeed hers. The bed is also hers. The stuffed bookshelves…Those curtains… She was more than familiar with those.

But.

But it was not her room from the present! This room, it's her room back from when she graduated from college. It was from the past!

Anoi tried pinching herself and rubbing her eyes. Once doing that, her fingers brought attention to the smoothness of the skin. It's too smooth. Way too smooth in fact.

Anoi felt that there were supposed to be bruises. Where are they? What about the cuts?

After all that's happened, there were supposed to be some traces left… What happened, actually?..

In a brief second her gruesome memories returned, dulling the shock from being awakened in a past.

This made Anoi come to her senses.

She no longer felt hesitant and run towards the bathroom. There, she firmly stood in front of the mirror. And its surface flawlessly reflected her appearance from 5 years ago. Her soft hair was freshly cut, falling in a cascade. Now it was ruffled and looked even more like a lion's mane. Her skin was mark-less, with no swelling, let alone injuries or torn off flesh. What's more, it looked healthy and she had no eye-bags, no signs of fatigue that she so often had before from over-working. Her figure was nearly perfect.

It didn't look like herself. And it looked nothing like that mutilated body that she was before "waking up".

Anoi couldn't thinking of a logical explanation. It's surely not possible.

Was she dead? Or did she return? Was her death a dream? Or is this a dream too? Or, those five years were imagined and only now she is truly awake? Was it all just a butterfly dream?*

Or did she truly die and the universe decided to give her another chance?

After pondering for a while, Anoi decided to take it as being reborn.

"Well, no matter what, dead, alive, or dreaming, this opportunity will not be wasted!" She thought.

She will get all that she didn't in her previous life.

The incident of being murdered made her understand something extremely important: the life cannot be "waited". She will not wait for "something to happen". She will act. And she will be the one to decide her path. She will not be at the mercy of others.

All those telling her she can't succeed in her past life - she was a fool to even consider listening to them! All those people telling her she was no good and that she should let go of her dreams - haha! She will not settle! Not today! Not tomorrow! Never!

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A/N : *Butterfly dream: A Chinese philosopher (Chuang Chou) dreamt of being a butterfly and then when he woke up, he was no longer sure if he, in real life, was a philosopher, or a butterfly dreaming of being a philosopher.