Reincarnation?

In the operation room of First Hospital in the city of Yanjing, the surgery came to an end.

"Patient Ling Hong, Age 19, Vital status: Comatose" Jiang Yan sighed and made his report. He recalled how the patient came in – blood dripping from his forehead and chest, with a broken leg and carrying a unconscious girl in his embrace, he shouted in a coarse voice "Keep her safe-" before passing out. He was rushed into the operating room and the surgery carried out.

The girl had woken up earlier and started bawling non-stop when she saw the unconscious man. After calming her down they understood how the events came about. The unconscious boy was her brother who had taken her to the city for the first time but they were attacked by gangsters who saw the beauty of the girl and wanted to capture her for their boss. She then hit her head on a nearby stall before fainting. According to locals, they had seen the young man running away with the girl while fighting gangsters.

"Your brother is safe now, he'll be waking up in a few days." he smiled and said to Hua Meimei who refused to leave her brother's side.

"Little miss, can you provide your details? It's the Hospital's policy." The nurse said in a soft tone, not expecting much response as they had heard earlier that the two siblings were from a village outside the city without much world experience. But to her surprise, the girl nodded and started filling out the details in a clean and precise manner. After both the doctor and nurse left, she turned to her brother and leaned forward, sleeping with her head on the edge of the bed.

"Brother, wake up. Meimei is sorry and will be a good girl from now, so please come back soon" she whispered while holding back her tears. He was the only family she had left after Grandma Chen died over a year ago. None of the three were blood-related, but the little family was filled with more love than any other families. Her grandma was a great doctor capable of curing any diseases, and her brother was her hero – he taught her everything she knew. She gradually dozed off, hoping her brother would wake up soon.

Ling Hong found himself in a dark place when he opened his eyes. 'Don't tell me the path to rebirth is this dark and gloomy?' he thought, obviously confused about where he ended up. Suddenly he saw a bright light in front of him. It was a soul fragment, he recognized it at a glance as he was a soul cultivator in the past. But for some reason he felt an odd sense of familiarity with the soul, as if it was something close to him. He reached out to the light hoping to get a better idea, when all of a sudden, the soul fragment lunged forward and entered inside him.

"This soul is... me? The part that I lost during that fight?" Ling Hong muttered, an incredulous expression on his face. He now understood that he had not been reborn but rather pulled towards the missing part of his soul, reincarnating in a new body and fusing with his lost part of the soul. He calmed his mind and started to focus on integrating his soul fragments.

While the nurse was changing the bandages, the body of Ling Hong suddenly twitched before his eyes opened up with a deep stare. The frightened nurse fell backward, alarming Meimei who was sleeping on her brother's bed. She yawned and woke up, rubbing her eyes before her sight landed on the weak body of her brother trying to sit up in a confused manner.

"Brother! You finally woke up, I was so worried uuwwuuu…" she cried out while hugging him. Ling Hong was still in a dazed state as the process of merging of his soul was still ongoing, but the cries of the little girl brought him a moment of clarity. Although he only had fragments of memory regarding this girl in front of him, an overwhelming emotion of care and love came from deep within.

He reached out and patted her back, soothing her till she got tired and fell asleep. He carried her to the bed and covered her with the quilt before limping toward the window. His room was on the 12th floor of the hospital so he had a good view of the city.

"Earth, huh. So this is really reincarnation I guess." he spoke to himself while he gazed at the city below.