Twelve Years

Hui Yin wondered how many years had passed since her death in this lifetime.

Every time she pricked the hairpin into her neck, there was no passage of time at all, only a brief darkness that enveloped her whole being. She didn't worry about the baby chick's injury as Yue Lao had told her that everything resets every time she was reborn. In this case, Hui Yin had probably not reported Lu Shen to the police and everything proceeded accordingly for her to end up in this same future where she died under Nian Zhen's hands.

After Lu Shen recovered his memories in this lifetime, they got engaged, and Hui Yin married Lu Shen. She didn't continue with her acting career and served Lu Shen like a slave, before finding out that he was cheating on her with Nian Zhen. He then divorced her, and became engaged to Nian Zhen. Hui Yin found out that she was pregnant with Lu Shen's child and was pushed into the busy highway by Nian Zhen, therefore causing the death of Hui Yin and her unborn child via a car accident.

But where did Hui Jinhai fit into all of this?

Not only that, but Hui Yin had to ask Lu Shen what he did to the Wen family too. As a maid, how could she approach him...Hui Yin was so absorbed with her thoughts that she almost crashed into the old woman's back. Thankfully, her feet braked in time or this maid wouldn't have any good days under this führer's tyranny in the future.

"Get your bathroom cleaning supplies from there!" she barked, pointing at the tall janitor's closet to their right.

Hui Yin suddenly had a bad feeling. There were twenty-one bathrooms in the mansion, this old woman couldn't mean for her to clean all of them by herself right?

One has to deeply admire Hui Yin's gut feelings. It was precisely what Old Meng Guang instructed her to do.

...

Finally finished cleaning after seven-thirty in the evening, Hui Yin leaned against the wall, drained of energy.

She was still wearing elbow-length yellow gloves and a scrub brush in her right hand. Her face was haggard, her skin wan. Hui Yin hadn't eaten lunch, and her stomach was grumbling of hunger. Throwing everything into the pail beside her, she crouched into the floor and nearly collapsed.

The mansion had actually been renovated and two more bathrooms were added, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Hui Yin wanted to furiously shout at the old woman: Cleaning a bathroom isn't an easy job, okay! Why are you so evil?

Hui Yin had to crouch to thoroughly scrub the tiles, empty the garbage bins, fill in the empty shampoos, hand wash, tissue rolls, replace the bar soaps, and sanitize the toilet! Admittedly the bathrooms weren't dirty as all of them were cleaned in a regular basis and most were left unused, but it was still a physically demanding job.

A physically demanding job that couldn't be borne by a single person!

Under her breath, Hui Yin cursed the old woman's three huns and seven pos. Dragging the pail listlessly behind her, she made her way into the kitchen hoping for a sumptuous dinner. But when she came in, they were still preparing and cooking the food. Left with no choice, she put the bathroom cleaning supplies back into the janitor's closet and went towards the servants' quarters to shower and change.

When she went into the room, she saw that a girl was sitting on the bed whose closet she had mistaken as hers earlier. Thinking that she still had no idea about her name or how many years had passed, Hui Yin cautiously called out the name old Meng Guang told her earlier.

"...Ninghong?"

The other girl was too busy typing on her phone to pay Hui Yin her full attention and only said a noncommittal "Hmm?"

Hui Yin didn't know how to breach the subject without alarming her, so she said casually, "Miss Bao is really nice, isn't she?"

"Hmm...yes."

Ninghong was still not looking at her.

"Doesn't Miss Bao...look a bit like Miss Hui?"

The fingers that were typing on the phone abruptly stopped, and Ninghong looked at Hui Yin with wide eyes. Noticing that the door was closed, she hissed, "Huian, what's wrong with you today?! Casually saying the name of the boss' late wife!"

Hui Yin blinked her eyes innocently. "I can't say her name?"

"Are you crazy? If the boss hears you, you're going to be in deep trouble! Have you forgotten that he banned us from saying her name casually? Not that anyone would want to, with that look in his face every time the old Madam slips up..."

So that bastard didn't even want to remember that I once lived here? Was I so disgusting to him? Hui Yin's lips held a faint sneer but she immediately restored her blank expression and asked, "I forgot how many years had passed since her death..."

"It's been twelve years." Ninghong finally put down her phone and sighed. "I can't believe how much the boss loved his dead wife though. He visits her grave every day."

Every day?! No wonder her soul hadn't passed on to the next life and reincarnated, it was because this bastard was probably gloating in front of her grave! Hui Yin's soul must have become restless and filled with vengeance, thus she was reborn.

Thinking how Lu Shen wanted to torment her even though she was already dead, Hui Yin really wanted to join forces with Hui Jinhai and kill him.

But that will probably lead to bad karma and she'll be reincarnated as a cockroach...thinking of the drunk deity she had met, Yue Lao, it was a strong possibility.

Twelve years...was a very long time. A sapling could grow into a tree, a slave could be freed [1], and it was enough time for a dead person to be forgotten in people's memories.

Was Bao Bai Lu Shen's new wife? But that couldn't be, she hadn't heard the maids call her 'madam'. Was she his mistress then?

Hui Yin then thought about Jiang Xu and wondered if he was married. Shaking her head to get rid of her unnecessary thoughts, Hui Yin asked Ninghong, "What do you think Miss Nian Zhen feels about it?"

If they were engaged in her past life, the two of them must be married by now. Every time Lu Shen visited her grave, did Nian Zhen feel guilty about what she did to her?

But Ninghong just gave Hui Yin a bewildered look.

"Who's that Nian Zhen you're talking about?"

[1] Reference to a movie ;)