Ruyan felt as if her consciousness rose slowly from deep, dark water.
Her eyelids were heavy.
Her breath was shallow.
Her limbs numb.
Voices floated around her—soft, trembling, urgent.
Then she heard it— a trembling voice beside her ear.
"Young Miss… Miss Rouyuan, please wake up… please…"
The voice cracked with fear.
A little girl—no older than eight—kneeling by her bedside, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Look like a maid - dressed in simple, clean robes, clutching the sleeve of Ruyan's blanket desperately.
At Ruyan's other side, a boy was sobbing so hard his tiny shoulders shook.
"Ah Yuan… Meimei… don't leave me…" His voice broke completely.
This was Bai Yanyu, her second brother—fragile, gentle, terrified.
Standing right behind him was a tall youth around thirteen or fourteen.
Sword-straight posture.
Sharp brows.
Eyes cold and steady like a future warrior — but right now, filled with fear he was trying hard to hide.
Bai Yunchen, her eldest brother.
His hands were clenched so tightly, his knuckles were white.
Near the bed stood a man in soldier's armor—broad-shouldered, disciplined, his jaw tense.
His dark eyes stayed fixed on her face, waiting for any sign of movement.
Bai Longyuan, her father. A powerful Great General.
He was speaking in a low, controlled voice to an elderly physician with gray hair tied neatly and robes signifying a respected healer.
"Master, her breathing—"
"I'm observing," the physician murmured.
"Give her time, Your Excellency."
Ruyan's mind spun.
Where… was she?
Why was everyone calling her Rouyuan instead of Ruyan?
Why were their faces unfamiliar?
Ruyan blinked slowly.
Her head pounded as if two worlds were trying to fit inside one skull.
She pushed herself up — Her chest tightened.
She tried to move — tried to sit up —
But her head pounded violently.
Everything blurred.
And then —
A wave of memories not her own struck her like lightning.
A small girl in the pond.
Swimming towards the boy, trying to pull him up from the pond.
Cold water swallowing lungs, too small to fight.
A desperate boy screaming her name.
Darkness closing.
Ruyan gasped.
Her palms pressed against the blanket and froze.
Her hands —small, tiny — lifted into her view.
They weren't hers.
Not adult hands.
Not the hands that performed CPR.
Not the hands that mixed herbs with her grandfather.
Not the hands that carried injured children in the ER.
She stared in horror.
Child's hands.
Her hands.
Her heart lurched violently.
Confusion crashed over her.
Her vision twisted — And she fell back onto the bed.
"YOUNG MISS!" the maid screamed.
"MEIMEI!" Bai Yanyu cried, climbing closer.
"Master, help her!" Bai Yunchen's voice shook.
"Yuan Er!" her father barked, fear shredding his composure.
Then everything went dark again.
A New Life, A New Family
A full week passed before she opened her eyes again.
She could move now.
Eat now.
Sit in the sunlight.
She was seated at a small garden table, hands wrapped around a warm porcelain cup, watching her second brother, Bai Yanyu picking flowers nearby with a shy smile.
Her maid, Xiaoya, brewed tea nervously.
Bai Yunchen stood a short distance away, arms folded, watching over them with silence, protectiveness far beyond his age.
Ruyan breathed slowly, letting the scent of herbs drift gently through the courtyard.
She remembered everything now.
She remembered the accident.
The crash.
The voices fading.
A faint voice calling her.
She had died.
She looked down at her tiny palms.
Her new body.
Her new life.
She swallowed hard.
"I died," she whispered softly.
"And… this girl died too."
The thought tore painfully at her heart.
Tears pricked her eyes before she could stop them.
The gentle face of her grandfather flashed in her mind—his tired smile, his trembling hands the day her parents died, his soft voice calling her "Yan Er" when she helped him in the clinic.
"Grandpa…" she whispered, voice breaking.
Would he be alone now?
Would he be waiting for her to come home, not knowing she never would?
Her chest ached.
"I hope… I hope she wakes up in my old body," Ruyan whispered into the wind.
"So, Grandpa won't be lonely."
Bai Yanyu looked up from picking flowers and ran to her happily.
Bai Yanyu noticed her tears and rushed toward her, dropping the flower crown he had been trying to weave.
"Ah Yuan! Meimei, are you hurting? Do you feel dizzy again?"
He grabbed her hand with his small warm fingers.
Ruyan wiped her eyes quickly and forced a smile.
"No… No, Yu Ge. Ah Yuan is fine."
He sits beside Ruyan and hugging her tightly.
His small body trembled.
"I thought… I thought you wouldn't wake up again…" he whispered.
Her heart softened.
This little boy—her new brother—loved her.
Cared for her.
Feared losing her.
A gentle, fragile child who had cried himself sick when she almost died.
She hugged him back, resting her head at Bai Yanyu chest.
Bai Yanyu slowly put his chin on her soft hair.
"I'm here," she whispered.
"I won't go anywhere."
Not again.
Not this time.
She had lost her old world.
She would not lose this one.
Across the garden, her elder brother Bai Yunchen watched silently, arms crossed, his sharp eyes softening at the sight of his siblings together.
The young man—her father, Bai Longyuan—stood beside him.
His expression was unreadable, but the relief in his gaze was unmistakable.
The Master who had saved her life smiled faintly from the veranda.
This family… this life…
She had been given a second chance.
Ruyan looked up at the sky, the sunlight warm on her face.
If I'm here now…I am Bai Rouyuan now…
Then maybe… maybe that little girl is in my old world.
Maybe Grandpa won't be alone.
Maybe fate isn't so cruel after all.
She clasped Xiaoya's hand gently.
Her lips curved into a determined smile.
"So, this is my second life… Bai Rouyuan."
She looked around at her new family—wounded, complicated, broken in places…
But hers.
And she would protect them all.
No matter what.