In her previous life, Lin Wan lived like a piece of wood trained to follow every rule.
She buttoned her school uniform all the way to the top, spoke so gently it was as if she feared disturbing the air, and even when she fell for someone, all she dared to do was fold her love letter into a paper plane and sneak it into his schoolbag amid the after-school crowd. She didn't even have the courage to look up at him.
And what did she get for it?
Eighteen years with the label of a good girl earned her nothing but her parents' insistence that "girls should know their place," her crush holding hands with a bright, outgoing girl from the class next door, and her own silent, dust-like disappearance in an accident.
When Lin Wan opened her eyes again, she found herself back in the summer when she was sixteen.
Cicadas buzzed noisily. Sunlight streamed through the classroom windows, casting dappled shadows across the desks. The teacher at the front was still droning through a tedious passage, while inside her desk lay an undelivered love letter addressed to Jiang Yi, the school's heartthrob.
This time, Lin Wan calmly took out the letter. In front of the students in the row ahead, she used her pretty fingernail to slit open the envelope, then tossed it lightly into the trash.
The boy in front turned around in surprise. "Lin Wan, you..."
She looked up and smiled, her lips curling. A hint of careless mischief glimmered in her eyes, like a little fox that had just stolen some candy. "It wasn't written well. I'll write it again."
From that day on, everyone noticed that Lin Wan had changed.
She no longer wore her faded school uniform all the time. Every so often, she'd change into a floral dress, its hem brushing the corridor as it trailed a faint scent of gardenias. She began daring to meet Jiang Yi's eyes, and when girls crowded around him, she would lazily
