Lost Love Can Be Reclaimed (Double Rebirth)

Main story complete. [Please check out my upcoming stories, Scattered Blossoms on My Skirt and The Girl Xiaozhu, on my author page!] Synopsis: Shen Yaoling and Ning Dan have been married for twenty years. They are old enough to have children and grandchildren gathered around them, yet someone still reminisces about the past in front of her. Back then, they say, Shen Yaoling was desperate to marry and pursued Ning Dan so relentlessly that he had no choice but to give up the woman he loved and marry her. Shen Yaoling isn't offended when she hears this. She even laughs and sighs, "We were young and headstrong. We thought that the person we loved was worth more than any treasure, and no amount of banging our heads against a wall could make us give up. Looking back now, I really wonder if it was worth it." After she says this, no one in the room believes her. But after falling asleep, she really does return to the age of sixteen or seventeen, before the Ning family and hers begin discussing a marriage. Shen Yaoling thinks it over for a long time, then smiles calmly and tears up the marriage proposal she was going to send to the Ning family. Having been through it all, she knows that love and marriage are nothing special. Reborn once, Shen Yaoling would rather cherish her youth. A young woman's heart is worth more than gold, stones, or jade. Her spirit naturally yearns to encompass the clouds and lakes. Why waste it on a partner she had to struggle so hard to win? Though she is small and insignificant, she hopes that even a trace of dust may help the mountains and seas, and that the last glimmer of a candle may add light to the sun and moon. - Eighteen-year-old Ning Dan often has a strange feeling that he has somehow missed things he knows nothing about. One windy night beneath the moon, he stands on the wall and glances down, only to see Shen Yaoling at the window in the neighboring courtyard, watching him. In that instant, he finally remembers. Those strange feelings weren't just his imagination. Shen Yaoling is already the wife who will spend her life by his side. And at the very moment he remembers this, he is climbing over the courtyard wall to meet another woman he loves. Ning Dan's heart tightens instinctively, and he tries to apologize and explain. But in the next instant, Shen Yaoling merely smiles at him, then gently closes the window as if she doesn't want to disturb him. - Reason for entering the competition: Before being reborn, the heroine Shen Yaoling studied at a medical school. She was held back and never got to put her abilities to use, leaving her with a lifelong regret that lasted half a century. After being reborn, she changes direction and studies geography, putting her talents to use at last. Together with her friends and companions, she makes her dream come true. - - Here's the synopsis for my upcoming story, The Girl Xiaozhu ↓~ A stranger named Mr. Qu finds Xiaozhu and asks her to marry him. Xiaozhu lives in a slum. All the money she owns couldn't buy a single ham, and every night she worries that rats will gnaw at her ankles. Mr. Qu, on the other hand, is tall and handsome, as graceful as a jade tree in a grove. He settles the bills she can't afford, gives her a spacious courtyard with a banyan tree, and rescues her friend from prison after she is jailed for theft. Xiaozhu seems to have no reason to refuse. She goes through with the wedding. Mr. Qu takes her hand and gives her a gentlemanly kiss on the cheek, calling her by a strange name: "Bai Xiujin." She looks almost exactly like the Bai Xiujin in the photograph. Xiaozhu becomes Miss Bai, Mrs. Qu. She hears that the real Miss Bai and Mr. Qu were deeply in love while she was studying abroad. At night, Xiaozhu holds Mr. Qu by his sweat-damp shoulders and trembles as she complains, "But I don't even know how to say 'afternoon tea' in French." "I'll teach you," he says, pressing his lips to hers. Two years later, Xiaozhu meets the real Bai Xiujin and studies her carefully. She decides that they aren't actually all that alike. Xiaozhu wrinkles her nose and picks up her suitcase. Miss Bai asks where she's going, and what she'll do if she runs into Mr. Qu. "If I see him, I'll say goodbye." Xiaozhu heads out, waving her hand. "Séparation pour toujours. I learned that much." *Séparation pour toujours: French for "separation forever." - Theme: Pursue loftier goals in life, weave personal dreams into the dreams of an era, and give life greater depth.