After You Left, I Started Counting Down

The first time Gu Nian transmigrated, it was to see him one last time. The second time, she gave in to greed. The third, she couldn't quit. By the countless time, she finally discovered the price: each time she transmigrated, his life was shortened by a day.

She counted. He had already lost more than three hundred days. From a corner where he couldn't see her, she watched him grow inexplicably tired, suffer headaches, and suddenly stop to catch his breath as he walked. She stood in the cracks between moments, holding a ruler and crossing off one mark every time she saw him. She had to stop. The last thing she could do for him was disappear from his life forever.

He went on to live to seventy, married, raised children, and had a good life. Gu Nian never went to see him again. On every moonlit night, she simply counted once more: if she hadn't given in to greed, could he have lived one more day?

I love you, so I can't see you again.