Mom gave us two choices. Go with her to the Sterling household. I could attend the same elite private high school as Miss Jade Sterling, but college funding would be limited. Stay home for school. After graduating high school, I could apply to overseas universities. My brother Mason jumped in first: “Mom, I want to go with you to the Sterlings’.” Mom smiled with relief and turned to look at me. “Older siblings should let the younger ones have their way. I’ll fund your overseas education later—that’s me doing my duty as a mother.” Looking at my brother clutching Mom’s arm with that expectant expression, I knew—he had been reborn too. Too bad Jade Sterling would never fall for him. “Cameron, the employer’s family is busy. Mason and I have to leave today. Take care of yourself at home.” After Mom finished packing, she left with Mason. Nothing like the previous life when she stayed a full ten days trying to persuade Mason to go with her to the Sterlings’. In my past life, after Mom presented those two choices, Mason had also jumped to choose first—except he’d chosen to study abroad. After my parents divorced, I was awarded to Dad. For ten whole years, Mom never came to see me once, yet I thought about her every single day. It wasn’t until Dad died and social services contacted her that I finally had a “mom” again. When Mason chose overseas study, I was thrilled. I could finally spend day and night with Mom. But Mom wanted to take Mason instead. She stayed home for ten days, constantly trying to persuade Mason to go with her. Mason stubbornly believed there were more opportunities abroad. Even when the employer’s family urged Mom to return, he never changed his mind. And so I went with Mom to the Sterling household, where I met Jade. She had an aloof temperament and exceptional intelligence. She was the object of admiration for many boys at school. I couldn’t help being drawn to her too. But I knew we were from two different worlds. I could only keep those feelings hidden. Until the night of the graduation dance, when Jade came back from the party slightly drunk and pulled me to a corner of the terrace. “Cameron, come with me to the East Coast for college, okay?” I forced myself to look away. “I can’t afford it.” Jade laughed, and the whole night seemed to brighten. “I can help you.” In that moment, I finally knew—the person I’d quietly loved for three years felt the same way about me. Overwhelming happiness crashed over me. I excitedly told Mom that Miss Sterling was willing to sponsor my education abroad. What I got in return was a hard slap across the face. “Absolutely not! When you chose to come with me to the Sterlings’, you already gave up that path. The money I’ve saved is for Mason.” I covered my face and tried to explain. “Miss Sterling said I don’t need to pay tuition. She’ll help me.” Mom let out a contemptuous laugh and looked me up and down with disdain. “You really don’t know your place, do you? Trying to latch onto someone for money and opportunity? Think about who you are and who she is. People like her—it’s just a passing fancy. When she gets bored, I’ll be the one cleaning up the mess. Don’t even think about going abroad. And if you dare disobey me, stop calling me Mom. Also, stay away from Miss Sterling. Don’t affect my job.” Maybe because I’d lacked maternal love since childhood, what I feared most was being abandoned by Mom again. I was devastated when I turned Jade down. But Jade solemnly told me: “Distance isn’t a problem. I’ll come back to see you often.” After she started college, we began a long-distance relationship. She flew back to see me several times every month. The sweetness of love filled me with hope for the future. When Mom found out we were actually together, she went behind my back and asked Jade to look after Mason while she was overseas, since he was there too. Jade didn’t understand my family’s complicated situation. Out of kindness, she agreed to be friends with him. Then in senior year, I received a message from Mason, along with a photo. In the photo, Mason was shirtless with his arm around an obviously drunk Jade. The background was a hotel room. [Bro, I’m the one Jade needs. Stop clinging to her.] After three years with Jade, I knew her character well. My first thought was that she might have been set up. Furious, I called Mason to demand an explanation. But I didn’t notice the delivery truck rushing at me from the side. After my soul left my body, I heard the conversation between Mom and Mason. “Your brother’s death came at just the right time. Seize the opportunity and win Jade’s heart. You won’t have to worry about anything after that.” Mason laughed smugly. “You had the foresight, Mom, getting Jade to agree to ‘look after’ me. That’s how I got the chance to take that photo when she got drunk at her celebration dinner. I only meant to make Cameron back off on his own. I didn’t expect him to actually have an accident—heaven really helped me out. After Jade’s emotions settle down in a while, I’ll comfort her more. There’ll be opportunities.” I’d always thought that even if Mom was biased, she at least had some maternal feelings for me. I never imagined she wouldn’t even grieve my death. My heart turned to ash as I drifted to find Jade. But I discovered that Jade had killed herself in her apartment, clutching my photo. Only then did I realize—Jade’s feelings for me ran deep enough to transcend life and death. Hatred consumed me. I used my last bit of strength to trip Mason as he went downstairs. Watching him tumble down the stairs to his death, my soul finally dispersed completely. I never expected to return to that day when we chose our fates. Except this time, Mason chose to go to the Sterlings’. He thought that by going to the Sterlings’, he’d have the advantage of proximity. Too bad he was wrong. Jade would never fall for him. And I would make them pay for what they did in my past life.
As soon as Mom and Mason left, my aunt hinted that I should move to campus early, using the excuse that they needed to renovate the room. Before, when Mom worked as a live-in housekeeper at the Sterlings’, she had us temporarily stay at my uncle’s house. She gave my aunt money for expenses every month. In my past life, after Mom and I went to the Sterlings’, she added more money and asked them to take good care of Mason. Mason lived at my uncle’s house like half an owner. Now it seemed Mom had stopped the payments to my aunt. I didn’t argue. I packed my few belongings and left. Before school started, I had one important thing to do. After leaving my uncle’s house, I went to the bank. Before Dad died, he’d set up a small trust fund for me every birthday. Only I knew about it. I withdrew the money and took an intercity bus to a quiet cemetery on the city outskirts. The wind and rain were fierce that day. I hid behind an old oak tree in my raincoat, waiting. Near dusk, sixteen-year-old Jade ran in through the rain. Several security guards with troubled expressions followed behind her. Jade was soaked through, her eyes stubborn. She walked straight to a gravestone and began pulling aside the grass next to it with her hands. “Miss, the rain’s too heavy. It might have washed away. Let’s come back when the weather’s better.” Jade acted as if she hadn’t heard. Not until she was exhausted, her eyes dimming, did I step out from behind the tree. “Excuse me, are you looking for this?” I pulled out a necklace from inside my coat. Jade’s eyes lit up. She quickly walked over. Seeing how soaked she was, I raised my umbrella higher to shield her from the rain too. Jade carefully took the necklace, her tense expression finally relaxing. “How did you get this?” In my past life, after Jade and I got together, she once said her biggest regret from her youth was losing this necklace she’d made with her mother the summer she turned sixteen. So I came here to help her make up for that regret and create an opportunity for us to meet. I shrank my shoulders and said softly: “The rain washed it to the roadside just now. I picked it up. I saw you’d been searching for a long time and guessed it might be something important to you.” “Thank you. It’s very important to me. What do you want as a reward?” Though Jade thanked me, her tone still carried distance. My voice trembled slightly: “Then… treat me to a bowl of hot soup, will you? I’m cold and hungry.” Jade paused, then couldn’t help but laugh softly. “Okay.” Half an hour later, at my insistence, Jade and I ate her first-ever cup of instant noodles together at a gas station convenience store. “I didn’t expect hot soup could taste this good.” When we were together before, she always said this kind of simple food was the most relaxing. After eating, Jade wanted to get my contact information to thank me properly. I smiled and shook my head. “If we’re meant to, we’ll meet again.” The moment I turned away, I bit my lip hard to keep the tears from falling. How I wanted to rush over and hug her tight, to tell her everything from our past life, to tell her how much I’d missed her. But doing that would probably just make her think I was crazy. I didn’t leave my contact information because I knew her trajectory for the next few years. We were destined to “run into each other.” Jade would think it was all fate’s arrangement, not my calculated plan.
Finally, school started. High school coursework was ridiculously easy for me. I began planning my second “chance encounter” with Jade. During the long weekend in October, I found temporary work doing facility maintenance at an ice hockey rink. On the third morning, Jade came to practice. I watched silently from the sidelines. When she finished a round of practice and was resting, I walked by with a mop and said casually, as if to myself: “If you could curl your wrist inward just a bit more when passing, the trajectory would be trickier.” Jade whipped around. Though I couldn’t see her eyes clearly behind her visor, I could feel her surprise. “It’s you? You know hockey?” I didn’t really know anything about it—she’d told me herself in our past life. I looked confused: “A little bit, I guess… Have we met before?” Jade took off her helmet, surprise lighting up her eyes. I showed appropriate realization: “Oh! You’re the person from the cemetery!” At noon, we ate together in the break area. “You look pretty young. Why are you working here?” “Shh, don’t let the manager hear. I put down an older age on my ID.” “Do you need money badly?” “After my dad died, Mom took the insurance payout and left with my brother. I have to earn my own living expenses.” Jade was silent for a moment. “This afternoon during practice, would you be willing to be my temporary training partner?” I looked hesitant: “But I still need to clean the locker rooms…” “I’ll pay you a thousand dollars an hour.” “No problem, boss!” Jade burst out laughing and nearly choked. After afternoon practice ended, Jade wanted to invite me to dinner. Just as I was about to accept, I glimpsed Mason peeking around outside the rink’s glass doors. “Next time! I need to get back to work.” When settling payment, we naturally exchanged contact information. Back at my temporary residence, a message from Jade popped up. [Did you get home safe?] I couldn’t help but smile, but only replied with one word: [Yeah.]
After the holiday ended, I began preparing to register for the interscholastic debate competition. In my past life, though Jade and I both lived at the Sterling household, we stayed on different floors. At school, she was in the gifted program while I was in regular classes. We were two parallel lines that should never have met. It was a debate competition that made Jade notice me. This time, I wanted to stand on that stage even earlier. However, when I had all my materials ready, I discovered that my small-town high school had no plans to register for the competition at all. I didn’t give up. I brought a sleeping bag and camped out in the hallway outside the principal’s office. Unable to withstand my persistence, the principal finally agreed to let the school enter a team, though we’d have to cover travel expenses ourselves. Fortunately, there were plenty of interested students at school. We formed a team, prepared, held practice debates—we were swamped. Jade occasionally sent me messages. I always stopped what I was doing and read them several times before finally restraining my emotions and replying briefly with just a few words. Before the end of first semester, I led our team into the finals. At the venue before the competition, Jade spotted me immediately. “Are you working part-time here again?” I tapped the school name badge on my chest. “I’m here to compete in the finals.” Jade glanced at the badge, her pupils contracting slightly. “You’re ‘that’ debater from Oak Ridge High?” “‘That’?” Jade’s expression turned serious, her gaze intent. “With your school’s resources and history, making the finals is nothing short of miraculous.” “Many spectators today came specifically to see your team’s legendary captain. Could you introduce me later?” Just then, my teammate ran over. “Captain, our seats are over there. We should go get ready!” Jade froze, and the way she looked at me clearly changed. I pumped my fist with a confident smile. “See you on the debate floor, Jade.” Four teams had made the finals. We faced off against another school first. Having lived through this once before, I not only remembered the debate topics but knew the opponents’ weaknesses. Without question, we won with a clear advantage. Throughout the entire process, I could feel that familiar gaze following me, growing more and more focused. When it was Jade’s team’s turn to compete, I sat in the audience directly across from them. Just like in my past life, she was calm and composed, methodically dismantling each of the opposing team’s attacks with clear logic. After her victory, I saw her gaze searching through the crowd, so I immediately pulled my teammates out through the side door. When it comes to feelings, the more elusive you are, the more unforgettable you become. When Jade sent me messages, I only replied with [Busy].
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