It Seems I’m Not The Only One Who Reincarnated

Shi Meng was a bit surprised.

It’s mainly because she knew her brother rarely expressed his emotions through actions or words.

Of course, this didn’t mean that Shi Hai never got excited.

It’s just that, even when he did, he would first seek the other person’s consent.

So, although it sounded odd, this was the kind of thing Shi Hai would say when he was feeling emotional.

He would directly tell the other person what he wanted to do.

When Shi Meng heard this, she was overjoyed.

In fact, she had wanted to throw herself into her brother’s arms for a long time. But she held back, afraid that being too intimate might upset her brother, who she had only recently met.

So, she opened her arms wide and said, “You don’t need to ask for things like this, brother… You can hug me whenever you want.”

“Alright, Mengmeng, here I come.”

Shi Hai hugged Shi Meng’s shoulders in a way that friends would, the kind that goes over the shoulders and avoids going under the arms, so it wouldn’t make the other person uncomfortable or feel too intimate.

And so, the brother and sister enjoyed a warm moment. Shi Hai gently stroked his sister’s hair and spoke his words of gratitude.

“Thank you for taking care of me when I became a vegetable in the future.”

“Thank you for telling me all these important things and giving me the chance to save our mom.”

“And thank you to Mom… for making you my sister.”

Shi Meng was deeply moved, resting her face on her brother’s chest, feeling the warmth coming from him.

In truth, she wanted to tell Shi Hai that she was the one who should be grateful…

Getting back the family she had once lost… Shi Meng thought this was the luckiest thing that had ever happened to her.

But cruel fate had torn them away from her…

Shi Meng silently vowed that this time, she would not allow herself to lose them again.

“I… will always be your sister.”

“And I will make sure to cherish you from now on.”

When Shi Hai said that, he meant it. He had always only cared deeply about his mother, because Liu Zhenshan was his only family left in the world.

That was also the only reason he stayed in this city.

In the future, if his mother passed away, Shi Hai would probably sell the house, leave the city, and wander somewhere far away.

But in that future, he stayed behind for his sister…

It showed just how important Shi Meng was to him, now someone on par with Liu Zhenshan in his heart.

At this moment, Shi Hai had another person to care deeply about.

The awkwardness he had felt when he first met his sister had completely faded away. Shi Hai had fully accepted Shi Meng.

After hugging her for a while, Shi Hai let go of his sister and smiled at her, saying, “You’ve already done so much, Mengmeng, so leave the rest to me. I have a pretty good idea of what to do now.”

Shi Meng nodded but then said a little sadly, “I know, but if I leave everything to you, I’ll feel useless…”

Shi Hai patted her head and said, “How could you be useless? A capable sister like you is rare. Plus, there will definitely be things I need your help with later.”

“Mm! Just use me however you need, brother!”

Although her words sounded a bit off, Shi Hai didn’t take it the wrong way. He wasn’t the type to have impure thoughts about someone he had accepted as his sister.

“By the way, there’s something else I want to ask. The person you spoke with on the phone, did she tell you anything else?”

“No… our conversation wasn’t long. She only told me that ‘you were harmed by a woman,’ ‘she had warned those women to stay away from you,’ ‘but in the end, she couldn’t stop you from getting hurt,’ and ‘that’s why she gave me a chance to go back in time.’”

“Those first things were probably to get you to stop me from getting too close to women once you went back in time, right?”

“Yeah, I think that person figured warnings wouldn’t work, so she sent me, your sister, to step in.”

“Hmm… what I’m more curious about is the part about going back in time. Did she ever tell you when she would send you back to?”

“No.”

“You didn’t ask?”

“I didn’t get the chance to ask… plus, I didn’t really believe it at the time.”

“I see. Do you have any regrets? If you had gone back further, maybe you could have saved your biological parents…”

“…”

Shi Meng suddenly fell silent. Even after going back in time, she had never once thought, “If only I could go back earlier, maybe I could save my parents.”

Now, hearing Shi Hai say it, she realized just how selfish she had been…

Seeing that his sister seemed upset, Shi Hai quickly asked with concern, “What’s wrong?”

“Brother… if I told you that I didn’t want to save my biological parents at all, would you… look down on me?”

Shi Meng asked timidly, looking at Shi Hai.

“I wouldn’t. I’m sure you have your reasons.”

Her brother always believed in her, and that gave Shi Meng the courage to reveal what had happened in the past.

“The truth is… on the day of the earthquake, my biological parents were on their way to finalize their divorce…”

“Oh, marital problems?”

“I don’t remember it very clearly, but I think it was because my father found out that I wasn’t his biological daughter…”

“I see.”

With just that sentence, Shi Hai understood completely.

He had already filled in the rest of the story in his head.

A typical scenario: a scumbag woman finds a man to be her fall guy, has a daughter, and as the daughter grows up, the man starts noticing that she doesn’t look like him. He realizes he’s been taken advantage of and, after a paternity test confirms it, he decides to divorce. Classic plotline from a local drama.

“I didn’t really understand why my parents had to split at the time, so I kept crying… and the more I cried, the more annoyed they became. My mom yelled at me to shut up, and my dad, who used to spoil me, just looked at me with disgust…”

Shi Hai could guess what her parents were feeling.

Since Shi Meng’s mother had tricked a man into taking responsibility for her, she probably wasn’t a good person. She might not have wanted to have a child at all, but gave in to family pressure or peer influence.

Being forced to become a mother, it’s no wonder she didn’t care much for her daughter and likely saw her as a burden.

And as for the father, his feelings were even simpler.

Since she wasn’t his child, why would he care about her? He would just feel incredibly bitter, thinking that all the years he had invested had been wasted.

But what did any of this have to do with Shi Meng?

She was the most innocent one, yet she had been hurt the most…

“That’s when it happened…”

“The earthquake?”

“Yeah… the ground started to crack open, and I fell down and tried to climb back up, screaming, ‘Dad! Mom! Help me!’ But they didn’t even look back…”

Shi Meng recalled that desperate moment, hugging herself tightly.

“They just left me there and ran for their own lives…”

“Ugh…”

Shi Hai clicked his tongue in frustration.

He had heard plenty of similar stories before.

Birds in pairs on a branch, but when disaster strikes, they fly off alone.

But this was the most infuriating one he had ever heard.

Even their own daughter, as long as they had a reason to dislike her, they would abandon without hesitation.

Human selfishness, laid bare.

“The irony is… I, who was buried in the rubble, curled up and survived, but they, who ran outside, were crushed to death by the collapsing building…”

No wonder Shi Meng didn’t want to save her biological parents.

They didn’t deserve to be saved.