Volume One: Deep Within the Courtyard

Reborn into a noble house, she and her frail younger brother could only live as dependents.

Chapter 001: Rebirth

She experienced for the first time what it felt like to be the living dead.

Everything before her was darkness; she couldn’t move her limbs, and the only parts of her body she could still control were her mouth and ears. If not for the bitter medicine and various broths that were constantly poured into her mouth, and the familiar voices that often sounded by her ear, she truly didn’t know how she had managed to endure. The moment before the car accident would flash before her eyes in a daze, but the persistent calls managed to drag her out of the nightmare.

“Jie, as long as you wake up, I’ll listen to everything you say from now on! I’ll study hard…”

“Jie, please wake up…”

“I’ll never make you angry again. If it weren’t for saving me, you wouldn’t have been hurt like this…”

“I have no father or mother left. Jie, don’t leave me alone!”

Even though those calls were so real, she simply couldn’t believe that unfamiliar voice belonged to her brother. When she was sixteen, her parents had both died in an accident. Relying on the little savings they left behind, she learned to manage the household bit by bit, gritting her teeth to handle daily life and care for her brother, who had congenital heart disease. But fate was cruel, and her frail brother only made it to fifteen. After he passed away, she threw herself into work, earning money desperately, barely managing to bury the pain deep inside.

Yet now, her mind was filled with many memories she’d never had before—fragmented pieces interwoven with her original memories, sometimes jarring, sometimes blending together, leaving her both confused and anxious, desperate to open her eyes and see who this regretful, pleading “sister” caller really was, and where she herself was. She distinctly remembered that her last memory was the moment the car lost control and crashed into the guardrail.

So, when she first felt her fingers twitch ever so slightly, she was overwhelmed with a joy that came from the depths of her soul. Almost without hesitation, she struggled to open her eyes and turn her neck. Gradually, as she regained control over her long-unresponsive body, the moment she opened her eyes to the light, she couldn’t help but let out a soft gasp.

Where was this?

Before she could take in the furnishings of the room, the light before her was suddenly blocked by a large shadow. When she saw the boy in front of her clearly, she froze without realizing it. He wore a pine-yellow, multicolored embroidered jacket with precious floral patterns, a turquoise round-collared undershirt, and his long hair was tied with a pearl and gold band. He looked about eleven or twelve years old. Beneath the unfamiliar clothes was a familiar face—those bright black eyes, that cheerful smile, always deeply imprinted in her memory.

“Jie, you’re awake!”

The boy, both surprised and delighted, jumped onto the bed in excitement, hugging her neck tightly, laughing and bouncing as he said, “I knew you’d be fine, I just knew it…”

After shouting several times, he turned his head and shouted, “Why are you all just standing there? Quick, go get the doctor to check again, and hurry, make something delicious!”

Listening to this chaotic string of orders, she felt both exasperated and amused, but still forced herself to take in her surroundings at once. With just a glance at the flustered young girls in the room, she barely made out the antique dressing table and cabinets. By chance, she saw her own hand and arm exposed outside the quilt, and her earlier suspicions became a certainty.

Heavens, could it be that she had really encountered the kind of time travel that only happens in novels?

Just then, she felt a wave of pain in her head. In an instant, far more memory fragments than before flooded her mind, the sheer volume of information making her vision go black. After countless names and details, one name suddenly surfaced in her mind.

Lauren Brooks. Her name now was Lauren Brooks.

Chapter 002: A Visit

The warm winter sunlight shone generously over the spacious courtyard, and filtered through the thick layer of Korean paper on the window lattice, bringing a touch of cozy warmth to the dim room. Lying in bed under a thick brocade quilt, Lauren Brooks occasionally glanced at the stone-blue embroidered floral gauze canopy beside her, sometimes staring absentmindedly at the ceiling. At this moment, the faint whispers from outside drifted in through the Korean paper, but the voices were so low she couldn’t make out what was being said.

But before long, those hushed discussions were scattered by a stern rebuke: “What time do you think it is, still whispering and gossiping away? Don’t you have anything better to do?”