Chapter 1: As Though a Traveler in the Mortal World

C Country — Guangnan City — Lin Entertainment Tower

Once, this place had been filled with noise and bustle.
After all, it was the headquarters of a B-tier entertainment company—Lin Entertainment.

But following the company’s bankruptcy and liquidation, the tower had been mortgaged off as an asset.
Now, it stood empty and silent.

Yet today, a crowd had gathered at the foot of the building.
Heads tilted upward, eyes squinting against the glare, they watched the lone, thin figure standing on the rooftop.
Some even held up megaphones, shouting anxiously.

“Hey, young man! Whatever’s bothering you, it’s not worth doing something stupid!”

“Yeah! Come down! You’re still young—life’s long ahead of you!”

The young man on the roof only shook his head helplessly and said nothing.
He was simply too tired.

Yes, life was long—
But when life lost all hope and purpose, every day that followed became torture.
The longer one lived, the deeper the suffering.

His name was Lin Xi—the only son of the Lin family, heir to the very Lin Entertainment whose name still clung to the tower beneath his feet.

But Lin Xi’s life had been far from smooth.
At fifteen, he lost his father and saw the family fall into decline.
At nineteen, he lost his mother and was left without kin.
At twenty-two, he lost his wife and all will to live.

When his beloved wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness, he didn’t hesitate for a second.
He mortgaged the Lin Entertainment Tower, the land, and every remaining asset he had—
But it still wasn’t enough to save the only person he’d ever truly cared about.

He would never forget that day—
When his wife was wheeled out of the operating room and the lead surgeon met his eyes with a face full of regret.

“…I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

Unlike the deaths of his parents, his wife’s death could have been prevented—
If only he’d had the means.
Or perhaps he could have had them…

Could have.
The most helpless words in the human tongue.

“Xi, promise me—if my surgery fails, you have to live on happily, even if you’re alone. Okay?”

Those had been his wife Xia Jinnian’s final words before the operation.
Her last words to him.

Standing now atop the tower, Lin Xi stared down at the people and cars below—
Tiny as ants—
And her voice echoed endlessly in his mind.

“…I’m sorry. This is the one promise I made to you that I couldn’t keep.”

He sighed softly.
And in the next instant—amid the horrified cries of the crowd—
He took that final step forward.

For a moment, he was weightless, suspended in the air.
Then he began to fall.

He had planned everything carefully.
Since the Lin Tower was scheduled for demolition, the area below was sealed off—no one would be hurt.

He’d even contacted the construction foreman, transferring over the last of his savings to make sure someone would “clean up” after him.

That was Lin Xi—
Useless, perhaps, but never harmful.

As the wind howled past his ears and the ground rushed up to meet him,
He felt a strange sense of peace.
At least, before dying, he could experience one last moment of freedom.

He closed his eyes.

In that instant, the wind vanished.
The crowd’s cries disappeared.
The weightless sensation—gone.

The impact he’d braced for never came.
He waited, but consciousness didn’t fade.
Irritated, he opened his eyes.

“Fifteen minutes remaining. Candidates, please check that your name and exam number are correctly filled in on the answer sheet…”

The mechanical voice of a female announcer echoed from the speakers.
Lin Xi blinked in disbelief and looked around.

He was in a classroom.
Rows of students sat around him, hunched over their desks, pens scratching rapidly across paper.
The room was silent except for the steady rustle of exam sheets.

On the blackboard before him, the invigilator had written neatly in chalk:

“National College Entrance Examination — English Subject Exam Time: 14:30–16:30”

Which meant—
He hadn’t died.
He’d returned to the day of his college entrance exam—the final subject?!

Just as Lin Xi raised a hand to slap himself awake, the invigilator approached and leaned in to whisper softly.

“Student, if you’ve finished, check your answers. Don’t sleep on your desk.”

“Oh—oh, right, Teacher.”

Though he’d left his student days long behind, the ingrained instinct to obey a teacher’s tone still made him comply reflexively.

But as soon as he spoke, he froze.

That gentle, melodious voice—
Like an oriole’s call—
Was his voice?!

Startled, he pinched his thigh.
The touch jolted him.

Smooth, slender, fair—
That was his leg?!

And those long, delicate fingers—
Were attached to his hands?!

Panicking, he glanced at the top of the answer sheet.

“Guangnan No. 1 High School — Class 3-A — Lin Xiyue”

He read the name silently and felt a chill run through his heart.

So—
For some reason, he really had gone back in time to a parallel version of his high school days.
Only… in this world, he was a girl?!

‘Well… fine. Lin Xiyue it is. No point overthinking it now.’

She exhaled softly.
Her mind, once Lin Xi’s, accepted the situation with surprising calm—
After all, the former Young Master Lin had spent plenty of time online, and he’d read stories like this before.

Her eyes drifted to the clock on the wall.
She fixed her gaze on the minute hand, watching it inch forward,
Counting down to the end of the exam.

There were two things she had to confirm as soon as she left this room—
At this point in time, her mother should still be alive.
And her wife—Xia Jinnian—should still be healthy.

“Exam time is over. Candidates, please put down your pens immediately.”

At the sound of the bell, Lin Xiyue’s heart raced.
She sat tensely until the teacher finished collecting the papers—
Then stood up so abruptly she nearly lost her balance.

A wave of dizziness hit her, and she stumbled.

“Lin, did you forget your chocolate again? You’ve got low blood sugar, remember?”

A girl behind her caught her hand and pressed a small bar of chocolate into it.

But Lin Xiyue had no attention to spare for that.
She muttered a distracted “thanks,”
Then hurried from the classroom, her unsteady steps barely slowing her down.

“Xixi, what’s wrong?”

That familiar voice—gentle, warm, tender as spring sunlight—
At once soothed the turmoil in her chest.

She turned instinctively toward the sound.

There stood a girl with hair cascading down her back,
Her plain school uniform unable to hide her natural grace.

It was her.
Even younger, even softer—but unmistakably her.

“Jinnian!”

Without thinking, Lin Xiyue ran straight toward the girl.
But another wave of dizziness hit her, and she fell into Xia Jinnian’s arms.

That faint, familiar scent—so uniquely hers—
Made Lin Xiyue’s eyes brim with tears.

It was really her.

“Jinnian… I missed you so much…”

Lin Xiyue clung tightly to the girl before her, sobbing uncontrollably.

Had she truly crossed time and space—
Or was her past life nothing more than a fleeting dream?

[TL Note: Lin Xi who was a guy has turned into a girl and has become Lin Xiyue. ]