Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Liu Corps.

"Where do you think Jin got stuck at? It's quite late already."

Ai hugged the fluffy Jun-kun and rested her head on his back while she simultaneously petted Ai-chan on her side. She looked at the time which was well past seven and wondered where the conversation would have taken so long between them.

She drew out a long sigh and began to type a message for Jin when the door slowly creaked open. Her face shone upon Jin's return.

"Jin! What took you so long? Did you get to talk to Alix?"

Jin stopped midway and threw a blank stare at Ai, unable to figure out what she was doing in his office. A moment later he recalled that she had already been in his office since the morning but hadn't expected her to still stay back so late.

*Meow*

Jun-kun and Ai-chan sat straight on their paws with a strange light in their eyes. They hopped out of the couch and hurried to his side, continuously meowing at him.

"Jin?"

Ai, too, realized that something was wrong and slowly walked up to him. Seeing his pale expression as if he just returned from hell, she asked, stumped, "What..What happened? Why have you been crying?"

As if hurt and fatigued by a long painful journey, Jin's knees finally gave away as he fell.

"J-Jin! What's wrong? Please tell me what happened. You are making me worry…" Ai urged.

Hearing no response from him, she pressed her lips and slowly bent to his level, holding her belly. Watching a sense of defeat in his eyes compelled her to believe that something had terribly gone wrong.

"Jin…" she gently whispered, "Tell me what happened, no? Please…Did something occur with Alix?"

Jin lifted his gaze and stared at her until tears brimmed his eyes. He stared and stared until his eyes hurt and turned redder but that didn't bother him in the least.

"What…should I do, Zhou Ai? I…k-know that I shouldn't have fallen for her but I c-couldn't help it. It just happened and I couldn't stop it…"

Her eyes widened in disbelief. Until now Jin hadn't come clean with his feelings and admitted that he liked Alix but now he had.

"Did you confess to Alix?"

Hope and joy overwhelmed her heart but then watching Jin's defeated expression at the same time, she wondered if…

"Did she…"

Her heart raced with every passing moment. It pained her to utter the word 'reject.'

Jin trembled, his breaths becoming chaotic. "Pl-please don't hate me, Zhou Ai. I-I know I shouldn't love her but…but…I just…It's wrong and I know but," his countenance paled further, "but s-she is not like be-before and I know I am supposed to h-hate her but I cannot…"

Ai was left even more stunned than before.

"I don't understand, Jin. Why will I hate you for loving Alix? And why should you hate Alix?"

He grabbed her hands, desperation overwhelming his black pupils. Ai lowered her gaze and seeing his shaking hands, fear further grew within her.

"You don't understand, Zhou Ai. We-we all should be hating her, but I cannot f-find myself doing it. I really thought that I would loathe her sight but I couldn't do it…But y-you have to trust me! I still love Bro the most and I-I know she did horrible things to you and Bro a-and so I should let her go and hate her but I…keep seeing Alix in her and Alix is n-not a bad person, Zhou Ai. You have seen her too, right? She has visited our villa so many times so but y-you will think that I am an idiot-"

"Jin."

Ai firmly gripped his hands, trying to stop them from quivering. She looked at him with a quiet but reassuring gaze.

"You are not an idiot and nobody will ever hate you. Please calm down. Breathe and then tell me very slowly what happened. I promise I won't judge you."

Tears slipped down his eyes and his cheeks ached.

"Alix…is Zhan…Yahui."

She held the same expression as Jin had when Alix broke the reality to him and just like she had asked, he talked slowly, explaining everything from the time he had rushed out of his office.

Ai trembled hard as she stared at him and the past life's horror came rushing into her mind. In this life, they had moved past the tragedy and changed their own fate, defying all odds. But the one who had started the entire saga of revenge in the first place was now back in somebody else's body.

Jin's grip tightened on his hand, the color starting to fade from his face by her silence.

"I know what you are thinking, t-that I am such a selfish person for falling for somebody like her and that I don't love Bro anymore but that's not true, Zhou Ai…I still hate Zhan Yahui and ev-everything that she did but A-Alix is different. I know I shouldn't think like that b-but she is really a different person but everybody will hate me-"

"Jin," Ai shed her silence and locked her gaze into his, grave and unblinking. "I don't hate you. I will never hate you. Please stop thinking that."

Jin vigorously shook her head. "But she is Zhan Yahui, h-how can you not hate me? I-I a horrible and selfish person…"

Ai held his face between her palms and forced him to look into her eyes.

"I will keep repeating this no matter how many times you keep being harsh on yourself. You are not a horrible or a selfish person and you did nothing wrong with falling in love with Alix because you have fallen for Ren Alix, not Zhan Yahui. I.." she pursed her lips, "I admit I felt shaken for sometime. I couldn't help but remember the past and its pain. It is impossible to forget that."

Jin bit his lip hard, his heart ramming against his chest feeling a bad foreboding.

"But Alix…" her lips quivered as she whispered, "is different. She is not the same Zhan Yahui who wanted to hurt us or else she wouldn't have saved me from Cai Lingyun months ago. I…" her voice choked, tears brimming her eyes, "don't think my ba..baby would have been fine if not for her..." her trembling fingers tapped her belly.

Jin stared at her pregnant belly and thought back to that Business Summit evening. It was the first time he had met her after six years and it was then the first inkling had tugged at him how different she had become.

But more importantly, he still remembered how madly she had sprinted towards Cai Lingyun and stabbed his thigh with a knife without a second thought. Had it not been for Alix, Ai and her unborn child would have gotten into a tragic accident.

"Not just for me, Alix has been the way we would have never imagined her to be before. That is why the Gods gave her a second chance too, right? For a villain who had destroyed us in the past to be reborn, she wouldn't return to ruin us and start the cycle of revenge all over again. She deserved a second chance just like we did. You are not wrong, Jin. You are not wrong to love her."