Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

"Did you find anything to tie her and me?"

Jun had already exhausted all the places and scenarios to check what connection Guiying might possibly have with him in the last life and even the present. But they never officially met even once. Definitely not in the past.

The more he reached a dead end, the more frustrated he became. They didn't share any past, so he had no clue why Guiying and Cai Lingyun targeted him.

Jin said, "It's not that. I also haven't reached an answer to that question."

"And asking Cai Guiying is a waste of time. The last time I confronted her about what happened in Shanghai, she expertly navigated her way out of the blame and pinned everything upon Cai Lingyun. I couldn't say anything at the banquet either because Shui had invited her herself. Though I have warned Shui of not getting close to Cai Guiying anymore."

Jin's gaze flickered.

"What did you find?"

He shrugged. "I don't feel it's important to our current situation or anything related to you, but it's more tied to Zhou Ai and their writing careers."

Jun narrowed his eyes. "How?"

"You remember Miss. Qing from the Summit? One of the three judges who wasn't corrupted."

"Or course. I remember her very well. I had asked her myself to expose the real result of the Summit."

"Yeah. I met her by coincidence yesterday after ending an office meeting in a hotel. I recognized her and we exchanged some pleasantries. Then I thought of asking her anything she might know about Cai Guiying. Something which we might not know."

"Did she?"

"Well not much. Cai Guiying is one of the many writers she knows. She doesn't know anything particular. But she did mention an odd incident she came across. That pretty much changed the course of her writing career and Zhou Ai's too. There was a writing competition held when they were in their high school final year."

"I know. Ai won the Best Newcomer Writer Award. Cai Guiying won the Best Fiction Writer Award and soon, they got into Dream High."

Jin tilted his head. "Yeah but that's not exactly how it went. Miss. Qing said that one of the judges of that competition was her friend. She told everything to Miss. Qing when the competition was over. And do you know? Internally between the judges at that time of the competition, there was more favor to let Zhou Ai win, not Cai Guiying."

Jun widened his eyes. "What? Ai? Really?"

That was something he expected the least.

"Zhou Ai could have won the competition," Jin said.

Jun's countenance was turning darker and menacing. "Then why did Cai Guiying win? I am sure she couldn't have been in any capacity to bribe three adults for the results when she was just a teenager herself. She doesn't even come from a rich family. Did she use some other trick to win?"

"There was no trick. She won fair and square and kind of didn't at the same time," Jin then sneered. "All thanks to your amazing girlfriend."

Jun obviously didn't fail to miss the sarcasm behind his words.

Ugh, why am I getting a bad feeling about this?

"...What? What does Ai have to do with this? She wouldn't have done anything to lose on purpose."

"She did but," he clicked his tongue, "well...she accepted the consequences of it. You see, the theme of the competition was to write a love story with a meaningful happy ending."

,m "I like that theme."

"I know. You have always liked stories with happy endings. Do you know which story Zhou Ai submitted?"

"Yeah. 'My time with you,'" he smiled but not with sincerity, "one of her books which didn't let me have a high opinion of her as a writer because of her endings."

"Yeah there is no need to hold a high opinion of her now either."

His brow twitched.

But Jun blinked and was struck with realization a second later. "The ending..."

"Exactly. It was an ending where the leads parted their ways after the cruise ship trip came to an end and never met again. It was a kind of a bittersweet ending. But that's the problem. Her story didn't exactly fall in the 'happy ending' category. It could be taken in the sense that the leads found their purpose in life. Their hearts healed when they met each other. But in a romantic sense, they didn't get together, which could be interpreted as a sad ending too. The judges were conflicted a lot."

Jun shut his eyes as something welled in his chest. He remembered Ai talking about this when they revealed their past lives to each other.

"Wait...Ai did say that she had this story in her mind and it was sort of a tragedy even though it wasn't the theme of the competition...Something about the possibility of her submission not being considered...but she still went ahead with it."

Jin smiled. "That's what happened. She wrote a great story. She could have won the Best Fiction Writer Award. She simply didn't because her story didn't adhere to the theme. The judges couldn't qualify a story to win the main prize which was out of the rules. But as second best, they gave her the Best Newcomer Writer Award."

Jun covered his face with his palms. "You mean technically, Ai is the winner of that competition?"

"Yes. Cai Guiying only won because of the mismatch in themes that Zhou Ai made. If Zhou Ai had modified the ending to be a happy one, she could have won. The prizes would have been reversed and so do their roles and popularity when they entered Dream High. Where Cai Guiying was always at the limelight in the last life, it could have been Zhou Ai had she not been stubborn about her story."

"I knew it! I always thought her story deserved to win the award! Only if..."

Suddenly, Jun felt like giving Ai a nice scolding.

Jin then said, "I found it interesting how one competition shaped their careers. How one result reversed everything and I couldn't help but wonder...does Cai Guiying know this?"