Rebirth And Will Love You

Chapter 81

Li Na stood frozen in her illusionary state, a heavy silence hanging in the air like a veil between her and the world. The horrific scene of Shen Yun Tian's death in the second life—his blood soaking the floor, the other Li Na's limp body collapsing beside him—still reverberated in her chest. Her heart pounded with the weight of helplessness, but now, she could only watch as time began to rewind once again.

The world blurred, shifting like the turning pages of a book until the mist cleared, revealing Shen Yun Tian's third life. This time, his face was younger, his eyes filled not with obsession, but with the resigned pain of someone who had accepted the inevitable. His lips were pressed into a thin line as he walked the familiar path to her family's door.

Li Na's chest tightened, the knot in her throat nearly choking her as she watched the subtle tremor in his hands while he approached her parents. It was in that small, barely noticeable quiver where his heartbreak lay. His voice, though calm, carried the edge of a man who had accepted his own destruction, laced with the kind of sorrow that words could never properly express.

"Mr. and Mrs. Xie, I... I've come to request the dissolution of our engagement," Shen Yun Tian said, his gaze remaining glued to the floor as though meeting their eyes would shatter what little composure he had left.

Li Na's father blinked, disbelief crossing his face. "But why? You both were promised to each other since childhood."

The words echoed like a cruel reminder of the bond that should have tied them together. Shen Yun Tian's lips parted slightly, but he hesitated, swallowing the raw emotion that threatened to choke him. His eyes, now distant and hollow, seemed to retreat further into the depths of his suffering, as though each breath was a battle to stay whole.

"It's for the best," he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper, but carrying the weight of a love too painful to bear. "I believe it would bring her more happiness... to be free of me."

Each syllable seemed to tear through him, a cruel wound that would never heal. Li Na could see the way his hands shook at his sides, clenched tight in an attempt to keep himself together. His words were a lie, a hollow promise to himself that by letting her go, he could somehow save her, but all it did was seal his own agony.

His words were sharp, filled with meaning Li Na's parents would never understand. His heart broke as he spoke, and the silence that followed felt like a final breath shared between two lives that could never meet again.

"If you insist," her father finally said, reluctant but swayed by Shen Yun Tian's conviction.

Shen Yun Tian bowed his head slightly in respect before turning away, his footsteps slow and deliberate as he left. But Li Na saw the fleeting glance he cast over his shoulder, his gaze lingering on the window where the young other Li Na once smiled as a child, waiting for him to return.

That smile was gone now, and with it, the future he once dreamed of.

In this life, Shen Yun Tian had made a drastic choice. Instead of stepping forward, instead of claiming the engagement that had bound them together in other lifetimes, he let go. He stayed back, quietly, invisibly watching from a distance as her life unfolded without him while keeping on supporting and guarding her. It was a painful sacrifice, but one he believed would be the best for them.

The days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and Shen Yun Tian kept his distance. He no longer visited the Li household. He no longer waited by the gardens where the other Li Na used to play. But from afar, he watched over her, his heart tethered to a promise that no longer existed.

Every moment, his chest constricted with a longing that only deepened as time passed. Li Na saw it in his face—the quiet ache in his eyes as he watched the other Li Na laugh and move on with her life, unaware of the man who loved her from the shadows.