Chapter 3 — Reborn: This Hell Is Mine

Signs That Were Once Ignored

Việt Lam Interior Design Company is located on the fourth floor of an old office building with a beautiful view overlooking the central park, where Ý Vy has worked for nearly two years since graduating. She walked into the lobby at eight-thirty in the morning, just like her previous life's habit, and as she knew, the familiar cup of brown sugar pearl milk tea was already placed at the reception desk, accompanied by a small note with Tuệ Nghi's round handwriting: "Wish you a smooth working day, shine bright tonight, dear."

Ý Vy picked up the cup of milk tea and looked at the text for a long time. In her previous life, she would have taken a photo of this note and sent it to a group chat with a few close friends, boasting that she had the sweetest sister in the world. In this life, she still smiles, still feels truly warmed by that thoughtfulness, but at the same time, a conscious corner of her mind quietly notes: Tuệ Nghi knows exactly what time she will go to the company, knows exactly she will go to the charity party tonight, and always chooses the right time to appear in her mind with a cute little action.

That's not a bad thing. But it was the kind of meticulous observation that an ordinary sister, busy with her own work, could hardly maintain so consistently over the years.

Âu Bích Ngọc, a colleague sitting at the next table, looked over to see Ý Vy looking at the note and pensive. "Is it Tuệ Nghi again? Oh my God, if I had a sister like that, I would be happy for the rest of my life." Bích Ngọc smiled, lightly tapping her pen on the keyboard. "But I admit, he visits your company quite often. This month it must have been four or five times."

Bích Ngọc's careless words made Ý Vy pause for a moment. In her previous life, she remembered laughing and saying that her sister loved her so she often came to visit, never paying attention to the specific number. Now, when Bích Ngọc accidentally mentioned it again, she really stopped counting in her head: it's true that Tuệ Nghi recently visited her company much more often than in previous years, even though Tuệ Nghi's company - a small media agency specializing in events - is located nearly half an hour away, so it's not convenient to visit.

"Yes, he's probably free," Ý Vy replied, her voice gentle as if there was nothing to worry about, but in her mind, she began to review each time Tuệ Nghi had recently visited, trying to remember each time, if she had asked for anything special.

And she remembered. Two weeks ago, when Tuệ Nghi stopped by with the excuse of bringing some pastries, she naturally asked about Ý Vy's work schedule for the next month, about the big events the company was about to attend. At that time, Ý Vy simply thought that her sister was interested in her work, and told everything, including the fact that the company was invited to decorate tonight's charity party of the Ánh Dương Foundation, and that it was said that this year there would be the participation of young businessmen, including Chung Nguyên Group.

She personally gave Tuệ Nghi all the necessary information to prepare, without even knowing it.

Ý Vy put the cup of milk tea on the table, feeling an uneasy feeling creeping into her heart, not because of anger, but because of a strange regret for herself in her previous life - a person who lived her whole life with absolute trust, never once wondering why all her important information reached her adopted sister so easily.

The morning passed with daily work - checking the banquet hall decoration drawings, calling to confirm with the construction team about the delivery time for flowers and decorative fabrics, and talking with the event manager of Kim Cương hotel about the location of the main stage. Ý Vy does everything with her usual concentration, but occasionally, she scrolls through social networks during breaks, a habit she never paid close attention to in her previous life.

On Tuệ Nghi's personal page, she saw a new post posted thirty minutes ago, with a side-angled photo of Tuệ Nghi's beautiful face, the caption read: "Sometimes being the youngest in the family is very tiring, always having to be the one who understands and gives in. Everyone thinks they're happy because they have an older sister to take care of them, but few people understand the feeling of always having to stand behind."

The post has nearly two hundred likes, most of the comments are words of comfort and encouragement from Tuệ Nghi's friends, like "Nghi, don't think like that, you're so talented and beautiful, who can say you're behind?" or "Sisters, it's okay to love each other, don't bother comparing."

Ý Vy read that caption over and over again, feeling something sting in her heart. In her previous life, if she happened to come across this post, she would definitely text Tuệ Nghi immediately, ask if there was anything sad about her, and then blame herself if she had accidentally made her feel sorry for herself. She will spend the whole afternoon comforting her, to prove that she does not underestimate her sister.

But now, with all the memories of a past life, she looked at that post from a different perspective. This is not a simple confession of a sad person. This is a post written on the day Ý Vy had an important event, posted publicly for common friends to see, carrying an implicit message that Tuệ Nghi is always the one at a disadvantage, always having to live in her sister's shadow - an image that is skillfully and delicately built, enough for anyone who reads it to secretly think that Ý Vy must have accidentally, or even intentionally, hurt her sister.

She didn't text and ask questions like before. Instead, she closed the app, took a deep breath, and reminded herself that this was just the first day of three years ahead. If she overreacted now, it might derail things in a more dangerous way than she could have anticipated. She needed to observe more, collect more, before deciding what to do.

At lunch break, Bích Ngọc invited her to the cafeteria to eat with him. While eating, Bích Ngọc suddenly asked: "Hey, did you tell me before that Tuệ Nghi failed the scholarship exam to study abroad? I remember you said it was very sad."

Ý Vy stopped midway with her chopsticks. It was a memory she had almost forgotten, from about five years ago — when Tuệ Nghi applied for a scholarship to study communications at a foreign university, expecting a lot, but ended up failing while a classmate of Ý Vy, due to a coincidence, got a similar scholarship at the same school. At that time, Tuệ Nghi cried a lot, telling Ý Vy that she felt like the whole world was against her, that no matter how hard she tried, it would never be good enough.

Ý Vy then spent an entire evening comforting her sister, even offering to use part of her savings to support Tuệ Nghi to go abroad to study a short-term course on her own, as some compensation. Tuệ Nghi refused that proposal, saying that he did not want to bother her, and that he would try to rise up on his own through the domestic path.

"Yes, yes," Ý Vy replied, her voice slow. "Why do you suddenly ask that?"

"Well, yesterday I happened to meet my friend who studied at the same university as Tuệ Nghi. He told me that at that time, Tuệ Nghi failed the scholarship not because of lack of points, but because the admission board discovered that part of his personal introduction profile had a passage that was almost identical to someone else's essay, so he was immediately eliminated." Bích Ngọc shrugged, her voice a bit shy. "I was surprised when I heard it, because for a long time I thought it was simply not good enough."

Ý Vy was silent for a long time, her chopsticks stopped in mid-air. This was completely new information, a piece of the puzzle that she had never known about in her previous life. If what Bích Ngọc said was true, then the story Tuệ Nghi had told her for many years — about a painful failure due to bad luck, due to the injustice of fate — could actually be an edited version to hide a mistake she herself made.

And if Tuệ Nghi was willing to create such a story just to keep her image in her sister's eyes, then how many other stories, how many other confessions over the past twenty years, were essentially woven in the same way?

Ý Vy did not answer immediately, just nodded slightly, saying that it was an old story, there was no need to bring it up again. But in her heart, she understood that she had just seen the first, clearest and most concrete sign of something that she had never dared to think about in her previous life: Kỷ Tuệ Nghi, the sweet younger sister whom she always trusted absolutely, had the ability to make up stories, hide the truth, and maintain a perfect image in front of others with amazing skill.

In the afternoon, while sitting alone in the office to complete the final drawing for tonight's party, Ý Vy opened a small notebook, something she had never done in her previous life, and began to write down, in short, concise words, all the small details she had just realized today. How often does Tuệ Nghi visit the company? Social media post content. The scholarship story was edited.

She didn't know whether these disparate details, when put together, would form a clear enough picture for her to act on. But she knows one thing for sure: in her previous life, she missed all these signs because she was so busy loving that she forgot to observe. In this life, she will not make that mistake again.

She closed the notebook, put it in a locked drawer, then stood up to prepare things for tonight's party. Even though she knew almost every detail that would happen in advance, her heart still beat faster than usual when thinking about the upcoming moment - the moment she would stand across from Chung Bách Nguyên for the second time in her life, although for him, it would still be the first time.