The night air on the terrace was heavy, not with the chill of the evening, but with unspoken truths and tangled fates.
Li Ziyang's words echoed in my mind long after he left me alone beneath the starlit sky.
"You changed after that accident... It was like you forgot everything, even me."
What accident?
Why didn't I see it in the memory fragments I received from Xiao Xinya's life?
If my soul had replaced hers, then maybe... that moment, that accident, was the trigger. The collision between two souls.
I leaned on the terrace railing, my mind spiraling through theories, doubts, and a deep unsettling feeling that something had been buried, not only in Xiao Xinya's past, but in the very core of this world.
The next morning, I woke with a purpose.
Dressed in a simple beige blouse and high-waisted black pants, I looked less like the Xiao heiress and more like... me. Which, oddly, felt right.
"Butler Bu," I called as I entered the study.
He turned, surprised. "Young Lady, you're up early."
"I need information," I said, straight to the point. "About an accident I supposedly had... months ago. Something Li Ziyang mentioned last night."
His face stiffened.
A pause too long.
I narrowed my eyes. "You know about it."
He looked torn, his loyalty warring with his fear. Then finally, he sighed and gestured for me to sit.
"Yes, my lady. There was an incident. It happened about four months ago."
I held my breath.
"You were returning from a charity event when your car was rammed off a cliffside road. Everyone believed it was brake failure. But..." he hesitated.
"But?"
He lowered his voice. "Your driver died on the spot. You survived barely. You were in a coma for three weeks. When you woke up... you were different. Distant. Quieter. Like a shadow of yourself."
Three weeks. So that's when the transmigration happened. That was the window.
"Why didn't anyone tell me this before?"
"Your father thought it best to avoid triggering painful memories. The doctors said stress could cause further damage."
I clenched my fists under the desk. "And was it really an accident?"
He didn't answer.
I saw the fear in his eyes. He knew. Or at least suspected.
"I need the full medical report, the police files, anything. I want to know who investigated the crash."
"But..."
"No more secrets, Butler Bu. Not if I'm going to survive in this life."
He bowed. "Yes, my lady."
That afternoon, a package arrived in a plain brown envelope. No name. No sender.
Inside were grainy black-and-white surveillance photos.
My car.
The night of the crash.
And another car behind mine.
The license plate was partially blurred, but the car model... I recognized it.
It was from the Li family's private fleet.
I didn't want to believe it.
Li Ziyang?
He had been kind, intense, yes but never cruel. Never dangerous. Had he been the cause? Or… was he trying to protect me?
I needed answers. And only one person could give them to me.
That evening, I sent him a message:
"Meet me. Midnight. East garden."
I didn't expect a reply.
But when the clock struck twelve, he was already waiting, leaning against the white stone fountain, arms crossed, lit by moonlight like he'd stepped straight out of a novel's climax scene.
"You've been digging," he said without turning around.
"I want the truth."
He finally faced me. "Even if it changes everything?"
I stepped closer. "Especially then."
He studied me in silence. Then finally, he said,
"That night… you weren't supposed to be in that car."
I froze.
"What?"
"It was meant for someone else. Someone was targeting the Xiao family, but you got in the car instead of the intended passenger."
"Who?"
He paused.
"Your father."
The air left my lungs.
"It wasn't an accident," I whispered. "Someone tried to murder my father, and got me instead."
He nodded. "And your father covered it up. Blamed the brakes. You weren't supposed to know."
I stepped back, stunned. "How do you know all this?"
"Because I followed your car that night," he said quietly. "I knew something was wrong. I tried to stop it, but it was too late."
So he had been the car behind me. Not trying to hurt me, but trying to save me.
I looked up at him, voice barely a whisper. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because when you woke up… you looked at me like I was a stranger."
I bit my lip, guilt rising. "I'm not the same person anymore."
His eyes softened. "I know. And yet… you're still the one I can't forget."
I didn't know how to respond. My emotions were a tangled knot.
Truth, lies, and fate had woven a web around us, and somehow, we were both caught in it.
But I knew one thing now.
Someone had tried to kill the head of the Xiao family. And I had taken the hit.
This wasn't just a romantic transmigration tale anymore.
This was a mystery. A war in disguise.And if I wanted to survive…
I'd need to stop being Xiao Xinya, the heiress and start being me again.