Yama Reborn-Chapter 443 - 440 [The Discovery of the Two Girls]
Chapter 440: The Discovery of Two Girls
Jinling Normal University.
Li Yingwan stood below a dormitory building, waiting quietly for a few minutes before she saw Niveer swiftly emerge from behind the corridor.
"Did you find it?"
"Found it." Niveer casually tossed a register book to her. "The dorm supervisor’s logbook. Sun Keke lives in 306."
Li Yingwan glanced at Niveer. "I’ll go up; you can just wait here."
"Don’t even think about it." Niveer shook her head and led the way up the stairs.
Female dormitories...
Let’s put it this way: when male students enter university, they often imagine female dormitories as mysterious and wonderful places. However, the reality might disillusion many of them. Some female dorms are even messier than male dorms. The hygiene conditions are worse, too. The reason is quite simple. Around the millennium, young people, especially those from cities, were mostly only children. Consequently, many hadn’t developed independent living skills from a young age. Moreover, to prepare for the crucial college entrance examinations, parents typically handled all household chores, allowing their children to focus on studying. As a result, this generation rarely did housework growing up. Such children, after graduating from high school and entering university—you expect them to suddenly acquire the ability to take care of themselves overnight? Impossible. If male dormitories are as dirty as pigsties, then, in truth, many female dorms are as chaotic as post-war Iraq.
The situation in Sun Keke’s room, 306, was slightly better. Sun Keke had done some chores at home from a young age, and girls generally appreciate cleanliness more than boys. However, the dormitory’s hygiene was still only marginally better.
Niveer, being a British noble who had attended boarding school from a young age, was very familiar with dorm situations, so she wasn’t surprised at all when she walked in.
Li Yingwan, however, couldn’t help but pinch her nose. Standing at the dormitory door, she swept a flashlight around and shook her head. "It’s hard to imagine girls live here."
"Alright, from my experience, this is already not bad," Niveer shrugged. "You should have seen my school dorms..."
The dorm wasn’t large; everything was visible from the entrance. It was undoubtedly empty.
The two girls exchanged glances.
"She’s not here," Niveer frowned.
"Maybe she never entered this world in the first place," Li Yingwan said coldly, though she was obviously relieved.
As she spoke, she walked in and looked around.
"Could it be... she left?" asked Niveer.
Li Yingwan thought for a moment and shook her head. "When we came in, the dormitory corridor door was locked, with no signs of forced entry. And..."
Li Yingwan picked up an item from beside a pillow on the bed. "Look."
It was a mobile phone.
In the year 2002, it was considered quite compact—a Motorola flip phone.
"Is this bed Sun Keke’s?"
"If the logbook you got from the dorm supervisor’s office isn’t wrong, then it’s hers," Li Yingwan said. "The phone is still here, but she’s gone. So, my judgment is that if she had entered this world, she would have habitually grabbed her phone to look for a signal before leaving."
"And the phone being neatly placed by the bed means..."
"It means she herself hasn’t entered this world yet. She was sleeping soundly in her bed at night, which is why the phone is still here by the bed," Niveer easily concluded, understanding Li Yingwan’s reasoning. She nodded. "I think you’re right."
After exchanging glances, the two girls impulsively huddled together and then... opened Sun Keke’s mobile phone.
In 2002, mobile phones generally didn’t have startup passwords, nor did they feature the biometric locks—like fingerprint, iris, or facial recognition—common in later smartphone eras.
The phone was easily turned on.
The two girls simply sat on the bed and started browsing through it.
"Don’t tell the Boss we’re snooping through his girlfriend’s phone."
"I definitely won’t. I’m more worried *you’ll* snitch."
"Pfft."
The two girls bantered while quickly scrolling through the phone.
In 2002, there wasn’t much to see on a mobile phone. During the era of blue-screen phones, the various apps of the later smartphone age didn’t exist; WeChat was unheard of, and even QQ wasn’t available. In this era, phone functions were generally limited to a few things:
Calls.
Text messages.
Contacts.
Alarm clock.
Of course, there might occasionally be a simple game like Snake.
So, browsing through it didn’t take much time.
There weren’t many call records: just calls from her parents and two or three classmates or school teachers in the past few days. All were labeled, such as ’Student Council Senior Liu’ or ’Counselor Zhao’.
The text messages were also straightforward: daily communications between classmates, like asking someone to bring food, sign an attendance sheet, or save a seat in the library.
After looking for a while, the two girls found no juicy gossip and started to feel bored.
Suddenly, an idea struck Li Yingwan. She snatched the phone and started fiddling with it.
"What are you doing?" Niveer asked, frowning.
"Checking something..." Li Yingwan answered casually, then suddenly exclaimed, "Got it! There’s something here!"
This 2002 model phone had some features that were commonly eliminated in later mobile phones. For example, if the owner deleted text messages, they weren’t truly ’deleted’ but would automatically move to a ’Trash’ folder—a feature many modern phones no longer use, though some still retain it.
Additionally, there was an even more peculiar feature: if you edited a text message and then decided not to send it, it wouldn’t be automatically cleared. Instead, it would automatically move to a ’Drafts’ folder.
In Sun Keke’s phone, the Drafts folder contained pages densely packed with edited but unsent text messages. Perhaps Sun Keke herself was unaware her phone had this feature. Many people assume that text messages they’ve edited but not sent will be automatically deleted once they exit the interface.
Thus, Sun Keke’s Drafts folder looked like this:
Sorted by date:
"I hate you!"
"I hate you! Chen Nuo!"
"Chen Nuo, why do you treat me this way!"
"I hate you..."
"I really hate you!"
"..."
"..."
There were a dozen or so of these ’I hate you’ messages, dating back quite a while.
The two girls read with intense gazes, scrolling from the oldest to the most recent.
Then, when they reached messages from three days ago, they saw this one:
"I’m not going to Brother Lei’s wedding. I don’t know what to say to you when I see you, I don’t know how to face you.
You always fill me with hope, then disappoint me, until despair..."
"My dad said he’ll go and pay back the money to Brother Lei. He found out that the two hundred thousand yuan was actually lent to him by you through Brother Lei.
He told me that he firmly forbids us from contacting each other or seeing each other again.
I think, this time I will listen to him.
Chen Nuo... I really hate you!"
Upon reading this, both girls sighed simultaneously.
After a moment of silence, Niveer said softly, "I actually feel this girl, Sun Keke, is quite pitiful."
Li Yingwan snorted.
"Actually... aren’t we experiencing the same feelings?" Niveer sighed. "But at least the Boss has been quite good to her; he gave her hope. We’ve never received even a glimmer of it."
After a pause, Niveer added, "You can tell she’s really heartbroken. She wrote so many text messages, wanting to send them to the Boss countless times. But each time, after finishing, she didn’t send them—not even once. This girl must be utterly heartbroken."
Li Yingwan muttered something under her breath. Niveer, not catching it, frowned and asked, "What did you say?"
Li Yingwan shook her head. "I don’t know why... I just find this Sun Keke really annoying. Just very annoying. I get annoyed just seeing her name."
Niveer looked at Li Yingwan with confusion.
Li Yingwan, however, had already scrolled to the last message in the Drafts folder.
The timestamp on this last message was from that very evening! Which meant, in the real world, it had been written around 9 p.m. that night.
"Chen Nuo, I suddenly feel that perhaps I should never have met you in my life.
Perhaps, there shouldn’t have been someone like you in my original world. Maybe if I hadn’t met you, I might have had a different life, different experiences—maybe harder, maybe easier, I don’t know.
But recently, I’ve thought a lot and had several strange dreams.
In those dreams, I seemed to experience a life without you.
Maybe, you really are a nightmare sent by fate.
I remember last year, when you had troubles...
Perhaps, that weak, tearful, desperately hurt, introverted Chen Nuo...
That person is the Chen Nuo I should have known in my own life.
You are an intruder who barged into my world.
I... should never have known you.
I even wish I had never met you at all."
This was the latest and last one. After this message, there were no more.
Niveer suddenly smiled. "This Sun Keke... she unintentionally spoke the truth. The Boss was indeed an outsider to this world."
As she spoke, Niveer lightly tapped Li Yingwan. "Hey! What’s wrong with you? Why are you silent?"
Li Yingwan, however, was staring blankly, her expression growing increasingly strange. Her gaze was fixed elsewhere.
Niveer frowned. "What’s wrong, Firefly?"
Li Yingwan still did not respond.
Niveer pushed her again, only to find Li Yingwan’s gaze still intently fixed on one spot...
It was a desk placed at the bedside. It was the kind of small study desk commonly found in dormitories, topped with a glass panel. On it were heaped some books, along with a mirror, a comb, and other items girls typically used.
Niveer noticed Li Yingwan’s gaze was locked onto the desk’s surface... More precisely, a certain spot under the glass panel.
A thought struck Niveer. She shone her flashlight over, following Li Yingwan’s line of sight, and saw a photo under the desk’s glass panel.
It was a family portrait of three people. In the photo, Old Sun, Yang Xiaoyi, and Sun Keke were embracing. The couple stood with Sun Keke between them. The photo was obviously taken around Sun Keke’s high school graduation. Old Sun and his wife were smiling happily, whereas Sun Keke’s smile seemed somewhat forced, her eyes colder. This was during the time Chen Nuo had disappeared, so naturally, Sun Keke wasn’t in a good mood.
"What’s wrong?" Niveer’s expression turned serious as she looked at Li Yingwan. "Firefly, what on earth is the matter with you?"
Li Yingwan suddenly reached out, lifted the glass panel, and pulled out the photo.
"Look... is the girl in this photo Sun Keke?"
"I... I don’t know Sun Keke," Niveer said, then thought for a moment. "This desk is right by this bed, so it should belong to Sun Keke, right?"
Li Yingwan held the photo, examined it carefully again, then flipped it over. Her body suddenly shook.
On the back was a handwritten blessing:
"Keke: Mom and Dad will always love you. Wishing you all the best in your college life!"
Li Yingwan suddenly took a deep breath. "It seems there’s no doubt; the girl in this photo is Sun Keke."
Niveer took the photo and looked at it as well. "She’s indeed pretty, with a good figure too... The Boss has good taste, huh... Eh? Li Yingwan! What *is* it with you?"
Niveer frowned, looking seriously at the clearly perturbed Firefly.
A strange, even somewhat unsettling, smile appeared on Li Yingwan’s face. Her hand even grasped Niveer’s sleeve.
"Hey! Hummingbird! Let me tell you something. Don’t find it weird, okay..."
"What?"
"This Sun Keke... I know her! Er, no... To be exact, I don’t *know* her, but I’ve *seen* her. I know *of* her!"
Niveer was stunned.
Strictly speaking, Niveer didn’t know Sun Keke. After all, the Niveer and Li Yingwan of this moment were not the ones from 2002! They were Hummingbird and Firefly from 2021! Logically speaking, neither of them should know the ordinary girl Sun Keke from Jinling City in 2002. At least, Niveer was very sure she didn’t know the girl in the photo at all.
But how could Li Yingwan possibly know her?
Li Yingwan, however, looked as if she’d seen a ghost. She calmed her emotions before turning to her companion.
"You... explain it carefully," Niveer said, also realizing something was amiss. "How could you possibly know her?"
Li Yingwan gave a wry smile. "Believe it or not, I really do know this girl. It was in 2010 or 2011... That was after the Boss announced his retirement for that dying woman, spending those two years traveling the world with her. We were also traveling the world, searching for her. Fox would occasionally find news and the whereabouts of the Boss. On days when I had nothing else to do, I would nag Fox endlessly. As soon as I got news, I would rush over without a second thought... There were indeed a couple of times when I found the Boss. But I didn’t dare get close to the Boss. I was afraid he would send me away. So, every time I found him, I would just secretly watch from a distance to see what the Boss was doing."
Niveer frowned. "Get to the point!"
"The point is... I can’t remember if it was in 2010 or 2011. That time, I got information about the Boss’s whereabouts from Fox and knew the Boss had taken that woman to the Anderson Center..."
Niveer nodded. She knew of the Anderson Center—the top cancer treatment and research center in the United States, possibly even worldwide.
"I hurried to the Anderson Center and spied on the Boss from a distance. The Boss was there with that woman, undergoing some tests and treatments; I’m not very clear about the specifics. But I saw with my own eyes, the Boss and this girl... that is, Sun Keke! They had contact! And Sun Keke was working at the Anderson Center! She had interactions with the Boss! The reason I took notice at the time was because... I thought the girl was very pretty, and she was of Huaxia descent. I would take note of any young and beautiful woman who got close to the Boss. I think you understand that."
Niveer nodded. "Understood!" In fact, she felt the same way.
"Then... I spied on the Boss for three days near the Anderson Center. Over those three days, the Boss had about three to five encounters with this girl before he left," Li Yingwan continued, reminiscing, "I remember the Boss speaking to this girl very gently, apparently quite friendly, so I took note. Afterward, I looked into this girl’s background. But..."
"But what?"
"But the girl I saw at the Anderson Center wasn’t called Sun Keke. She was called... I remember now! Her name was Lemi! Lemi Yao! That’s the name I found when I had someone look into her. Her resume, too. She was a new intern at the Anderson Center at the time, responsible for some basic examinations and client communication. That’s where she met the Boss. And I also found out that this Lemi Yao was also from Huaxia, and from Jinling no less! I thought then that maybe the Boss chatted with her, mentioned they were from the same hometown, and that’s why he was more amiable towards her. After the Boss left the Anderson Center, he apparently never saw that girl again, so I didn’t pay much more attention to it."
Niveer’s expression grew strange. "So, what you’re saying is... actually, the Boss knew this Sun Keke... in his ’previous life,’ at the Anderson Center, he knew Sun Keke! Is that right?"
As Niveer said this, she frowned. "Could you have mistaken her?"
Li Yingwan replied coldly, "I can identify my assassination target from three hundred photos in thirty seconds! I can find my target at first glance through a sniper rifle’s scope on a crowded street! I’ve undergone rigorous training, okay?! How could I possibly make a mistake recognizing faces?! No mistake! This Sun Keke *is* the Lemi Yao I met in my previous life!!"
"So, could it be they just look similar..." Niveer tried to offer a plausible explanation.
"She’s the same person! I’m not mistaken! The recognition training I received was for assassination! My training in recognizing people, memory training, isn’t about remembering facial features! It’s about memorizing a person’s skeletal structure!!" Li Yingwan stated decisively, "It *is* the same person! I’m certain!"
Niveer fell silent. She had absolute confidence in the professional prowess of her companion, Firefly. In fact, although the relationships between these few individuals under Yama were very complex, they absolutely trusted each other with regard to their professionalism. A top-notch killer of the Underground World, renowned for many years, making a low-level mistake like misidentification? Firefly would never commit such an error.
"So, here’s the problem," Niveer said. "First, if in her ’previous life,’ Sun Keke went to the Anderson Center as an intern... We all know what kind of place the Anderson Center is. It’s hard for students from ordinary medical schools to get in! She must have been from one of the very top medical schools in America... But don’t forget, the Sun Keke we see now is in Jinling, Huaxia, attending a Normal University with a teacher-training program, not a medical school! According to normal progression, even if she changed her major right now, she couldn’t possibly be accepted by America’s top medical schools... No, even if she were accepted, getting a position at the Anderson Center after graduation would likely require strong recommendations from influential people... A common teacher-training student from Huaxia—how could her family background possibly make that happen?
Secondly... the girl you remember is Lemi Yao. You’re certain it’s Yao, right? Sharing the surname with that Chinese NBA superstar? Yao! But now, this girl is Sun Keke. Her surname is Sun!"
The questions Niveer raised undoubtedly hit the core of the issue.
Li Yingwan pondered. "I can’t answer your first question. But for your second question, I might know a bit. I overheard a casual conversation between the Boss and this girl. The girl’s English name was Lemi. According to her, she chose the English name Lemi herself after going from Huaxia to M Country. She said it was because she’d seen a cartoon as a child where the protagonist was named Remy. And that cartoon was about a lonely orphan who kept adventuring, searching everywhere for his father. Oh right, and there was a theme song. I remembered it at the time, but unfortunately, I later forgot it... Um, now I only remember two lines..."
Li Yingwan sang softly, her tune a little off-key, indeed only two lines:
"I must find my father, no matter where I go, I must find my father.
I have not found my dear father, if you see him, tell him to come home."
After singing these two lines, Li Yingwan shook her head. "That’s it. That’s all I can remember. My eavesdropping was later discovered by the Boss. He scolded me and then left. That’s why I remember this incident so clearly."
Niveer’s gaze grew even more complex.
"So... the Boss actually knew this Sun Keke in his ’previous life’? The problem is... according to you, in his previous life, the Boss didn’t even like this girl named Lemi Yao. It was just a chance encounter, a few casual words exchanged. He never saw her again and had no further interaction with her. But in this life, the Boss fell in love with her? And this girl, in this life, her name changed to Sun Keke?
Wait a minute...
Could it be... could it be...
Could it be that this Sun Keke, like the Boss, also died and was reborn into this era?!"
