Chapter 41: Reincarnation

After a clean shower and drying her hair, Lily sat on her bed. Her eyes were closed and she looked like she was meditating, somehow. There were times when her face scrunched up into a confused expression, as if she was trying to figure something out. I sat patiently next to her and waited.

"These memories…they aren't mine," she whispered. "This girl has gone through such a tragic life too…I can't believe it."

She then sighed heavily and clenched a trembling fist.

"But the heavens have given me a chance! They allowed me to reincarnate. I'll help this girl get revenge on her wicked stepsister and stepmother…and then I'll take revenge! I must kill Ye Ze!"

"…"

I watched her for a moment, not sure what to make of her monologue. At that moment, her eyes snapped open and she recoiled when she saw me.

"Ah…ha ha ha, I'm sorry. I was just acting out a play from…something."

As far as I knew, the real Lily Ling didn't like acting. She was a confident lady who majored in business. Acting had never crossed her mind. Besides, those lines were just so ridiculous that I was pretty sure they weren't from any drama or movie.

Rather, those lines seemed like they were taken right out of a typical CEO romance novel.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"W…what are you talking about?" Lily forced a smile, even though she was visibly perspiring. "I'm your beloved Lily. Don't you recognize me?"

"You're not Lily." I glared at her. "For one thing, we aren't in an actual relationship. For another, you're not her. Lily doesn't act and behave like you do."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Lily's eyes widened and she clutched at her head. "But from her memories…"

She trailed off and winced sheepishly. "Oh, right. Our relationship is fake. Of course I remember that. I was just teasing you."

"Yeah, I'm sure you were," I responded sarcastically, still glaring at her. "But like I said, Lily doesn't behave like you do. Now tell me who you are."

"I…I'm…" Lily swallowed. "This can't be right. I'm behaving like she was, based on her memories. What gave me away?"

"Your dialogue," I replied. "Lily doesn't like acting, she will never pretend to be acting like you did. Also, your awkwardness…and did I say you're a bad liar?"

"I'm pretty sure my acting skills are fine. I was a professional actress." The person who was inhabiting Lily sulked. "I resent that statement."

"I never said you were bad at acting. But you looked pretty uncomfortable when I asked who you were."

"Yeah, if I can't lie convincingly, that makes me a bad actress." The girl sighed. "But I'll admit that you caught me off guard. I didn't expect you to suddenly throw that question at me. I wasn't able to react in time."

"So who are you?" I repeated my question. The girl winced.

"You can continue to call me Lily. That was also my name. Though my original name was Lily Bai. I was an actress…I don't know if you've heard of me?"

"Uh, I think so? Aren't you that famous actress from HK City?"

"Oh, so you do know me! Yeah, that's right!" she looked proud of herself. "I'm sure you watched some of my movies, right?"

"Only the martial arts one," I admitted. She scowled and shook her head. I shrugged. "Sorry, I rarely watch movies. Usually just the martial arts movies or the sci-fi ones. And even then, I only watch those sci-fi movies with aliens and robots in them."

"Like Terminator?"

"Yeah. And Aliens. Avatar too, but 100 years later they still haven't released a sequel to that movie."

"Uh…of course. The director is long gone, how is he supposed to release his sequels?"

She evidently didn't get the joke, but then again I doubted she would get it if I had used Half-life as the subject. I decided not to dwell on it.

"I think you were staring alongside Jay Li in The Ultimate Tai Ji or something like that."

"…that was the only martial arts movie I starred in…" Lily looked unhappy. "Are you telling me you didn't watch any of my other movies?"

"What other movies did you star in?"

She rattled off a list of romance movies and detective films – some of which I remembered vaguely reading about because her co-star was Louis Ku. Interesting.

"Sorry, I didn't watch any of them."

"I don't believe it!" Lily stormed. "Just how closeminded can you be?!"

Not watching a bunch of movies belonging to the genres that I had no interest in was being closeminded? How the hell did that work?

"Putting that aside," I said wearily. "What happened? How did you end up in Lily's body? Lily Ling, I mean. Did you die or something? You mentioned something about revenge earlier."

"That's right!" Lily Bai jolted up, clenching her fist angrily. "I was murdered! One of the actresses, Yvonne Yang, she tricked and drugged me! When I was feeling dizzy, I was grabbed by a bunch of men. She hired them to **** me, to ruin my reputation. But when I was struggling too hard, they accidentally strangled me to death."

She then took a deep breath, her hands flying to her throat. I could see genuine fear in her eyes. She was trembling violently and I reached out to place a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Obviously, I wasn't close to her so I couldn't hug her – most likely she would reject such intimate physical contact from a man she wasn't familiar with, especially after such a traumatic experience.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"No, not at all." She gritted her teeth. "That Yvonne Yang! I will take revenge on her! I'll expose what she did, no matter what! I'll find a way to expose her true façade in media and put her in prison!"

"I'll help you," I promised. Then I paused for a moment. "By the way, who is Yvonne Yang?"

Lily stared at me in disbelief for a moment before she burst out laughing. "You really don't watch many movies, do you?"

"Honestly? No. I rarely watch Chinese movies, with wuxia and martial arts films being an exception. I also hardly watch Chinese sci-fi films because…quite frankly, their special effects and storylines are lacking. I usually watch Hollywood movies. They have much better CGI. Either that, or Japanese kaiju movies."

"Are you serious? You don't watch Chinese shows at all?"

"Well…I watch a lot of Chinese animation. Not the terrible 3D computer generated ones, but the traditional 2D ones. You know, like Spirit Fox Matchmaker, The King's Avatar, The Outcast, My Holy Weapon, Yaoguai Mingdan, Spirit Realm, Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices) and A Will Eternal."

"I have never heard of any of the series you've just listed." Lily was gaping at me when I rattled the titles of the series off.

"Now who's the closeminded person?" I taunted. Then I shrugged. "You can check them out on the Tencents website. I think Spirit Realm is on Iqiyi, but I'm not sure. I couldn't find Spirit Realm on the Tencents website, sadly enough."

"…no thanks."

"Your loss." I shrugged again. "In any case, I don't know anything about actresses and live-action movies. I spent more time watching animation than live-action."

"No wonder. Funnily enough, Yvonne Yang is adverse toward animation. She refused to be a voice-actress for any of them. I received an offer once, but I rejected it because I was filming a drama series at the time. Besides, they usually hire professional voice actors and not actual actors for the role – they are two different vocations."

Yeah, at least in the Asian industry. Apparently, in Country A, professional actors were expected to double as voice actors for animated films. I still remembered the legendary Mark Hamill being known for his role as Luke Skywalker and also doing an amazing job as the Joker in the Batman animated series (and the Arkham games).

However, I couldn't help but chuckle at Lily's revelation.

"All the more reason I have to help you take down Yvonne Yang then."

"Because she doesn't like animation?" Lily rolled her eyes. She smiled and giggled. "Well, given my current circumstances, I'll accept any help I can get. Honestly, you are…weird. No one will believe me if I tell them I'm someone else reincarnated in Lily Ling's body. Yet you refuse to believe the opposite –n that I was teasing you and I'm really the real Lily Ling."

"But it's the truth."

"I know it's the truth, but you know how crazy that sounds?!" Lily clutched her head. "Even I can't believe what's happening to me. It feels like a dream. I'm hoping to wake up from it anytime now."

"Good luck with that."

Lily sighed and shook her head. Then her expression turned serious. "Anyway, let's get down to the important matter. What happened? What happened to Lily Ling before I ended up in her body? I can only vaguely recall her last moments before I woke up in her body."

I frowned. "To be honest, I'm not sure either. I was watching from a distance, so I don't know the specifics, but it looked to me that Lily's stepsister, Linda, and her friends all pushed her into the swimming pool with the intention of drowning you."

"Yes, that's right." Lily flinched and tears came to her eyes. She trembled. "I remember that clearly. I can see Lily's memories of that…all of them surrounding and telling her to have fun, to enjoy herself, and then shoving her into the pool in such a rough manner. She wasn't able to react in time. Linda knew that the original Lily couldn't swim…she must have planned this! She was egging the others on, encouraging them to push the original owner of this body into the pool."

That fucking bitch.

"Yeah, and when I went to rescue you, the guys tried to shove my head underwater and prevent me from surfacing."

"That's what the servants told me," Lily agreed. She shuddered, and then she took a deep breath and steeled her resolve. Turning her gaze, she hardened her voice. "We can't let them get away with this. First, we're going to make them pay for their attempted murder."