The room was dark—darker than any night Yun Fei remembered.
The air was thick, the curtains drawn, and the silence only interrupted by the ticking of the old wall clock. 11:59 PM. A minute to midnight. A minute to the end.
He sat at the edge of his narrow bed, holding a crumpled letter in his hand. His suicide note. It was barely legible, smudged by tear stains and shaky handwriting. There were no poetic words, no grand goodbyes. Just four lines:
"I've failed everyone. I can't fix this life. Please don't hate me. I just want the pain to stop."
His hand trembled as he held the bottle of pills. Tonight, he wouldn't hesitate.
He'd had enough.
The betrayal of friends, the collapse of his startup, the death of his mother—all of it had crushed his will to live. In the end, Yun Fei died with more regrets than memories. And that was the most painful part.
But fate had other plans.
As the clock struck midnight, just as the pills reached his lips, something happened.
The world froze.
The clock stopped ticking. The wind outside ceased to howl. Even the flickering lightbulb in his ceiling paused mid-blink.
Then came the voice.
> "You've reached the edge of regret. Would you like to return?"
Yun Fei blinked. The bottle dropped from his hand, landing with a soft thud on the floor.
> "What…?"
The voice didn't echo—it vibrated within his bones, like thunder under his skin.
> "Your soul has been poisoned by remorse. We offer you a choice. Be reborn—not to relive your past, but to correct the regrets yet to come."
Suddenly, visions flooded his mind.
He saw his mother crying alone at his funeral. He saw the girl who once loved him visiting his grave every year. He saw himself old, bitter, and lonely in alternate versions of his life. He saw himself failing, over and over, trapped in endless timelines of missed chances and broken promises.
And in every version, he felt the pain—the gut-wrenching sorrow of not doing better.
> "You will return with memories of every future regret you would have felt. Use them... or be consumed by them."
The light exploded in his eyes.
And everything went black.
---
Yun Fei gasped, choking on air as he shot upright.
Bright sunlight poured through unfamiliar curtains. A ceiling fan spun lazily above. His hands were smaller. His skin... younger.
His heart thundered as he scrambled out of bed and ran to the mirror.
He stared.
Eighteen-year-old Yun Fei looked back at him. No wrinkles. No stubble. No weary, hollow eyes.
"W-What the hell…?"
The door burst open. A familiar voice shouted.
"Yun Fei! You're going to be late again, idiot! I'm not covering for you this time!"
It was his sister. His younger sister, Yun Xinyu. The one who stopped talking to him when their family fell apart.
He turned around, stunned. She was… alive. Angry, adorable, and still rocking that ugly pink hoodie.
"You… you're not supposed to be here…" he whispered.
"Did you hit your head?" she frowned, walking up to feel his forehead. "Ugh, seriously, you look like you've seen a ghost."
"I did," he said softly. "My own."
---
Over the next few hours, the reality settled in: he was back.
Back in his teenage body. Back in his old house. Back before his mother died, before his startup failed, before the heartbreak, debt, and shame.
It was like being handed the script of a movie where he already knew all the tragic twists.
But then came the first shard.
At exactly 3:15 PM, while walking down the old school hallway, Yun Fei suddenly stopped. His knees buckled. He gripped the wall.
An intense wave of sorrow crashed over him, flooding his chest with unbearable pressure.
> "Regret Shard #001 unlocked."
He blinked.
In his vision, he saw a scene—two days from now. His mother standing on the road, groceries in hand. A car speeding toward her. Him, on the phone, ignoring her final call.
"No," he breathed. "No, not again."
He didn't understand how it worked yet—but he knew that feeling. That pain in his chest. It was a future memory—a moment of regret he hadn't lived through yet.
The System wasn't a gift.
It was a curse.
---
That night, Yun Fei waited near the intersection outside their neighborhood. He waited in the shadows, heart pounding, eyes locked on the crosswalk. He saw the car—the same one from his vision—barreling down the street.
And he saw her.
His mother.
"Mom!" he screamed.
He sprinted, faster than he'd ever run in both lifetimes. He dove, snatched her hand, and yanked her back to the sidewalk just as the car zipped past, horn blaring.
She gasped, groceries spilling everywhere.
Yun Fei collapsed, panting, tears streaming down his face.
She knelt beside him. "Fei? What happened? Are you okay?"
He looked up at her—alive, breathing, warm.
"I almost lost you again…" he whispered.
She froze. "Again?"
But Yun Fei just hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry for everything I'll do. I'm sorry for what I was."
She didn't understand. But she held him anyway.
And for the first time in both his lives, Yun Fei didn't feel the sharp edge of regret in his chest.
---
> Regret Shard #001 Neutralized
Regret Points Gained: +10
Ability Unlocked: Emotional Intuition (Lv. 1)
You can now sense emotional shifts in others. Truth, fear, hatred, admiration—they leave traces.
---
Yun Fei stared at the system prompt floating in his vision. A translucent screen no one else could see.
So it was true.
He could rewrite his regrets.
But how many were there?
How many pain-filled memories would he have to face to build the life he never had?
As he walked home under the night sky, one thing became clear:
This time, he wouldn't be a man filled with regret.
He would become a man who erased them.