Jin Liwei became even more confused by his wife’s actions but he still received the manila envelope that she handed him. It was light and thin, but since she was acting so nervous, he suspected that its contents shouldn’t be something simple.
“What’s this, love?”
“You’ll know when you open it.”
“Then should I open it now?” He didn’t wait for his wife’s reply and immediately moved to tear the envelope’s seal but she stopped him.
“No!” Iris tugged his arm. “Let’s return to the bedroom first, okay? Or maybe you should take a shower first….”
“To the bedroom. I’ll shower later.”
She nodded, still clearly nervous, while holding his arm. They exited their walk-in closet and reached their bedroom. Iris sat on the chaise longue and alternated looking at Jin Liwei and the envelope in his hand.
He sat beside her. “Can I open it now?”
“Yes,” she replied in Russian.
He tore the seal. Then he became stunned when he finally saw the contents of the envelope.
It was a thin pile of photographs. The one on top showed a photo of a breathtakingly beautiful woman with golden-blonde hair and emerald-green eyes. Her subtle smile evoked an air of profound mystery as if she didn’t entirely belong in the mortal world.
She was so beautiful that Jin Liwei felt like space and time froze around him as he stared at her photo. Even his breathing and heartbeat seemed to stop. With the exception of his wife, there had never been a case that he felt so spellbound by any women especially based on appearance.
Then he finally realized the identity of the woman in the photo. It felt as if lightning struck the top of his head. Space and time unfroze around him. He started breathing again. His heart thundered almost painfully, feeling as if it was going to leap out of his chest. He whipped his head and faced his wife who was watching him with wary eyes.
“Evelina,” he whispered. “Is this…was this you?”
She slowly nodded but didn’t say anything.
He looked at the photo again and traced the stunning face with his fingers. This was how his wife looked like in her past life?
He always thought that his wife was beautiful now as Long Xiulan and that there would never be any other woman in the world who could be more beautiful than her in his eyes. Tonight, however, he was proven wrong. There was indeed another woman who was more beautiful than his wife. And that woman was his wife’s previous self before she died in her past life.
“Evelina Armanovna Vetrova,” he whispered like a spiritual chant.
Jin Liwei couldn’t tear his eyes away from her photo. How could a woman be so beautiful? Was she human?
“Were you really human?”
Iris grabbed a fistful of his shirt and shook it. “Liwei!”
He turned to her and saw her anxious face. His amazement remained but he started recovering his stunned senses. The corner of his lips hooked up in a smile.
“I already told you before that I was human,” she muttered. “How can you still doubt me?”
He chuckled, reached over, and stroked her cheek. “I’m not doubting you. My Evelina. So beautiful.”
Her eyelashes fluttered as she studied his expression, trying to see if his words were truly honest. “Really?”
“En. I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you, Evelina.”
“Do you…like how I looked like before?”
“En.” His reply was quick without any hesitation.
The anxiety on her face eased. Then her eyes began twinkling with mischief. She leaned closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder as they looked together at the photo of herself as Evelina Vetrova.
“How can you be sure that this was how I really looked like? What if I tell you that I’m pranking you and I just printed some photos of a random woman?”
“I’m sure that this was you.”
She looked at him, a little surprised and also intrigued at the certainty in his tone. “How are you so sure?”
“I feel it here.” He placed his hand on his chest directly over his heart. “When you searched your name Evelina Vetrova on the internet before and I tried guessing which one was you from among the image search results, I didn’t feel anything looking at the photos of those different women. But this photo right here, I feel an instant connection. I don’t know how to explain it. I just know that this was you.”
There was now an extremely pleased smile on Iris’ face. “Yes, you’re right. This woman is…was me, Evelina.”
Feeling excited like a kid opening a present, Jin Liwei looked at the other photos. There were a total of five photos of his wife when she was Evelina Vetrova in different poses.
The first one was the beautiful candid photo of her that stunned him into speechless amazement.
There was also a photo of her side profile while playing the piano in what looked like the inside of a castle.
“This was my music room at the Vetrov estate in Russia,” she told him a soft voice.
He looked at the next photo. It was of a younger Evelina sitting on the floor in a room filled with computers and many other devices. She was building what appeared to be a small laptop that looked like a leather-bound journal. The place looked similar to her computer room at her current Gold Heights penthouse but only with older-looking computer models. Well, the photo was shot years ago.
“I was around fourteen here before Cross Academy scouted me.”
His eyes were soft as he stared at the photo of his wife when she was still a teenager. Even when she was young, she had already been such a gorgeous girl. The innocence and purity in her eyes were also more prominent, eliciting a strong protective instinct within Jin Liwei.
He wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him, and kissed her forehead. Then he flipped to the next photo.
It was of an adult Evelina together with three familiar-looking men. Jin Liwei squinted his eyes and studied the photo more carefully.
“Are these Headmaster Erwan Dupont, Maestro Ludovico De Luca, and Mr. Enrique Valdez?”
