Chapter 3

Head bowed, I began to clean up the debris of my life.

Through the thin wall, the woman's voice drifted in—gentle, sweet, coaxing.

It was exactly how she used to soothe me after an argument in our past life.

Soon, the sounds changed. Wet. Sticky. Unmistakable.

A knife twisted in my gut.

I stopped cleaning.

I grabbed a few changes of clothes and my university admission letter. Then, without a sound, I left that house forever.

I went to the railway station and bought the earliest ticket to the capital.

In this life, my lover was gone.

So, I would firmly grasp the future that should have been mine all along.

The moment I arrived at the university, I went to the student affairs office to register for a work-study program.

On orientation day, I volunteered to help welcome new students.

Under the blazing sun, I ran back and forth between the athletic field and the academic buildings until black spots danced in my vision.

My legs gave out, and I crashed into someone.

A shrill scream pierced my ear.

"Pervert! Do you guys have no shame? Just because you see a rich, fair-skinned beauty, you act like a toad trying to eat swan meat!"

I hurriedly backed away to apologize. But when I looked up, I froze.

Caroline Sawyer.

In my previous life, after my brother's downfall, my parents had wailed and beaten their chests, forcing me to investigate who had harmed him.

When the lawyer laid the evidence before me, I learned the truth.

My brother had met Caroline Sawyer, the sole heiress of the massive Fu Group real estate empire, at university. He had used every trick in the book to get close to her.

When his pursuit failed, he was bullied by the wealthy heirs who coveted Caroline.

Desperate, my brother had drugged her, hoping to force a marriage through scandal.

The Fu family was furious. They ordered the school to expel him, ruined his reputation, and slapped him with a lawsuit that sent him fleeing back to our village in disgrace.

In this life, as long as I stayed far away from her, I could graduate safely.

I forced myself to stand steady and turned to leave.

Behind me, I heard her friends gossiping.

"Oh? Looks like it wasn't an intentional grope."

"Maybe he's playing hard to get. That's fresh. Caroline, this kid isn't bad looking—want to play with him?"

Caroline Sawyer scoffed. "Boring."

As I walked away, I couldn't help but think of her fate.

In her junior year, she would be drugged by my brother, suffer severe toxicity, and be sent abroad for treatment.

Sadly, her medical flight would crash, leaving no survivors.

But in this life, I wouldn't get entangled with her, and she wouldn't die.

My life narrowed down to two things: studying and working.

Yet, for some reason, I kept running into her.

My seat in the study hall was always surrounded by her clique.

Whenever she saw me return, she would lift her chin and frown, glaring at me with distaste.

The cheap food I left on my desk to stave off hunger would vanish.

She would sneer, "What garbage are you eating? I don't like the smell."

My classmates cautiously comforted me, mentioning that Caroline Sawyer had been asking about my background, as if she wanted to teach me a lesson.

I stopped going to the study hall. I took the longest, most obscure routes to class to avoid them.

But even when I worked at the cafeteria, I couldn't escape.

Seeing me behind the counter, her friends would jeer, insisting that I be the one to serve them.

Then they would refuse to order, making me stand there like a statue while they chatted.

Eventually, the manager asked if I had offended them.

I shook my head and quit that very day.

A few days later, they cornered me in the narrow alley behind the library.

Caroline Sawyer stood in the shadows, her expression thunderous.