Chapter 1

With a loud bang, my thoughts snapped back to the present.

I looked around. This was the dorm room from my very first day of university. The source of the noise was the bed beside mine—Lucy Windham.

She had flung her pillow straight down. It smashed into my thermos. There was water inside; the inner liner shattered on impact. Hot water spilled across the floor, and steam curled upward.

"I'm so sick of this! Why do we even have to run morning drills? And there's an eight a.m. class too! Didn't they say university was supposed to mean freedom? I nearly killed myself studying to get in—if I'd known it would be like this, I wouldn't have enrolled in university!"

As Lucy vented, the other two roommates exchanged glances. One of them, Joey Marcell, laughed and teased, "Then just get pregnant. Pregnant students get special treatment. You wouldn't have to do any of that."

The moment those words left her mouth, my body began to tremble.

The same scene. Exactly the same.

Last time, Lucy had taken Joey's words to heart and immediately posted on the campus forum, openly recruiting a "baby daddy."

The post had gone viral in no time. When I saw it, I rushed to persuade her to delete it, warning her that early pregnancy came with severe morning sickness and endless inconveniences—not to mention the lifelong responsibility of raising a child.

After thinking it over for a long time, Lucy finally listened to me.

Later, another girl copied the idea, found a rich heir, and instantly rose in status through pregnancy, marrying into a wealthy family.

When Lucy found out, she stormed into the dorm with a knife and stabbed me multiple times. As she did, she screamed curses at me.

"This is all your fault! You said early pregnancy was bad. You ruined my chance to marry into money!"

I bled out on the dorm room floor.

The most tragic part? Lucy was diagnosed with a mental illness and spared the death penalty.

I had died for nothing.

Since heaven had given me a chance to start over, I would never be stupid again. No more savior complex. No more interfering in other people's fate.

"Tricia, what do you think?"

Lucy looked straight at me, clearly waiting for my answer.

In the dorm, my grades were the best. I'd entered university as the top scorer, and Lucy always came to me for advice.

In my last life, she'd asked me the same question. I'd rejected the idea outright, furious on her behalf. But she hadn't given up. Under Joey's constant influence, Lucy still posted on the forum behind my back.

This time, I simply smiled faintly.

"Being a mom early isn't bad. You recover faster because you're young. By the time you graduate, your kid could already be in kindergarten. Saves a lot of trouble."

Lucy froze.

In her mind—and in everyone else's—I was always extremely conservative.

Still, she hesitated after hearing me.

"Huh? But giving birth really hurts. And if I have a baby, who's going to take care of it while I'm studying?"

My heart skipped.

So she did know the risks of early pregnancy. She just wanted me to be the bad guy.

This time, I wouldn't let her have her way.

I pressed on, gently fanning the flames. "If you land a rich heir, would you really need to worry about any of that?"

Lucy fell silent. She seemed to think for a long time before finally nodding.

The temptation of becoming a wealthy wife was simply too great. And this time, since I wasn't stopping her, even if she failed, she wouldn't be able to blame me.

Almost the very next second, Lucy posted her recruitment message on the campus forum. She even raised her brows at me smugly.

"Tricia, I think you should find a rich guy too. What's the point of studying yourself to death? Studying well isn't as good as marrying well."

Her tone made it sound as if she were already a rich wife.

I couldn't understand why Lucy held such hostility toward me. This time, I wasn't even stopping her—yet she still spoke to me with sharp, barbed words.

But someone like Lucy, a person who drags others down with her, was best kept at a distance.

I lowered my head, flipping through practice papers, and replied calmly, "I'll pass."

As the popularity of her post continued to climb, Lucy let out a scornful snort in my direction.

"Fake prude. Bookworm. I can tell—you're never going to amount to much in this life."