Independence Rebirth 短篇故事與 Face Slapping 小說

I sponsored Emily Fagan from an underprivileged background just to help her get through school. She was good-looking but wasn't exactly the brightest. Despite my warning not to tamper with my things, she slipped stimulants into my water bottle. Thanks to her, I was accused of cheating in the swimming competition. Our team's score was nullified. As for me, I was banned from competing for life and kicked out of college. When I confronted her, she cried pitifully, "Julie, I just wanted you to win. I didn't know that'd happen." My boyfriend, Elijah Strauss, held her and comforted her. He even snapped at me, claiming, "Em had good intentions. Why are you giving her a hard time?" Crushed, I shut myself in at home. Feeling sorry, she and Elijah visited me and brought along some vodka as an apology. After I took ten shots, I asked her to buy some over-the-counter pain relievers for my splitting headache. Little did I know that she'd make me take a dangerous dose of Ibuprofen mixed with alcohol. The bleeding in my stomach was what killed me. Emily looked pitifully remorseful at the hospital. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't even tell what I shouldn't have given her…" During the police interrogation, my boyfriend gave false testimony to protect her. He accused me of taking my own life by mixing Ibuprofen and alcohol because I couldn't handle the mental stress from cheating in the competition. When I reopened my eyes, I found out that I was transported to the day before the competition.

A week before summer break, my boyfriend’s childhood sweetheart threw a fit, insisting on going to Tanond to watch a strip show. She even convinced our entire class to go with them. I kept warning them that it was not safe, that it could be some kind of new scam, and begged them not to go. When they refused to listen, I secretly reported it to the police. On the day of their departure, the police stopped them right at customs. A few days later, a male stripper suddenly went viral overnight. When she found out about it, she got so furious her eyes turned red. “It’s all Zoey’s fault! If it weren’t for her, we could’ve seen an international superstar's strip show!” On the first day we went back to school, they drugged me and made ten men teach me how to dance. “Didn’t you stop us from watching a strip show? Then you can perform one for us yourself.” The next day, my photos of strip show were all over social media. After that, I jumped off a building out of despair. When I opened my eyes again, it was once again the day his little sweetheart demanded that trip to Tanond.

The seven Jennings sisters were all born unusually fertile, while I was born extremely virile. My grandmother wanted me to marry a woman with high fertility so we could have lots of kids and thrive as a family. In my previous life, I followed her wishes and chose Kara Jennings. But she joined forces with her six sisters to steal my family estate, locked me in a basement, and tortured me until I died. Now that I had come back to life on the day I had a banquet to announce my bride-to-be, I chose Michelle Cooper, the powerful CEO rumored to be sickly and infertile...

My husband, Julian Harlow, has died, leaving behind a five-million-dollar debt. I decide to inherit his debt right away. However, my best friend, Evangeline Frost, goes crazy from worry because of my decision. In my previous life, Evangeline had advised me to not inherit Julian's debt because he didn't have any assets. So, I signed the agreement to give up on inheriting his assets and declare that I had nothing to do with Julian in order to escape from the debt. But the debtors kept haunting me. They even kidnapped my son, Shawn Harlow, just to force me to pay the debt. The debtors were extremely violent and ruthless. On top of that, they kept using Shawn's safety as leverage over me. Every time they forced me to pay the debt, I felt as though I was being tormented slowly yet painfully. In just 24 hours, I asked all of my relatives for help, but I was only able to gather 100 thousand dollars. In the end, Shawn never escaped from his fate. I was sold to Northreach by the cruel debtors in order for the debt to be cleared. But that was when Evangeline claimed that her own son had finally returned to his roots, thus successfully inheriting the assets of a billionaire. I finally found out that said billionaire was actually my dead husband when I watched the news on the TV. Only then did realization dawn on me. Julian was pretending to be poor this whole time. It turned out that Evangeline's son was actually his illegitimate child. The assets that I had given up all went to Evangeline and her son in the end. Filled with resentment, I tried to escape back to the country in order to settle the score with Evangeline, only to die to the electric fence surrounding the slave camp in Northreach. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Evangeline tells me to give up on the assets.

Before the SATs, everyone had filled in their dream colleges they'd like to apply to. Now that the results were out, my boyfriend, Sheldon Miller, and many of my classmates had successfully gotten into Astraeus University, which happens to be their dream university. In order to celebrate the success, Sheldon's childhood friend, Winnie Frost, decided to invite Sheldon and the classmates over to the tattoo parlor her family ran for celebratory tattoos. I grabbed Sheldon's hand and reminded him that students in aviation majors weren't allowed to have tattoos of their own, only to get slapped by him instead. The classmates around me even started mocking me relentlessly. "Just how shameless are you, Cassandra? Sheldon and Winnie are the actual childhood friends here! You don't want him to get a tattoo at her family's parlor out of jealousy, right?" I was so pissed that I could feel a headache coming. For the sake of Sheldon's future, I forcibly dragged him away. But what I didn't expect was that Winnie would secretly carry two barrels of gas to my residence. Just like that, she set my residence ablaze. That fire ended up killing my parents and me. Sheldon and our classmates even forged Winnie's alibi just so they could wash her off the police's suspicion. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Sheldon is about to walk into Winnie's tattoo parlor. Sheldon shakes my hand off ruthlessly and begins berating me angrily. "Aren't you just being jealous because Winnie and I are close to each other? I'll have you know that not only do I want to get a tattoo with Winnie, but I also want to have her name tattooed on my body!" This time, I just flash a wide smile at him. "Go on, then. You'd better have her name tattooed on an obvious spot."

In my last life, I was kidnapped alongside the fake heiress, Lilith Howe, at the same time. My father, the richest man in the country, claimed he had to prove his impartiality. Without a second thought, he told the police to rescue Lilith first and refused to pay a ransom for me. In front of the cameras, he declared with solemn conviction, "A daughter of the Howes must have backbone. We will never give in to criminals!" Lilith returned without a single scratch, and the internet crowned her a miracle girl. Meanwhile, I was killed by the kidnappers. There was barely anything left of me to bury. As my soul hovered above the scene, I watched my brother sneer at what little remained. "Good," he said. "At least she won't come back and be an eyesore to Lilith. We'll finally have some peace in the house." When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the exact moment the kidnappers called with their demands. A knife was pressed against my throat. On the other end of the line, my father's voice was just as cold, just as absolute. "I'm not choosing. My money belongs to charity. If she's a Howe, she should be ready to sacrifice for the family." I laughed. If he was willing to destroy his own flesh and blood for the sake of so-called honor, then this time, I would grant them a reunion in hell!

After ten years studying interior design overseas, I came back to my hometown to do work that mattered to the people who raised me. I offered the full package, from site survey to soft furnishings. The materials were chosen by hand. The price was fair to the bone. The town had just gone through a redevelopment. Everyone was getting new units. With the new family policy, every family wanted a third bedroom too. My business was good. Customers from the next county were driving in. Then a girl just back from a city college kicked open my studio with her phone on a livestream and her neighbors at her shoulder. "This is the dishonest one. Look at her. She has been ripping the village off." "In the city, an eighty-square-meter unit can be done for twenty thousand dollars. She is charging eighty." "That's a sixty-thousand-dollar margin. Sixty thousand. Right out of our pockets." The village fell in line behind her. They demanded the difference back. When I refused, they smashed my studio. They beat me into a coma. The pile-on online killed me. When I opened my eyes again, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I would refund every single one of them. And then I would tear out every single thing I had installed. Let's see what twenty thousand dollars actually buys you.

The Fletcher family, known as the most prestigious and wealthiest family in Baymouth, has hosted a musical banquet. That event is actually a cover-up for blind dates between the rich and the elite. My younger sister, Evelyn Burch, and I are on the guest list. The banquet is filled with strict rules. Every socialite is required to wear a mask before they take turns entering the banquet hall just to put on a performance. In my previous life, Evelyn couldn't hold her jealousy back simply because I had stayed in the banquet hall for almost 20 minutes. Right after I came out, she worked with a music professor and accused me of plagiarizing her musical scores. I couldn't even defend myself when I saw two copies of the identical music scores. My parents refused to listen to my explanation. They were quick to pin the blame on me just so they could protect Evelyn's innocence. Heck, they even admitted me into a mental asylum by force and allow the staff to torture me there. I finally managed to escape, only to die in a car accident that was staged by Evelyn. Only when I took my last breath did I find out that the blood worthed even less than one of Evelyn's lies. When I open my eyes again, I realize that I've gotten reborn. So, I start playing games on my phone when it's my turn to perform on the stage. This time, I want to see how Evelyn can accuse me for cheating when I never even get to hold a musical instrument in this lifetime.

My best friend, Elise Moore, comes across a reel that shows someone being able to see the answers for the Math test during the SAT exam after ingesting poisonous mushrooms. So, she buys a bunch of poisonous mushrooms at a high price before using them as ingredients for a mushroom stew. I advise Elise to not eat those mushrooms, for she will get poisoned instead. Hence, Elise dumps those mushrooms out of fear. But after the exam is over, a classmate claims that he's able to see the answers during the math exam after getting poisoned by the mushrooms. He's confident that he'll ace his exam. When the results are out, it appears that the classmate is eligible to apply for any prestigious college out there. Meanwhile, Elise's results indicate that she's one mark away from getting into the threshold that qualifies her for prestigious colleges. Later on, Elise stabs me 18 times in a row at my graduation party. "You filthy loser! If not for your meddling, I'd be the one qualified for prestigious colleges!" When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Elise brags about the poisonous mushrooms benefitting the consumers at the SAT exam. "Once I eat the poisonous mushrooms, I'll be able to see the math answers during the exam! Do you think I should try the mushrooms out?"

To force the golden bachelor of Morrisey City's high society into marrying me, I once staked my very life as the price. I rammed my car into the one carrying him and his first love as they tried to elope, and I forced her to give up Wade Grant to me. He drove a shard of broken glass through my palm and swore he'd make me wish I were dead once I became his wife. On our wedding night, Wade hung me from the balcony railing with his necktie and forced me to kneel before his first love—the same woman who'd once tried to jump from a rooftop—and beg her forgiveness. I pulled the pin from my hair and drove it through his shoulder, laughing that he was a worthless man who couldn't even protect the woman he loved. For decades after that, the two of us tore at each other like a pair of demons trapped in the same marriage, until we'd both burned down to nothing. Then I was reborn, waking up back at my engagement banquet at twenty years old. In front of everyone in the room, Wade smashed the pocket watch we'd exchanged as a token of our engagement. "Dad. Mr. Rodney. I won't accept a marriage that is forced onto me. "In this life, I will only ever marry Rose Barrymore. Even if you throw me out of the Grant family today, I still won't marry Elisa Rodney!" The whole room went still. Everyone there knew exactly what I was capable of to win Wade. I was the kind of woman who'd stop at nothing and was willing to die just to get what she wanted. Wade glared at me, waiting for me to do exactly what I'd done in my last life: smash a wine bottle and hold the jagged edge to my own throat, threatening to bleed out right there if I didn't get my way. Rose, shielded behind him, had gone pale with fear. She was gripping the hem of his jacket, trembling. I looked at the pieces scattered across the floor and felt nothing but indifference. I picked up the wine glass beside me and drained it in one go. "Congratulations," I said. "I wish you both a happy ever after."