I was reborn on the exact day I originally confessed my feelings to my childhood crush. Surrounded by the cheering crowd, he looked at my tear-stained face and asked coldly, "Mia Harrison, do you really find this pathetic attention-seeking fun?" Then, he turned to the girl standing next to him—his perfect 'unattainable ideal'—and his voice softened entirely: "Wait for me a minute. I'll come find you as soon as I deal with this." He turned back to me, lecturing me impatiently: "Why are you always crying?" "If you have free time, you should try reading a book. Stop obsessing over this romantic nonsense all day..." I was so incredibly annoyed. I shoved him hard, stumbling past him, and threw myself directly onto the notorious school delinquent who was standing behind him, watching the drama. "Hubby..." I buried my face in his chest, sobbing hysterically. Eighteen-year-old Liam Vance was still alive. Everything could still be fixed. 01 Before Liam died, he made me pinky-promise that I would live to be a hundred years old before I came to find him. I promised him, and then I turned around and lied. On the third day after his death, I followed him. Right before I closed my eyes, I even found a convenient excuse for myself. When I saw him, I'd tell him I had a nightmare that he was flirting with other ghost girls in the afterlife, so I had to come check on him. The truth was, I hadn't slept at all. Without him, I literally couldn't sleep. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in my 18-year-old body. I was standing in the middle of a crowd, holding a bouquet of flowers, surrounded by relentless chanting and cheering. "Confess! Confess!" The crowd was massive, but my eyes instantly locked onto that blinding head of bleached blonde hair. He was standing in a corner no one was paying attention to. His gaze swept over me—seemingly casual, but incredibly intense. Looking at him, I instantly lost control of my tears. Just as I opened my mouth to speak, Arthur Sterling's voice cut through the noise. "Mia Harrison, do you really find this pathetic attention-seeking fun?" In my daze, I finally noticed the person standing right in front of me. His brow was slightly furrowed, his expression freezing cold. The lively atmosphere instantly died. The awkward silence stretched until Chloe Sinclair finally broke it. "Arthur, we need to finalize the draft for the award acceptance speech." Arthur turned to look at her. "Wait for me a minute. I'll come find you as soon as I deal with this." His expression held a rare, genuine tenderness. Chloe was a top-tier academic prodigy, just like Arthur. People constantly joked that the valedictorian and the salutatorian were a match made in heaven. Chloe would just scoff and reply dismissively: "I'm not one of those pathetic little girls who only has romance and boys in her head." When she said that, Arthur looked at her with a rare, profound admiration. He had told me the exact same thing once—that he despised girls who only cared about romance. But back then, my brain was exclusively occupied by him. I was actually delusional enough to think that if I confessed to him on my birthday, he wouldn't embarrass me in public. It was only much later that I realized how deeply he despised feeling emotionally manipulated. Just like he did right now. He snatched the flowers from my arms, looking incredibly impatient. "If you have free time, you should try reading a book. Stop obsessing over this romantic nonsense all day." 02 I froze. Whispers erupted from the crowd. "Look, Mia is crying." "She's been trailing after Arthur for years. Looks like the school beauty just became the school joke." "Ugh, I feel second-hand embarrassment just watching this." In my past life, I definitely cried hysterically because of the sheer humiliation. But right now, the only thing I could see was that blonde guy standing in the corner. I stared directly at him, my mouth opening and closing. I was trembling so hard I couldn't make a sound. The tears just kept streaming down my face. Seeing my reaction, Arthur frowned deeply and let out a heavy sigh. "Mia, why are you always crying?" I was so incredibly annoyed. He wouldn't stop talking, and he was physically blocking my view. I forcefully shoved Arthur out of the way, sprinting forward and throwing myself onto the boy I had miraculously gotten back. "Hubby..." "Hubby, you're still alive... thank God, waaaahhh..." His chest was burning hot, radiating that familiar, sunny scent. I held onto him, sobbing so hard I was hiccuping. The body in my arms went completely rigid. "Uh... sis... I think you've got the wrong guy?" His face was flushed bright red all the way to the tips of his ears. 03 "Mia Harrison, who the hell are you calling 'hubby'?!" Arthur's voice rang out from behind me, laced with unmistakable anger. "How many times are you going to pull this exact same stunt?" Oh, right. In my past life, to make Arthur jealous, I frequently pretended to be overly intimate with other guys. He would get slightly annoyed and then offer some half-hearted coaxing. Except, this time, the guy I chose was the delinquent thug he despised more than anyone else in the school. I ignored Arthur, clinging to Liam and crying even harder. "Waaaah, hubby, you really are still alive..." I couldn't believe it. My hands instinctively dove under his shirt, desperate to feel his chest and confirm the fatal stab wound from my past life wasn't there. Liam was absolutely terrified by my actions. "Holy shit! What are you doing?!" I sobbed through my hiccups, "Take your shirt off. Let me see." His face instantly turned a dark, explosive red. "I am a respectable man!" I cried even harder. "Waaaah, hubby, I need to see it, please, just let me see..." His hands hovered in the air, completely unsure of where to put them. Finally, he lowered his voice in sheer desperation. "Hiss... wait... can we wait until there's no one around, please?" Watching this spectacle, Arthur's eyes filled with absolute disgust. "Mia, aren't you humiliated putting on this kind of show in public?" "I am not going to coddle you this time." He turned on his heel and stormed off. Without the main attraction, the crowd quickly dispersed, grumbling in disappointment. 04 "Princess, the show's over. Aren't you going to let go?" The voice above my head carried a heavy dose of sarcasm. I just shook my head violently, burying my face in his neck, sobbing and hiccuping. "Never. I am never letting go for the rest of my life..." Eighteen-year-old Mia Harrison didn't have shattered legs. She wasn't consumed by clinical depression. Eighteen-year-old Liam Vance hadn't jumped in front of a knife for her yet. Everything could still be fixed. Liam stared at me in disbelief and threatened, "I'm going to walk out of here right now, you know that?" "Mm..." He scooped me up into his arms and carried me out of the classroom. The moment we stepped into the hallway, the booming voice of the Dean of Discipline echoed toward us. "Hey! Liam Vance! Instead of being at practice, you're out here holding a female student?! Are you sexually harassing her?!" I continued to cling to him like a koala, completely unbothered. Seeing my absolute refusal to move, Liam's face flushed red as he frantically explained: "Reporting to the Dean! The female student broke her leg! I'm carrying her to the nurse's office!" The Dean's tone softened considerably. "You little punk. Didn't know you had a caring side." Suddenly, the memory hit me. In my past life, Liam had done exactly this. Carrying me all over the world to see specialists for my legs, staying by my side through every grueling physical therapy session. Once the Dean was out of earshot, Liam looked down at me, looking like he was about to lose his mind. "Seriously, Princess, what exactly is your endgame here?" I kept my arms locked tightly around his neck. "Hubby..." He shuddered, his scalp literally tingling. He gritted his teeth. "Do not call me 'hubby'!! Who the hell is your hubby?!" "You are..." I pouted, looking incredibly wronged. "You're my favorite, sweetest hubby..." His brain looked like it was about to short-circuit. He reminded me through gritted teeth: "Princess, do you remember who literally threw my love letter in the trash yesterday?" I felt a sudden, massive wave of awkwardness. My timing couldn't have been worse. Liam had confessed his feelings to me yesterday. And I had viciously stomped his letter into the dirt. "I absolutely despise meathead sports jocks like you. All brawn and zero brains." Ironically, I was an arts student—all flexibility and zero brains. Honestly, I didn't actually hate Liam. I only hated him because Arthur hated him. Arthur despised anyone he considered stupid, especially someone like Liam, who had terrible grades and threw his weight around the school. I blinked innocently, offering my most sincere, earnest explanation: "Um, yesterday was actually... a test. I was testing you." I quickly added a solemn vow: "Hubby, I promise, from now on, I will only ever like you." The corner of Liam's mouth twitched violently. "Hiss... can you please stop calling me 'hubby'?" I shook my head firmly. "No." He gritted his teeth, finally accepting his fate. "Ugh, whatever... call me whatever the fuck you want..." He looked down at me, still clinging to him like a monkey, and sighed heavily. "But seriously, Mia... "You are a human being, not a primate. Can you please get off me now?" "But I want to hold you a little longer, hubby~" His Adam's apple bobbed nervously. The tips of his ears were burning bright red. Eighteen-year-old Liam was trying to act tough, but he was actually just a soft, easily flustered puppy. 05 Liam ended up carrying me all the way to his Second Great-Uncle's house. The old man sat in an alleyway, doing fortune-telling and mystical readings, acting cryptic and bizarre every single day. "Uncle, I think she's possessed." The old man stroked his beard, taking one look at my tear-streaked face and bloodshot eyes. "Hmm. Eyes blood-red. She's definitely got something dark attached to her." He pulled out a piece of yellow paper and hastily scribbled a talisman on it. "Stick this talisman on her. It wards off evil spirits and demonic attachments." Liam set me down outside the door and ordered me: "Wait here for a second. Do not follow me. I'll be right back." I completely ignored him and stealthily crept right up to the doorframe. I heard him asking in a hushed, secretive whisper: "Uncle... what I actually want to know is... do you have a talisman that will make her stay 'possessed' like this forever?" I secretly rejoiced in my heart: You little idiot. You've been madly, hopelessly, dangerously in love with me this whole time. Liam, in this life, it's my turn to run to you. 06 I actually lived with the Sterling family. Our families had been close for generations, and Arthur and I had an arranged marriage setup since we were babies. When I was ten, my parents died in a sudden accident. Arthur had gripped my hand tightly. "Mia, you still have me. I will always stay by your side." I moved into the Sterling estate, and his parents treated me incredibly well. Since I started dancing at a young age, his mother hired the absolute best instructors for me. My closet was overflowing with beautiful clothes she bought for me. But no matter how good they were to me, I wasn't their actual child. They were raising me to be their future daughter-in-law. It wasn't until my legs were shattered and I couldn't walk normally that they decided a "crippled" daughter-in-law was too humiliating for their family image. They told me: "Mia, we've always loved you like our own daughter, and Arthur sees you as his own little sister. Don't worry, we will definitely find you a good husband." At the dinner table, Arthur's parents put food in my bowl and asked about my studies. Remembering what they said in my past life, I found the whole scene incredibly ironic. I set down my chopsticks. "Uncle, Auntie, I want to move into the school dormitories. It'll help me focus better on my studies, and you both know my academic grades aren't very good." They looked visibly surprised. "The dorm environment is so rough, how could you possibly live there?" "Mia, don't put so much pressure on yourself. Arthur's grades are excellent; just have him tutor you." I shook my head calmly. "No, he's been really busy preparing for academic competitions lately. I shouldn't bother him." Arthur's mother seemed to pick up on something. "Did you two have a fight?" Arthur remained silent. I just smiled. "Not at all. He treats me very well, and I've always seen Arthur as my own older brother." "I'm sure that in the future, he'll find a daughter-in-law for you who is just as brilliant and exceptional as he is." Arthur's gaze snapped to me, pausing for a long moment.
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