During the holidays, my e-bike suddenly exploded. It torched my neighbor’s Maybach and killed a grandfather and his young grandson who happened to be walking by. My entire family drained their savings to compensate the victims, saddling us with millions in debt. For twenty years, I was cursed and spat on by the victims' families. I worked eight jobs a day just to pay off the money. The very night I finally cleared the debt, I collapsed and died of extreme overwork. But right before I closed my eyes, I heard my parents laughing outside my door: "Actually, that Maybach didn't even burn. And that old man and his grandson? They faked their deaths. This idiot actually believed it and worked himself to the bone!" "What else were we supposed to do? If Chloe wanted a glamorous wedding, we needed cash! As an adopted son we took in from the streets, this was his only use." It turned out my entire twenty years of suffering was nothing but a sick joke. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the explosion. This time, I rode the e-bike away early in the morning and sank it to the bottom of the reservoir behind the hills. Without the bike, let's see how you put on this little show! But at 3:00 PM, the explosion still happened. ...... The sunflower seeds in my hand scattered across the floor. I froze in place. Impossible. I had clearly sunk the e-bike into the reservoir. How could it possibly explode? I rushed out the door. Thick black smoke and roaring flames billowed from the entrance of our neighborhood. Neighbors were screaming and sprinting toward the commotion. I followed right behind them. My legs felt like jelly; my heart hammered fiercely against my ribs. The scene was even more gruesome than in my previous life. That Maybach was genuinely burning, letting out terrifying crackling and popping sounds. Next to the car, two charred bodies lay motionless on the asphalt, completely unrecognizable. "Call 911!" "Whose e-bike is this?! Why was it plugged in here?!" "I think it's Carter's! I saw him pushing it this morning!" Everyone turned to look at me in unison. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. This was impossible. My e-bike was at the bottom of the reservoir. How could it be here? And how could it explode? "Carter Hayes! Is this your e-bike?!" Mr. Sterling crawled out of the Maybach, his face covered in blood, screaming at me hysterically. "I'll kill you! This is my brand-new Maybach! Half a million dollars! You're paying me back every cent!" I backed away, my mind completely blank. The explosion in my past life had been faked. How did it become real this time? And my e-bike... I had thrown it into the water myself. Why was it here? "It wasn't me..." I muttered to myself. "My e-bike isn't here..." "Still trying to lie?!" Old man Jenkins pointed right at my nose. "I saw you pushing that e-bike out this morning with my own eyes! If it wasn't you, who was it?" "Exactly! Around here, who else has a bright red e-bike?" "Murderer! You'll pay for this with your life!" The crowd swarmed me, shoving and cursing. The sheer hatred threatened to drown me, making it far more terrifying than my past life. Because in my past life, at least I knew it was all a staged lie. But now, two real people had died right in front of me, and the Maybach was genuinely burning to a crisp. "Carter, what is going on?!" My parents and sister squeezed through the aggressive crowd. My dad, Robert, was livid. My mom, Brenda, just plopped onto the ground, slapping her thighs and wailing at the top of her lungs. "Oh, dear God! What are we going to do?! Our family is going to be ruined!" My sister, Chloe, and her boyfriend stood off to the side, their eyes darting nervously, refusing to look at me. It was the exact same scene from my previous life. But this time, the explosion was real, and the deaths were real. Didn't they know? "Brother, is it really your e-bike?" Chloe walked over, lowering her voice. "Didn't you take it to town for repairs this morning? How did it end up here?" I stared dead into her eyes, trying to find a crack in her facade, but all I saw was genuine panic. "This isn't my bike!" I said through gritted teeth. "I sank mine into the reservoir!" "What?" Chloe's eyes widened. "Carter, what are you talking about? Are you in shock?" "I'm not crazy! I pushed it to the reservoir at 6:00 AM, tied rocks to it, and sank it! The bike that exploded isn't mine!" The crowd went dead silent for a second before erupting into an even louder uproar. "This kid has lost his mind. What nonsense is he spouting?" "Sank it in the reservoir? He's just trying to dodge responsibility!" "Arrest him! Let the cops take him away!" My dad lunged forward and slapped me brutally across the face. "You bastard! You still dare to lie?! Those are two human lives!" I covered my cheek, tasting the metallic tang of blood in my mouth. This slap hurt just as much as it did in my previous life. But in my past life, I thought he was genuinely furious and devastated. I only learned later that it was all an act—a performance to make the guilt crush me so I would willingly become their cash cow. But this time, the explosion was real. If they really planned all of this, then what was the deal with the two dead bodies and the burning Maybach? The police arrived quickly and cordoned off the scene. I was pulled aside to give a statement, my entire body feeling numb. "Name?" "Carter Hayes." "Is that e-bike yours?" "No." I lifted my head, my eyes firm. "My e-bike is in the reservoir. I sank it there myself this morning. The bike that exploded looks like mine, but it's not." The officer frowned. "Mr. Hayes, we have eyewitnesses placing you with the bike this morning. Furthermore, we found the remnants of your license plate at the epicenter of the blast." "Impossible!" I shot up from my chair. "My plate is a custom vanity plate—'LUCKY-8'. Chloe got it for me for good luck. What plate did you find?" The officer glanced down at his notepad. "'LUCKY-8'." I felt like I had been struck by lightning. I slumped back into the chair. This was impossible. My e-bike was in the water. How could my license plate be at the explosion site? Did someone fish my e-bike out of the water? But when? I sank it at 6:00 AM, and it exploded at 3:00 PM. Who could have dragged an e-bike out of a deep reservoir and brought it back to the neighborhood in such a short window of time? And why would they do that? "I need to go to the reservoir." I grabbed the officer's arm. "Take me to the hills. My e-bike is down there. Send divers down, you will definitely find it!" The officers exchanged a look. Seeing how desperate and agitated I was, they finally agreed. The banks of the reservoir were soon crowded with nosy onlookers. Two police divers stripped off their heavy gear and plunged into the freezing water. I paced anxiously on the shore, my hands balled into tight fists. As long as they pulled that e-bike out, I could prove my innocence. The one that exploded was a fake. Someone had intentionally framed me. "Got something!" A diver broke the surface, holding a piece of debris. My heart leaped into my throat. It was a piece of red plastic—definitely from an e-bike. "Is there more down there?! What about the rest of the bike?!" I yelled. The diver went back under. A few minutes later, he resurfaced and shook his head. "There's nothing else down here. Just this fragment and some heavy rocks with cut ropes." "Impossible!" I screamed. "I sank the whole bike! I tied four massive rocks to it! How could it be gone?!" "Mr. Hayes, are you absolutely sure you sank the bike here?" The officer climbed ashore, his face stern. "There's no vehicle at the bottom. Just this fragment. And based on our preliminary checks, the VIN numbers recovered from the blast site match your registration perfectly." "I don't know what's going on..." I clutched my head, my mind spinning into chaos. I remembered it so vividly. I pushed the bike here, tied the rocks, and watched it sink. But now, the bike was gone, leaving only a single fragment. Did I remember wrong? Did I not actually sink it? Did I just push it to the neighborhood entrance in a daze? No, impossible. I remembered the biting cold of the morning frost. I remembered the heavy strain of lifting the rocks. I remembered the bubbles bursting on the surface as the bike went under. Those memories were too real to be fake. "Carter, just stop making excuses." My mom cried out from the crowd. "Murder demands a life, debt demands money. That's the law of the world. Our family might be poor, but we can't do something this evil and run away from it!" "Yeah, if you did the crime, do the time!" "He looked like such an honest kid. Who knew his heart was this black?" The curses from the crowd felt like knives stabbing into my skin. I looked around. Every face was so familiar, yet so completely alien. In my past life, they cursed me exactly like this. For twenty years. But before I died last time, I learned the truth. I knew I was innocent. This time, even I was starting to doubt myself. Did I really sink the bike? "I want to see the security footage." I suddenly said. "There's a camera at the neighborhood entrance. Check if I pushed the bike there!" The officer nodded. "We already checked. Unfortunately, the camera at the entrance was vandalized yesterday. It hasn't been fixed." My heart sank. "What... what about the other cameras nearby?" "We checked. You were caught on camera at 6:00 AM pushing the bike out of the neighborhood, but no other cameras picked you up after that." "What about the path to the reservoir? Any cameras in the hills?" The officer shook his head. "It's undeveloped land. No cameras." I was drowning in despair. No cameras to prove I went to the reservoir. No bike at the bottom to prove my innocence. Everyone was pointing fingers at me, and my own mind was betraying me. Did I really cause the explosion? "Brother, don't be like this." Chloe walked over, a look of deep concern plastered on her face. "Even if it was an accident, we won't blame you. We're a family, we'll shoulder the burden together." She reached out, trying to help me up. Looking at her hypocritical face, a wave of nausea washed over me. In my past life, she said the exact same words. "Brother, we'll shoulder it together." Yet the only one carrying the burden was me. The only one enjoying the fruits of my labor was her. "Get away from me." I slapped her hand away. "I don't need your fake sympathy." Chloe's face fell, immediately shifting into a mask of pure victimization. "Carter, I know you're under a lot of stress, but how can you treat me like this..." "Enough!" My dad, Robert, charged forward and kicked me hard in the shoulder. "You ungrateful wretch! You make a fatal mistake and then take your temper out on your sister! You've lost your damn mind!" I crashed to the ground, my shoulder burning in agony. My mom lunged at me, pinching and scratching. "I'll beat you to death, you curse! You killed two people and now you want to drag our whole family down! Why didn't you just die?!" I curled up on the dirt, letting them hit me. In my past life, they pinned all the blame on me and played the perfect victims. But back then, I eventually knew it was all a staged act. This time, I didn't know anything anymore. If they really didn't know the truth, if the explosion was truly an accident, then their anger right now was genuine. And I was the monster who killed two innocent people and torched a luxury car. "Break it up!" An officer pulled my parents away. "The investigation is still ongoing. You can't assault him." "What else is there to investigate?! He did it!" Brenda wailed. "What sin did the Hayes family commit to pick up this jinx off the streets?! We should have let him freeze to death!" I was taken back to the neighborhood and locked inside our living room. Late at night, I huddled in the corner, my brain a chaotic mess. Were the memories of my past life real? Was the memory of my parents conspiring against me a delusion? If they were innocent, what the hell were those twenty years of suffering? I felt dizzy. Was I actually losing my mind? Were all my memories just hallucinations? Around midnight, I snuck out through the window. I wanted to go back to the reservoir to see if I could find any clues. But to my shock, when I reached the banks of the reservoir, I saw my parents and sister standing there in the dark. Their voices were kept low, but I could still make out fragments of their conversation. "What do we do? The plan changed? Did he actually sink the bike?" "If he really sank it, then whose bike exploded?" "It doesn't matter. It blew up, so we just stick to the original plan..." "But what about those two dead bodies? They're actually dead, but they aren't the actors we hired..." "Who did it?" "I don't know, but it works out perfectly. Saves us the money we were going to pay the actors." My blood ran freezing cold. It felt like I had plunged into an ice bath. They really did have a plan. The explosion, the deaths, the debt in my past life—they had orchestrated all of it. But this time, the explosion and the deaths became chillingly real, completely exceeding their expectations. And yet, they still wanted to proceed with the plan. They still wanted to make me the scapegoat to ruin my life! "What about the bike in the water?" It was Chloe's voice. "Why is it missing?" "I don't know. Is it possible he just remembered wrong and never actually sank it?" "No, I checked the ice this morning. There was a fresh hole. Something heavy definitely went down there." "Then what happened? Did the bike sprout legs and run away?" "Who cares? It's a dead end anyway. Nobody will believe a word he says. We just insist it was his bike and make him pay for it." "But those are two real lives. Will he go to prison?" "No prison, just massive debt. We'll pretend to help him out so he feels overwhelmingly grateful, then we send him out to work eight jobs a day. Just like we planned. He'll be our blood bag!" I knew it! The voices I heard before I died in my past life weren't a hallucination! This was their master plan all along! But if all of this was true, where the hell did the e-bike I sank into the reservoir go? My parents didn't know. My sister didn't know. They just wanted to exploit the situation and drain me dry. But I needed to find that e-bike to clear my name! Just then, a memory hit me like a freight train. When I bought the e-bike, I didn't have enough cash, so I bought it on a payment plan from a shady dealership in town. The dealer had secretly installed a hidden GPS tracker inside the chassis, telling me he wouldn't remove it until the debt was paid in full. Thinking of this, I sprinted through the night all the way to town and banged on the dealer's door. I begged him to check the bike's location on his computer. When the map loaded, I felt like I had been struck by lightning. I finally understood where the e-bike I sank had gone. And I finally knew exactly whose bike had exploded.
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