One month before the SAT, Lucas approached me once again to confess his feelings. The eighteen-year-old boy was bold and passionate. When he expressed his fondness for me, his cool eyes sparkled like a sky full of stars. However, I rejected him once more. The smile on Lucas’s face vanished. He violently threw the roses in his hand at his lackey’s face. The sharp thorns left several bloody gashes on the lackey’s face, looking ghastly and terrifying. “It’s all your fault! Aria must not like the roses you chose!” Lucas shouted. He vented his anger on the boy, kicking him repeatedly until he coughed up blood. The roses worth thousands of dollars were trampled underfoot, mixed with the boy’s blood. Lucas’s psychotic behavior frightened me. Fearing he might beat the boy to death, I quickly spoke up, “I wouldn’t like you no matter what you give me. Right now, I just want to focus on studying for the SAT.” Worried he would continue to interfere with my studies, I added, “I hate you, Lucas. Your persistence disgusts me.” Lucas’s eyes reddened as he stared at me intently. I felt scared under his gaze, afraid he might beat me like he did that boy. But in the end, he didn’t do anything else, only saying he’d talk to me again after the SAT. I breathed a sigh of relief. However, what I didn’t expect was that night, Lucas would drink and drive, running through over a dozen red lights before dying in a car accident. The next evening after school, someone covered my mouth and nose, knocking me unconscious. When I woke up again, I was in an abandoned warehouse. A man who bore a slight resemblance to Lucas sat in a chair in front of me, a cigarette held between his long fingers. He stood up, exhaled a puff of smoke, then pressed the lit cigarette directly onto my face. Amidst my screams of agony, the man said with disgust, “Cripple her hands.” This sentence jolted me awake through the pain of my burning flesh. My hands were held down, and a hammer was suspended above them. “No, don’t! Who are you people? Why did you kidnap me?” I cried out. The man didn’t speak, just raised his hand and brought it down in a swift motion. “Ahhhhh!” The index finger of my right hand was smashed, the pain almost making me pass out. No, they can’t cripple my hands. I still have to take the SAT. My hands can’t be injured! I begged them incoherently through my tears, “Please don’t hurt my hands. I… I have the SAT in a month. My whole family is counting on me… My mom is sick, I need to take the SAT. I must take it…” My family was ordinary. My dad worked on construction sites, and my mom ran a small breakfast shop. But ever since mom was diagnosed with leukemia, our family’s expenses exceeded our income. The school promised me that if I could rank in the top three in the state for the SAT, they would give me a $5,000 scholarship. That money could cover mom’s next round of chemotherapy. It was just one month away. I banged my head hard on the ground, my tears mixing with the dust, “Please, if I’ve offended you somehow, can’t you wait until after the SAT to take revenge?” The fingers of my right hand had already been smashed one by one, deformed, but I still endured the pain and kept kowtowing to the man. It didn’t matter if my right hand was ruined. I still had my left hand. As long as there was a glimmer of hope… “SAT?” The man looked down at me condescendingly. “You caused my brother’s death. What right do you have to live well?” It turned out he was Lucas’s brother, Ethan. He believed Lucas’s death was entirely due to my rejection of his confession. Ethan used the tip of his shoe to lift my chin. “What right does a commoner like you have to reject my brother?” It was too absurd. My left hand was smashed just like my right, but I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. All hope had been completely shattered. Then my clothes were torn off. I knew what they were going to do, but I had no strength left to resist. I stared directly at the camera in the man’s hand, even wondering how I would earn money after this day, how I would earn enough for mom’s chemotherapy. I kept thinking, my mind filled with images of my mom lying weak on the hospital bed. Clinging to this thought kept me from passing out, from killing myself on the spot. “I heard your mom is having chemotherapy today?” Ethan said. I, who had been as lifeless as a rag doll, showed a flicker of emotion in my dead eyes upon hearing these words. Ethan’s face, similar to Lucas’s, twisted into a cruel smile. “I wonder how she’ll react when she sees this video?” My eyes widened, tears falling. I desperately reached out with my distorted, deformed hands, touching his expensive suit pants. “Please don’t. Just kill me. It’s all my fault. I’ll pay for Lucas’s life with mine…” Ethan stepped on my hand. “Your life is too worthless. One isn’t enough.” Ethan took me back to the Smith family home and locked me in a dark basement to torture me. My mom saw the video and didn’t survive the surgery. She died crying, saying it was her fault for burdening me. My dad was working at a construction site when he heard the tragic news about his wife and daughter. The nearly fifty-year-old man lost all will to live and fell from the high-rise building. I don’t know how long Ethan kept me locked up. I often wondered if everything would have been different if I had accepted Lucas. I shouldn’t have been so prideful. Ethan had many ways to torture people. He said Lucas loved me the most when he was alive, so he locked my naked body in a coffin with Lucas’s corpse. He said he was fulfilling his brother’s wish, marrying me to him. Later, he threw me into a tank full of piranhas, branded me with hot irons, forced me to eat filth… I wanted to die but couldn’t. He spent millions on equipment to keep me alive, saying unless he died, I had to live on to atone for my sins. Later, for some unknown reason, he moved me from the basement to a warm, bright bedroom. He gradually stopped hurting me, bought me a lot of beautiful clothes and jewelry, and even took me to the hospital to remove my scars. Until one night, he came to my room, hugged me, and kissed me. He said he understood why Lucas liked me, that I could maintain my sanity and not bow down even after being tortured like this. Ethan said he was starting to have feelings for me, that he wanted me to stay with him forever. Just like those cliché romance novels where the male lead tortures the female lead but then suddenly realizes her worth and has a change of heart. It was utterly disgusting. I sat in the bathtub, using a hidden piece of broken glass to slash my wrists. Fresh blood dyed the bathtub red. Death would reunite me with my family. I could finally escape these revolting brothers. When I next regained consciousness, the sound of summer cicadas accompanied by waves of heat rang in my ears. My vision began to focus, and the intense sunlight made me instinctively cover my eyes. After being locked in the basement by Ethan for three years, my eyes had nearly gone blind, only able to tolerate the faintest candlelight. “Aria, I like you. Will you be my girlfriend?” The familiar voice made my body instantly go cold, my skin breaking out in goosebumps. I lowered my hand and saw a face that was etched into my soul. “Lu…Lucas?” It took me a minute to quickly process the fact that I had been reborn. If I remember correctly, there are still six months until the SAT, and this is Lucas’s third time confessing to me. Lucas had a very deceptive face. He looked gentle and sunny, with amber eyes like a cat’s. But in reality, he could easily instigate one bullying incident after another, all while maintaining that gentle smile. Lucas was sick, literally. The violence in his genes made it impossible for him to control his emotions. His liking for me was inexplicable. The reason was simply that I had casually given him a cheap Tootsie Roll when he had low blood sugar. The sticky, artificial taste made the young heir remember me deeply. From then on, the young heir always kept a strawberry-flavored Tootsie Roll in his pocket. How could someone fall in love because of a candy? Moreover, what kind of girls hadn’t Lucas seen or dated? So in my eyes, his pursuit was just a bored rich boy’s game. I never thought he was serious. Even if it was real, it only seemed absurd to me. The love brought by a cheap candy was equally cheap and artificial. I had a clear understanding of myself. I was just like that fifty-cent candy, only giving the young heir a momentary sweetness. It was impossible for someone as pampered as him to remember it for a lifetime. I really just wanted to escape the hardships of reality through my own efforts. I just wanted to cure my mom, just wanted to help lighten my dad’s burden. But just because of my lower class, I couldn’t reject their love. I should have been grateful. Why? What right did they have to easily trample on my dignity and extinguish my hope? Because of my initial rejection, Lucas began to use various methods to force me to love him. He secretly guided the whole school to bully me. They tore up my three years’ worth of notes and locked me in a warehouse for a day and a night. Then Lucas would appear as a savior, rescuing me from the fire and water. A typical hero saves the beauty scenario, but I didn’t have Stockholm syndrome, nor would I fall for the suspension bridge effect. The fact that I could maintain the top spot in our grade proved I wasn’t stupid. I understood why I was being bullied. I couldn’t afford to offend them, so I could only study secretly in inconspicuous corners of the campus. Only six months left, I couldn’t afford to fight them. I couldn’t take that risk. When they found me by the lake again and threw my newly made notes into the water, I didn’t hesitate to jump in after them. My body sank down, and Lucas frantically came to save me. When I woke up in the infirmary, I held the scissors used for cutting bandages to my throat, tears rolling down my fair cheeks one by one. I looked at Lucas with tear-filled eyes and said, “I really can’t bear their bullying anymore. If I die, will I no longer be bullied?” The high and mighty young heir panicked. He hadn’t expected that I would rather die than accept his help. So the bullying stopped. He asked the teacher for the most complete notes for me and bought me the best practice books. In the corners he couldn’t see, I wiped away my tears, expressionless. These setbacks weren’t enough to make me seek death. They were just too annoying. I needed a quiet environment to study. Afterwards, I still clearly rejected him. But the more I rejected him, the more obsessed he became with me. Lucas was hostile to any male who appeared around me. Just because a boy came to ask me a question, Lucas sewed his mouth shut with a needle and forced him to drop out of school. He was truly an unrepentant madman, just like his brother. They were both lunatics. As the memories ended, I looked at the handsome young man before me and, for the first time, smiled as I accepted the flowers from his hand. His eyes lit up, his cheeks flushing. I spoke softly, “Thank you for the flowers. It’s just that I haven’t considered dating yet. We can be friends first.” Lucas nervously said, “It’s okay, Aria. I’ll make you fall for me!” I smiled without speaking. If I rejected him this time, he would bully me for a month, just like in my past life. When Ethan tortured me in my past life, the thing he said most often was that I had a pride that someone of my class shouldn’t have. I was unwilling to bow to anyone, thinking that sheer determination alone could achieve any goal. Little did I know that what the upper class loved most was crushing the pride of people like us, watching us roll in the mud like dogs. So in this life, I won’t be proud. I’ll drag them into hell bit by bit. Lucas’s obsession with me was too strong. If I continued to reject him, it would only end up like my past life. But agreeing disgusted me. And he was sick. He seemed able to control it now, but who knew if he might lose control and kill me in the future? Who could guarantee he would love me forever? Because of my softened attitude, Lucas started following me around like a puppy. Unlike before, I didn’t treat him coldly and even brought him a box of milk every day. The lactose-intolerant young heir would drink every drop of the whole milk I brought, clutching his cramping stomach with a pale face, seeking praise from me. I’d reach out to pat his curly hair, giving him a little reward. Looking at his bright amber eyes, I would think of another person who had those same eyes. Although Lucas was called the young heir by everyone, the real heir to the Smith family was his brother, Ethan. Ethan doted on this brother a lot. Even if Lucas killed someone, he would help him cover it up. It’s just that he had been abroad on business before and didn’t know about Lucas and me. He was coming back soon. On the tenth day after my rebirth, I appeared at an ordinary intersection wearing a pure white dress. I counted down in my heart. Three, two, one. A Maybach was suddenly hit by a small truck and flipped over. The car body quickly caught fire. I saw Ethan trapped in the back seat. His leg was injured and he couldn’t move. A steel bar that had fallen from the truck had pierced his calf. What a pity. Why couldn’t it have pierced his heart? While people around were taking photos with their phones, I ran over and dragged Ethan out just before the car exploded. Even if I didn’t save him, someone else would. I might as well take credit for saving his life to get close to him.
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