My first act after being reborn was to pour my best friend’s ashes down the drain. In my previous life, my best friend’s wife cheated on him, not only emptying their joint accounts but also leaving him drowning in debt. He ended up homeless, beaten to a pulp by loan sharks, barely clinging to life. When I finally reached him, he was barely breathing, and he begged me to raise his daughter. Seeing how young the child was, I soft-heartedly agreed. To take care of her, my girlfriend broke up with me, and my parents kicked me out of the house. I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into raising her. When she became an adult, she became a rising model after shooting a commercial. Everyone envied me for having such a wonderful daughter. But as I was celebrating her success, my best friend, who had supposedly died years ago, appeared, arm-in-arm with my ex-girlfriend. “Looks like you passed my test.” Seeing my confusion, my ex-girlfriend explained arrogantly. “Derek is the heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune. Who knows if you were only friends with him for his money.” “But now that you’ve honestly raised our daughter, you’ve proven yourself worthy.” I furiously stepped forward, ready to punch them, but my adopted daughter threw a drink in my face. “You sick freak! How dare you lay a hand on my parents?!” I choked on my rage, my vision blurring, and then I just… collapsed. When I woke up again, I had been reborn to the very day my best friend was beaten by thugs.
“Cough, cough… Alex, you’re finally here…” Derek lay on the ground, filthy and covered in an ugly mosaic of purplish-blue bruises. Deep gashes bled on his arms and legs. I froze, then suddenly realized I had actually been reborn! “Alex, what are you standing there for… cough, cough, take me to the hospital…” Derek lay weakly on the ground, speaking to me without an ounce of strength. In my last life, I received his desperate call and rushed to find him. The sight of him covered in blood sent me into a panic, and I immediately thought of calling 911 for an ambulance. But Derek insisted the location was too remote, and he’d be dead by the time 911 arrived. So, I personally carried him on my back, stumbling for over two hours, back to the city, and straight to the hospital. But now, the thought of it all being his elaborate scheme made a wave of profound disgust wash over me. “No need to call 911, it’s too remote here… just carry me…” Derek coughed a few times, looking at me pleadingly. I frowned, feigning discomfort, and bent down to rub my ankle. “I’m sorry, I wish I could carry you, but I just twisted my ankle. I really can’t carry you.” Afraid he wouldn’t believe me, I even pulled up my pant leg to show him my visibly swollen and red ankle. In my last life, I had endured the pain to carry him, and by the time we reached the hospital, my ankle was practically useless. It cost a fortune to heal. This time, I wouldn’t be so foolish. Derek’s face instantly paled, looking as if he was truly on his last breath. Just then, an SUV pulled up beside us. The driver, a kind stranger, warmly asked if we needed help. To avoid raising suspicion, I quickly smiled and accepted. At the hospital, Derek was immediately rushed into the emergency room. Soon, a female doctor, Dr. Evans, hurried out, saying Derek had lost too much blood and needed a transfusion. “The hospital’s blood bank is severely low. A transfer would take too long and could delay treatment.” “Mr. Miller said you have the same blood type as him. Please come with me to prepare for a blood transfusion.” I scoffed internally at her words. This was the exact same spiel as in my last life. This doctor had used the same excuse, drawing 600cc of my blood without a single word of explanation. Normally, blood donations don’t exceed 400cc, but I was too distraught to notice then. After the blood draw, I felt weak all over and dizzy. And Derek had used that moment to plead with me to take care of his daughter in the hospital room, and I, in my dazed state, had nodded and agreed. So I told Dr. Evans, “I apologize, but I have low blood sugar and anemia. I can’t donate blood. You’ll have to find another solution.” Dr. Evans didn’t expect my refusal. She stomped her foot angrily and hurried back into the emergency room. Another twenty minutes passed. Dr. Evans emerged, her face filled with sorrow. “I’m sorry, we did our best, but Mr. Miller’s condition is too severe. There’s nothing more we can do.” “He’s still conscious now. You can go in and spend his final moments with him.” I nodded, my face calm, and walked in. Sure enough, Derek was lying on the hospital bed, pale and weak, just like in my previous life. He faintly called my name. I walked to his side. “What is it? Do you have anything you want to tell me?” Tears welled up in Derek’s eyes. “Alex, you’re my best friend. Why didn’t you donate blood for me? If you had, maybe I…” Dr. Evans, standing nearby, interjected indignantly. “Yes, Mr. Miller truly considered you his best friend, yet you refused. It’s a tragedy Mr. Miller is so young and can’t hold on. You’re truly heartless.” I said calmly, “You should blame your hospital for not even having the blood a patient needs. I have low blood sugar and anemia. If something happened to me because of a blood donation, would your hospital pay with its life?”
My words left Dr. Evans momentarily speechless. Derek’s face was grim, but he quickly composed himself, his eyes red. “Forget it, Alex isn’t to blame for this. It’s just my bad luck…” “I’m dying now. My wife betrayed me, my family sold me out, I don’t even want to live anymore.” “But I still have a daughter who just turned one. She’s so pitiful, abandoned by her mother, and her father can’t live on. I just can’t bear to leave her.” “Alex, you’re the only good brother I have. Please, I beg you, raise her for me.” Dr. Evans, ever the empath, let two streams of tears fall. “Look, Mr. Miller is begging you like this. Just say yes. You’re his best friend, could you really be so cruel as to refuse? If so, you don’t deserve to be a man!” Watching them play good cop, bad cop, perfectly coordinated, I felt nothing but disgust. In my last life, I had too much blood drawn and was disoriented. Derek even colluded with Dr. Evans to set a trap for me. I was genuinely soft-hearted, which was why I agreed to take care of his daughter. But no good deed goes unpunished. My girlfriend was hostile toward this adopted daughter, believing her to be my love child with another woman. She refused to listen to my explanations, packed her things, and left me, also falling out with her family. At that time, I hadn’t even graduated from my Master’s program and couldn’t juggle both studies and the child, so I had to drop out. Because my major was a combined Bachelor’s and Master’s program, and due to the circumstances, I didn’t even have a Bachelor’s degree; I was just a college dropout. Without a good degree, I could only do arduous manual labor. To better support the child, I worked three jobs a day, often sleeping only three or four hours. And the child had poor health from a young age, constantly ending up in the hospital, even undergoing several major surgeries, with money flowing like water. I gritted my teeth and took out high-interest loans, but with the interest compounding, I couldn’t pay them back at all. The debt collectors were brutal, causing constant harassment for everyone, and my landlord refused to renew the lease, kicking me and the child out. To avoid the debt collectors, I moved many times, living in dirty, dilapidated places. After finally enduring the hardest ten years, I met a kind female boss. She was divorced with a child herself and sympathized with my hardship, so she hired me to work at her barbecue restaurant. After my job stabilized, I also thought about finding a partner. However, I had no house, no car, nothing to my name, and I was raising a child in her early teens. It was truly difficult to date. Finally, I met a simple woman from the countryside who seemed to genuinely not care about my financial situation. I thought I could settle down, but after less than two months, she ran off. She only left me a note, apologizing and saying she could never let go of her ex-husband and child, so she had to quietly leave. From then on, I completely gave up on looking for a partner. Eighteen years passed. I painstakingly raised the child into an adult. But at her celebration party, Derek, who was supposed to be dead, appeared. And he claimed it was all just a test for me. Did I *have* to be his friend? I wasted the most precious eighteen years of my life! Without that child, I could have smoothly graduated with my Master’s, joined a good company, had a respectable job, and a loving, happy family. My life should have been thriving, but it was ruined because of him! Even the child I poured my heart and soul into, chose her biological parents at the moment of conflict, and turned against me. Thinking of this, the hatred surging within me threatened to drown me. I clenched my fists, saying each word clearly, “No, I refuse.” “I can send her to an orphanage, but I will absolutely not raise your child.”
Hearing my refusal, Derek stopped playing the dying man, sat up abruptly, and pointed at me, yelling full of vigor. “Alex, are you even human?! You call me your brother, but in reality, you’re ungrateful, cold-blooded, and heartless!” “You wouldn’t donate blood to save me, fine. But you won’t even raise my only daughter? What kind of a brother are you, you piece of garbage!” I watched him coolly. “Oh, Derek, you seem pretty energetic now, don’t you? You don’t look like you’re about to die at all. Did this quack doctor misdiagnose you?” As I spoke, I glanced at Dr. Evans, who stood by, and she instinctively averted her gaze. Realizing his performance was off, Derek suddenly clutched his chest and collapsed, gasping for air and trembling all over. I had to admit, his acting was good. Dr. Evans immediately reacted, pushing me out, saying she needed to perform emergency aid on Mr. Miller. I wanted to see what other tricks Derek had up his sleeve, so I stood outside the emergency room and waited. About ten minutes later, Dr. Evans came out holding a cooing baby. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Miller is gone. That was just a final surge of life.” “This child is his daughter. His dying wish was for you to care for her until she grows up.” “As for the adoption procedures, don’t worry, Mr. Miller made all the arrangements before he passed. The paperwork will be completed within two days.” “You just need to raise the child well. If you abandon her, that’s illegal, and if I find out, I will absolutely make sure you go to jail!” After saying this, she tried to thrust the baby into my arms. I immediately stepped back. Are you kidding me? Forcing a child on someone like this is actually illegal! In my last life, blinded by so-called brotherhood, I never questioned the truth of this series of events. Thinking about it now, it’s ridiculous. Even with proper adoption procedures, it couldn’t happen this fast. “You said Derek died, right? Fine, then I want to see his body.” Saying this, I bypassed her and rushed into the emergency room. It was completely empty inside. Dr. Evans’s urgent voice rang out. “What are you doing! You can’t just go in there!” I pointed at the empty emergency room. “Didn’t you say he died? Where’s the body? Where did you send it?” Dr. Evans said matter-of-factly, “The body was, of course, sent to the crematorium immediately for cremation.” I asked again, “Sent to the crematorium that quickly? Alright, I’ll go to the crematorium now to see him off.” Saying this, I ignored her protests and strode out of the hospital. Want me to be a fool and raise his kid? In your dreams! Upon arriving at the city crematorium, I immediately inquired with the staff about Derek’s remains. To my surprise, they actually had registered information. Soon, a staff member brought me Derek’s urn. In my previous life, I was too distraught. I just took his daughter home and only attended Derek’s funeral a week later after receiving notification. “Is this Derek’s ashes?” “Yes.” The staff member gave a brief reply and quickly left. But I still felt something was off. Normal cremation of a body doesn’t happen that fast. Even at the quickest, it takes at least a day. And now, less than three hours had passed between Dr. Evans announcing Derek’s death and me receiving his urn. It was practically a mockery of my intelligence. So the next moment, I opened the urn and unhesitatingly poured its contents onto the floor.
Grayish-white powder spilled across the floor. A staff member nearby immediately shrieked. “Hey! What are you doing?!” People who were at the crematorium to handle arrangements for their deceased family members quickly backed away. “Is that person crazy? Why are they scattering ashes on the ground?” “They must be sick. Don’t they know that’s bad luck? How unlucky!” “Did something trigger them? Never mind, I’ll just stay away.” Everyone murmured, pointing at me, their gazes unfriendly. I expressionlessly kicked the “ashes” on the ground. “Look closely, everyone. Are these really human ashes?” At my words, everyone’s gaze fell to the ground. “It does look a bit strange. Why aren’t there any small pieces or fragments of bone?” “Now that you mention it, you’re right. Cremation can’t turn all bones into dust.” I curved my lips into a slight smile and said loudly to the staff member, “Don’t you think you owe me an explanation?” “The crematorium staff gave me fake ashes? Do you have any professional ethics left?” “There are so many bereaved families here. Does this mean the ashes they received are also fake?” At my series of questions, many family members’ faces turned ugly. The staff member anxiously said, “Don’t talk nonsense! We follow all procedures!” I pressed on. “Is that really true? Derek was declared dead at the hospital just two hours ago. How could his body have been successfully cremated two hours later? When did your efficiency become so high?” The crowd instantly erupted. “What? Two hours?!” “Are you insane?! I thought handling everything for my loved one was fast, and it still took a full day. How could it be cremated in two hours?” “No wonder the powder on the ground didn’t look like ashes. There really *is* something fishy going on!” Under the barrage of questions from the crowd, the staff member stammered nervously, completely flustered. He never imagined I would scatter the ashes in public and then question the cremation time. He managed to appease the crowd with a few hurried words, then rushed inside. A moment later, he walked up to me, his face plastered with a forced smile. “My apologies, we had a mistake in our work. The ashes we just gave you belonged to someone else. Your friend’s body is still undergoing cremation. Please wait a bit longer.” Several hours later, the staff member brought me another urn. And the female doctor from the hospital suddenly appeared at the crematorium. “Mr. Hayes, before Mr. Miller passed, he instructed me to ensure his child was given to you to raise. This was his dying wish, and you must fulfill it.” “You were the best of brothers in life, so now that he’s gone, his child is your child.” “Also, here are his life savings, a total of fifty thousand dollars. He hopes you will raise his child well.” Her words were grand and righteous. She then thrust the baby and the bank card into my arms. The onlookers, unaware of the full story, were deeply moved and applauded me. I looked down at the child and let out a soft laugh. Derek, you *really* want me to raise your child, don’t you? Then I’ll grant your wish.
Eighteen years passed in a blur. Over these past decades, after earning my first significant capital, I started running my own Twitter account. I never appeared on camera myself; instead, my sweet, innocent child was the star. She was a natural in front of the camera, every movement graceful and captivating, instantly capturing the audience’s attention. Within a year of starting the account, her follower count reached over a million. She had been a child model since she was little, and even at a young age, she had endorsed several major national clothing brands, her sweet smile leaving a lasting impression. As she grew older, she ventured into the modeling industry. Whether it was photoshoots for print ads or walking runways for major designers, she excelled at everything, a true darling of the camera. Her fame now was far greater than in my previous life. To celebrate her successful completion of a major brand fashion show, I specifically hosted a small celebration banquet for her at a five-star hotel. My colleagues and friends were there, along with many of her industry connections. The room was filled with dazzling personalities. But just as Autumn raised her glass to toast with everyone, Derek appeared. He wasn’t alone; his arm was linked with my ex-girlfriend, Sarah, both dressed to make a statement. Derek, his face filled with a tender smile, reached out and took Autumn’s hand. “Daughter, Daddy finally sees you.” Everyone froze, trying to figure out what kind of stunt this was. Autumn immediately pulled her hand away, stepping back warily. “My dad passed away a long time ago. Why are you pretending to be him?” Derek’s face was filled with emotion. “Silly child, I am your father. Back then, I was severely injured and died on the way to the hospital. Before I passed, I entrusted you to Alex.” “But unexpectedly, I woke up on the way to the crematorium and my life was saved.” “Later, I came back to look for you, but you were already gone.” “I’ve been searching for you for eighteen years. I’ve always loved you! I’m your real dad!” Derek even shed tears as he spoke, looking overjoyed to be reunited. I watched him perform with a faint smile. He clearly thought everything was playing out just like in my last life, believing this successful new model whom *I* had raised, was his biological daughter. But I had been reborn. How could I fall for his trick again? “Derek, you want to claim paternity, do you?” “Of course! I think about my child every single day!” I smiled, looking at him. “But you’ve got the wrong person. She’s not your daughter.” Derek exploded. “What do you mean she’s not my daughter?!” “Don’t think that just because you raised her for eighteen years, she now has your blood running through her veins!”
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