My best friend Mia said I had a great voice and pressured me to quit my job to be her co-host on a relationship advice live stream. On the first day, a girl called in and asked me to help her reconnect with her ex-boyfriend who was about to get engaged. When the guy agreed, the girl suddenly changed her tone: “Actually, I’m his current fiancée, and we’re getting engaged tomorrow. It’s over between us.” I was bombarded with insults after that. People online accused me of helping a homewrecker. Mia not only didn’t clear things up for me but went live to spread rumors that I’d been dating rich old men since college and would do anything for money. This led to a stalker following and killing me. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment I answered that call on the live stream. This time, I snapped: “A proper ex should be as good as dead to you. Aren’t you just trying to be the other woman here?” The psycho dragged me into a dark alley, methodically breaking my bones with a hammer. He sneered, “You’d go for 70-year-olds, but you won’t accept me? Is it just because I’m broke?” “You bitch! Die!” The next second I lost consciousness, I found myself back on the first day of the live stream. On my phone, the girl who called in was pouring her heart out. “My ex and I were in love for 8 years. We broke up 6 months ago due to a misunderstanding, and now he’s getting engaged to someone he met through an arranged date tomorrow. I can’t let him go.” “I want to be brave one last time for this relationship.” “Host, could you please call him for me?” Viewers in the chat were moved by her story. They kept sending messages urging me to agree to her request. Living through this again, I knew these were all paid commenters hired by Mia. “Don’t worry, Lily. I’ve received your contact info through a private message. I’ll call him right away to ask,” Mia said, sitting off-camera while scrolling through her phone, not forgetting to reply to the girl named Lily. I was still reeling from the near-death experience, barely able to breathe. But just before she could dial, I instinctively grabbed the phone and smashed it against the wall with all my strength. Mia was dumbfounded. Comments started flooding in at lightning speed. “Whoa, why did the host suddenly go crazy?” Lily’s voice sounded hurt: “If you didn’t want to help, you could’ve just said so…” I cut her off and went on the offensive. “Help with what? Do you know what an ex is? An ex is as good as dead. You knew you’ve been broken up for six months, what have you been doing all this time?” “He’s about to get engaged and now you want to get back together? That’s like trying to breastfeed a dead baby. What, are you eager to be the other woman?” “I despise people like you the most, using love as an excuse to manipulate others. Do you really think we’re all idiots?” I was speaking with a double meaning. I was scolding everyone in the live stream. After my rant, I didn’t give Lily a chance to explain and kicked her off the call. In my past life, after Lily stated her request, I had the same thoughts initially. But I knew everyone goes through relationship problems, and it’s normal to have a hard time letting go when you’re in the middle of it. I didn’t want to judge her from a moral high ground. I planned to politely decline and then slowly talk her through it. But Mia dialed the guy’s number before I could speak. Left with no choice, I reluctantly explained the situation to him. The guy promptly replied that he was willing to get back together. The live stream exploded with excitement over his response. At that moment, I felt bad for his fiancée, but then Lily immediately spoke up, saying, “Actually, I’m not his ex. I’m his current fiancée. Thank you, host. I guess there’s no need for this engagement anymore.” I felt a wave of relief wash over me, and I even felt glad that she had escaped from a bad situation. It wasn’t until I died that I realized… The girl who called in and the guy who answered the phone were all actors hired by Mia. She had planned from the beginning to sacrifice me to boost her own career. Mia panicked: “Everyone goes through breakups. She just wanted an answer. How could you attack a girl with such harsh words?” I flipped the camera to face her. “So what?” I challenged. “Just because she’s heartbroken, the whole world has to coddle her? Don’t be ridiculous, sis. What answer? Didn’t she get her answer when they broke up? Now that he’s about to get engaged, she suddenly wants an answer?” “I never realized your values were so messed up. Do you also think that it’s not cheating if you’re not the one being loved?” My words were sharp and my tone was biting. Mia was so taken aback by my verbal assault that she couldn’t even lift her head. She covered her face and actually started crying. Jack burst in and ended the live stream. Then he stood protectively in front of her, glaring at me with disappointment. “Mia was kind enough to bring you into live streaming to make money, and you’re being so aggressive over this little thing? How can you be so ungrateful?” I held my head high and replied firmly: “I’m sorry, but I can’t earn this kind of dirty money!” In the past, I had a gentle personality and didn’t want to argue with them. But my tolerance only led to them taking advantage of me more and more. Jack still didn’t take me seriously. He instinctively told me to apologize to Mia. He furrowed his brow, his eyes full of disappointment: “We’re all friends here. You’ve really gone too far today.” I walked up to them and held out my right hand. “Make up with a handshake? What are you, in elementary school…” Mia started to say. She hesitated, then reached out to shake my hand. Just as we were about to touch, I raised my hand high and slapped Jack hard across the face. His condescending words were cut short. He looked at me in utter disbelief. “I’m curious, I’m supposed to be your girlfriend, so why do you always take her side?” I coldly questioned him. “Tell me, when did you two start hooking up?” “You’ve misunderstood Jack and me. He came to see me last night because it’s your birthday soon, and he wanted to surprise you,” Mia explained, biting her lower lip. “We’ve been friends for 10 years. I would never betray you.” I turned to Jack: “Is that true?” Jack nodded, and I kicked him hard in the knee, making him fall to the ground. Mia rushed to help him up, her face full of concern. “I was just testing you, and you both confessed everything. Did I even mention anything about last night?” I said. “No wonder you wanted to help that homewrecker earlier. So you’re that kind of person!” “You don’t really think that only the one who’s not loved is the other woman, do you?” Jack hissed in pain and scolded me through gritted teeth: “Enough! Can’t you reflect on yourself at this point? If you were really that great, why would I look at someone else?” “Oh, great, now we’re blaming the victim, are we?” I retorted. While they weren’t paying attention, I flexed my wrists, grabbed both of their heads with my hands, and smashed them together hard. The sound of their heads colliding was quite loud. I felt like I was listening to heavenly music, and some of my anger dissipated. Along with Jack’s sharp intake of breath, Mia burst into tears with a loud wail. I felt even more satisfied. “You cheating bastard, we’re done!” “I hope you two snakes stay together forever, locked in misery!” Mia and Jack held their heads, having lost all their strength and tactics. I quickly made my escape. But I didn’t leave right away. Instead, I stood outside the room, wanting to hear if they had any more schemes planned. As soon as Mia recovered, she started badmouthing me. “That bitch Aria must have taken the wrong meds today. How dare she get physical? Wasn’t she your lapdog? How come she’s not even listening to you anymore?” “Who knows what’s wrong with her? She’s just a psycho!” Jack cursed, then started analyzing the situation rationally. “She must have found out about us. Otherwise, with her personality, there’s no way she would have been so aggressive today.” “What should we do? I was counting on her to help me grow my following,” Mia said, unwilling to give up. Jack reached out and pulled her into his arms. He buried his nose in her hair, inhaling her scent with pleasure. “Baby, why are you panicking? Worst case scenario, we’ll just edit the livestream video and say Aria was the one who put us up to it. We’ll have that actress who called in today come out and accuse her too.” “Nowadays, netizens believe whatever they hear first. No one will bother to investigate the truth.” “Besides, you’re her best friend, and I’m her boyfriend. We have the closest relationships with her. In outsiders’ eyes, we have the least reason to hurt her.” “The only downside is that we can’t go public with our relationship for a while. I’m sorry about that.” Mia looked at him with sparkling eyes, full of admiration: “Jack, how are you so smart?” Jack was very pleased with this kind of praise. I had been squatting under the window until my legs went numb. I originally planned to wait for them to leave, then go in to get my phone that I had left behind. I never expected these two scumbags couldn’t wait even for a moment. Things were heating up inside the room. Suddenly, I realized that they were the ones who should feel guilty. Why was I hiding? I’m just too moral of a person. I kicked the door open with one foot. The door slammed against the wall with a loud bang. Mia screamed, and Jack immediately lost his excitement. They both turned to look at me in horror. I was very calm: “Sorry, I left something behind.” Jack asked: “What did you leave?” Is that really the point here? I looked him up and down, my gaze lingering on a certain area. I made a gesture that Korean men hate the most. Then I turned to Mia and said: “Tsk tsk tsk, just this… how could you possibly fall for him?” Mia and Jack finally snapped back to reality and hurriedly looked for their clothes to put on. I took advantage of this time To quietly slip my phone into my pocket and leave. In my past life, I had very low self-esteem. So during the first livestream, I put my phone in a corner of the room to record the entire process, wanting to watch it later to see where I could improve. In my previous life, Mia’s plan went smoothly, and I didn’t capture any evidence that could help me. But now it’s different. After I got home, I edited out the NSFW parts. Then I uploaded the video online. “Perhaps it’s because my boyfriend cheated on me with my best friend that he would use this method to hint at me to leave on my own.” “I never thought something like this would happen to me. Although this whole thing was orchestrated by my best friend, I want to say that society is still too tolerant of such behavior.” “I may not have much influence, but I absolutely refuse to go along with people who have no moral compass. I’ve cut ties with them and broken up!” “Don’t worry, I’m not in the internet industry and never planned to make a living this way. The only reason I became a host was because Mia kept begging me.” “I’m heartbroken. Logging off now.” After experiencing so much in my past life, I knew exactly what kind of content netizens like to see, and how to stir up public opinion. After a night of fermentation, this video had over ten thousand shares, with impressive likes and comments. My former colleague from work commented: “I knew being an internet celebrity couldn’t be that easy. It turns out it was all a scheme. The boss wants you to come back to work right away. She doesn’t blame you.” I worked at a boutique perfume company and had been the top salesperson for three consecutive years. When Mia first asked me to quit my job, I refused. I thought she was being too unrealistic. Later, she came up with a nasty trick. While I was at work, she deliberately caused trouble, making me lose quite a few clients. After learning what had happened, my boss didn’t blame me and even gave me time to sort things out with Mia. Mia flew into a rage, stormed into the boss’s office, and trashed the place, sending the boss to the hospital. The boss wanted to press charges, but I, considering our years of friendship, begged her for half a month straight. Perhaps I was too much of a saint. In the end, the boss just sighed and said: “You’re not fit to stay in the company like this anymore. You should go.” Thinking back on all this, I felt increasingly stupid. I anxiously opened SnapChat. When I saw the unread message from my boss, I almost teared up. “You’ve grown. Now that you’ve sorted things out, come back if you want. I’m still waiting for you to make money for me.” “You got it, Sophia!” I replied. While Jack and Mia were drowning in a sea of online criticism, I was already standing in Sophia’s office. Sophia lectured me for a good while in a tone of disappointment. In the end, her eyes twinkled with amusement. “You woke up, and not too late.” I had joined this company right after graduation. Back then, it was just a small workshop. She focused on perfume research, while I handled sales. This unknown little brand could barely sell one item a month. At the worst of times, when we couldn’t even pay salaries, others left one by one. Only I stubbornly stayed. I was waiting for her to declare bankruptcy, and she was waiting for me to quit voluntarily. We stared at each other every day. Somehow, we managed to hang on for a few more months. Until we finally caught a break. That small workshop has now grown into a sizable company. “I knew you were a sentimental fool who clings to old relationships. If I didn’t let you see for yourself, you’d still be letting them suck you dry.” “From now on, work hard and try to help me buy a Cullinan soon, got it?” I looked at the car keys on the desk: “You want to buy another one? Why not try something else?” She laughed: “These are for you.” I was surprised: “For me?” “Don’t you need a nice car for business meetings? I bought it for you a while ago, but when I heard you had a boyfriend, I was afraid he might be after your money, so I didn’t dare give it to you.” Sophia picked up the car keys from the desk and tossed them to me. Seeing that I caught them, she smiled. Me: “Now that I’m famous, do I still need to go out for business meetings?” “Getting cocky, are we?” Sophia gave me a light knock on the head. It hurt so much my eyes welled up. “I mean, we can take advantage of this opportunity to open up online sales channels.” Sophia was surprised: “Didn’t you say in your statement that you won’t be involved in the internet industry?” I did say that. But I’m just riding the wave to grow our business, promoting the company’s products and managing operations without showing my face. Sophia’s eyes were full of approval. “I actually had similar plans.” We hit it off immediately and chatted until nearly lunchtime. As we were heading to the cafeteria together, I got a call from my parents. “Aria, we saw your video. Jack said it was all planned between you guys to grow the account. What’s really going on?” “Jack and Mia are at our house now. They say they want to discuss the next steps with you. Come home quickly.” Jack and I met through an arranged date. We had been dating for so long, and he had always pretended to be very reliable. If I hadn’t lived through this once before, I never would have discovered his true nature. Thinking about how much my parents approved of him, I couldn’t help but worry. I excused myself to Sophia and rushed home. Afraid that Jack, the freeloader, might cling to me, I didn’t dare drive the Cullinan yet. Just as I reached the door and was about to take out my keys, it opened automatically. Jack and I made eye contact. He was the first to break into a smile: “Aria’s back. We can start eating now.” He reached out naturally to take my bag. I dodged to the side. I changed into slippers and went inside. Mia, wearing an apron, happened to be bringing a dish out from the kitchen. My parents sat awkwardly at the table, visibly relieved when they saw me. My gaze darkened. In all the years I’ve known Mia, every time she came to my house as a guest, my parents would wait on her hand and foot. When had they ever let her cook? There’s no such thing as a free lunch. They must be up to something. I glanced around, getting a sense of the situation. “Aria, why are you just standing there? Come eat. I made your favorite sweet and sour ribs today. Try them and see how they taste,” Mia said. My eyes fell on the dish in her hands. Without responding, I turned and walked into the kitchen.
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