[Oh god, no. The main couple just started their sweet romance. Is the villainess going to use his sick mom to blackmail him into being with her again?)
【Why is the villainess so persistent? She’s like a ghost!】
[Oh no, the villainess is looking at him. She must think this is her chance to make a move.]
I remembered hearing some students mention before I’d pulled out my card that Sean’s mother had been battling cancer for years, and his family had exhausted all their savings and was deep in debt.
I quickly turned back to Eason. “No one in your family is sick, right?”
“No, no, not at all…”
Sean, his face ashen, stood up to leave for the hospital but was stopped by the waiter. “Sir, you haven’t paid the bill.”
A wave of snickers went through the restaurant. In his past life, backed by my family’s wealth, he could walk into any high–end restaurant and be greeted by a fawning owner who would insist he not worry about the bill.
His rebirth was too recent. He hadn’t broken his old habits.
The waiter had already printed the bill. One thousand two hundred and eighty dollars. A sum that wouldn’t have even paid for bal
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Chapter 1
bottle of wine in his previous life.
Sean instinctively reached for his pocket, searching for the black card. He found nothing. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
Right. He was eighteen again. Younger, yes, but also poorer. Right now, he was penniless. Forget one thousand two hundred and
eighty dollars; he didn’t even have the eighty.
The waiter maintained his professional smile.
Sean gritted his teeth and turned to Molly, his voice strained. “Molly, can you cover this for now? I’ll pay you back.”
7
Molly immediately grew wary. “Sean, my monthly allowance is only fifteen hundred dollars. This one meal is twelve hundred. What am I supposed to live on for the rest of the month?”
“Don’t worry, I have ways to make money.”
“What ways? Besides, you said it was your treat. Why am I the one paying?”
Molly grumbled, unwilling to pay.
The young couple, who had confessed their love less than an hour ago, was now facing the first hurdle in their romance.
I took out my card at the perfect moment and called out, “Waiter.”
Sean turned his head away in disgust, as if I was about to latch onto him and refuse to let go. Reborn, he wanted nothing to do with a spoiled princess like me. The humiliation of me throwing money at him in his past life was still fresh in his mind.
His voice was laced with deep revulsion. “Iris, how many times do I have to tell you? Can you just stay away from me? I hate you clinging to me, and I hate you getting between me and Molly. Neither I nor my mother need your filthy money!”
I was genuinely surprised by his audacity. Even according to the bullet comments, where I was deeply in love with him, in this life, we hadn’t gotten together. The bullet comments had appeared just as I pulled out the card, before I could even ask him to be my boyfriend. He was the one who preemptively declared his love for Molly. Before that, we’d had no interaction whatsoever.
He was the one who despised his past life. And yet, he was the one who couldn’t seem to let it go.
! let out a cold laugh. “I was just calling the waiter to pay my own bill.”
“Mr. Miller,” I said, my voice dripping with mock concern. “Are you suffering from some sort of delusion? Why are you so convinced I‘ m chasing you?”
8
Sean’s face went white.
He was only now realizing that in this life, we were essentially strangers. The six years of entanglement from his past had yet to happen. The realization made him stagger back a step.
The comments grew anxious.
[What’s going on? Why isn’t the villainess paying for Sean’s mom’s treatment?]
[Yeah, his mom has cancer. If she doesn’t pay, how is he going to get that astronomical sum of money?]
[His mom was the only person who comforted him during those six years of humiliating life.]
Reading those comments, my face darkened. They called the six years I supported him a “humiliating life.” An unbearable memory for him.
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Chapter 1
In my past life, after I paid for his mother’s treatment, her private advice to him was: “Sean, honey, you can’t let a woman walk all over you. Listen to Mom, you have to control the money. Make her live by your rules! My son is so outstanding, a university student, girls would line up to be with you. The Sterlings only have one daughter. Sooner or later, their money will be ours, right?”
And Sean had nodded obediently through it all, enduring his “humiliation.”
Too bad for them, the Sterling family’s vast fortune wasn’t something an outsider like him could ever touch. All he ever got was the
pocket change that fell through my fingers. If he was obedient, I’d give him a little. If he wasn’t, he got nothing.
A girl from my background wasn’t stupid enough to just hand over her family’s wealth. Sean coveted everything my family had, but it was always out of his reach.
Eason couldn’t hold back any longer. “Mr. Miller, aren’t you the one who’s been bothering Iris? She hasn’t even spoken to you, yet you keep acting like you’re some kind of victim. It’s ridiculous.”
Sean’s face clouded over, his tone impatient. “You, Croft. You’re just some country bumpkin. Who do you think you are, talking to me like that? Do you have any idea who I am?”
His voice was low and deep, like a domineering CEO, infused with a touch of money–bred arrogance. In his past life, after his comp- any took off, countless people had flattered him, calling him Mr. Miller. All that praise had gone to his head.
. But Sean hadn’t noticed. The clothes he was wearing right now were shabbier than Eason’s.
I raised an eyebrow and clapped my hands. “Mr. Miller is right.”
Eason looked at me, hurt.
I looked Eason up and down. His clothes were ordinary and cheap. Dressed like that, didn’t he look just like a country bumpkin?
I frowned and waved a hand, unleashing my inner princess. “These rags are so shabby, I wouldn’t even wear them as a gift. Eason, you’re coming with me to the mall right now, and you’re not leaving until you’ve bought at least a hundred thousand dollars worth of clothes!”
10
Walking out of the mall with several shopping bags, Eason was still in a state of shock. He couldn’t seem to process what had just happened.
I lazily flicked my hair over my shoulder. My boyfriend, naturally, had to wear the best. Everything I gave Sean in the last life, I woul- dn’t give him a single cent of in this one.
The bullet comments were still chattering about Sean’s situation. He was currently being tormented by his lack of money. Tuition, living expenses, his mother’s medical bills. If Molly was his only regret in the last life, then in this one, after fixing that single regret, he had created twenty new ones.
On the way back to the university, I enjoyed reading the comments.
[ML, don’t go to her! You’ll be entangled with her for years again! I want to see your sweet romance with the FL!)
[The poor ML. He’s going to be forced back to the villainess’s side.]
[Who can stand the villainess’s spoiled attitude?]
[Ugh, does being reborn not even help you escape the evil villainess’s control?]
Scrolling down, I saw it. As expected, standing in front of my dorm was the solitary, proud figure of Sean. He looked like he’d been waiting for a long time.
Chapter 1
16/06
When he saw me, he first gave a desolate smile, then seemed to resign himself to his fate. “Iris, I lose. I can’t escape you after all.”
“Fine,” he said, as if making a great sacrifice. “As long as you give me the black card and promise to tone down your princess attitu-
de, I’m willing to be your boyfriend.”
11
He spoke with an air of utter defeat, as if he’d made a monumental decision and a huge concession. His face was a mask of humil-
iation and shame.
His dignity was really something. To think it was worth as much as my unlimited black card.
I smirked. I’d never seen someone beg for scraps so arrogantly.
I couldn’t help but remind him, “Mr. Miller, have we met?”
Sean scoffed. “Iris, no one knows you better than I do. Did you think this little game of playing hard to get would make me look at you twice? Alright, enough. Just give me the black card. My mom is in the hospital waiting.”
He was so certain. So sure that I would give in to him.
In our past life, we were together for six years. If it wasn’t for love, I probably wouldn’t have lasted that long. He had seen me crazy in love. He had seen my grand, public displays of affection. As the one being pursued, he had always been fearless.
His mother’s hospital bills couldn’t wait any longer. A pile of problems was waiting for him to solve with money.
Eason decisively stepped in front of me, shattering Sean’s arrogance. “When did Iris ever say she wanted you to be her boyfriend?”
12
That last sentence hit Sean like a bolt of lightning. He stood frozen for a long moment, then suddenly remembered something. The first thing he had done upon being reborn was confess to Molly. As for me, I really hadn’t said a word about him being my boyfrie- nd. The entanglements of our past life had yet to occur in this one.
But Sean quickly shook his head with a self–deprecating laugh. The six years of their past relationship were too deeply ingrained in his memory. Event after event, he simply couldn’t believe that i hadn’t loved him.
He sighed, his voice heavy with an exhaustion he couldn’t hide. “Alright, Iris, I admit my confessing to Molly made you unhappy. But my mother’s situation can’t wait. Give me the card, and I’ll let the past go.”
Seeing Sean’s dejected surrender, the comments grew frantic.
[The ML was finally reborn! Why is he getting entangled with the villainess again?]
[And so begins the six years of humiliating life.]
[But without the villainess, the ML is just a poor student. He wouldn’t even have startup capital for a business. How would he get money?]
I looked at Sean. My words were a reply to him, and to the comments.
“If you don’t have money, figure it out yourself. If you’re not willing to sell a kidney, you’ve still got other assets, haven’t you?”
