Chapter 4
Uncle Edward clicked his tongue in admiration: “Our Maria really has high standards, setting her sights on a big star right off the bat. Uncle supports you!”
Maria just smiled without saying much more.
That evening, I was memorizing formulas at my desk when Maria’s voice suddenly came from behind me.
“I’m going live. Can you go back to your own room?”
I turned around to see her wearing a silk slip nightgown with an open neckline, her face done up with delicate no–makeup makeup, holding her phone with impatience written all over her expression.
I paused for a moment, suddenly noticing that her nostrils now looked uneven in size.
I packed up my books without a word and headed toward my
room.
As we passed each other, she leaned in close and whispered, “Evren Wynn is mine in this lifetime. Stop dreaming about seducing him, got it?”
I glanced at her coolly and nodded.
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Fine, if she wanted to jump into a pit of fire, who could stop her?
After Christmas, Maria left hurriedly with her suitcase, while I threw myself even harder into studying.
I was still some distance from the score needed for my dream university, but this time, I didn’t want to give up.
It wasn’t until I actually sat in the exam room and saw the test papers being handed out that I truly felt I had a real chance at college in this lifetime.
My body was whole, my face was clean, without a single
unnecessary scar.
When the final exam ended and I walked out of the testing center, the weight on my heart finally lifted, and I felt completely at ease.
No one came to pick me up outside the exam center because today happened to be Maria’s birthday.
She’d become an influencer, with a persona as a wealthy
princess, so naturally her birthday had to be staged like a royal
showcase.
I bought a few slices of pizza and opened her livestream while cating.
On camera, she wore a haute couture gown and a
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diamond–studded tiara, looking like a complete fake princess.
Several “classmates” sat beside her, their faces all surgically similar, their affected voices nearly identical.
My parents had also changed into expensive clothes and brought out a six–layer cake to support her performance.
The chat was scrolling non–stop.
【Maria looks so beautiful today!】
【This is what a real socialite looks like, head to toe in luxury brands, with low–key wealthy parents!]
【So jealous, living in hotels every day, traveling for photos, just being beautiful, and she’ll marry a rich husband!】
Looking at her gown, I couldn’t help but laugh.
I recognized that dress. In my past life, whoever in our class had a birthday would wear this same outfit for photos, then pass it
on to the next person.
Those jewelry pieces and handbags were all rotated for photo shoots too, returned after each use for the next girl to pose with.
In my past life, I wasn’t assigned the influencer path by the training program because I couldn’t fake it like she could–I didn’t even qualify to show my face while serving drinks.
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But in this lifetime, Maria had chosen the most glamorous yet most fragile path.
When a “skyscraper” built on illusions collapses, she’d better not cry too pathetically.
On camera, Maria’s smile was picture–perfect, as if rehearsed countless times.
Gift animations from the livestream nearly covered the entire phone screen.
I finished my last bite of pizza and casually closed the stream.
The day my acceptance letter arrived, I didn’t tell my parents.
Of course, they were too lazy to ask anyway.
Now they only recognized Maria as their precious daughter.
I could only work part–time to save tuition money and take out loans to enter my dream campus.
They’d nearly emptied their savings to maintain Maria’s “wealthy princess” image.
Maria rented a large flat by the river, with my mom becoming her full–time housekeeper, serving her three meals a day according to some prescribed menu.
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My dad became her personal driver, taking her to photo shoots, vacations, and livestreams.
Online, Maria already had a huge following. She’d crafted herself into an inspirational template of “living like a princess even without being born one,” and many girls looked up to her as a role model.
Before she even turned eighteen, she’d already sculpted her figure to be sexy with a tiny waist and perky chest, becoming walking clickbait wherever she went. Some girls even got plastic surgery to look like her.
But just when she was at her most triumphant, trouble arrived.
At first, it was just her uneven nostrils, but now her nose tip was gradually collapsing too.
When people left comments under her photos pointing this out, she immediately deleted them.
Even if she noticed the problem, she could only go back to Joel
for fixes.
By now, thanks to her promotion, Joel had become famous as the “influencer’s go–to doctor.”
But dissenting voices were growing louder.
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The first to suffer were the girls she’d brought to get nose jobs.
They’d spent big money having Joel give them the same upturned nose as Maria.
Within two months, their noses began deforming, with severe cases developing inflammation and pus.
The trouble was just beginning, and the first to expose it was a blogger with some fame…
B
