Part I – The Awakening
Rebirth of the Villainess: Part I – The Awakening
The moment I opened my eyes again, I knew fate had gifted me a second chance—to play the villainess to perfection.
Ten years. My fiancé and my own brother had hated me for ten long years. They believed I was the heartless bully who tormented the sweet, fragile girl they adored. At my grand engagement ceremony, broadcasted to the entire nation, they publicly tore apart my reputation.
“She’s nothing but a despicable bully who tormented her classmates in high school!” Ethan Jiang announced coldly, holding the microphone with steady contempt.
And there she was—**Lena Lam**, the so-called white lotus—standing on stage with tears shimmering in her doe-like eyes. “I don’t blame her anymore,” she said softly, offering a gentle smile as though she were made of light. In that moment, she became a goddess in the eyes of the crowd.
While she basked in adoration, I was sentenced by the world. Vitriol poured down upon me like rain. One fan even threw acid at me. Pain. Blinding, searing pain.
In despair, I dragged her down to hell with me. And then I woke up.
Back in my high school classroom.
Twelve years old. That cursed day all over again.
There she stood in front of me, younger, seemingly innocent, pouring water on her own head as if rehearsing a tragedy. She looked up at me with a fake innocent smile and said, “So, Iris, have you figured out how you’re going to apologize to me yet?”
Rage erupted in my chest like a volcano. I grabbed her hair, dragged her to the restroom, and slammed her head into the toilet bowl.
“You want to know what *real* bullying feels like?” I hissed. “Before you go crying to the teachers again, rinse that filthy mouth.”
The final memory of my past life came in a flash: sulfuric acid burning through my flesh, scorching my retinas, blinding me. Through my blurred vision, I saw Lena clutching Ethan’s arm, protected behind him. The blood in my veins boiled. I snatched a cake knife and drove it straight into her chest.
“Let’s go to hell together.”
But now, standing once again in this damned timeline, I saw her as she truly was—a girl obsessed with her own twisted stage play, soaking herself beneath a faucet, eyes gleaming with malice. “Guess who they’ll believe—me or you?” she whispered.
I didn’t hesitate.
I lunged.
Hair in my grasp, screams echoing through the hall, I shoved her head back into the toilet. “You want to frame me again? Fine. But first, let me teach you what torment *really* looks like.”
Her arms flailed like she was powered by some internal motor, but nothing could escape my grip. Her muffled cries bubbled in the dirty water.
I laughed.
“That foul mouth? Better clean it before you speak my name again.”
Reborn? Hallucination? I didn’t care. This time, I would not go down without a fight.
In my previous life, I died on what was supposed to be the most dazzling day of my life—winning my third Best Actress award, clad in haute couture, arm in arm with my childhood fiancé, Ethan Jiang.
In the middle of our live-streamed engagement, his voice echoed across millions of screens
“I refuse to marry someone who bullied her classmates for years.”
My world collapsed in seconds.
From the crowd, Lena Lam stepped onto the stage, her voice sweet and pitiful, “Do you remember me, Iris? The girl you bullied for ten years?” She smiled serenely. “But it’s okay… I’ve let it go.”
The moment was clipped, captioned, and shared across the globe. She became a national sweetheart overnight.
While I was besieged by paparazzi.
“Miss Lu, is it true you harassed your juniors on set?”
“Rumors say you were recently seen at the GYN—is it because of your promiscuous lifestyle?”
I hadn’t even answered when a maniac burst through the crowd, a bottle of acid raised high, screaming, “Die, filthy w***e!”
The acid splashed across my face.
Burning agony.
Darkness.
The world went silent.
And yet…
In this reborn body, I stood tall. I would make every second count.
Lena? She could cry, tremble, and whimper all she wanted. “Go ahead, cry,” I smirked. “Tell the world I bullied you. But don’t forget that *this* is the face you wear now.”
And when she didn’t move, I stepped on her face.
Twice.
Then walked away like it meant nothing.
“P.E. class has started already. What were you doing?” Lana To asked as I joined her downstairs.
“Bullying the new girl a little,” I said casually.
“What?!”
I scoffed. “Didn’t Lu Xun say it? When the world sees you as the villain, you might as well put on a spectacular show.”
“Did Lu Xun actually say that?”
“Does it matter?”
The moment I stepped onto the field, I met eyes with **Ethan Jiang**. Not in my class, but his fame preceded him. He was known as my childhood sweetheart.
He glanced at me, then behind me. “I heard your class has a transfer student?”
In my past life, whenever Lena falsely accused me, he would pretend to be neutral. But with just a few words, he would always tip the scale, making me the villain.
So this time, I didn’t say a word.
I slapped him.
Lana gasped like she’d just seen a ghost.
But Ethan? He didn’t flinch. Instead, he leaned in close, his cheek brushing against mine. “What’s wrong, Iris? In a bad mood today?”
Back then, I didn’t know the truth: Ethan was an illegitimate child, abandoned by his mother in an amusement park, raised in an orphanage. There, he met a little girl who shared her candy and warmth with him.
That girl… was Lena Lam.
The day she transferred, he recognized her immediately.
From that moment, he believed every word she said.
Every fake tear.
Every act of victimhood.
He hated me from the marrow of his bones.
But because of his low status, he needed our engagement to climb within the Jiang family. So he endured.
Not this time.
“Let’s break up,” I said coldly.
“What?” His pupils shrank. “Give me a reason.”
I wiped the spot he had touched with a tissue, slowly, carefully.
“I don’t date sons of mistresses. It’s disgusting. Is that enough reason?”
Lana stared at me like I was possessed.
She had every right to be confused. The old **Iris Lu** had loved Ethan deeply—waiting at the school gates every day, baking him cookies until her hands blistered.
But Iris Lu died with acid burning her soul.
The one who stands here now?
Had crawled out of hell.
