Chapter 1 Back to the First Day
My new college dorm mate was Sally Benton, a girl who acted like a wealthy heiress with money to burn. She arrived with a flourish, handing out a mountain of high-end skincare products to everyone, though none of them had their original packaging.
In exchange, she expected us to pour out her foot-washing water every day, pick up her packages, wash her underwear and socks, stand in line at the cafeteria to bring her meals, and handle countless other small tasks.
I recognized those bottles instantly. They were all the empty containers I had tossed away at home. Someone had fished them out and refilled them with some mysterious, unknown liquid.
The moment I looked at her face, the mystery vanished. She looked exactly like our family maid, Martha Benton. I knew exactly where those "luxury" goods had come from.
In my past life, out of respect for Martha's years of service to my family, I had tried to save Sally from herself. I pretended to accidentally break all those fake products and then had my butler deliver brand-new, authentic replacements to the dorm. That was how she found out who I really was.
I thought she would have the sense to back down after being exposed. Instead, she grew to loathe me with a burning passion.
One night, after planning it for weeks, she pretended to be drunk and pushed me off our dormitory balcony. I remember her screaming as I fell, "You were just lucky to be born into the right family! Let's see if your luck holds up in the next life!"
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the first day of freshman year.
I watched as the maid's daughter stood there, basking in the starstruck gazes of my other roommates. She dumped a pile of expensive-looking bottles onto our desks with an arrogant smirk. "My family is incredibly rich," she bragged. "As long as you do exactly what I say, you'll be well taken care of. Do you understand?"
While my other two roommates were busy pledging their undying loyalty to her, I grabbed the pile of trashy, refilled bottles on my desk and hurled them straight back at her. "There's a luxury villa district right next to the campus," I snapped. "If you have this many ridiculous demands, go rent a mansion. Nobody here is going to be your servant!"
*****
"You three can split these skincare products among yourselves. But let me be clear," Sally continued, her voice dripping with condescension. "If you take my things, you follow my orders. If you're living in the same room as me, you live by my rules. I am a clean freak. I need my bedsheets changed and washed every single day. I also need someone to handle my laundry, especially my underwear and socks. Oh, and my foot soaks. The water temperature has to be perfect. Not too hot, not too cold."
She thought for a moment, then continued, "Hmm... I heard the pizza at the cafeteria is amazing, but the line is over an hour long every day. Whoever takes the job of getting my lunch can pick out two extra items from the pile. Honestly, it's such a pain that I can't bring a private maid to the dorms. I really wonder if you three amateurs are even capable of looking after me properly."
I slowly opened my eyes to the sound of that arrogant, fake voice.
I saw Sally standing over two large open suitcases. Countless brand-name bottles were spilled across the floor, taking up half the space in the room.
She stood there with her arms crossed, looking down her nose at my other two roommates. They were already crouching on the floor, their eyes glowing with greed as they sifted through the pile. Sally looked absolutely delighted by their desperation.
Any single jar of cream on that floor would normally cost over a thousand dollars as a limited-edition item. They were the kind of luxuries ordinary people could only dream of touching.
Now that these items were within reach, the two roommates were practically fighting over them, terrified that the other might grab more.
As they snatched up the bottles, they didn't forget to suck up to her. "Don't you worry, my dear Sally! From today on, you are my boss. Forget the foot water—even if you wanted to hit me, I wouldn't say a word!"
"Exactly! Rest easy, Sally. We'll handle everything for you for the next four years. Just leave it to us!"
*****
The realization finally hit me. I had been reborn. I was back at the very start of college.
Sally was using the empty bottles her mother had stolen from my house, refilling them with God-knows-what to play the role of a rich heiress at school.
I hadn't even fully recovered from the lingering terror of falling to my death. My head was throbbing with a sharp, dull pain.
Sally picked up two bottles of toner and sauntered over to me. She gave me a look of pure disdain and laughed. "You've never seen anything this expensive before, have you?"
I didn't react. My silence clearly annoyed her. She reached out and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look her in the eye. "I'm talking to you! Are you deaf?"
But as she got a close look at my face, a flash of stunned realization crossed her features. She was clearly intimidated by my looks, and that shock quickly curdled into pure jealousy and spite.
Sally let out a furious snort and mocked me. "Look at you, just staring like a total i***t. You clearly have no class. I can't trust someone as clueless as you to handle my personal things. From now on, your job is to wait in the lunch lines. And don't you dare use a sun umbrella. You'd better not walk slowly, either. Once you get the food, you run back here as fast as you can. Got it?"
She gave me a cruel, dismissive smile. "Work hard for me, and I'll make sure you live the good life for the next four years."
With that, she turned to walk away.
The memory of my brutal death in my previous life made my blood boil. The rage was white-hot. I grabbed the heavy bottles she had shoved onto my desk and hurled them at the back of her head.
"There's a luxury villa district right next to the campus!" I roared. "If you have this many ridiculous demands, go rent a mansion! Nobody here is going to be your servant!"
