The Day I Was Reborn, I Tore Up the White Lotus's Script

I open my eyes to the chubby guy behind me poking my shoulder. “Lin Weiwei wants you to pass her a note. She says she can’t solve the math problem.”

The words “288 days until the gaokao” on the blackboard stab at my eyes. It’s a mock exam for senior year, and in my previous life, that note was what ruined me. Lin Weiwei swapped in a cheat sheet and framed me, while Jiang Chen, the boy I had a crush on, helped testify against me. I lost my recommendation slot, and she took my place at a top university.

Lin Weiwei winks at me. Jiang Chen taps his pen from the seat diagonally ahead.

I unfold a blank note. In my previous life, she was waiting for me to write out the solution so she could turn it against me. This time, I write: “That silver-gray fountain pen in your pencil case is gorgeous. The same one costs over three thousand at the stationery store. How could a driver like my dad afford it? Did you pay for it?”

When the note comes back, Lin Weiwei turns deathly pale. The proctor walks over, and in her panic, she drops it.

“Over three thousand?” the teacher reads aloud. The class erupts. “Didn’t she say her family was struggling?”

Jiang Chen whips around. I raise an eyebrow and get back to my exam.

That afternoon, when they choose the student to recommend, Lin Weiwei cries, “She’s making things up about me!”

I tap open a recording from my previous life. Lin Weiwei and Jiang Chen’s voices ring out clearly: “That slot should have been mine...”

The class falls silent. Our homeroom teacher hands me the recommendation form. “I was wrong about you before.”

After school, Dad is waiting with strawberry tanghulu. In my previous life, I snapped at him. This time, I run over and hug him. “Dad, I want two!”

Far away, Lin Weiwei is crying, and Jiang Chen is trying to explain himself. None of it matters anymore.

Given another life, I just want to smile as I get back everything I was denied. Scumbags? They don’t deserve a place in my new life.