Reborn, I Left the Scumbag with Nothing

The cell phone's sharp ringtone suddenly pierced the silence in the room. I was staring blankly at the dressing mirror, my fingertips lightly tracing the pale pink scar on my wrist—the mark left by an out-of-control motorcycle when I saved Daniel Lynn on my twentieth birthday. The girl in the mirror, her long hair cascading over her shoulders, still showed traces of youthful innocence on her face, but her eyes held a coldness far beyond her years. This is the first day of my rebirth, returning to the moment before all tragedy began. I took a deep breath and pressed the answer button. "Tina! This is an ultimatum! Now—immediately—break up with Daniel Lynn!" On the other end, Father's voice was like ice, carrying an unyielding authority. In my past life, it was this phone call that caused a complete rift between Father and me. To protect Daniel Lynn, I shattered the jade bracelet Mother left behind, screaming that I was severing ties with my family. Looking back now, I was utterly foolish. "Fine, I agree to break up." I spoke calmly, without a trace of emotion, "But not now." There was a two-second silence on the other end before my father's voice came through, clearly confused: "What do you mean? You still want to keep entangled with him?" "Dad, lend me 10 billion." I stared at my frost-cold eyes in the mirror and spoke deliberately, "I'm going to wait until Daniel Lynn's Company goes public in M Country, then buy a large amount of his shares." "Are you crazy?" Father's voice rose sharply, and even through the receiver, I could feel his shock. "You won't break up and still want to use the family's money to help that guy?" "I'm not helping him; I intend to ruin him financially." I gritted my teeth as the pain from my previous life surged like a tide. "What he did to me then, this time I'll make him pay back double." I briefly recounted the ordeal of my previous life—I concealed my identity as a wealthy heiress and used the pocket money and New Year's gifts I had saved for years to help Daniel Lynn start his business. But what about him? On the day the Company went public, he walked into the Marriage Registration Office wearing a bespoke suit, holding the hand of his first love, his white moonlight. They treated me like a thorn in their side, poisoning my food time and again. In the end, my skin was ravaged by ulcers, the pain so intense I couldn't even leave my bed, dying alone in the cold single ward. After hearing this, Father was silent on the other end of the line for so long I thought he had hung up. Finally, he said only one sentence: "Tina, this time Dad will help you. The money will be transferred to your account tomorrow." After hanging up, the sound of keys turning came from the door. It's Daniel Lynn. He pushed the door open, holding a paper bag printed with "Old Town Soup Dumplings," his face lit with the smile I had once been hopelessly infatuated with: "Tina, I know you get hungry at night, so I went out of my way to get you a late-night snack." The familiar scent of meat drifted from the paper bag—my once-favorite soup dumplings. In my previous life, after eating that basket of soup dumplings he gave me, my body began to decay, slowly leading me toward death. "Darling, you're so kind." I forced a sweet smile and reached out to take the paper bag; when my fingertips brushed his hand, I barely restrained myself from pulling away immediately. "Eat it while it's hot, I'm going to take a shower." Daniel Lynn put down his things, casually ruffled my hair, then turned and walked into the bathroom. I looked at the soup dumpling in my hand, and my gaze instantly turned cold. I walked into the kitchen, carefully tearing open each soup dumpling and meticulously picking out the meat filling to place into a pot of boiling water. White foam floated on the surface, much like the false gentleness he had feigned in my past life.