Despite dreaming of attending university all my life, I ended up stuck in my farming village. I married my brother-in-law and became my nephew’s stepmother.

This all happened because my sister died trying to make money for my tuition fees on the day my results came out. I thought I had failed to secure a place at university and stopped thinking about higher education out of guilt. I married my brother-in-law according to my sister’s wishes.

To pay for my sins, I raised my nephew and treated him like my own son. I made money and tutored him so that he could get into Northside University. In the end, I developed late-stage cancer.

Before dying, I attended my nephew’s celebration, but he publicly accused me of being a homewrecker while my husband agreed that I had seduced him. They brought out my sister, dead for eighteen years, and made me apologize to her.

It was then that I found out she had faked her death and used my university admission letter to finish her study. She had become a university lecturer after tricking me into taking care of her family.

Outraged, I had a cerebral hemorrhage.

When I woke up, I found I had gone back to the day my sister faked her death.

A pregnant Lillian Lovell was lying flat before me.

Mom and Dad knelt on the floor and bawled their eyes out.

The scene was familiar and made me realize that I had returned to the past. It was a timeline before my older sister stole my admission letter.

She had not yet been able to use my grades to start her studies at the university.

This was also before I had fallen into her trap, marrying her husband and looking after her son out of guilt. I was not yet her unpaid nanny, forced to work for her all my life!

Manic glee flooded through me, and I could not help but smile.

“You heartless wretch!”

Mom, with her tear-stained and swollen eyes, slapped me.

“How can you smile when Lillian’s dead? You insisted on taking the entrance exam to get into the university and forced her to work for your tuition fees even though she was pregnant! If not for that, she never would have died!”

Mom glared at me with hatred in her eyes.

“You owe your life to your sister. If you have a heart, you’ll take Lillian to the hospital immediately and try to save your nephew. He isn’t even born but has already lost his mother.”

When I heard the familiar words, I pushed down the urge to get rid of the ungrateful brat once and for all.

In my past life, I had been filled with regret and had taken Lillian to the hospital immediately.

My brother-in-law, a doctor himself, had pronounced that Lillian had died on the spot. Then, he had put my howling baby nephew in my arms.

I thought that was my last chance to make up for my sins.

I had poured my heart and soul into raising him and cared for him like my own son.

But what had come of that?

He had never seen me as his mother.

In front of others, he would mock me for being an uncultured country bumpkin.

When I prepared to go for a parent-teacher meeting at his school, he was worried that I would embarrass him, so he got some thugs to beat me half to death at the factory where I worked. It even cost me my job.

Without much academic qualification, I could only start a small stall-based business. Yet, he thought my doing so was shameful and trashed my stall.

I had wanted to give up on him so many times, but I was always reminded that it was because of me that he had lost his mother. Every single time, I swallowed my bitterness.

It was only at my death that I found out he knew his mother had been alive all this while. She was even a university lecturer.

It was Lillian who had taught him how to torment me endlessly.

She saw me as nothing more than an unpaid nanny for her family.

I glared at my sister’s face as she pretended to be dead.

Since I had gotten a chance to return to the past, I was determined to make them all pay!

“Alright,” I said and relented. I helped my parents lift my heavy sister onto a borrowed donkey cart.

My parents were afraid that Lillian would be cold, so they dressed her in new, thick clothes. They covered her with three layers of blankets.

In my past life, I had been filled with guilt and regret as we made our way to the hospital. I did not notice anything off despite how obvious they were.

I clutched the rope in my hand as I led the donkey in another direction.

By the time my parents realized it, the crematorium was already in sight.

“That isn’t the way to the hospital! Are you trying to kill your sister?”

They were frantic. In a frenzy, they tried to snatch the rope from my hand.

Dad kicked me in the back with such force like he wanted to kill me.

Mom came at me and slapped me repeatedly. When I did not let go, she bit my wrist.

I endured the pain and did not let go.

No matter how much pain I was in, it did not hurt as much as it did when Lillian took my place at the university.

She had stolen what was supposed to be my life.

While I took care of her family, she was overseas, sipping coffee, taking in the beautiful scenery, and enjoying the attention of everyone around her.

I was trying to make money at my small stall in the cold of the night, and she was at some high-class restaurant eating delicacies I had never dared to touch in my entire life.

I wanted to take all of those things back! They never belonged to her anyway.

I spat out blood and gritted my teeth as I led the cart to the crematorium.

“No! She’s insane!”

When my mother saw the sign for the crematorium, her face turned ashen.

“How can you come to a miserable place like this?”

She cursed. “Lluvia Lovell, tell me, are you hoping Lillian dies?”

“Mom, you seem to have forgotten something.”

I snickered. “Lillian is already dead. What am I doing wrong by bringing the corpse here? She should be sent to a crematorium.”

This time, I would not give Lillian the chance to get away by faking her own death.

Mom trembled from rage.

She grabbed a handful of my hair. I was disoriented from the pain. She slammed my head against a slab of wood.

“You’re acting up, huh?! How dare you disobey me?!” she yelled, “More of this nonsense, and I-I’ll kill you!”

Dad was not pleased with me, either. He had a ruthless expression on his face as he kicked me.

They beat me up so badly that I could barely breathe. I braced myself and fought back with everything I had, and we ended up brawling.

I knew that my parents never liked me very much. However, I decided to ignore it in the previous timeline since Lillian had died very young. I went along with everything they wanted.

Yet, they had known the truth all along.

When I asked them about it during my nephew’s celebration, they both looked at me like I was a clown. “So? What does it matter if Lillian took your admission letter? She’s more suited than you to go to university.”

“We gave birth to you so that you can take care of us in our old age. It’s not so that you can live the high life.”

“Don’t say that this is something Lillian owes you. You’re the one who tried to steal her husband. Lillian didn’t take offense at your shamelessness, so what do you have to feel wronged for?”

Every word was like a knife stabbing my heart.

Well, since they did not care for me as their child, I did not mind burning all the bridges.

“Who’s fighting over here? Let go!”

The manager of the crematorium ran over and pulled us apart.

I pointed at the motionless Lillian and said quickly, “My sister’s dead. My parents are old-fashioned and want her to be buried, so I rushed her over here.”

When they heard that I wanted to have Lillian cremated, my parents started sweating.

“Don’t spout nonsense! You can’t just go around cremating people!”

Our village encouraged the people to stop burying their dead and to switch to cremation instead. Many were against it, and it forced the village headman to put in extra work every day.

The crematorium manager thought that my parents disapproved of cremation.

“Well, since you’re already here, there’s no point going somewhere else,” he said. “Do you have a death certificate yet? If you do, I can arrange the cremation for you immediately.”

“I have it!”

Before my parents could react, I fished the death certificate out of my dad’s pocket.

They had planned their act meticulously and had even used their connections to produce a death certificate as proof to fool me. That was what made me believe it was all real before.

With this document as proof, Lillian was considered to be truly dead.

“This might seem unusual, but you’re here already. Let’s just cremate her right away.”

The cremation manager settled the paperwork quickly.

In an instant, my parents were flabbergasted.

“You horrible wretch!”

My mother took out the new sewing kit she had bought and grabbed a needle. She pointed it at my mouth like she wanted to sew it up. “Let’s see if you can still spout nonsense with your mouth sewn up!”

“Sir, you really can’t cremate her!”

Dad was so terrified that his legs went weak. “Lillian’s funeral isn’t even over. Let me take her home and have a wake. Then, we can talk.

“That way, we can have some closure. She doesn’t even have proper clothes for a cremation. She won’t go happily without them…”

The earnestness with which my dad said this touched the crematorium manager.

“Well, I guess we can stall a bit…” he mumbled.

Thinking that they had gotten their way, my parents sighed in relief. They must have been scheming about how to get back at me once we got home.

If I remained in their control after this, my life would be even worse than it had been in the previous timeline.

I forced myself to take a deep breath and tried to calm myself.

Then, I saw something from the corner of my eye at the edge of the yard.

Yes! This was happening!

The crematorium staff had already moved Lillian onto a cart.

They hesitated, like they were not sure if they should really send her corpse into the flames.

I rushed forward and pushed everyone aside. With all my strength, I shoved Lillian into the fire.

With a bang, I slammed the door to the incinerator.

When they saw what I had done, my parents went mad.

“You’re despicable, Lluvia! That was your sister!” Mom was so shell-shocked that she could not even move. “Pull her out! S-She’s pregnant!”

Clenching my teeth, I stood in front of the incinerator like a human shield.

I reached out and found the button.

“Once I press this button, the fire will start burning.” I chuckled. “Make your choice.”

My parents went ghostly pale.

If looks could kill, I would have died a thousand times over.

Maybe they were afraid that I would do something impulsive, so they chose a softer approach to talk to me.

“Just tell us what you want. What has Lillian ever done to you that you want to send her up in flames?”

“We’re a family! It’s embarrassing that you’re making such a scene.”

Only when I threatened to ruin their plans did they admit that I was their family too.

How funny life was!

“Sure. Give me my university admission letter back,” I said.

My parents were stunned. They exchanged a glance.

Mom took out a wrinkled piece of paper and said mockingly, “Your grades are worth nothing. What university would want you? Have a look at your report. Hurry and let your sister out!”

“That’s a fake one.”

I calmly reached for the button. “Give my university admission letter to me or I’ll press this button.”

“This is real! What makes you think that this is fake? Where am I supposed to find you a report that doesn’t exist?” Dad was so mad that he stomped his feet.

The noise attracted the attention of many of the villagers.

They all squeezed into the crematorium to watch the drama.

Some people were on my side.

“This must be a mistake. Lluvia has always had good grades. There’s no way she got such low grades!”

“Lillian’s dead. Why are they trying to drive Lluvia away, too?”

“Lluvia’s so smart. She can definitely get into a university!”

“What nonsense!” My mother was furious. “Lillian’s much smarter than her. Lluvia thinks she can outsmart everyone with just a little cleverness.”

“I think you’ve lost it from dreaming about going to a university. It’s all wishful thinking!”

In the previous timeline, I had doubted myself because of how sure my parents had sounded during this moment. I had believed it when they said my grades were bad.

With such horrible grades, I had become a joke despite being the top student at school. It was a whole year before I got the guts to leave the house again.

After that, whenever I saw the words “entrance exam,” I felt traumatized.

It was only at the moment before my death that I found out those grades had been Lillian’s, not mine. My parents could not bear for Lillian to be ridiculed, so they passed off her grades as mine.

“I only want my admission letter. Is that too much to ask?” I chuckled bitterly.

My parents fell silent. They glared at me as if they wanted me to drop dead right there.

My mind was made up. I placed my finger over the button.

Mom shrieked so loudly that it echoed throughout the place.

“Don’t press the button!”

She was so terrified that she started crying, but she still managed to shout, “It’s just a stupid admission letter. What’s so impressive about it? Do you have to incinerate your sister for it? Get your hands off that button!”

I shook my head and pushed the button slightly.

Mom and Dad finally took me seriously. Their faces turned white, and they stumbled to the floor.

“The admission letter is with your sister!”

Mom shrieked in a panic, “Are you happy now, you wretch?! Let Lillian go now!”

Reflexively, I turned to look at the incinerator.

The admission letter that I wanted was right in front of me.