The lab was cold, sterile, a place where lives were unmade. Director Mu's final gift sat heavy in my palm—a silver vial containing my original DNA, and something far more dangerous. The scientist in the stained white coat spoke without looking up from his screens.
"One reset. You can go back to the moment of your first death. No second chances."
Anya's fingers dug into my arm hard enough to bruise. Her voice was low, barely above a whisper. "If you do this, I won't remember you. None of this will have happened for me."
I turned the vial over in my hands. The liquid inside shimmered under the lab lights, holding the power to rewrite time.
"I have to."
I activated the device.
The world dissolved into white noise.
---
I woke up choking.
Fireworks burst outside the Grand Hyatt's ballroom windows, painting the crowd in flashes of red and gold. The champagne flute in my hand was half-full, the same one that had killed me. My stepmother Liang stood nearby, her smile sharp enough to cut glass.
June 30th. 9:47 PM. Three minutes until my death.
This time, I didn't drink.
I let the glass slip from my fingers, shattering on the marble floor. Liang's eyes flickered with annoyance, but I was already moving, already working.
First, I stole her phone while pretending to help her up. Seventeen unread messages to a contact labeled *The Accountant*.
Second, I pulled up my trading app and shorted Shengyuan Pharma's stock—twenty-four hours earlier than I had the first time. The numbers climbed rapidly. Profit: ninety-two million yuan.
Third, I found Anya.
She stood near the balcony, a stranger again, watching the crowd with detached amusement. I stepped into her space, close enough to see the faint scar along her jawline—the one she'd gotten in a fight years before we met.
"You dropped this," I said, pressing the diamond-encrusted knife into her palm.
Her fingers closed around the hilt instinctively, but her eyes narrowed. "I don't know you."
"You will."
Then the clock struck ten, and the world kept turning.
**[System Alert: Timeline corrupted. Anya retains 11% memory fragments. The Accountant is watching.]**
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