The Tragic Heroine Reborn，Slaughtering My Killers Through Time

I have died four times. Every single time, I met my end on the exact same day—stripped naked and thrown onto the freezing street by Luke. I tried countless ways to survive, yet each life ended in a bloody, agonizing death. It wasn't until after I died that I discovered the truth: I was nothing more than a disposable tragic heroine in a melodramatic romance novel, created solely to suffer and highlight the epic love story between Luke and Chloe. All my misery was engineered just so Luke could have a dramatic change of heart at the very end, giving Chloe her perfect happily-ever-after. Why should they get their happy ending at my expense? Opening my eyes for the fourth time, the breathless, disgusting sounds of two people hooking up echoed clearly through the abandoned house. This time, I was done playing along with the plot. I was going to rewrite the ending with my own hands. Everyone who sucked my blood and chewed on my bones was going to burn in hell with me. Accompanied by the rhythmic, vulgar sounds of flesh slapping against flesh, I opened my eyes. Luke sat on the edge of my bed, holding Chloe in his arms. One of them was the rising star Marketing Director at the conglomerate, and the other was the favorite mistress of our billionaire CEO, Preston. Here they were, shamelessly carrying on an affair without a care in the world. When they finished, Chloe's sweet, sticky voice drifted over. "Luke, Leo looks more and more like Serena every day. What if he grows up, finds out she’s his real mother, and rejects me?" Luke kissed her, still catching his breath. "Don't worry, baby. Kill her, and no one will ever know." "No... we can't do that. She did save our lives back then, after all. Repaying kindness with murder might bring bad karma." "Fine. Then I'll strip her naked and toss her onto the street. I'll completely destroy her reputation. Even if Leo finds out the truth later, he'd never accept a shameless whore as his mother." "Well, she did sleep with Mr. Kane, so she really is a whore. We wouldn't even be lying about her." It was Chloe who had desperately wanted a baby. The moment she found out I had a high fertility rate, she had Luke drug my drink and throw me into Preston Kane's bed. Yet, hearing them twist the facts so effortlessly, not a single ripple disturbed my face. Because this was my fourth rebirth. In my first life, I was stripped bare and tossed onto the pavement. Beaten, humiliated, and assaulted by an ignorant mob, I ended it by biting off my own tongue. Only in death did I learn the script. I was the martyr heroine of a trashy novel. After I died, Chloe tried to poison Luke to bury the secret forever. That was when Luke finally realized I was the only person who had ever truly loved him. Consumed by regret, he exposed their affair to Preston. Preston, furious, stripped them of their wealth, kicked them out of the company, and cut off all their avenues of escape. Hunted and desperate, they died in a horrific car crash on the run, their bodies torn to pieces. Knowing that plot, I foolishly thought Luke still had a shred of love left for me. So, in my second life, when I heard their conversation, I dragged my broken legs toward them, crying and begging. I swore on my life that I would never tell Leo the truth. I promised I would pack my bags that very night, leave the city, and never return. Luke hesitated. He looked swayed. Then Chloe spoke up. "Serena, you really have a silver tongue. You almost convinced me. When Leo grows up, you could easily sweet-talk him into hating me. How would there be any room left in his heart for an adoptive mother like me?" She fake-sobbed a few tears, and Luke instantly hardened his heart. He sliced out my tongue with his own hands, stripped off my clothes, and dumped me on the street in the dead of night. My fate repeated itself. In my third life, I pretended not to hear them. I let them strip me and drag me onto the pavement. Once a crowd gathered, I used all the air in my lungs to scream the truth, exposing Luke and Chloe's filthy affair to the world. Luke immediately painted me as an escaped lunatic. A security guard he brought along plunged a knife straight through my heart right there on the sidewalk. In my fourth life, I let the passersby beat and kick me. I didn't struggle. I held my breath, barely clinging to life, trying to play dead so I could crawl away in the dark. Instead, Luke sold my "corpse" to a sadistic creep with a sickening fetish. I was tortured to death in a basement. I didn't understand. Why? Years ago, Luke and Chloe were starving runaways, collapsing on my family's doorstep. I saved their lives. My parents raised them like their own children, paying for Luke's education and buying Chloe brand-new clothes. I had never done a single thing wrong to either of them. Why did they ensure I died a gruesome death every single time? Just because the script labeled me a tragic victim? Screw that.I glanced down at my shriveled, crippled legs and let out a soft, chilling laugh. Chloe jumped, startled by the sound. "She heard us! Why is she laughing?! She's planning to take revenge through Leo once he grows up!" Luke pulled her into a comforting hug, then yanked me up by my hair from the mattress and slapped me hard across the face. "Shut up! You're scaring Chloe!" Cupping my stinging cheek, I started laughing again. "Serena, you pathetic bitch, you're still laughing?!" Luke kicked me violently in the ribs. Yes. That was the ungrateful, venomous Luke I knew. I swallowed the metallic taste of blood pooling in my mouth and pulled out an old fountain pen. "Luke... do you remember this pen?" It was the first gift he had ever given me after my family took him in. He had handed out flyers on street corners, saving a dollar at a time for six months just to buy it for me. I still remembered the boy blushing crimson, thrusting it toward me. "Here... this is for you." Luke's gaze glazed over with a flicker of nostalgia. I looked up at him with utter devotion. "Luke, I love you. I'd do anything for you, even if you want to ruin my name." Luke knew how madly I had once loved him. He didn't doubt my words for a second. A sudden flicker of guilt hit him at the thought of what he was about to do to me. He leaned down and lifted me into his arms. As he went to lay me gently on the bed, I suddenly pulled him down and pressed my lips against his. The sneer on Chloe's face instantly twisted into pure rage. "You slut! What the hell are you doing?!" Blinded by fury, she didn't notice the sudden, agonizing contortion on Luke's face, nor the choked scream muffled against my lips. She didn't see the fountain pen in my hand driving straight into Luke's ear canal, twisting savagely deep into his brain. Within seconds, his body went completely limp. Chloe lunged forward and shoved Luke off me, throwing a vicious slap at my face. "Bitch! How dare you seduce him right in front of me! You shameless whore!" Using the momentum of her push, I yanked the pen out of Luke's ear, grabbed her wrist, and tackled her straight to the floor. I raised my arm and plunged the sharp steel nib directly into her right eyeball. "Aaaagh—!!!" The sheer agony triggered an animalistic adrenaline surge. Screaming like a banshee, she shoved me off and clutched her bleeding eye socket. The pen was slick with blood, slipping right out of my fingers. I tossed it aside and lunged at her again like a rabid animal, sinking my teeth violently into her throat. Hot, coppery blood gushed into my mouth, flooding my throat. My entire body shook violently. Not from terror. From pure, unadulterated ecstasy. I didn't let go until Chloe's body completely stopped twitching and grew cold. Sitting in a massive pool of dark blood with two dead bodies beside me, I threw my head back and laughed until tears streamed down my face. This time, I wasn't the one dying in agony. When I opened my eyes again, Luke was alive. This was my fifth rebirth. And for the very first time, the timeline had shifted. I stared down at my huge, swollen belly, a wave of unspeakable shock and triumph crashing over me. I had traveled back three whole years. Today was the exact day a drunk Luke beat me so badly that I went into premature labor. "Smack—!" A stinging palm cracked across my face. Luke pointed an accusatory finger at my nose, his breath reeking of cheap alcohol as he screamed, "Slut! You went behind my back and fucked another man! I used you until you were broken, and you still went looking for someone else? You whored around and gave me a bastard! I’m going to beat you to death!" I shielded my belly with my arms, dodging clumsily. This was my second time living through this nightmare. In my first life, I had no idea about the truth. I genuinely believed the child in my belly was the product of an assault that happened while I was unconscious. I tried to terminate the pregnancy multiple times, but Luke stopped me every single time. When he saw how determined I was to get an abortion, he pointed at my nose and called me a cold-blooded monster for trying to murder an innocent baby. For seven long months, he used alcohol as an excuse to batter and verbally abuse me every day, only to sober up the next morning and grovel on his knees. "Serena, I only did it because I love you too much. I just couldn't handle the thought of another man touching you. I'm sorry, please forgive me, okay?" Drowning in misplaced guilt, I had endured every hit in silence. Yet my endless compliance only invited more brutal violence. It was Luke and Chloe who had conspired to drug me and throw me into Preston Kane's bed. Instead of feeling an ounce of remorse, they used the label of a cheat to grind my dignity into dust. "Crash—!" Luke grabbed a heavy ceramic vase from the table and hurled it straight at my head.In my first life, that very vase had cracked my skull and triggered my labor. This time, I was ready. I ducked swiftly, letting it shatter against the wall behind me. "You bitch, you dare dodge me?! I'm gonna kill you and the little bastard in your gut!" Luke yelled, stumbling drunkenly as he lunged toward me. Instead of retreating, I surged forward. Grabbing a jagged shard of ceramic off the floor, I drove it straight into the side of his neck. Luke grunted in agony and slammed a heavy palm into my chest. As I was thrown back, the sharp edge in my hand dragged across his throat, slicing his windpipe clean open. He clamped both hands over his neck, crimson spurting wildly through his trembling fingers. The sudden, agonizing pain instantly shattered his drunken haze as he stared at me in horrified disbelief. "Y-You... why...?" I hit the floor, coughing up a mouthful of blood, but my face broke into a broad, savage grin. "Because you deserve to die, you bastard." Only your death can change this script! ... I closed my eyes, expecting the clock to roll back even further. Yet when I woke up, all I received was another heavy slap from a reeking, drunken Luke. "Slut! You went behind my back and fucked another man! I..." Panic gripped my chest like a vise. Why hadn't the timeline reset further back? I curled on the floor, letting his blows rain down on my shoulders, using the sharp physical pain to force my racing mind into absolute focus. Of course. This time, I only killed Luke. I didn't kill Chloe. To test my theory, I clutched my stomach and began screaming in agonizing pain. "Help! Someone help me! The baby's coming!" Luke's drunkenness was always half an act anyway. Seeing me writhing and howling on the floor, he sobered up instantly. He scooped me up and rushed me straight to the private clinic he had arranged beforehand. "Hurry, get the doctor!" Luke was pushed out into the waiting hallway. Inside the delivery room, I slipped a heavy jade bangle off my wrist and pressed it into the attending nurse's palm. "Tell him I'm hemorrhaging. Tell him the mother isn't going to make it." The nurse blinked, startled and confused. Right now, Luke was still working hard to maintain his public image as a devoted husband so no one would suspect his relationship with Chloe. The nurse pocketed the jade and agreed to play along. I let out raspy, agonizing groans on cue. By nightfall, the nurse opened the doors and ushered Luke inside. "Mr. Vance, your wife is fading fast. You need to say your final goodbyes." Luke rushed to the bedside. My face was chalk-white, my breathing shallow and ragged. I grabbed his hand and signaled the medical staff to leave us alone. "Luke... the baby inside me... it belongs to Preston Kane." Ignoring the flash of panic and shock in his eyes, I forced a weak whisper: "I'm dying... I can't let this child ruin your career. But he might be Mr. Kane's only son. Call Chloe here... she needs a child to secure her place as his mistress!" Shock hit him first, followed by overwhelming emotion. He never doubted for a second that I was handing over my child on my deathbed out of pure devotion. He immediately called his driver to pick up Chloe. "Luke... I'm so cold. Hold me, please." Drowning in unearned guilt, Luke bent down and wrapped his arms around me. I circled my arms around his neck. "Luke, do you know what my biggest regret in this entire life is?" "It's my fault, Serena. If I hadn't taken you to that company party, you wouldn't have been targeted by Mr. Kane..." I pressed my hand over his mouth and jammed the hidden fountain pen deep into his ear canal once again, violently twisting it. "My biggest regret was ever saving you two pathetic parasites." When Chloe rushed into the room, Luke's corpse was already hidden under my bed. The room smelled heavily of iron and blood, which she found completely normal for a difficult labor. Her eyes gleamed with raw greed as she stared at my swollen belly, like she was looking at a winning lottery ticket. "Serena, I can't push him out," I gasped weakly. "Take the surgical scissors and cut him out of me... please." "Okay." Chloe grabbed a heavy pair of scissors from the tray and stepped closer. The second she leaned over to locate where to make the incision, I pulled a second pair of scissors from beneath my pillow and drove the blades deep into her throat. She clutched her neck, her eyes bulging with terror. "Y-You..." I pushed myself up, pinned her beneath my weight, and drove the steel blades into her face, her throat, her chest, and her arms—over and over and over again. In her final agonizing second of consciousness, Chloe's head lolled sideways. Her dying gaze locked straight onto Luke's unblinking, dead eyes staring out from underneath the bed. Dropping the bloody scissors, I closed my eyes and waited.When I opened my eyes again, I was lying inside an old, abandoned staff dormitory belonging to the Kane Group, my body covered in raw, sticky bruises from forced intimacy. "Hahahahaha..." I didn't panic at all. I laughed until my stomach ached. Everything was happening exactly as I guessed. As long as I killed both Luke and Chloe, the timeline would jump backward. This time, I woke up on the exact day I was drugged and forced onto Preston Kane's bed. In my first life, I passed out cold after drinking the wine Chloe handed me. Luke had carried me here to this abandoned dorm. Chloe lured Preston Kane in, lit an aphrodisiac incense stick, and tossed me into his bed. After Preston left, they left me lying in the dirt, then faked a frantic search and kicked open the door with witnesses. Seeing the marks all over my body, the two of them played good cop, bad cop, cementing the label of "cheater" firmly onto my head. No matter how I cried, begged, and tried to explain, the insults—"whore," "bitch," "slut"—stuck to me like glue. Worst of all, because I had no memory of what happened while I was unconscious, I actually believed them. I even ended up thanking Chloe for helping me keep it a secret, and feeling endlessly grateful to Luke for staying with a "ruined" woman like me. Remembering the suffocating shame and agony of that past life made pure hatred boil in my veins. This time, neither of those scumbags was getting a single chance to spit insults at me. I scanned the small dusty room, then walked out to the dirt yard and found a jagged rock the size of a human skull. Hearing the approaching footsteps of Luke and Chloe, I carried the rock back inside and positioned myself directly behind the wooden door. They pushed the door open, eager to put on their show. "Serena, how could you do something so disgusting..." "Serena, you filthy bitch—" "Crack—!" "Smack—!" Without a second's hesitation, I slammed the heavy rock directly into the back of their skulls, one after the other. Chloe collapsed instantly, out cold. Luke, however, was still conscious. Clutching the gaping, bleeding hole at the back of his head, his vision blurred with agony. He spun around, catching sight of me holding the bloody stone, and gasped in disbelief: "Serena?! You're trying to kill me?! Why?!" "How do you have the audacity to ask me why?" I dropped the heavy rock, pulled the fountain pen from my pocket, and lunged. I aimed straight for his jugular, but he scrambled frantically out of the way, taking the strike directly in his shoulder instead. Luke let out an agonizing howl and stumbled backward through the doorway into the yard. "Serena, you're the one who cheated on me! And now you're trying to murder me to cover it up?!" I chased after him, slashing the pen across his forearm, slicing open a long, red trench. "I cheated on you?! What did I ever do to wrong you?! I saved both your miserable lives! My parents raised you with their own hard-earned money! You drugged me to force me into marrying you! And you threw me onto Preston Kane's bed! Who wronged who, Luke?!" With every furious accusation, the sharp metal left another bloody gouge across his skin. The stench of blood grew thick and heavy in the abandoned courtyard.