Chapter 3

3: 3

The pity in the advisor's eyes flipped to fury in an instant. He flung the fake funeral money down in front of us.

"And here I felt sorry for you, thought you were honest, decent people. I even spoke up for you in front of the higher-ups, held off till today so you could still pay. And the whole lot of you gang up to make a fool of me. I guess con artists breed true."

Mom and Dad went blank too. Her voice was shaking.

"That's not right! We did exactly what our girl told us. I guarded that money the whole way, her father handled anyone who came near, I never said a word to a soul. That money we borrowed, how could it turn into dead-man's money?"

My head rang, and cold spread through me.

I remembered how careful I'd been last time, too, and someone had still switched it on me.

I'd listened to my future self, posted it online, and gotten called a thief who'd robbed her own family. Plenty of people said a poor mountain girl who'd never seen that much money before had obviously blown it herself, then pinned it on the train staff.

Public opinion poured fuel on the fire until I was the rat everyone wanted dead.

No one would lend us a cent after that, which was why Mom and Dad had turned to a loan shark, and that was what got them killed.

Remembering the village bully's smug, ugly face from that other life, I forced myself calm.

This time I was going to prove I was innocent.

I'd just picked up my phone to call the police when the familiar warning sounded again.

"The cops won't help. Mom and Dad can't explain a thing. Hurry, post it online and ask for witnesses! You didn't listen last time and it cost you dearly. Are you really going to walk right back into it?"

Mom and Dad clutched my hand, tears streaming down their faces.

"We honestly didn't see how the money got switched. Young people all love the internet these days. Why don't you ask online, see if anyone saw anything?"

I hesitated. Then I thought of that venomous curl at the corner of my future self's mouth right before I died, and I gritted my teeth and dialed.

The police came fast, and they came through.

Seeing Mom and Dad's plain clothes, the officer looked even more outraged.

"Someone had their eye on money like yours? Are those people even human? Don't worry, we'll get you justice as quick as we can!"

Seeing that I'd dared call the police to clear my own name, the advisor finally cooled off and gave me one more week to raise the tuition.

I breathed out. Mom and Dad and I squeezed under a bridge for three nights. On the fourth day, right in the middle of class, the officer came and cut in, cold this time.

The second I stepped out of the classroom, the advisor was waiting, face dark, in front of my trembling parents.

The officer pulled out the full surveillance from the train.

"To get your lost money back fast, our whole team worked overtime for three days straight, no sleep, going through every video. Turns out they were already carrying fake funeral money when they walked into the station! And here we thought you were honest people, wanted to lend a hand. This is how you repay us, trying to con even us!"

In the footage from the station plaza, Mom and Dad opened the handkerchief and checked it once before boarding.

The money inside really was a stack of gaudy fake funeral bills.

I froze——

That money came from relatives Mom and Dad had scraped it together from. How could it be funeral money?

And they'd always been so proud of me, the only college student the village had ever produced. There was no way they'd joke around with my tuition.

But there were no cameras back in the village, and no matter how we explained it, the officer wouldn't believe a word. In the end he chewed us out, face like stone, and said not pressing charges was already a courtesy.

And the school, seeing that even the police had been fooled, moved straight to expel me with a single notice.

Mom and Dad were nearly in tears, and they couldn't hold back the blame.

"We told you to go online and find someone to help, and you wouldn't listen. Now the officer's set the story in stone, and nobody'll lend us money at all! You get expelled before you even set foot in college. How are we supposed to hold our heads up back home?"

Bitterness filled me, but all I could do was plant myself outside the principal's office, hoping to trade on how hard I'd fought to get into college for one more chance, to earn the tuition working and pay it back later.

But just as I raised my hand to knock, my future self's cold laugh sounded in my ear again.

"You think the school still trusts you? Right now, no one but Mom and Dad will truly help you! Send them back to the village to figure something out. People there are simple and kind. Maybe they'll believe you one last time!"

I remembered how last time I'd listened to my future self, pushed the pressure onto Mom and Dad, and that was what caused the final tragedy.

This time, even if I never got to go to college, I would not get my parents killed.

I went straight down to the bridge to find them, wanting to go home together. Worst case, I'd re-study another year.

But the moment I got there, I saw them, faces tight with panic, dialing the village bully's number——