The floodwaters were about to swallow our home, yet my wife—the captain of the rescue team—took every last member with her to save the man she had always loved.

That was when I realized she had been reborn too.

In our previous life, the moment she heard I was in danger, she had rushed to save me without hesitation. Because of that, she missed his call.

He fell into a depressive episode and took his own life.

But before he died, he posted online, accusing me of bullying him throughout our school years—and of stealing the woman he loved.

After his death, the internet turned on me. I became the target of relentless harassment.

My wife said she didn't blame me. She treated me as she always had.

Yet, on what would have been his birthday, she broke both my limbs—and my mother's as well. Then, in front of his grave, she shoved the two of us into a folded bathtub.

"If I'd known you bullied Nathan all those years, I would never have married you! You could swim, yet you deliberately called me to save you. It's all your fault—Nathan wouldn't have killed himself otherwise!"

I listened to my mother's agonized cries as despair swallowed me whole.

And then I died.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the flood.

This time, she could save her beloved. I won't stand in her way.

Our house was a two-story building out in the suburbs.

I had already made it to the second floor, but the rain poured down in relentless sheets. The water rose with terrifying speed, already surging past my waist.

My mother was shorter than me. The flood had reached her neck, and her eyes were filled with panic.

"It's going to be okay, Mom. We'll be rescued!" I soothed her, helping her climb onto the desk before pulling myself up beside her.

This time, I didn't call my wife, Tricia Williams, for help. Instead, I dialed Corey Spencer, the rescue team's deputy captain.

But it was Tricia who answered.

"That's enough, Michael! Every second counts when people are dying—can you stop making a scene? You can swim, and there's a kayak at home. If anyone's least likely to get hurt, it's you!"

She hung up after shouting in fury. She had completely forgotten that I had nearly drowned while trying to save the man she loved. Ever since, I had carried a deep-seated fear of water.

As for the kayak she gave me on my birthday… Nathan Lager had said he wanted one too, and she'd immediately moved it into her car. I never even got to touch the packaging.

But having lived through one lifetime already, I had given up trying to explain anything to Tricia.

I called Corey again.

This time, he answered in person—but his attitude was no better.

"Come on, Michael. You're a grown man. Do you really have to be this dramatic?

"No matter how much the captain loves you, she can't keep putting up with this.

"She's already taken the rest of the team to rescue Nathan. Stop calling. No one has time to entertain your nonsense. You're just wasting rescue resources!

"If you weren't the captain's husband, I'd curse you out even worse. People like you are the most annoying!"

After a string of insults, Corey blocked my number.

In truth, it didn't matter anymore.

Just moments later, all network communications collapsed. No calls could go through. No messages could be sent. Even standing on the desk with my mother offered little relief.

The water soon rose to my armpits. My chest tightened; each breath became harder to draw.

My mother was in even worse shape. If I hadn't been holding her, the water would have already swallowed her whole.

In about twenty minutes, the flood would claim us both.

"Michael, put me down. If you exhaust yourself, neither of us will survive." My mother's voice trembled.

"It's okay. We'll definitely be rescued before we drown."

I strained to lift my chin higher, desperate for clearer air, but my nose stung as tears threatened to fall.

In my previous life, the moment the flood reached the second floor, I had called Tricia for help.

She came to save me—and because of that, she missed Nathan's call.

He jumped into the floodwaters and ended his life.

Before dying, he posted a video accusing me of bullying him for over a decade, driving him into severe depression.

Now that I had even stolen the woman he loved, he said, he could no longer endure it.

Nathan had been a famous anti-depression influencer. Once the video surfaced, the internet turned on me with savage intensity, pushing me to the brink of mental collapse.

I insisted I had never done any of those things, but no one believed me.

Aside from my family, only Tricia stayed by my side. She said it wasn't my fault. She showed me a gentleness and care I had never known from her before.

For a time, I felt grateful. I believed I had chosen the right partner—that I was the happiest man in the world.

Yet, on the first birthday after Nathan's death, Tricia slipped sedatives into the food my mother and I were eating and took us to his grave.

She forced us to atone with our lives.

"You can swim, and there's a kayak at home. You were never going to drown, yet you still called me for help… In the past ten years, that was the one time I chose you—and it killed Nathan. You deserve to die!"

But I was her husband. Wasn't it only right for her to come save my mother and me?

Tricia yanked my hair, hurling the vilest insults at me. Her bloodshot eyes made her look possessed.

"If even a single hair fell from Nathan's head, I'd feel like I'd failed him. How dare you bully him like that right under my nose?

"Does it hurt, watching your mother die? When Nathan died, I felt even worse than you do now!

"Didn't you lie about almost drowning that day? Then taste it for yourself—see what it's like to drown and die!"

I wanted to say I had never bullied Nathan. I wanted to cry out for help. But not a single word would come.

As I listened to my mother's voice break into hoarse screams of agony, the water filled my eyes, my ears, my mouth—until it claimed every inch of me.

In the end, all I could do was weep, helpless and despairing, as death closed in.

I didn't want to endure that kind of agony again. That was why, in this lifetime, I turned to the other members of the rescue team for help instead.

I never expected Tricia to smear my name within the team, deceiving them all into refusing to come to my aid.

I watched the carefully prepared marital home—our dream home—sink beneath the floodwaters, and an aching bitterness spread through my chest.

Tricia had once told me her childhood home was a small two-story house with a courtyard. That, she said, was what truly felt like a home. So I gave up the idea of buying an apartment in the city and poured all my savings into building this house with her in her hometown village.

Back then, she had hugged me with tear-filled eyes, thanking me for giving her the home she had always dreamed of. She swore she would love me forever.

And I believed her…

How laughable.

As the water rose to my neck, I refused to sit there and wait for death.

I forced open the highest window. Amid the howling wind and torrential rain, I hoisted my mother onto the sill, then clambered up beside her, trembling.

Less than half a meter below our feet, the floodwaters surged in violent currents. Above us, the roof offered nothing to grip or brace against.

If we lost our balance and fell, death would be almost certain.

Fortunately, luck had not entirely abandoned us. Two rescue boats happened to pass nearby.

"Help!"

"Help!"

My mother and I waved frantically, shouting at the top of our lungs.

The boat in front heard us and turned in our direction.

A middle-aged couple sat aboard.

"There are two people on that window over there."

"Ma'am, young man—hang on! We're coming to get you!"

Hearing their reassuring voices, my eyes stung with sudden tears. I nodded again and again, overwhelmed with relief.

At least these strangers were willing to help.

But just as they steered the boat closer, the second rescue boat approached from behind.

On it sat Corey, along with several people he had already rescued.

The moment he saw someone trying to save me, his face twisted in disdain.

"You don't need to bother with him. He can swim, and he's got a kayak. No matter what happens, neither he nor his mother will be in danger."

He was Tricia's teammate—and her close friend. He had never once questioned her words.

Corey then turned on me, shouting, "No wonder Tricia always says Nathan is an heir from a wealthy family—yet kind and generous. And you? Just a bumpkin from some poor village, selfish to the core… She didn't wrong you at all! Michael, you're wasting rescue resources. Do you have any idea how many people might die because of you?"

With the window open, the wind drove rain straight into the house. The water level rose even faster than before.

The others aboard the boats grew increasingly anxious as Corey continued his tirade.

"Are you out of your damn mind? Who the hell dares swim in a flood like this? There's an elderly woman there too!"

"They're about to be swept away, and you're saying they shouldn't ask for help? Is it only not a waste of resources once they're dead?"

"Forget this idiot—just save them already!"

Both rescue boats surged toward me at once.

But it was already too late.

My mother had no strength left. The raging flood tore her from my grasp.

"Mom!"

My vision went red with panic. I let go immediately and plunged after her.

In that instant, my fear of water vanished.

Yet, as the flood tossed me up and down, no matter how desperately I struggled or cried for help, I couldn't save my mother—nor could I find anything to save myself.

The two rescue boats, once symbols of hope, soon disappeared from sight.

Terror gave way to dread, and dread to utter despair.

In the final moment before consciousness slipped away, I murmured in anguish, "I'm sorry, Mom… Even after being given another chance at life… I still couldn't protect you."

In my haze, I found myself dreaming of long ago.

After freshman military training, Tricia confessed her feelings to me.

I had never considered dating so early. But when the person standing before me was her, I simply couldn't refuse. So we became a couple.

Not long after, whispers began to reach my ears.

"Tricia's real feelings are for Nathan. She's just an orphan who was raised by the Lager family."

"Nathan doesn't look at her that way. He said he was afraid the woman he truly likes might misunderstand their relationship, so Tricia just picked a random boyfriend."

"Otherwise, how could someone like Michael—a country bumpkin—ever catch the eye of the campus beauty?"

I didn't believe Tricia was that kind of person. I confronted her and asked if the rumors were true.

She said they were false, and I believed her.

After we got together, Tricia treated me very well.

From freshman year of high school to junior year of college, our classmates went through several rounds of breakups and new relationships, yet we remained as inseparable as if we were forever in the honeymoon phase.

Even those who had once spread gossip about us changed their tune. They said they envied us, that perhaps Tricia truly did love me after all.

I believed that myself—until senior year, when Nathan returned from studying abroad.

"Nathan is sick."

"Nathan is feeling down."

"Nathan went out without an umbrella."

"Nathan…"

The perfect girlfriend who had once cared for me with such meticulous devotion began abandoning me again and again because of another man.

The name "Nathan" became a thorn lodged in my heart.

So when Nathan sent me a friend request, I accepted it.

Like a thief, I spied on Tricia's social media posts.

On my birthday, she had gone shoe shopping with him.

On our wedding anniversary, she had cooked for him at his home.

And so many other moments…

There were too many to count. Each discovery left my eyes stinging with unshed tears.

…

Pain coursed through my body. When I opened my eyes, I realized I was lying in a hospital ward.

Corey was keeping watch beside me. When he saw me awake, his expression flickered between excitement, embarrassment, and guilt.

"Michael, you're finally awake. I'm sorry. Tricia said you were just jealous and pretending to be miserable. I misunderstood you.

"When you and your mother were swept away, I was terrified. Luckily, you were rescued halfway by someone else. But your mother… I'm sorry. Please accept my condolences."

I didn't respond. The pain was unbearable.

Tilting my head back, I gasped for breath, yet it felt as though I had been dragged back to my previous life—to the moment Tricia broke my limbs and threw me into that bathtub… The agony was so intense I couldn't even scream.

Alarmed, Corey hurried to call for doctors and nurses.

A doctor entered with a stack of test results, his brow deeply furrowed. "The patient has suffered a severe infection from the floodwaters. He needs immediate surgery. Has the family not arrived yet?"

"They're on their way, they're on their way!"

Flustered, Corey quickly dialed Tricia. In his panic, he accidentally hit the speakerphone.

Tricia's furious voice blared from the phone. "Corey, what exactly did Michael give you? Even you're helping him lie now? I thought you were my best friend!"

"Think before you speak, damn it!" Corey snapped. "Do you have any idea how serious this flood disaster is? That two-story house of yours was bound to be submerged! Your mother-in-law is dead!"

On the other end, Nathan murmured that he was thirsty.

Tricia's voice softened with immediate concern. "Nathan is thirsty. I need to get him some water. Stop calling to bother me!"

I had always known how much she cared about Nathan. But even so, at this moment, my heart felt unbearably cold.

This was the woman I had loved with all my sincerity for more than a decade…

The machines suddenly shrieked with piercing alarms. In an instant, the doctors rushed forward.

"The patient's heart rate is plummeting—prepare emergency resuscitation immediately!"