When the Earth slipped into a relentless, record-breaking heat, I exhausted everything I had to develop a constant-temperature shelter. Yet, my fiancée, Janine O’Connor, insisted on wearing a bikini and going out to sunbathe with her personal secretary.

In my previous life, I stopped her. I warned her that an apocalyptic heatwave was coming, and that countless people would be burned to death simply by being exposed to the heat. However, her personal secretary looked as though he had suffered a great injustice.

“I’m sorry, Will,” he said. “But I can’t bear to see Miss Janine stuck in a shelter for the rest of her life. I’ve done my research. This is a period of natural selection for the Earth. Only by adapting quickly to the environment can people truly survive.”

Even so, I threatened my own life and forcibly brought Janine back into the shelter.

Relying on the shelter I built, Janine survived the apocalypse and rapidly built a survivor base. However, on the second day after she became the base’s leader, she had me hanged outside the shelter and burned alive.

“If you hadn’t forced me to come back, Mark wouldn’t have been devastated and killed himself in the heat! He was about to develop a new type of shelter, yet you stole all the credit! I’ll make you pay with your life!”

Even after my death, her hatred didn’t fade. She ordered someone to skin me and turn my hide into a rug, stepping on it every day.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day I tried to stop her from sunbathing with Mark Davis.

Smack!

“Apologize to Mark. Don’t make me say it again!”

I opened my eyes. My swollen face burned with pain, but it also made one thing painfully clear: I had been reborn and sent back in time.

The moment I looked up, I met Janine O’Connor’s cold, vicious gaze. It was exactly the same look she had in my previous life when she ordered my skin peeled off. A chill ran through me. Cold sweat broke out as my fingernails dug deeply into my palm, yet memories surfaced uncontrollably.

After my death, my soul had drifted free. I had watched with my own eyes as she and the dead Mark Davis held a wedding, crediting all of my research and survival achievements to him. She even erected a monument in his name, and beneath that monument, she placed my skin as a mat, letting everyone who knelt to worship him grind me into filth beneath their feet.

When I didn’t respond, Janine frowned, her expression turning even sharper.

“Know your place. You’re nothing more than a freeloader to the O’Connor family. You don’t have the right to yell at my personal secretary. Mark letting me sunbathe is for my own good. Don’t twist it into something disgusting!”

Mark shot me a provocative look before he turned to Janine immediately, his eyes red.

“Miss Janine, please don’t fight with Will because of me. As long as you’re well, I can take a little injustice. I just can’t bear to see you locked inside a shelter by him. How is that any different from imprisonment?”

Janine threw herself into his arms and glared at me fiercely.

“Don’t be afraid. Today, no one is stopping me from going out to sunbathe with you! It’s just a lousy shelter anyway. Everyone in the O’Connor family knows he extorted the engagement and demanded hundreds of millions in construction fees! Your survival-of-the-fittest theory has saved the family so much money. Everyone will surely support you. When the time comes, I’ll have Grandpa kick him out of the family!”

I watched her turn to leave, only to find that the shelter door wouldn’t open. Instead, the alarm system was triggered.

“Warning! The outdoor temperature has reached fifty degrees Celsius! Temperature warning! Temperature warning…”

The piercing alarm blared as the main door automatically locked shut.

Mark pointed at the temperature display in shock. “How could it be fifty degrees outside? I don’t find it hot at all. Will, is there something wrong with your shelter?”

Janine’s expression turned cold, as if everything had been confirmed. She looked back at me with icy eyes.

“I knew you wouldn’t let me out so easily. Even if it really is fifty degrees, that just proves Mark’s survival plan works! After days of sun exposure, my body has adapted to the environment! If it weren’t for Mark, I’d still be kept in the dark by you, locked up here so you could use me to control the family!”

Hearing that, I closed my eyes and laughed bitterly at myself.

As it turned out, in her eyes, the shelter I had bankrupted myself to build for her was proof that I was trying to climb the social ladder and latch onto the O’Connor family’s power. As for the way I had humbled myself, pleading with her to stay inside and escape the heat? She saw that as humiliation and imprisonment.

Little did she know that she couldn’t even feel how hot it was outside because repeated heatstroke had already damaged her ability to sense temperature, and this was only the beginning of an apocalyptic heatwave.

Before I could say a word, Mark suddenly turned pale. He clutched his chest and collapsed into Janine’s arms.

Janine screamed and caught him, then shot me a furious glare.

“Mark has claustrophobia! Are you trying to kill him by locking him in here? If anything happens to him, I will never forgive you!”

Before I could stop her, she called the bodyguards. Within minutes, they forced the shelter door open.

Mark pretended to gasp for air twice before looking weakly at Janine.

“Janine, Will knows I have claustrophobia, so why did he design a shelter without a single window? He took so much money from the O’Connor family. Is this how he does things?”

Janine’s eyes darkened as they met mine. Then, she gave the order. “Smash this place.”

My body stiffened, but this time, I didn’t stop them. I watched with my own eyes as she destroyed the only true refuge that would have survived the coming apocalyptic heatwave.

Janine brushed the dust off her clothes, her face expressionless.

“Let’s see how you’re going to stop me from going out with Mark now.”

Instead of arguing, I calmly replied, “I won’t stop you anymore. Sunbathing is great. You two should do it more often.”

A flash of surprise crossed her eyes. When she realized I truly had no intention of holding her back, she stomped her foot in anger and stormed off with Mark.

The moment she left, I took out my phone and dialed a number I knew by heart.

“I have a construction plan designed to combat a heatwave. Are you interested?”

With the shelter destroyed, I had no choice but to temporarily move into the basement of the O’Connor family’s old estate to avoid the rising temperatures. I had just set down my luggage when Mark suddenly appeared. He grabbed my hand tightly, his voice trembling.

“Will, I shouldn’t have taken Janine out to sunbathe. Please don’t say anything to Mr. O’Connor. I’m willing to share all my research about the apocalyptic heatwave. I just ask that you treat Janine well.”

His grip tightened. Suddenly, his nails dug into my arm, carving out a bloody scratch. I hissed in pain and shoved him away instinctively.

The next second, a high heel slammed viciously into my lower abdomen. Pain exploded through me. I doubled over, barely able to breathe, as Janine’s furious voice rang in my ears.

“Have you had enough? It was just your stupid shack, and you had to instigate Grandpa to steal the survival plan Mark worked so hard on? This isn’t the first time you’ve gone against him! You’d better explain yourself to me!”

I forced myself to stand, biting down on the pain.

“What’s there to explain?”

This wasn’t the first time Mark had slandered me. However, when had she ever truly listened to my explanation?

“You–”

She clearly hadn’t expected me to talk back. Her face turned livid, and she raised her hand.

“Enough!”

Mr. O'Connor strode into the room, fury written all over his face. He pointed at Janine in disappointment.

“Will has devoted himself to researching survival methods for our family in this apocalypse. How could you hit him?”

Janine let out a cold snort. “He’s greedy and insatiable. A slap is merciful. Grandpa, you messed up! You handed Mark’s plan over to Will to implement. That’s not fair to him!”

Mr. O'Connor’s expression hardened. “What do you know? Will has been researching the heatwave for years. Only by having him verify the plan can I feel at ease. This is an apocalyptic heatwave. Central City is already building a base, and our family must secure a viable survival plan. The position of base leader cannot fall into someone else’s hands.”

He sighed and then looked directly at Janine. “And don’t forget, you were the one who knelt in front of me back then, begging me to agree to your marriage to Will. And now you hit and curse him? What kind of behavior is that?”

Janine’s brow twitched, and when she spoke, her voice came out through clenched teeth.

“That was because I had no idea that he was greedy for money. Grandpa, stop trying to persuade me. No matter what, I won’t let you hand Mark’s plan over to him. He’s not worthy!”

Mr. O'Connor’s face turned red with anger. He was clearly furious.

In the end, he could only turn to me helplessly. “Will, what do you think? Is his plan actually useful? He says we should adapt to the environment by sunbathing and converting a refrigerated warehouse into living quarters. If it works…”

He hesitated, then added, “After all, the shelter you built relies on solar-powered systems. If we produce them on a large scale, it would cost…”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Mr. O'Connor. I–”

Before I could finish, Janine cut me off sharply. “His broken little house is nothing but a money-making scheme. How can it even compare to Mark’s refrigerated warehouse? If you can’t decide, Grandpa, then let them sign a bet-on agreement! Once both structures are completed, we’ll conduct a livability evaluation.”

Mr. O'Connor’s eyes lit up at that suggestion. He looked at me expectantly. He had always treated me well. In my previous life, even until the day he died, Janine never dared tell him that she had tortured me to death.

I looked at her coldly. “What do you want to bet on?”

Janine grabbed Mark’s hand and smiled smugly. “If you lose, you’ll break off our engagement and get out of the family! And that’s not all. You’ll kneel and apologize to Mark. From then on, you’ll never dare compete with him again!”

I didn’t hesitate to agree.

In my previous life, she never stopped praising Mark’s refrigerated warehouse. Even after I died, she dragged my corpse into his unfinished warehouse and whipped it for three whole days. However, what she didn’t know was that when the heatwave arrived, the city’s power grid would collapse almost immediately; when that happened, without electricity, the refrigerated warehouse would become even hotter than the outside.

With her grandfather’s support, Janine grew openly intimate with Mark. By the construction site, she wore a cropped tank top and a short skirt, lounging on a recliner.

“Janine, I specially made this sunscreen for you,” Mark said gently. “You won’t have to worry about getting tanned at all.”

Janine smiled sweetly, allowing him to rub the sunscreen all over her body.

“Mark, you’re so thoughtful. I’ve felt more heat-resistant lately. It must be thanks to you. With you here, I’ll definitely become the leader of the new base!”

As she spoke, her gaze drifted toward me. I acted as if I didn’t notice and kept my head down, focusing on building my shelter.

Sensing her distraction, Mark picked up the sunscreen and walked over to me, wearing a fake smile.

“Will, it’s burning out here, and you’re wearing a jacket. Take it off and put on some sunscreen. It’ll help with the heat.”

I ignored him, but then I caught a familiar scent coming from the sunscreen.

My head snapped up. I grabbed his collar and roared, “What did you put in it?”

Mark snickered as he leaned close to my ear and whispered, “It’s the leaves that grew from the tree planted over your mother’s ashes at the O’Connor family cemetery. I uprooted the entire tree just to boil down this small jar. Go on. See if it smells like your mother.”

A flash of hatred crossed his eyes.

“If your mom hadn’t told Janine that you had a talent for construction, do you think she would’ve ever noticed you? Otherwise, I would’ve seduced her long ago! The O’Connor family’s son-in-law and their fortune can only be mine!”

Rage exploded inside me. I swung my fist and smashed it into his face. Blow after blow, I beat him until his nose was bleeding and his face was bruised and swollen.

Janine rushed over. The moment she saw Mark’s condition, she flew into a fury. The next second, the small bowl of sunscreen shattered against my forehead.

“You’re insane!” she screamed. “Mark kindly offered you sunscreen, and you hit him? I shouldn’t have let him help you at all. I should just let you burn to death in the sun!”