When the results were released, my stepbrother, Dylan Anderson, conspired with our class teacher and accused me of cheating.

When they presented the two examination papers with the exact steps written out, I was rendered speechless.

My biological parents forced me to admit that I cheated to protect Dylan’s reputation. Then, they forcefully sent me to a mental asylum.

To cover up the scandal, the Anderson family told everyone that I had gone insane. They left me to suffer alone.

I finally escaped, but died tragically in a car accident facilitated by Dylan.

When I died, I finally learned that the phrase “blood was thicker than water” held no truth. It was no match to Dylan’s lies.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the past. I was in the examination hall again.

I handed in four blank examination papers.

I wanted to see how they could accuse me of cheating if I scored zero on all papers.

Someone forcefully slapped my face.

Half of my face immediately went numb. I heard a ringing sound in my ears, and I could taste blood in my mouth.

I turned my head to the side and let my hair cover the cold glint of my eyes.

The person who slapped me was my biological mother, Lily Reid.

She pointed a finger at me while her well-maintained face twisted in anger.

“Brooklyn! You shameless idiot!

“How could the Anderson family have a disgraceful son like you? How dare you cheat in your high school final examination?

“Don’t you know that because of your greed and pride, the entire Anderson family has been humiliated!”

After the examination, the classroom was full of people.

Some classmates were watching, and the discipline teacher stood there with a dark expression.

Dylan Anderson, who looked disappointed and upset, stood aside as well.

He purposely lowered his head. He looked self-reproachful. Anyone who looked at him would think that he was a kind and forgiving younger brother.

“Mom… don’t hit him. It’s my fault…

“I should’ve handled this better. I shouldn’t have scored the highest in class every time and stress Brooklyn out.

“Brooklyn just really wants your recognition. That’s why he made the silly mistake of copying my answers…

“If… If Brooklyn’s results are voided, I’ll also give up on my direct enrollment. I’ll accompany Brooklyn to retake the year…”

It was an amazingly touching speech.

If I had not seen him toying with my car brakes in the past with my own eyes and heard how smugly he had laughed at my funeral with my own ears, I would have fallen for his act.

The past was also repeating itself in this room.

After the examinations ended, the class teacher, Nina Lee, had reported me for cheating. She had said my answers were identical to Dylan’s.

When I looked at the two identical exam papers, I was unable to defend myself.

In order to protect Dylan’s status as a top scholar and the Anderson family’s reputation, they sacrificed me without any hesitation.

They forced me to admit that I had cheated and dropped out of school.

In order to prevent me from telling the truth, they sent me to a mental asylum.

I was tortured for three whole years.

Under the cover of a stormy night, I finally escaped. But I died in a car accident carefully plotted by Dylan.

I finally understood when I died that the so-called biological son was just trash that they could dispose of at any time.

Dylan was their only cherished son that they had groomed for eighteen years.

When I opened my eyes again, I returned to the day after the high school examination ended.

In the face of Lily’s accusation, I slowly looked up and wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth.

My eyes were calm.

“Mom, you claim that I cheated. Where’s your evidence?”

Lily was momentarily stunned. She did not expect that I would talk back to her, when I was usually meek and docile.

Immediately after, she got even angrier.

“Evidence? Ms. Lee has already provided the evidence. How dare you talk back?”

Nina was your typical, snobbish teacher.

Ever since the Anderson family brought me back, she had always hated me.

Even though I was considerably wealthy, I had grown up in the countryside with average results. I was also shy and awkward.

Dylan had been receiving top education since childhood, and he was very talented.

He was popular in school, and he was her best example of winning prizes.

Nina sneered and slammed a stack of photocopied examination papers on the table.

“Have a look at it yourself, Brooklyn!

“These are the answers that Dylan had recalled. We managed to recover stacks of cheat sheets from your desk drawer!

“The ideas, procedures, and even essays are the same!

“The surveillance camera may not have captured you cheating, but do you dare to admit that you’ve never once looked at Dylan’s revision materials? Can you confidently say that you’ve never been tempted to do so?

“Most amusingly, you’ve always had a poor track record. You never passed your trial exams. How could you have scored perfectly in the actual exams?

“Do you think that the teachers grading your papers are stupid? Do you think that we are all dumb?”

Our classmates started murmuring as they stared at me in disdain.

“I’ve heard that Brooklyn’s jealous of Dylan, but I didn’t expect him to be this vicious.”

“A cheater! How embarrassing.”

“He’s a country-bumpkin and a thief.”

Upon seeing that, a hint of glee flashed in Dylan’s eyes. Then, he immediately put on a gracious facade.

“Brooklyn, if you really want to be the number one in school, I could give you my spot.

“But why did you have to resort to such methods…”

Lily felt sorry for Dylan.

She immediately grabbed Dylan’s arm as she turned around to glare at me viciously.

“Brooklyn! You’ve made Dylan sad! Look at how nonchalant you are being right now!

“What did I do wrong to give birth to a monster like you?

“You have to apologize to Dylan in front of the entire school today!

“You have to admit your mistake and write a report on that. Then, you have to drop out of school!

“Otherwise, I’ll treat it as though I have never given birth to you and exile you from the Anderson family!”

Exiled from the Anderson family?

In the past, this sentence would have had a chokehold on me.

To stay in this so-called family, to keep that tiny bit of connection with my family, I had fallen to my knees and admitted to a crime I had never committed.

In the end?

I was further humiliated, and I even died because of it.

When I looked at this familiar face that felt like a stranger to me, I suddenly laughed.

I was laughing mockingly.

“How dare you still laugh?”

A surly male voice could be heard as \the door of the office suddenly opened.

It was my father, Peter Anderson, the CEO of Anderson Corporation. He walked over with huge strides.

He did not even look at me. Instead, he walked toward Dylan and asked in concern, “Dylan, I hope this rascal didn’t cause you any damage.”

Dylan shook his head and said in a low voice, “Dad, I’m fine. Please don’t blame Brooklyn. He just made a silly mistake…”

Upon hearing that, Peter turned around and raised his hand to slap me.

I was not going to allow that to happen in this timeline.

I dodged and grabbed his wrist.

“Dad, before you hit me, it’s best you clearly understand the situation.”

Peter stared at me in disbelief. He was shocked by my defiance.

“You… You rebel!

“You’re a bad son! It’s one thing to embarrass us by cheating. How dare you treat your elder like that?

“Understand the situation? In truth, you’re shameless! You cheated by copying your younger brother’s examination papers and trying to steal his glory!

“I’ve been a good man all my life. Why have I earned a horrible son like you?

“Security! Escort him out to the field! I want him to admit his mistake in front of the whole school!”

The two security guards heard Peter and came over. They were prepared to capture me.

“Just a minute.”

I stepped back and leaned against the office desk. Then, I produced a blade.

The blade was glinting under the light.

“Whoever touches me, I’ll make sure they pay for it.”

“I have nothing to lose, anyway. All of you have forced me to a dead-end, and I won’t lose anything if any one of you gets hurt.”

I toyed with the blade absent-mindedly.

Then, I swept my gaze across the Andersons and Nina.

It was dead silent.

Everyone was terrified by my rage.

Lily screamed and shielded Dylan.

“What… What are you trying to do? Are you going to kill someone?”

Peter was shaking with anger.

“Crazy… You’ve really gone crazy! I’m going to send you to a mental asylum!”

“Mental asylum?” I sneered.

“That sounds like a great place. But before I go, let’s make this clear.”

I pointed at the stack of fake evidence on Nina’s desk with my blade.

“Ms. Lee, you claimed that I was copying Dylan’s answers. So the evidence must show that my answers are exactly the same as his, right?”

Nina gulped and pretended to put up a strong front.

“That’s right! Isn’t that enough?”

“In that case, humor me. The examination papers are still being kept at the education ministry. How would you know what my answers are?

“Do you have laser vision? Or…”

I paused and stared at them in fury.

“Did you conspire with Dylan to create the fake cheat sheets and frame me?”

Nina paled. Her eyes flickered.

“Nonsense! I found these in your desk drawer!”

“Desk?” I snorted.

“A day before the examination, the classroom was already cleared out. It had to be repurposed as an examination hall. No one was allowed to bring any papers in.

“Did the cheat sheets appear out of thin air?

“Besides, since you said I was copying Dylan’s answers, that would lean on the fact that… Dylan had to be writing all the right answers.”

Dylan’s heart skipped a beat. He looked uncomfortable.

He pretended to be calm as he asked with a dark expression.

“Brooklyn, what are you implying?

“Everyone knows how well I usually score. I also did well in this examination…”

“Is that so?”

I tossed the blade aside and took out my phone.

“Since you’re so certain that I cheated, then let’s request that our examination papers be marked first.

“I’m also very curious about the two identical papers. What would they look like?”

“Marked? Where do you have the right to make such demands?” Peter roared.

“We shouldn’t be embarrassing ourselves further! Don’t you feel this is humiliating enough?

“As long as you admit your mistake, drop out, and leave the country, I can still cover this up from the local news.

“But if you dare to blow this up, I’ll make sure your life is a living hell in this city!”

It was the same threat again.

They had blackmailed me in order to protect Dylan’s reputation.

Unfortunately for them, I was no longer an easy target to be bullied.

“Too late for that. I’ve already made a police report and informed the media.”

I shook my phone to show them the livestream that I had started.

“Everyone, did you manage to see that? This is the wealthiest family in this city, the Anderson family.

“The actual son has been framed and accused of cheating. His biological parents are forcing him into a dead-end without looking into the matter. This is going to be an interesting case, everyone, come watch it!”

More and more people started tuning into the livestream.

The comments started coming in.

[Oh my God! This is so dramatic!]

[These parents are so unfair! They’re not even looking into the papers?]

[I love this son of theirs! He’s so brave!]

[The adopted son looks like a poser. I bet he’s rotten.]

When he saw that, Peter almost fainted from anger. He rushed forward and wanted to snatch my phone.

“Turn this off! Turn this off!”

I evaded him and continued talking to the camera.

“Ms. Lee, since you’re so confident that I cheated, do you dare recount how I cheated in front of the entire internet?”

Nina had no choice but to act in front of a live audience.

Facing the camera, she forced herself to lie.

“If you were honest about this, you wouldn’t be afraid of this!

“Brooklyn has always scored badly, and Dylan’s a top student. Do we even need to look into this any further?

“Their papers were completely identical. Of course, the poorer student would always copy the better one!”

Dylan still kept up his generous act. He sighed at the camera.

“Don’t blame Brooklyn, everyone. He just made a mistake… I don’t blame him.”

At the same time, there was a commotion outside the office.

A few uniformed policemen and a few middle-aged men with emblems on their shirts walked in.

The leading middle-aged man, John Smith, looked serious and regal.

“I’m the examination inspection team leader of the education ministry.

“I’ve received a report that someone’s been suspected of cheating and setting up another student as the scapegoat.

“Who’s Brooklyn Anderson?”