After being laid off, I took a blogger's recommendation and found a cheap moving company.

The five hours in the new rental house became my eternal nightmare. As they left, they threatened me.

If I dared to speak out, they would post the video online.

As soon as they left, I took out my phone and called the police.

Footsteps sounded again at the door. The returning thug said, "Disobedient," and slit my throat.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the moving day.

Large and small boxes filled the rental house. This was my fifth year in Manvelle, my sixth move.

From the suburbs to downtown to a luxury apartment, I thought I was steadily rising. But it was all an illusion. The only thing connecting me to the upper class was my job.

After being laid off and my lease expiring, I had to move out.

Ring, ring. I answered the phone.

Roy's voice came from the other end. "Ms. Watsons, we've entered the neighborhood."

A chill ran down as the pain of those five hours was still vivid.

Given another chance, I had to find a way to save myself.

The luxury apartment required a password to enter, but I had already given it to them.

I dialed the emergency number. "Hello? I need to report a crime!"

A familiar deep voice came from the other end. It wasn't the police, it was Roy!

"Ms. Watsons, you seem very scared?"

My heart almost jumped out of my chest. How could this be?

I quickly hung up and desperately called my parents and boyfriend. But it was always Roy's voice on the other end.

Suddenly, I got a call from my boyfriend. I finally saw a glimmer of hope.

My boyfriend, Jack Collins, was a local and worked in public service. Although we had argued recently, he would surely find a way to save me in this situation!

I hurriedly answered. Before I could speak, Jack said he had work today and couldn't help me move. He told me to cooperate with the movers.

The door opened. A group of men in moving uniforms stood there.

The first time I saw them, I wondered why they were all men.

I remembered Jack always saying I was paranoid and lacked basic trust in people. I rationalized that most manual labor jobs were done by men, so I shouldn't be too sensitive.

Now I realized it wasn't sensitivity. It was my sense trying to save me.

"Ms. Watsons, just sit aside."

I looked at the seemingly amiable man leading the group. Everyone called him Roy. He looked gentle and generous, but I knew he was a complete devil. He was the one who killed me in the end.

"I... don't need to move for now. I found a new job. I don't need to move out."

But they ignored me. They only covered my mouth when I tried to shout.

The apartment had no cameras to protect tenant privacy. Although there were security guards 24/7, I had already reported my move to them, so these people wouldn't raise any suspicion.

Another layer of security was the daily changing electronic password, but I had given it to them that morning.

They taped my mouth shut. They put me in one of my own boxes and moved me to the new rental house.

When they tore off the tape, my cheeks burned. I realized I had never told Jack I was moving!

Looking at the familiar surroundings, I realized I died here last time. The new rental had a bad location but good soundproofing. I had confirmed it wasn't a partitioned room before renting.

Good soundproofing meant no one knew what was happening inside.

Seeing the leering men in front of me, I felt hopeless.

Given another chance, was it still the same ending?

The camera was turned on, flashing non-stop. I screamed in fear.

I really didn't want to experience the inhumane torture again.

I trembled. "Please let me go. I'll give you anything you want."

Roy laughed mockingly. "What do you have? You're not a local. Even if we sold all your family's organs, how much money could we get?

"Tsk, scared like this already? How will we have fun later?"

These people didn't care about my life at all. Their every action and tool were filled with malice and humiliation. They focused on the performative aspect and constantly had new ideas to inflict on me.

Roy just said it was about money and that camera.

"Who wants to watch me being tortured to death?"

...

"If you dare call the police, wait to see your video online."

When I heard Roy say this before, I instinctively thought they recorded the video to threaten me. However, it seemed more complicated.

This time, I obediently did not choose to call the police.

I had to keep myself alive. I still had family. The world was beautiful. I wanted to live.

I stared blankly at the ceiling. Even with my broken body, I still wanted to live.

Mom and Dad had only me. They worked hard farming and selling vegetables to support me through college. I...

Footsteps sounded again at the door. I looked over, trembling.

Roy held a sickle in his hand. He was unmoved by the tears on my face.

He grabbed my hair and slit my throat.

Blood gushed out. Pain spread from every part of my body.

As life faded away, I wondered, "This time, I clearly didn't intend to call the police, so why wouldn't they let me go?"

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying in bed beside Jack. He was looking at his phone.

My whole body ached. I realized I had returned to the night I quarreled with Jack.

Jack said impatiently, "Why do you ask so many questions? Don't you think these girls enjoyed it?"

I remembered that after that day. I saw him browsing a porn site with various videos of girls, some filmed secretly.

As a girl, I felt uncomfortable watching it. I asked, "Are these people all willing participants?"

Gentle Jack then answered me.

I pointed to a video of one girl with multiple men. The girl looked in pain. I asked him, "Look at her expression. Is she willing?"

Jack sneered. "They got paid, right?"

When I heard Jack's answer, I quarreled with him. I felt he was disrespectful. I couldn't understand why he, usually gentle and polite, acted so horribly about this.

He slammed the door and left.

Thinking of the camera set up before my death, I didn't argue with him this time. I comforted him with a few words and expressed my interest in it.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "So you want to be uploaded, too?"

It was like I was meeting him for the first time. I took his phone and silently noted the website address.

I asked him, "Where did these videos come from?"

"How would I know? I didn't upload them," Jack said, laughing. "But if you want to upload yours, I can help you ask."

His malicious smile reminded me of those men from that day.

I hated myself. I had been with him for so long, from campus to now. Why had I never realized he was this kind of person?

I remembered the first time I saw him. He was wearing a white shirt, standing by the school's lake. His profile was looking pure.

He said that day was his first love's death anniversary. Back then, I thought he was a very empathetic and compassionate person.

How did he become like this?

Seeing I wasn't speaking, Jack pouted. "Boring. I'm going to take a shower."

The doubt was planted. Everything became suspicious.

While Jack went to shower, I opened Kings of Glory.

I wasn't there to play games. I wanted to check the electronic devices in the room.

Settings, Network Diagnosis, Start Detection.

There were 6 devices on the shared WiFi!

The apartment's WiFi only covered the apartment. Besides my phone, computer, tablet, and Jack's phone. What else was there?

When I first moved in, I checked. There were no other devices.

Since moving in, I had only brought Jack back.

I turned on the infrared light and shone it around, looking for pinhole cameras. Beep, beep, beep! The phone rang. There was a camera!

A cool voice came from behind. "Michelle, what are you doing?"

It was obvious who put it there.

"Why? Jack, why did you put cameras in my room?"

I remembered a joke I once heard. When a kid asks if they can go to the bathroom, they've probably already gone in their pants. When Jack asked if I wanted to be uploaded, he had probably already done it.

Panic flashed across Jack's face, but he quickly calmed down. "Michelle, I just wanted to see what you do every day. I wanted to see you. I love you too much."

No wonder he got 80 points in argumentation. His impromptu performance was top-notch.

If I hadn't died twice, I might have believed him.

Before this, he always acted very well. I always thought the biggest obstacle between us was our families. He was a local middle-class with a rich family background. My family was far poorer than his.

It turned out the biggest obstacle between us was that one of us was human, and the other was a monster.

I cried and loudly questioned him, "Did you already upload me?!"

Jack said in a low voice, "Michelle, what are you talking about? How could I? If you don't believe me, take my phone and check yourself."

I took his phone and browsed through the different sections. There was nothing of mine, but I didn't believe he hadn't uploaded it. I just hadn't found it yet.

"I told you there's nothing," Jack's voice sounded behind me. "If you don't trust me, shouldn't you pay some price?"

I ignored him and kept browsing. Finally, I saw a link at the very bottom. [darkweb...http://]

I clicked it, needing a VPN. Luckily, Jack's phone always had a VPN on. I went straight in. There in the center was my photo, "Beautiful Urban Lady". It was with sections below for my everyday videos, videos with Jack, and a poll.

The blood-red poll section had "gangbang" in the largest font. Wasn't this what those men did to me? Jack was in on it with them!

I asked him, "What is this?"

"Hehehe, you found out!"

Pain came from my neck. I felt agonizing suffocation as Jack choked me unconscious from behind.

Before losing consciousness, I heard him say, "Being foolproof is good, but sometimes taking risks isn't bad."

When I woke up again, I was tied to a chair. Those men were in front of me.

The camera in front of me had been flashing for so long. The pain in my body was unbearable. I was tortured to death once again.

This time, the password door was opened from the inside by Jack.

After I died, I didn't immediately go back in time. Instead, I saw what happened after my death.

For example, the police found hallucinogens in the body of the security guard. Jack secretly paid the guard and tampered with the surveillance footage.

My parents took a train from Tendervelle, which took over thirty hours, to Manvelle to handle my belongings in the rental house.

I had no body. No one found my remains.

Jack told my parents that I had severe depression after being laid off and chose to jump into the river. My body was not recovered.

I saw my parents thank him profusely for caring for me all these years. Mom cried so much she fainted. Dad's hair turned gray overnight.

I also saw Adam collecting evidence in the rental house, frowning. But the luminol reagent in the room only turned slightly blue. Jack said it was from my menstrual cycle.

I went home with my parents. That night, they made my favorite dishes. Dad cried and asked, "Michelle, was the pressure from me too much? I just wanted you to have a better life. It was my fault."

My parents' first trip far from home was to retrieve the belongings of the daughter they had always been proud of.

Mom and Dad lay quietly on the table. I knew they were gone. I watched them put poisonous drugs into the food while cooking.

I remembered long ago when Mom and Dad told me that I was their reason for living and that they were proud of me.

I watched all this and cried uncontrollably. It turned out that even in a soul state, I could shed tears.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing by the window. I was talking to Mom on the phone.

I had returned to the time just after I lost my job.

"I made some spaghetti today and went to church to pray for you."