My wife, Maya Griffin, has no idea that Harry Quinlan, the infertile heir to an elite family, has just deposited his final jar of sperm cells into the sperm bank.

She allows her childhood sweetheart, Elijah Cook, who's also a new intern at the sperm bank, to install a pirated copy of antivirus software into the system, which damages the freezing aspect of the bank and causes the internal temperature to rise.

I use my stellar hacking skills to repair the system, thus preserving Harry's sperm.

When Harry insists on holding Elijah responsible, Maya is about to defend Elijah when I stop her.

"If you speak up for him now, you'll be destroying your own reputation instead. You'll also get blacklisted by all the companies."

In his despair, Elijah commits suicide in the freezer. Before he dies, he leaves a video behind that accuses Maya of not saving him out of selfishness.

Maya destroys the video calmly. Then, she states that Elijah has reaped what he has sown.

Many years later, Maya's cybersecurity company becomes internationally renowned. She lures me into a freezer before trapping me there. Then, she watches me coldly as I beg her to release me.

That's how I died with hatred in my eyes.

When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day when Elijah installs the pirated software he has bought online.

This time, I turn off my phone and go back to bed.

Without my help in this lifetime, I'd like to see how Maya and Elijah will face Harry's wrath.

The moment I was blasted awake by nonstop phone calls, I knew I had been reborn. I smashed my phone into pieces without hesitation.

In my previous life, Elijah Cook had courted disaster. He secretly embedded pirated software bought online into the security program. The security system collapsed under a virus attack, and the cryobank began to warm.

He cried and begged me to save him.

I knew that the cryobank had just received the last vial of sperm from a powerful heir who had become infertile. It was his final chance to have a bloodline

I rushed over at once and used my advanced hacking skills to restore the system and stabilize the facility. I successfully preserved Harry Quinlan's only hope of an heir.

Afterward, Harry held Elijah accountable. All Elijah had to do was lower his head and apologize. Once the anger passed, the matter could've been quietly resolved.

Instead, he acted as if he had suffered an insurmountable humiliation. He ran into the freezer and committed suicide.

My wife, Maya Griffin, stubbornly believed I was the one who drove him to his death. So, she locked me alive in the cryogenic freezer. I froze to death there.

This time, after a full night of good sleep, I headed to the cryobank at an unhurried pace. The control room was already in chaos. Fingers were pointed, accusations flew like fireballs.

"Do you think this is a game, Elijah? You actually installed pirated software you bought online? Look what you've done now! We've been breached by a Trojan virus—the freezing system is out of control!

"The liquid-nitrogen chambers are heating up. If this keeps going, all the frozen samples will become nonviable. These samples belong to politicians and tycoons. They're not going to let this go! You've dragged us all down with you!"

Despair hung over every face. Two enraged colleagues rushed forward and started beating Elijah.

He collapsed to the floor in a heap, looking utterly miserable. His face was full of terror. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw me arrive. Hope burst into his gaze, twisted with resentment.

He scrambled up and pointed at me, roaring, "I called you a million times! Why didn't you answer? If you'd come last night, things would never have gotten this bad!

"You know everyone who stores samples here is either filthy rich or politically powerful—people we can't afford to offend. You did this on purpose to ruin us!"

At once, the others turned to stare at me. Their eyes showed blame.

I looked at Elijah coldly. "You were the one who did something stupid and insisted on installing pirated software. How is that my problem?"

His eyes were bloodshot as he desperately tried to shove the blame onto me. "Ms. Griffin made you my mentor. You were supposed to guide me. Now that I've made a mistake, this is your responsibility."

I stared at his selfish, hypocritical face, then slapped him hard across the face.

Following that, I pulled out my shattered phone. "First of all, I worked seven nights straight. I'd just finished a security system for a client worth 100 million. I smashed my phone when I got irritated. I never heard your calls."

"Secondly, I am your mentor, but this isn't a simple mistake at work," I said. "You were reckless and stupid, and I have no obligation to clean up the mess you made."

Suddenly, the colleagues who had been quietly blaming me seemed to wake up.

"You've caused enough chaos and relied on Ms. Griffin to cover for you on other days. Now that you've stirred up a disaster, you pinned it on Mr. Jameson instead? How shameless can you be?"

A tide of angry accusations crashed down on Elijah. His face went deathly pale, his eyes filled with despair. At that moment, the control room door swung open.

Wallace Brown, the manager of the cryobank, and Maya walked in. Elijah scrambled forward, almost crawling to her feet, and whined, "Maya, I was just trying to help! I didn't expect to cause such trouble!"

The moment she entered, her gaze softened and locked on him. Tenderly, she wiped his tears.

"Don't cry. I know it was just a mistake. The samples got ruined, sure, but according to regulations, compensation is enough. This is nothing. No matter what mistakes you make, I'll cover it for you."

Wallace, fully aware of the situation, flew into a rage. He kicked over the chair beside him and pointed at Maya, shouting, "We just received the last vial from Mr. Quinlan! He's injured and infertile. That was his final sample, and now it's destroyed!

"We're done. We'll all pay the price for this, and you say you'll cover it? What can you even do about it, huh?"

Despair settled on every face. A flicker of panic crossed Maya's usually composed expression.

Elijah clung to her and burst into loud sobs. "Help me, Maya. Mr. Quinlan is ruthless! If I fall into his hands, I'll suffer worse than death!"

Maya looked at me, her tone firm and unquestionable. "Theo, as the chief person in charge of the security system, you failed to arrive in time to eliminate the virus. That is what caused this catastrophe, so this responsibility should fall on you."

The unfair decision sparked anger on everyone's faces. Before anyone could speak, she swept a sharp gaze across the room. "Anyone who disagrees can step forward and sign this liability determination statement."

I looked at her, my heart turning cold. Maya was my wife, the person supposedly closest to me. Yet from the moment she walked in, her eyes had never lingered on me. Now, she even wanted me to take the blame.

When we first founded the cybersecurity company together, our lack of experience had caused losses in the tens of millions.

I had thought I would be sued by the client and end up in prison, but she lowered her head and apologized repeatedly, even offering ten times the compensation to protect me.

She had said, "My man deserves my protection. If I don't care for you, who will? Go all out and chase your dreams. I'll always stand behind you."

Her vows to me were still fresh in my memory, yet somewhere along the way, we had drifted further apart.

A flicker of sorrow crossed my eyes, but my voice was resolute. "I won't sign the liability determination statement."

Maya came to my side, only to spit the most vicious words ever. "Your dad is still in the sanatorium. If you don't want me to pause his treatment, you'd better sign."

I stared at her in disbelief, roaring, "Maya, have you lost your conscience? My dad took ten blows to protect you and ended up paralyzed in the hospital! And now, for some pretty boy, you threaten to let him die?"

My outburst drew everyone's attention. They looked at Maya and Elijah with open contempt.

She wasn't the least bit affected, though. Instead, she waved her phone like a weapon. "Are you signing or not?"

"Wait! Let me talk to him first!"

Just as I was forced into succumbing, Wallace suddenly pulled me into the control room.

Wallace sounded urgent. "I know you don't want to deal with this because of your wife's affair, but the others are innocent. I just checked, and we're not finished yet.

"The cryobank is divided into five storage rooms. Four of them were already beyond saving, but the last room, which held Mr. Quinlan's sperm, hadn't yet reached the critical temperature. Please, Theo, help us out!"

I didn't want anyone else to suffer because of this either, so I nodded. "But I have two conditions. First, transfer my dad to another hospital. Second, send all the footage from last night until now to Mr. Quinlan."

My eyes were ice-cold. They wanted me to take the fall? Fine. I would expose everything.

"Not a problem!" Wallace said without hesitation. He pulled out his phone and, right before me, carried out both of my demands.

I took out my laptop and connected it to the central console with a data cable. My fingers flew across the keyboard, leaving only afterimages.

With the antivirus program I had written myself, it took less than five minutes to wipe out every invading virus and Trojan. The tampered commands were restored.

Immediately, I issued the cooling order—liquid nitrogen condensed, and the temperature in the final storage room plummeted. Harry's sample was saved.

My brain had been running at full speed. A wave of exhaustion hit me. I pinched the bridge of my nose, but the next second, my whole body was slammed hard to the ground.

I screamed out loud. In the chaos, my joints were dislocated one by one. My limbs went limp, useless, as I collapsed on the hard floor.

Cold sweat covered my face. Through blurred vision, I forced my eyes open and finally saw who had attacked me from behind. It was Maya. Meanwhile, Wallace was already unconscious nearby.

My voice trembled as I questioned, "Why?"

Maya roughly dragged me over and stuffed me into a large cabinet. Then, she gently wiped the sweat from my face with a handkerchief. Her eyes were soft, but her words were not.

"Did you hear? Mr. Quinlan will be here very soon," she said. "The other tycoons who got the news are coming as well. They want answers. Elijah is barely in his 20s. His life cannot be ruined like this!"

I clenched my jaw and roared, "He deserves it!"

She pressed hard against my injury and shook her head in disapproval as I let out the most gut-wrenching scream. "He's just young. He's inexperienced, just like you were back then."

She picked up the liability determination statement, grabbed my hand, and forced my fingerprint onto the paper. "You're his mentor. You're meant to take the blame for him."

Then, she leaned down and kissed me gently, speaking as if to herself. "I'll plead for you. And with your hacking skills, those tycoons won't kill you. You help Elijah this time, and I promise I won't abandon you in this life, no matter what you become."

My teeth ground together, rage surging in my chest.

"You think forcing my fingerprint means anything?" I snarled. "I built the entire system! The computers and surveillance all have records! Those tycoons aren't idiots—one look, and they'll know who the real culprit is!"

Unhurried, Maya stuffed a cleaning rag into my mouth. Her eyes gleamed with delight. "Thanks for the reminder. I'll destroy all that evidence, then. The virus is gone, so your system won't be needed anymore.

"And while I'm at it, I can even take credit for Elijah. This will definitely help his future."

She slowly closed the cabinet door. As it shut, the look she gave me carried the faintest trace of guilt.