2
By the time two officers came up, Belinda had already gone boneless, slumped like she couldn't hold herself upright.
As they hauled her away, she twisted her head back and spat out one line: "Josephine, you'll regret this. Even if I go down, don't think you'll get off easy!"
I smiled and gave her a little wave. "Don't worry. I'm not the one who's going to regret anything. And I'm going to live very well."
After the officers took Belinda off, campus security came over to ask what had happened.
I handed the health-screening card to the security office and told the officer everything, start to finish, about how Belinda had wanted to cut out my kidney.
The security officer went pale the moment he heard it, a cold sweat breaking over him.
He rushed off to coordinate with the police.
By then the other girls from the dorm had come too, hovering, looking like they wanted to say something but didn't dare.
I ignored them. I just quietly made up my bed, took my meal card, and headed to the dining hall to eat.
Reborn or not, I needed a full stomach before I'd have the energy to take my revenge.
As for the other accomplices, I had all the time in the world to play with them, nice and slow.
I'd already died once. Nothing frightened me anymore.
In this life, I lived by a single rule.
Anyone who came after me, I'd throw in a hole and bury.
3
The dining hall smelled of hot food.
I got a plate, one meat and one vegetable, and found a seat by the window.
Then a man's voice, low and smooth, came from right above me.
"Excuse me. Do you mind if I sit here?"
I looked up and ran straight into a pair of smiling, peach-blossom eyes.
The man wore a light gray shirt, tailored to fit.
Thin-framed glasses sat on the bridge of his nose. He looked gentle, scholarly.
But the instant I saw his face clearly, a cold sweat broke over me.
I never imagined Harold Delgado would come straight to me.
He was Belinda's cousin, and the real boss behind the organ-trafficking ring.
In my past life, I'd seen him once, right as I was being pushed off the operating table.
He'd strolled in through the doors then, unhurried, his tone just as gentle as it was now.
Smiling, he'd said to Belinda, "You've worked hard, Bella. The kidney didn't reject. Once Grandfather wakes, I'll tell him to send you to America to study. You won't have to touch these dirty jobs anymore..."
That was when I finally understood.
Belinda's grandfather had been diagnosed with kidney failure long ago, but they'd never found a matching kidney.
So they'd cast a wide net, handing out free health-screening cards to girls of the right age everywhere, quietly running them through tissue-matching.
Yet after years of trying, they still hadn't found a kidney that matched.
To keep him alive, and to raise enough money to keep this vicious plan going, they'd turned to trafficking organs.
They hadn't set their sights on me overnight.
It had been planned well in advance.
Because their targets were students like me. Poor, no family behind them.
If anything went wrong, they could easily cut ties.
After all, on paper, I'd signed the surgical consent form myself.
But I honestly hadn't expected that the moment I dealt with Belinda, the real one would deliver himself right to my table.
I forced down the killing urge churning inside me and pulled up a faint smile. "It's free. Sit."
"Great, thanks." Harold thanked me, pulled out the chair, and sat down across from me.
Then, as if in passing, he asked, "You look like you've run into some trouble. I just heard someone say you accused your roommate of trafficking organs. Is that true?"
Inside I was sneering, but on my face I let a look of shaken, wronged fear show.
"I didn't accuse her of anything. That card she gave me was for a private clinic called Kindred Care. That place doesn't even have a license for routine check-ups. It does organ transplants. If she wasn't after my kidney, why would she give me a card for a place like that?"
Harold's hand paused on his spoon. When he lifted his eyes to me, those peach-blossom eyes held exactly the right amount of surprise and sympathy. "There are people like that? Truly, you can know a face and never know the heart."
Watching Harold put on a show in front of me, I laughed to myself.
Acting like that, it was almost a shame he wasn't onstage.
Then I let my voice go small and wounded. "I know. I couldn't believe it either. When she gave me that card I was so touched. I thought she was such a good person... I never imagined..."
I paused there.
Then lifted my eyes to him and asked, "Oh, that's right. Do you know Belinda?"
