"Evangeline Mercer, have you totally lost it? You knew Vivienne was fragile, and you still locked her in the bathroom and dumped ice water on her. That’s beyond messed up!"
The second Evangeline opened her eyes, she saw a handsome man in a groom’s suit glaring at her like she was public enemy number one. In his arms, he was carrying a woman soaked from head to toe.
The woman’s face was paper-white, her lips tinged blue, like she had already passed out.
What... was going on?
Evangeline was completely stunned. Wasn’t she supposed to be dead? A robber had stabbed her straight through. So how was she still breathing?
And where even was this place? Whose wedding was this supposed to be?
She lowered her head and looked down. The pure white wedding dress on her body made the corner of her mouth twitch.
Right. Her wedding. Got it.
Seeing her glance around in confusion, looking totally out of the loop, the man’s face darkened even more. "Even now, you still don’t feel even a shred of remorse. Honestly, you’re a huge disappointment. Looks like this wedding doesn’t need to go on anymore. Do whatever you want."
With that, he tightened his hold on the woman in his arms and turned to leave.
"Wait..." Evangeline reacted on instinct and moved to chase after him.
But suddenly, several sharply dressed people—men and women, young and old, all striking-looking and obviously rich—stepped in front of her and blocked her way. Every single one of them stared at her with naked disgust and anger.
The middle-aged woman at the front didn’t even hesitate. She raised her hand and slapped her across the face. "You ungrateful little monster! What exactly did Vivienne ever do to you for you to hurt her like this? If I’d known you were this vicious, we never should’ve brought you back in the first place."
"I said it from day one," someone else snapped coldly. "People raised in some backwater place come out twisted. She grew up in that kind of environment, so of course she’s cruel to the bone. She was never going to be anything decent. The moment you insisted on bringing her home, I knew she’d start bullying Vivienne. But none of you listened. And now? Turns out I was right. Ever since she came back, this family hasn’t had one peaceful day."
"Exactly. She goes after Vivienne every other day. If this keeps up, Vivienne might actually lose her life."
"How is this okay? Dad, Mom, what are you still waiting for? Send her away already."
"Enough. Not now. We’ll deal with this after we go to the hospital and check on Vivienne."
One of them shot her a vicious glare. "Evangeline Mercer, you’d better pray Vivienne is fine. If anything happens to her, I’ll make sure you pay for it."
After throwing out those harsh words, the whole group hurried off after the man and woman from earlier.
Evangeline pressed the tip of her tongue against the inside of the cheek that had just been hit. Her eyes turned cold as she watched the group of men and women disappear into the distance.
She had no idea who those people were yet, but that slap?
She’d remember it.
And sooner or later, she’d return it.
"Miss Mercer."
Out of nowhere, another middle-aged couple walked up to Evangeline Mercer.
Evangeline felt her irritation spike on the spot. Seriously? Was this still not over?
"Miss Mercer," the woman said, smiling politely enough on the surface, though the chill in her eyes was impossible to miss. "I’m not the kind of person who obsesses over a daughter-in-law’s background. What I do care about is character. You heard what Adrian said just now. A daughter-in-law like you? The Blackwood family cannot accept that."
The middle-aged man beside her looked no different, all courtesy on the outside and dismissal underneath. "Miss Mercer, this wedding between you and Adrian ends here. I’ll explain everything to the old master myself."
"Alright. I understand."
Evangeline agreed without dragging it out. Then, lifting the hem of her wedding dress, she strode quickly toward the church exit under the couple’s stunned gaze and the guests’ mocking whispers, their fingers practically pointing holes through her back.
She had no idea why she wasn’t dead, why she was somehow in the middle of a wedding, or why the groom had ditched her to run off holding another woman.
But honestly, for her, this was a win.
She still hadn’t figured out what exactly was going on with her current situation. The last thing she wanted was to randomly wake up with a husband added to the package.
After leaving the church, Evangeline followed instinct and found the restroom. She had just turned on the faucet and was about to splash some water on her face when a sharp pain stabbed through her head. Right after that, a flood of memories that did not belong to her came crashing in all at once.
Only then did she realize that she had crossed into a parallel world.
The original owner of this body was also named Evangeline Mercer. She was her counterpart, and the biological daughter of the wealthy Hartwell family in Haishi. But when she was still a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, a nanny had maliciously switched her.
From that moment on, the nanny’s daughter became the Hartwell family’s precious heiress, while the real Evangeline was dumped in a rural forest overnight and left there to live or die on her own.
Luckily, deep in the woods stood a small Daoist temple, and the old priest living there saved her.
When the original Evangeline turned eighteen, the old priest passed away. Just when she thought she had no family left in this world, the Hartwells came looking for her and told her she was their biological daughter. She was overjoyed. She thought she finally had family again, so she agreed to go back with them without even hesitating.
And that very lack of hesitation was exactly what made the Hartwell family dislike her so deeply.
Mr. Hartwell thought she was vain, money-hungry, and shamelessly materialistic. Mrs. Hartwell thought she was vulgar, petty, and too small-time to be seen in public, the kind of girl who would only make the family a laughingstock.
As for the Hartwell family’s three older brothers and two younger siblings, they mocked her nonstop and treated her terribly, while pampering the fake heiress, Vivienne Hartwell, like she was the moon and stars.
Vivienne herself was a full-on snake in the grass, a real black-hearted lotus. Terrified of losing everything, she schemed against the original Evangeline every chance she got. She would even hurt herself if that was what it took. Step by step, she ruined the original Evangeline’s reputation until it was completely trashed.
It wasn’t just the Hartwells.
The entire wealthy social circle hated the original Evangeline. Even the whole internet was against her, like she was public enemy number one.
The only person who genuinely liked her was the old master of the top-tier Blackwood family. He had even personally gone to propose marriage, wanting her to marry his eldest grandson, Adrian Blackwood.
The original Evangeline agreed, not because she liked Adrian, but because she wanted to use the marriage as a chance to get away from the suffocating Hartwell family.
What she had not expected was that Vivienne Hartwell liked Adrian too. Watching the original Evangeline become Adrian’s fiancée drove Vivienne crazy with jealousy.
So on the day of the wedding, Vivienne dumped a bucket of ice water over herself. Then, right before Evangeline and Adrian were about to exchange rings, she showed up at the ceremony and accused Evangeline of abusing her, successfully blowing up the wedding on the spot.
The original host knew it was over. With every way out of the Hartwell family cut off, she just couldn’t take the blow. Right there on the spot, her heart gave out.
And at the exact second she stopped breathing, Evangeline Mercer took over this body.
Staring at the face in the mirror—a face almost identical to the one she had in her last life—Evangeline slowly clenched her fists. Her eyes went red at the edges as she said in a low, steady voice, "Don’t worry. I’ll get justice for you. Every single person who humiliated you, hurt you, trampled on you—I won’t let one of them walk away."
The moment she finished speaking, a glowing screen popped up out of nowhere in front of her.
It scared Evangeline so badly her whole body tensed.
["Good afternoon, people of every nation. A new round of the National Destiny Survival Game is about to begin!"]
["Selection of players will now start. Citizens of all countries, please prepare yourselves. Countdown: 9 minutes 59 seconds..."]
"This is..." Evangeline stared at the light screen, stunned for a second.
Then the memories she had inherited from the original host—memories about the National Destiny Survival Game—rose clearly in her mind.
This parallel world wasn’t some ordinary alternate reality.
Three months ago, the National Destiny Survival Game had descended without warning. According to the game, humanity had over-mined resources, wrecked the environment, and polluted Blue Planet so badly that the planet was already close to collapse.
To save Blue Planet, the game began choosing players from countries all over the world to search for Origin Pearls—objects that could cleanse the environment and regenerate natural resources.
