Reborn: I Quit Fighting Aging to Ruin Her Chapter 03

Reborn: I Quit Fighting Aging to Ruin Her Chapter 03 The Price of Going Off Script
Two streams, and Aria was already a minor influencer—clips of her blowing up on social media, tagged as a once‑in‑a‑lifetime beauty.
Then radio silence. Ten days, no broadcast.
Her fans were losing their minds in the chat—wild theories everywhere. Rival fans sneaked in to stir the pot:
“What did her filler melt? Can’t show her face now?”
I poured myself a drink and scrolled, amused.
My phone rang. Aria.
I picked up, lazily. Before I could speak, her voice shot through—sharp, desperate.
“Sophie, you’re not using the serum I gave you, are you?!”
I stretched the pause, just to feel her squirm. “Nope. Why?”
Heavy breathing on her end. Like she was barely holding it together.
A few seconds later, the saccharine tone slid back into place.
“Sophie… why not? I went through so much trouble to get that for you.”
“Look at your skin now… aren’t you afraid Eliot will lose interest?”
There it was.
Last life, this was her exact playbook. Appearance anxiety on one side, fear of losing my boyfriend on the other. She pushed me step by step into the abyss.
Not this time.
I let out a cold laugh, clear and deliberate. “I. Don’t. Care.”
Click.
I hung up.
Since I’d stopped using that serum, my skin hadn’t bounced back overnight—but it was improving. Day by day, visibly.
I didn’t have to guess what was happening on her side. Total meltdown. That call was pure panic—she nearly slipped.
I poured myself two more drinks, let the warmth settle, and slept the way I hadn’t since I came back.
Best sleep of this second life.
Until I woke up.
A message from Aria, on my burner account.
“Big spender! I’m live! You missed last time—don’t you dare skip tonight~”
Live?
How?
In the state she should be in, how could she possibly show her face?
I clicked into her stream.
There she was. On camera. Skin so dewy it looked like you could pinch water out of it.
I stumbled to the mirror.
Reflected back: a face drained, withered, aged—like it had been hollowed out from the inside.