Chapter 6: Rewrites and New Beginnings

As a kid, Carter always wanted to know if I liked him. If I said yes, he’d beam all day. If I said no, he’d sulk until I caved and told him he was my favorite.

I said, “But the way I liked you as a kid isn’t the same as now.”

“It’s the same. How is it not the same?” He nuzzled into my neck. “Big sis, hug me, okay?”

Who could resist that? My heart just melted. I glanced down at his arms already wrapped around my waist.

“Aren’t you already hugging me?”

“Not enough. With the blanket in the way, I can’t feel you.”

Later, when my arm got tired and I let go, he grabbed it again, making me wrap it around his neck.

“Carter, when did you get so clingy?”

“I’m a puppy—your puppy,” he whispered, voice slurred.

“….”

“Puppy loves you.”

A quiet, sweet confession in the dead of night, with only the falling snow outside as witness.

Later, I fell asleep too. In my sleep, it felt like someone held my fingers, tighter and tighter, never letting go.

Lauren’s tasks went smoothly—she said only one more and she could finally go home. But I was getting more and more stressed about Carter liking me. I started hinting to Lauren, asking if Carter hated anything. Lauren said he didn’t like people with no sense of boundaries. She guessed, “I think he probably hates overly intimate contact?”

So I had an idea. I took over his room, his bed, kissed him at all the wrong times. Then I asked, “Carter, do you hate me now?”

At first, he just said no, not at all. Then he caught on that only by saying ‘hate’ would I get more outrageous. So he changed it up: “Hate, I hate you so much.”

Until I saw the little smirk at the corner of his mouth and realized I’d been played. I was so embarrassed I wanted to crawl under a rock!

Soon, Lauren picked up on my mood and got worried too. But one afternoon, she accidentally caught Carter kissing me in the school courtyard and everything clicked for her.

I chased after her. “No, no, it’s not what you think! I wanted to fix this quietly, but things just got messier.”

Lauren stopped me, waving her hands. “Stop, stop! Carter likes you. You should’ve told me! Then I wouldn’t have worried every day.”

She got all serious, putting her hands on my shoulders. “Savannah, I approve of this relationship! This family needs you!”

…

Turns out, what really worried Lauren was the system’s last task. On Christmas Eve, I had to kiss Carter at the top of the Ferris wheel.

Lauren handed this wild task to me, explaining, “The system seems desperate this time. It doesn’t even care who does the kissing.”

“Why?”

“Actually, the system suspects… Carter’s been through this before.”

“What?!”

Lauren said that the first time she heard it, she was just as shocked as I was. She got the truth from the system and found out Carter didn’t die by accident, but by suicide. When Carter took his life, he was so decisive, it was like he knew he’d get to start over.

After Lauren left, I just stood there, stunned. I wanted to ask Carter—what was so important to him? What made him risk everything? How much pain did he carry?

Soon it was Christmas, and conveniently, it fell on a weekend. Maybe it was just me, but Carter was even clingier that day. I suggested going to the amusement park, and he agreed right away. Everything went way too smoothly.

When the Ferris wheel reached the top, I stood up and kissed him. There was this weird sound ringing around us, but I couldn’t make it out. Carter frowned, face going pale.

“Carter, what’s wrong?”

He covered my eyes with one hand, pulled me close with the other, and kissed me again. I felt his hands shaking, his lips trembling, like he was fighting through some serious pain. I tried to look at him, but he wouldn’t let me. I tried to speak, but he blocked my lips.

By the time I was weak from the kiss, the Ferris wheel had gone full circle and stopped at the ground. As we stepped out, Carter collapsed.

“Carter!”

The next second, I finally heard the weird noises clearly. Cold, mechanical, like a busted computer voice crackling above us.

“System starting format… Progress 95%…”

What is this? What’s happening?

“System starting format… Progress 98%…”

Stop!

“… Format failed! Warning! Format failed!”

The system’s error message hit me like a sledgehammer. The robotic voice came back.

“Why? Why can’t the world be formatted even after filling in the missing parts?”

A glowing screen surrounded us. Outside the barrier, people walked by laughing, totally oblivious.

“Main character, are you stopping the world from being reset? When did you realize?”

Carter struggled to look up. “Everything was too convenient. She doesn’t know these things—someone must have told her.”

A light swept over us, like a full-body scan. The system suddenly freaked out, crackling with electric noise.

“I get it! I get it! You two secretly fell in love against the world’s will—not once or twice, but three times!”

Lauren burst in, cursing, “You damn system, making me break up a couple—aren’t you afraid of karma?”

“Host, your tasks are done. Please leave and stop interfering.”

“Why must you break them up?”

“No, the main guy and the mean-girl villain—that’s not the setting.”

“Do you even know what love is? You can’t just stop love because you say so!”

The system was silent for a long time, repeating, “No, that’s not the setting…”

Suddenly a white light blasted me—a shock ripped through my body. A metallic taste filled my mouth, pain exploded, and I collapsed.

Carter caught me, shouting at the system, “If she dies, I’ll die too—no matter how many times we start over.”

The system didn’t budge.

“Main character, you know every reset started later each time. This is the last one. Aren’t you curious why the villain always dies on Christmas Eve?”

“It’s because of you! The main guy didn’t fall for the main girl, the villain lost her value, so she dies! Obey the format, return to the plot, or the villain will disappear forever!”

I grabbed Carter’s hand, my voice shaking. “No, don’t agree…”

He kissed my forehead, voice soft as a lullaby.

“Savannah, no matter how many times, I’ll always love you. I said, I only love you.”

I slowly closed my eyes. Maybe I really did die.

Scenes flashed before my eyes, like I was watching someone else’s memories from above.

In the first life, Carter fell for me, and Jamie became a nobody. Turns out, I’d stood up for Jamie when she got bullied by punks. But then I became their target. On Christmas Eve, Carter and I rode the Ferris wheel, kissing at the top. Afterwards, I went alone to pick up pre-ordered Christmas roses—to surprise him—but was dragged into an alley by thugs and died.

The story broke when Carter took his own life, and the world reset.

In the second life, Carter was reborn in high school. He thought he’d caused my death, so he kept away from me. That’s why, since high school, Carter became cold and distant. But I still died on Christmas Eve, quietly taken by a car accident. If the first time, Carter died for love, this time it was to save me.

In the third life, Carter was reborn the day I met the first transmigrator. Because of Lauren’s interference, I took the initiative to approach him.

…

The love letter I wrote ended up being his most treasured thing, just because I—someone who struggled to finish a single essay—forced myself to write 3,000 words of love. He said, “Add one more line: Carter Hayes is Savannah Price’s puppy.”

That birthday night, he got to celebrate with everyone like a normal couple. No more hiding in his room, secretly snapping a photo after all the guests left. He could lean on the couch, watch me sleep on the coffee table, cover me with a blanket, kiss my forehead, then lie beside me, greedy for more.

He said, “Carter Hayes will always love Savannah Price.”

All those so-called tasks? They were just the best moments of Carter’s first life.

I woke up suddenly at home. Nothing looked different, but it felt like I’d lived a hundred years. The memories from before I fainted rushed back all at once.

“Carter…”

Barefoot, I stumbled out of bed. No one in the living room. No one in his room. He was nowhere to be found.

There was noise from the kitchen, but I just froze, suddenly too scared to move forward.

Carter walked out, glanced at me, put down his cup, and walked right past me.

He must have been formatted by the system… He must have forgotten everything…

As his footsteps faded, I squatted down, my heart aching, and finally broke down crying.

Soon, someone came back, picked me up, and carried me over to the couch.

“Getting up without shoes?”

As I wiped my tears, I stared at him in total shock.

“What’s wrong? Why are you spacing out?”

Carter knelt down and put shoes on my feet, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“You…”

He patted my head gently. “Relax, I remember everything.”

I sniffled. “What happened?”

“The system couldn’t reset us.”

“What happened after that day? Where’s Lauren?”

“She went back to her world.”

Carter handed me a letter, saying Lauren left it for me, and I’d understand after reading it.

…

I opened the letter—

Savannah, when you get this letter, I’m already home. Don’t worry about me. Even if we never meet again, I’ll always miss you.

I guess you’re curious about what happened. Actually, the system’s words reminded me—it said “not according to the setting.”

Savannah, sorry, I lied to you. I’m not like the other transmigrators—I have another identity: author. The world you’re in is a story I wrote years ago, just an outline. When the characters in the story woke up and the plot collapsed, the system pulled me in to fix it.

At first, I just wanted to finish the tasks and go home. But in this world, I met real people. I realized the friendship between girls meant more to me than any scheming. Honestly, it was your kindness and love for this world that changed me.

Since I created the settings, I erased them all. Everyone deserves to be the main character of their own world, with the right to love and freedom.

Guess what? The system was furious, because now it had no reason to exist!

Writing this, I remembered a famous debate at our school: Love is the fall of free will—free will can’t kill love. Watching you and Carter, I saw the real ‘superpower’ is loving each other for real. Falling in love isn’t impressive; loving on is.

May you always love each other in your world.

P.S.: I’m sure by now, you’ve already forgiven me~

Love you, Lauren.

At the last line, I sniffled and smiled through my tears, feeling a weird kind of happy.

Carter watched me laugh and cry, frowned, and asked, “What did she write to you?”

I carefully put away the letter. “Lauren said she loved me before leaving.”

Carter’s face darkened instantly. “Oh.”

A week later, I was finally back at school. It was just after New Year’s, and the party decorations were still hanging everywhere. I sighed, “What a pity—I didn’t get to spend New Year’s with everyone.”

Jamie gave me a huge hug. “It’s okay, there’s always next year.”

Marcus quietly slid his notes over to me, but Carter glared at him so hard he nearly shrank in his seat. Marcus whispered, “Why do I feel like ever since I got Carter drunk, he’s been giving me the evil eye?”

I made a face at Carter. “He’s just jealous, ignore him.”

After class, everyone was chatting about what to eat for lunch, others were groaning about next week’s test. All those little everyday things. But honestly, like colorful grains of sand, they just filled up the jar of life, sparkling with happiness.

After school at dusk, Carter took my backpack. As we left the school gate, I turned and asked, “Carter, what are your plans?”

He thought for a second, then grinned. “Tutor Savannah Price well, and hopefully go to the same college as her.”

“What else?”

“Love Savannah Price.”

“And?”

“Love Savannah Price more every day than the day before.”

In the sunset, my shadow bounced ahead, sometimes stopping so Carter’s could catch up and tangle with mine.

Tomorrow’s going to be a brand new, beautiful day.

(The End)