In the Seventh Year of Trying to Win Over Ethan Grant, I Am About to Be Eliminated by the System
Author: Murmur© WebNovel
Chapter 1: Chapter 1:
In the seventh year of trying to win over Liam Graham, the system informed me that this was my last chance. If I couldn't succeed this time, I would be completely eradicated by the system.
That day, I asked Liam Graham for the last time, "Liam Graham, can you like me for a bit? Otherwise, I'll die."
But Liam Graham told me, "Then just go die."
Later, I really did die, and Liam Graham held my corpse and said that he was wrong, begging me not to leave him.
1
Today is Liam Graham's birthday, and also the seventh year I've been trying to win him over.
I specially prepared a whole table of Liam Graham's favorite dishes, looking forward to him coming home to celebrate his birthday.
But the system informed me at this moment that I didn't have much time left. If I couldn't succeed this time, I would be completely eradicated by the system.
Holding onto the last bit of hope, I opened Liam Graham's WeChat and asked him, "Liam Graham, can you like me for a bit? Otherwise, I'll really die."
Liam Graham wasn't even willing to deceive me for a second.
"Then just go die."
The words on the screen were truly piercing. It felt like my heart was being fiercely squeezed, unable to breathe due to the pain.
I clutched my phone, forcing myself not to look at that line of words.
Tears dripped onto the keyboard, blurring the characters on it. My hands couldn't stop trembling as I typed.
I didn't know how much effort I exerted to finally type out this line of text.
"Just kidding with you, make sure to come back early tonight, I'll be waiting at home for your birthday."
I told myself, if Liam Graham came back tonight, I would act as if nothing had happened.
But I waited all night, watched the candles burn out, waited as the time on my phone changed to zero, and still didn't see Liam Graham's figure.
I dragged my stiff legs and sat at the table. Looking at the cake placed in front of me, the words on it were written by me.
To achieve the best presentation, I practiced countless times, but now I just wanted to destroy them.
The cream on the cake was quickly scraped off by the fork. The white cream mixed with jam, stuck to the surface of the cake, looked extremely unappetizing.
Liam Graham hated unattractive things. If this were before, I definitely wouldn't have done this.
But now it doesn't matter.
Liam Graham, after eating this cake, I won't like you anymore.
Stiffly, I stuffed the cake into my mouth, unwilling to stop even after filling it completely.
The system was startled by my self-destructive eating method, unable to hold back from speaking, "Host, please don't do this."
I ignored the system, continuing to mechanically eat the cake until the entire plate was emptied, before asking it, "System, does it hurt when being erased?"
2
I am a conqueror.
Seven years ago, the system brought me into this world to win over Liam Graham.
At that time, Liam Graham hadn't been recognized by the Graham Family yet. He was a pitiful child being bullied at school.
To facilitate the conquest, I became a little tyrant at the same school who bullied him.
The system said that a redemption script was the easiest to succeed with and had the least side effects on the conqueror.
I believed the system's words and healed Liam Graham little by little.
At first, Liam Graham was very hostile toward me, but my persistent efforts eventually melted his heart; if ice can be melted, so can a person.
I started being relentlessly good to Liam Graham, getting back at those who bullied him.
Even when he was hungry, I would buy him food even if it meant going hungry myself.
I still remember when I was seventeen, because Liam Graham casually mentioned that he had never celebrated a birthday in his life.
So, on my day off, I went to a restaurant to wash dishes and serve food to earn money just to buy a birthday cake and give him a proper celebration.
But in the end, it was all messed up.
On the way to find Liam Graham, I took a fall; the cake dropped to the ground, utterly ruined.
Feeling guilty, I scratched my head, "Sorry, I wanted to surprise you but just some little accident happened. Don't worry, when I have money, I'll definitely buy you a better and bigger cake."
Liam Graham called me an idiot; he ignored me and turned back to his shabby little house.
I thought he was angry, but then he came out again and said to me, "Sit down."
Liam Graham carefully bandaged the wound on my leg, and his eyes were full of tenderness.
That day, the two of us sat in front of Liam Graham's small and broken house and ate the entire plate of cake.
Liam Graham and I even promised to spend every birthday together.
But now Liam Graham went back on his word.
3
I lay in front of the toilet vomiting until my head spun wildly, emptying all the cake from my stomach before sitting weakly on the ground.
Opening my phone, I just saw the entertainment headlines pushed #Theresa Pierce and Liam Graham's late-night meeting#
#Theresa Pierce admits to her romance#
#Theresa Pierce and Liam Graham attended the same high school#
#Liam and Theresa are real#
It turned out that Liam Graham didn't come back tonight because he was accompanying Theresa Pierce.
When facing Theresa Pierce, Liam Graham was so gentle, gentle enough to drip water.
He had never shown such an expression to me.
No, I shook my head.
Liam Graham was gentle with me before too, when was that? Oh, right, before he met Theresa Pierce.
At that time, everyone thought Liam Graham and I would end up together. Even I thought so.
Although at first, my intention was purposeful in getting close to Liam Graham, my feelings for him became genuine over time.
I even planned that when the mission was successful, I would stay in this world to spend the rest of my life with Liam Graham.
But fate played a huge joke on me.
Theresa Pierce appeared.
A woman's intuition told me the way Liam Graham looked at Theresa Pierce was not ordinary.
Liam Graham insisted I shouldn't overthink, he said he would never like a woman like Theresa Pierce.
But later, he lifted Theresa Pierce, coldly warning me, "Nina, if you dare hurt Theresa again, we can't even be friends."
Liam Graham didn't see the triumphant smile in Theresa Pierce's eyes or my swollen ankle left behind.
Because of this injury, I missed a very important screen test.
Which was a heavy blow to me, eager for the movie to change my career.
I didn't expect even bigger blows were coming.
Starting from that day, all that was left in Liam Graham's eyes when he looked at me was disgust.
My stomach began to churn with discomfort again, but this time, there was nothing to vomit.
At some point, my phone screen went dark, reflecting my miserable face.
The system said the redemption script caused the least harm to conquerors, so why am I so upset?
4
The next day, I was awakened by the sound of phone ringing.
I rummaged across the bed for my phone and turned it on, finding a string of missed calls on it.
Most of them were from my agent Ms. Ward, and the rest were from my assistant Kevin.
I instinctively opened WeChat, finding the chat record with Liam Graham stuck at yesterday's "I'll be waiting at home for your birthday."
Feeling sad? A little, perhaps. But why should I be sad? I've clearly decided to give up on pursuing Liam Graham. So whether or not he replies, it doesn't really concern me anymore, does it?
I don't know how much resolve it took me to delete the chat history with Liam Graham.
Liam Graham, this time I'm really letting you go.
5
I took a deep breath, forcing back the tears in my eyes, then exited the chat interface and dialed Ms. Ward's number.
The call was quickly connected, and before I could say anything, Ms. Ward's voice came through the phone, harsh and severe.
"Nina Sutton, is what's on the trending list true or not?"
I was a little taken aback by the question, "What's on the trending list?"
Due to the severe vomiting yesterday, my voice sounded particularly hoarse.
Hearing this, Ms. Ward paused for a moment. When her voice came through the phone again, it was no longer as stern as before.
"What's wrong with you? You sound off. Are you sick? If you're not feeling well, let Kevin take you to the hospital."
"No need, Ms. Ward, I'm fine. What's wrong with the trending list?"
As soon as I mentioned the trending list, Ms. Ward's voice instantly became more serious, "Nina Sutton, there's someone claiming to be your high school classmate, exposing that you bullied classmates back then. Is this true?"
Upon hearing this, I was momentarily stunned, and a strong sense of unease rose in my heart.
With that unease, I opened the trending list.
Sure enough, in the top three trending topics, I saw those two entries related to me.
#Nina Sutton often hung out with delinquents in high school#
#Nina Sutton bullied classmates in high school#
Each entry was followed by a bold "explosive" label, glaringly red, and the topic's popularity was steadily increasing.
Both entries contained the same blog post, which was the so-called revelation from someone claiming to be my high school classmate.
The blogger said I was a notorious "bad girl," always hanging out with delinquents, and not diligent in studies.
But the blogger didn't know that the "delinquent" he mentioned was the one who rushed forward to push away a drunkard who was about to assault me, saving me from being violated. He was my life saver; without him, I might have perished that night.
The blogger claimed I was not diligent, but I was always the last one in class to leave the classroom, just so I could get good grades and obtain scholarships to pay for the next semester's tuition.
As an orphan like me, if I didn't work a little harder, I might never have made it to college, let alone get scouted during a university competition to become a recognized young actress.
The blogger said I bullied classmates, but does he know that the real person who bullied that classmate was not me, but the delinquents near the school?
He was beaten all over by the delinquents and curled up by the roadside. I happened to pass by, handed him band-aids, never expecting it would lead to this.
This blogger wrote a lot more after that.
The more I read, the colder I felt, as if the blood in my veins had frozen.
Because even though the exposé didn't explicitly say it, I could tell it was talking about me and Liam Graham.
Some of it was things only Liam and I knew.
How could anyone else know if not for Liam Graham intentionally disclosing it?
If not for this exposé, how could I have known that my earnest kindness was seen by Liam Graham as condescension and disdain?
All along, in Liam Graham's mind, I appeared as a bully, dominating his entire high school experience.
The sweet times I thought we had, those promises meant only for the two of us, were merely my own wishful thinking.
If it hadn't been for Theresa Pierce yesterday, perhaps Liam Graham wouldn't have come back to celebrate my birthday with me.
My heart felt like it was being torn from the inside, bloodily painful. I clenched my palms tightly, nails digging into the flesh, a sharp pain piercing my palm.
The pain brought a momentary clarity to my mind, but I didn't want to be clear-headed.
Because I couldn't stop thinking, why did Liam Graham do this? Why did he tell others those things?
Was it for money? He's a young master of the Graham Family, with businesses spanning across Calthoria—how could he possibly lack money?
Is it because... he hates me?
I pulled my pale lips into a faint smile; this terrifying truth, after all, had entered my mind.
On the other side, Ms. Ward continued to ask, "Nina Sutton, are you listening?"
Having not received my response for a long time, Ms. Ward's voice sounded noticeably displeased, yet mindful of my off state today, she tried to soften her tone as she said, "Nina, don't worry. If those things aren't true, the company will handle them properly. We will surely hold the defamers accountable."
Does it matter whether I did it or not?
If my good intentions could be seen by Liam Graham as bullying, won't my clarification just seem like I'm fabricating lies to them?
I refused Ms. Ward's help, "No need, Ms. Ward. Thank you for your guidance all this time. I will handle this matter myself."
Ms. Ward wanted to say more, but I directly hung up on her.
By the time she called back, I had already removed my SIM card.
6
I logged into my Weibo account to make a statement about what was trending.
I denied the "bad girl" allegation, but I did not respond to the bullying revelation mentioned by the blogger.
I only stated at the end that I would pay for the wrongs I've done.
Insults flooded in like a tidal wave, quickly overwhelming that post on my Weibo.
"God, why doesn't the bully just die?"
"How come you're alive with such gall."
"Tsk tsk tsk, turns out it's Bianca Sutton. There's nothing she wouldn't do. Back then, wasn't she willing to sleep with investors to snatch roles from others? Truly, what goes around comes around."
Soon, a post answering the identity of the bullied person was voted to the top.
"I have a friend who went to the same high school as Nina Sutton. She said the person bullied by Nina in the blog was none other than the young master the Graham Family found outside."
Below, someone quickly replied.
"Oh my god, no wonder she's always high-profile in pursuing the young master of the Graham Family, scared of angering them and being blacklisted by them, huh."
"To the one above, I think she just wants to cling to the Graham Family's connections. Unfortunately, Young Master Graham has eyes and isn't interested in her."
I stared blankly at that reply. So, in Liam Graham's heart, is that what he thought, too? That's why he detests me so much, detests me enough to want to ruin me personally.
7
Not even two minutes after posting, my Weibo post was deleted by someone, and my account was taken over by my manager, with the password changed, as they acted swiftly to repair the situation.
But it was already too late. That Weibo post had been screenshotted and circulated around the square.
#Nina Sutton's Weibo Deleted Seconds After Posting#
#Nina Sutton Admits to Bullying#
With someone pulling the strings behind the scenes, these two entries rose to the top of the entertainment list within minutes.
All under were people mocking me, along with scandals about me since entering the industry, with some even photoshopping my obituary photo.
I have to say, the technique was quite good. It was photoshopped beautifully. If my Weibo hadn't been reclaimed by the company, I surely would have given it a like and stolen that photoshopped photo for myself. But now, I can't like it, just silently saved that obituary photo for future use.
I asked the system, "Does it look good?"
The system did not respond.
Perhaps it doesn't look good, but I am very satisfied.
I no longer checked the trending list. I started calculating how much penalty I would need to pay next.
Apart from penalties to brands and compensation to the company, I would still have a little left for myself.
This money was enough for me to spend another year.
After settling everything, I finally had no energy left to do anything else.
I sat slumped on the ground, staring blankly at the ceiling, lost in thought.
At this moment, the sound of a key turning at the door echoed.
I only gave the key to this place to one person.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone