On the Day Before My Leg Amputation Surgery, My Family Promised They’d Be My Legs Forever — Until I Saw Floating Words in the Air Revealing They’d All Been Reborn, and I Was Just the Doomed Supporting Character

 “The Lines in the Air”

The hospital room was too white — walls, sheets, uniforms, even the flowers in the vase looked drained of color.

My name is Tan Lei, twenty-six years old.
Tomorrow, I would lose both my legs.

And tonight, I was surrounded by the people I loved most.

1. The Night Before

“Don’t be afraid,” my brother said, holding my hand. His voice was gentle, too gentle — the kind used for someone already halfway gone.

My mother stroked my hair, smiling through tears. “After the surgery, everything will be fine. We’ll take care of you. You won’t need to face anything alone.”

My boyfriend, Ming Hao, leaned forward, his eyes bright with determination. “You’ll still travel, still see the world. I’ll push you everywhere, Lei. You’ll be free again. We’ll go everywhere together.”

Their words filled the room like light.

And yet, something about them didn’t feel real.

The way they looked at me — full of pity, but also distance. As if they already knew something I didn’t.

2. The Words Appeared

I blinked.

And then — it happened.

In the air above my hospital bed, faint letters began to shimmer, like smoke caught in sunlight.

At first, I thought it was a hallucination. But then the letters sharpened, aligning into glowing sentences suspended above us all.

【Poor supporting character. She’s about to lose her legs.】
【She didn’t even do anything wrong. How cruel.】
【But that’s what happens when everyone else in the story has been reborn.】

I froze.

I looked around — but no one else seemed to see it. My family kept talking, their voices warm and soft, while invisible words of sorrow hung over their heads.

The words pulsed once — and disappeared.

3. The Uneasy Morning

I didn’t sleep.

All night, I replayed the glowing sentences in my mind. Supporting character. Reborn. Punishment.

When the nurse came in at dawn to prep me for surgery, I asked her casually, “Do you ever see… writing in the air?”

She smiled, confused. “You must be anxious. It’s normal to imagine things before surgery.”

But I knew what I saw.

And when my mother came in with breakfast, I noticed something new: a faint golden shimmer clinging to her, barely visible in the morning light.

I blinked again — and words flickered above her head.

【This time, we’ll do it right. She must pay what she owes from the last life.】

My spoon clattered onto the tray.
“Mom?” I whispered.

She looked at me kindly. “Yes, dear?”

I couldn’t speak.

4. The Flash of Memory

During anesthesia prep, as they inserted the IV, a strange feeling washed over me — like slipping through thin ice.

Suddenly, fragments flashed before my eyes: a house on fire, someone screaming, and my own voice — begging, pleading.

Please, I didn’t mean to—

Then a man’s voice:

You took everything from us.

My heart raced. Whose voice was that?

The images vanished as quickly as they came, leaving me gasping for breath.

5. The Truth Behind the Curtain

When I woke, I wasn’t in pain. Not yet. The anesthesia still lingered, softening the world.

My family stood around me, their smiles too perfect.

But the room wasn’t empty anymore. The air was full of words — glowing lines, floating above each of them.

Above my father:

【This time, we’ll keep her alive long enough to make her realize.】

Above my brother:

【She destroyed our family once. Let her live to watch everything crumble again.】

Above my boyfriend:

【She never loved me — she only used me. This time, I’ll make her pay.】

I couldn’t breathe.
The letters shimmered, then faded, leaving me staring at familiar faces that suddenly felt like masks.

6. The Impossible

“Why are you looking at us like that?” Ming Hao asked, his voice calm, almost rehearsed.

“I… saw something,” I whispered. “Words. Above your heads.”

He exchanged a look with my brother — too fast, too knowing.

“Lei,” he said gently, “you’re tired. You’ve been through a lot.”

But their smiles didn’t reach their eyes.

That night, when they thought I was asleep, I heard them talking outside the door.

“She doesn’t remember yet.”
“She will. The script always finds its way back.”
“When it does… she’ll understand why this had to happen.”

The script?

What script?

7. The Stranger in White

A few days later, a new doctor visited — young, soft-spoken, with sharp, tired eyes.

He leaned in and whispered, “You see the text, don’t you?”

I froze. “You can see it too?”

He nodded. “You’re not crazy. They’ve all been reborn — your family, your lover. You’re the only one who wasn’t.”

My heart stopped. “What do you mean?”

“They remember everything from before. You don’t. That’s why you’re their punishment.”

“Punishment?”

He looked at me with pity. “In their past lives, you were the reason they all died. A fire. You lit it accidentally — but it took them all.”

My mind reeled. “That’s not possible.”

He sighed. “They begged for a second chance. The universe granted it. But someone had to bear the balance.”

“And that someone… was me.”

8. The Script of Lives

That night, the doctor returned, holding a small device — a tablet flickering with faint code.

“This,” he said, “is the record. The script they’re following.”

Lines of glowing text scrolled endlessly across the screen. My name appeared hundreds of times, followed by phrases like ‘She repents’, ‘She suffers’, ‘She remembers too late’.

I could barely read through the tears.

“Why are you showing me this?” I whispered.

“Because,” he said, “if you can see the script, you can change it.”

9. The Choice

He handed me a pen — not an ordinary one. Its tip shimmered with the same light as the floating words.

“Rewrite it,” he said. “But be careful. Every change comes with a price.”

I stared at the page where my fate was written.

【Tomorrow, Tan Lei realizes her family’s betrayal and disappears into the sea.】

My hand trembled. I crossed out one word — “disappears” — and replaced it with “awakens.”

The letters burned for a moment, then settled.

I felt something shift inside me — a whisper, a new thread of possibility.

10. The Reversal

The next morning, everything was different.

My family entered as usual — warm smiles, careful words — but the floating text above their heads flickered violently, like corrupted code.

【Error: Timeline altered.】

Their smiles faltered. My mother clutched her chest. My brother staggered back.

“What did you do?” Ming Hao shouted.

“I woke up,” I said quietly.

The walls of the hospital began to distort — like reality itself was bending.

11. The Hidden Past

In the chaos, fragments of memory returned — the fire, the screams, the way I’d run into the flames trying to save them.

It hadn’t been my fault. I’d tried to help. But the world had rewritten me as the villain.

And now, in their second life, they wanted justice — even if it meant cruelty disguised as care.

12. The Ending They Didn’t Expect

The script flared again, bright and trembling.
New lines appeared midair:

【The supporting character has broken the loop.】
【Balance unstable. Recalibrating…】

The doctor’s voice echoed behind me. “You can still choose. Revenge or freedom.”

I looked at the glowing text — at the faces of the people who once loved me, now strangers bound by past pain.

And I wrote:

【Tan Lei forgives, but never forgets.】

The room filled with light.

13. The Aftermath

When I woke again, the world was quiet. My legs were gone — but the air was clear, no floating words, no glowing scripts.

Only silence.

The doctor was gone. My family, too.

In their place — a single note on the table:

“You rewrote the story. Now it belongs to you.”

14. The New Beginning

Months later, I learned to move again. New limbs, new strength, new will.

People still pity me, call me brave. They don’t know that I once watched reality rewrite itself before my eyes.

Sometimes, when I pass a mirror, I catch faint letters flickering in the glass —

【The main character finally arrived.】

And I smile.

Because for the first time, it’s true.