Chapter One: Sweetie, I’m Late

“Miss Lu, are you certain you wish to donate your body after your death?”

“Yes.”

In the silent villa, Lu Tian’s voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping metal.

Outside, the rain poured down in torrents.

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line before a reminder: “But Miss Lu, you’re married. We need your husband’s signature as well…”

“Give me three months. He won’t be my husband for long!”

Three months would be enough for her to settle everything, to have Fei Jing obediently sign the divorce papers.

Lu Tian had just hung up the phone when the sound of the door unlocking echoed from the foyer.

A man burst in, urgent and breathless.

Damp air, laced with the unique fragrance of the girl’s perfume, swept toward her, deadly and overwhelming.

The searing pain of liver cancer crashed through her.

“Tian Tian, I’m sorry. There was a problem at work. I—I didn’t make it to our daughter’s funeral.”

A bolt of lightning split the sky in savage brilliance.

As if she hadn’t heard a word, Lu Tian kept folding her daughter’s tiny clothes, one by one. The pink princess dress was a first birthday gift from the man—a global limited edition, handmade. The Pikachu outfit had been bought after their daughter’s casual request; he’d gone to great lengths to invite the cartoonist and purchase the rights. A plain white T-shirt, embroidered with a family portrait he’d sewn himself for their daughter, pricking his fingers countless times…

“Tian Tian, my love.”

The man dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms tightly around her slender waist from behind.

His handsome face was buried in the icy hollow of her neck. His voice was choked, carrying a pain so deep it seemed to tear him apart. “What are we going to do? Our little girl is gone. Will she be scared, all alone? Will she miss her mom and dad?”

Until she received that anonymous email, Lu Tian had believed him without question.

It was only when she saw the video, taken on the day of their daughter’s burial—Fei Jing had rented out an entire amusement park, taking his mistress on a haunted house adventure, laughing and carefree—that she woke up.

The man who had sworn to love her as dearly as his own eyes already had someone new.

She forced her lips into a painful smile and asked, “When our daughter was in the emergency room at Central Hospital, where were you? Do you remember what you promised her?”

“You said, whenever our daughter needed you, you’d be there by her side immediately. But you…”

Fei Jing’s patience frayed for a moment. He tried to explain, “Tian Tian, I have a company to run and thousands of employees to support. I love you, I love our daughter, but I can’t be like you, always by her side every minute of the day!”

“Like me? A useless housewife, living off her husband, enjoying a wealthy life without guilt?”

Lu Tian’s tone was calm.

Fei Jing pinched the bridge of his nose.

His rimless glasses slid up slightly, revealing the dark shadows beneath his eyes—a testament to his exhaustion and helplessness.

“My love, the dead can’t return. You have to accept reality.”

Reality?

Reality was a daughter born with a congenital heart defect, who suffered an attack after being startled by a stray cat at kindergarten.

She watched her daughter’s body grow cold, just as an anonymous email arrived on her phone.

Only then did Lu Tian realize that while her daughter lay in the hospital waiting for her father, Fei Jing was celebrating his mistress’s birthday.

She discovered that the man who had sworn eternal love had already found a new flame.

When she was diagnosed with liver cancer, she had even worried that her husband would collapse from grief.

Lu Tian picked up her daughter’s butterfly hair clip.

Pain gnawed at her upper abdomen, sharp and relentless.

Clenching her palm, the delicate skin Fei Jing had so cherished was instantly scored with a bright red line.

“My love…”

The man’s low cry was tremulous with real fear and concern.

“Someone, take Madam’s and the young miss’s belongings downstairs. From today, nothing of our daughter’s is to remain here—no more reminders of our grief.”

At Fei Jing’s command, three or four black-clad bodyguards stepped forward.

Lu Tian sprang to her feet.

The side effects of her cancer medication sent her stomach heaving, waves of nausea and dizziness threatening to make her faint.

Her back was slick with sweat.

Fei Jing’s brows drew together in concern, and he rushed to support her. “Tian Tian, what’s wrong?”

“I’m fine.”

She clutched her daughter’s clothes to her chest and retreated step by step, her tone indifferent. “Go focus on your work. I’ll take care of our daughter’s things myself.”

Without another word, Lu Tian went upstairs.

Fei Jing followed, pulling a protective amulet from his trouser pocket and gently placing it in her palm.

“Charms from Mount Qingyun are the most powerful. Burn this for our daughter. May she be reborn quickly and return to us.”

“Tian Tian, you’ll always have me. We’ll have more children.”

Mount Qingyun, with its nine hundred and ninety-nine steps, had to be climbed on one’s knees to seek fulfillment.

Lu Tian’s gaze dropped, only then noticing that the once-invincible Fei Jing, a man feared across Jing-Hong, had scraped his knees raw and was covered in blood.

Her heart ached dully.

But Lu Tian only felt that she couldn’t see through this man at all.

She couldn’t tell if his devotion was genuine or nothing but a performance.

A performance that had trapped her in the mire.

Fei Jing could endure any hardship to seek a blessing for their daughter, yet could also choose to miss her final moments in order to celebrate a mistress’s birthday.

Thunder rumbled.

That night, the city under neon lights was shrouded in gloom and suffocating sorrow.

Lu Tian slept in her daughter’s bedroom.

In the study, just a wall away, a girl’s soft moans floated out from time to time.

They were on a video call.

The girl cooed, “Honey, since Sister Tian Tian lost her baby, let me give you one, okay?”

“Shut up. Do you know your place? The only heir to the Fei family will be born to me and Tian Tian. You’d better behave yourself.”

In these circles of wealth, men played with women, women kept young lovers—it was all common entertainment.

Fei Jing hadn’t taken it seriously. It was just a game.

His true heart, he told himself, had always belonged to Lu Tian.

The girl cupped her breasts, twisting and writhing like a silver snake. Her sheer nightgown slipped down, barely clinging to her body. She gave him a sultry look. “You’re so mean, always scolding me. I even bought a few little toys to show you a performance.”

“Get started.”

“Mmm~”

Lu Tian’s phone vibrated several times.

Another anonymous email.

She opened the attached video.

In the dim light of the study, Fei Jing’s striking, flawless eyes were narrowed just like any other man’s, lured by the girl, his breath ragged as he climbed toward pleasure.

Buzz buzz.

A text from an unknown number.

—Sister Tian Tian, you’re old and washed up. Why not step aside and stop clinging on? My husband is worth billions—don’t drag him down.

—Oh, almost forgot to mention—my husband said when he held me tight that after you nearly died from hemorrhaging during childbirth, he completely lost interest in sleeping with you!

Just before dawn, Lu Tian sent a reply.