Category: English

I am a top-tier gold digger, and I’ve transmigrated into a green tea supporting female character who was cyberbullied to death. On the campus forum, there’s a photo of me and the male lead hanging there. 【I heard Arthur Sterling has someone he likes. Could it be her?】 【We’re about to witness Cinderella marrying into a wealthy family.】 The girl egging things on in the comments is my roommate. She smiles brightly and says, “Be bold and confess your feelings! He doesn’t have a girlfriend anyway.” Floating text comments drift past my vision: 【The male lead doesn’t have a girlfriend, but he has a fiancée, wow!】 【The female lead is too kind. She saw the supporting character secretly likes the male lead, so she kept her identity as the fiancée a secret.】 【The supporting character shouldn’t flatter herself. The male lead only likes her roommate.】 【As soon as the clown supporting character confesses tonight, the male lead will publicly announce the female lead.】 I curl my lips and post a faceless selfie on a new account. Caption: 【My good friend keeps telling me to confess to her childhood friend. What should I do?】 1. Because the selfie page is tagged with a local IP from my university, it’s quickly pushed to the campus network. Alumni comment: 【Are you interested in her childhood friend?】 【OP’s figure is fire, love it. Does your friend want to keep the good stuff within the family?】 【Is her childhood friend handsome?】 I reply to them one by one: 【I like him a little bit.】 【Maybe so. She’s always trying to set us up, bringing me along to all sorts of activities.】 【He’s very handsome. But our family backgrounds don’t really match.】 Soon, the alumni reply jokingly: 【You’ve already tested into this university; what are you worried about family background for? Unless it’s someone like Arthur Sterling, then you might have to worry a bit.】 【What’s there to worry about? Go for it, sister! If you break up, you might even get a ten-million-dollar breakup fee thrown at you.】 I like all their comments. The floating text comments surge rapidly. 【Does the supporting character think she can seduce the male lead just by showing off her figure? Dream on! The male lead only follows Emily Chen.】 【Posting this kind of thing is so green tea. Good thing the male lead won’t see it, otherwise what if he misunderstands the female lead?】 These floating comments are in real-time. If used well, I can grasp a lot of information. I curl my lips. Although I don’t know the male lead’s account, I know my roommate Emily Chen’s account. I click into her following list. She only follows 36 people in total. 【Lmao, is the supporting character trying to find the male lead’s account?】 【Give up, she definitely won’t find it.】 I investigate them one by one and finally lock onto a “momo” with 1 follower. Because only this account follows solely the female lead, and its IP address has always been in this city. I click follow. The floating comments explode. 【Holy shit! Scheming bitch!】 【How did she find it?】 Arthur Sterling’s account has always been quiet. Except for a few close friends in his circle, no one knows this “momo” is his account. He looks at the new follower that suddenly popped up and frowns slightly. Who is “A Cup of Oolong”? He pays it no mind and turns off his phone. The floating comments gloat. 【The male lead didn’t even click into the supporting character’s homepage.】 【This supporting character is such a dead green tea; her ID really suits her.】 【This novel is about childhood sweethearts and love after marriage. The male lead is very responsible and will only love the female lead after marriage. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the supporting character is.】 【The female lead always suspected he didn’t love her because he was so cold to her. Later, seeing the beautiful supporting character’s confession ruthlessly rejected, she was instantly relieved.】 【The clown supporting character is just a touchstone for their love.】 I look at my bank card. Before I transmigrated, Emily Chen told me to buy a dress worth $25,000. She said a confession required a battle outfit, and that people in their circle wouldn’t wear cheap stuff worth a few hundred dollars. Driven by an inferiority complex, the supporting character gritted her teeth and bought an expensive but tacky out-of-season dress. Now the balance on my card is 0, and I still owe money on credit. I look coldly at the balance and without hesitation, put the dress up for sale on a secondhand app. Gold Digger Rule No. 1: Never spend an extra dime for a man. 2. My roommate’s account is also managing a rich heiress persona. On her account, there’s a perfect fiancé. Rich, handsome. Whatever she wants, her fiancé can immediately satisfy her. Because their marriage alliance was only recently arranged and hasn’t been made public yet, she has never revealed their identities on it. She just frequently does giveaways for the fans who ship them in the comment section. The sentimental little love stories she writes get tens of thousands of likes each. Actually, she didn’t have that many followers at first. Until she posted the marital home her fiancé gave her, which costs over $80,000 per square meter. The post instantly blew up. I leave a comment underneath: 【So sweet to ship! Sister, your fiancé is so good to you. If only I could snag someone like this.】 【What type of girl does he like? wow!】 Emily Chen has always liked seeing fans ship them. But when she sees my comment, she frowns. She replies: 【He has very high standards. It’s best to be skilled in various talents and highly educated. You don’t even know how long I worked hard just to make him notice me.】 Then she likes a comment below hers. 【The most important thing is matching family backgrounds.】 Everyone below is crazily shipping them. 【The heiress gave up studying abroad and tested into this university just to pursue love.】 【Bright and glamorous heiress VS Ice-cold childhood friend.】 【As long as he turns around, he can see the heiress has always been behind him.】 【Patience pays off! After the marriage alliance, the childhood friend’s attitude immediately changed. He used to ignore her, now he brings whatever the heiress wants right to her.】 【The heiress’s childhood friend’s family is so rich, yet he’s starting a business in college. So motivated. Unlike me, who just wants to eat and wait to die.】 As the only insider to the original novel. I know that their true romantic arc happens after my cannon fodder supporting character is written off. It follows the “love after marriage” plot, and right now, the male lead’s kindness to the female lead is solely due to their marriage alliance. Heh, this dog couple is using the original owner as a stepping stone. 3. I twitch the corners of my mouth and upload a video of myself playing the piano on my homepage. An essential quality of a top-tier gold digger: proficiency in various high-society talents. Whether it’s piano or equestrianism, I’ve studied them all. I reply: 【I know a lot, actually! I’ve been studying hard lately~ hoping to catch the guy I have a crush on.】 Many people think my comment sounds a bit like a green tea showing off and click into my homepage. Then, they teasingly reply: 【What a coincidence, Little Oolong is also a beauty from this university.】 【Don’t just fake the IP to this university; show us your student ID on the official website.】 I ignore them. Because soon, university alumni recognize that the background of my first photo is exactly the school dormitory. The most-liked post on my homepage is a faceless selfie. Caption: 【So conflicted. My friend keeps telling me to confess to her childhood friend, what should I do?】 Emily Chen wouldn’t associate me with her shy, easily-fooled little roommate. Because the original owner couldn’t do anything. A while ago, she was dragged by Emily to play the piano at her birthday party and embarrassed herself because she was unskillful. She encouraged the original owner to go up and play the piano to attract the male lead’s attention, so the original owner went up and played “Happy Birthday.” The female lead’s best friends mocked her for playing terribly, and Arthur Sterling spoke up to bail her out. From then on, the original owner developed a crush on the male lead. She didn’t know the male lead’s fiancée was Emily Chen herself, and under her instigation, foolishly went to confess. In the end, Arthur Sterling publicly announced his fiancée on the spot. The original owner lost all face in front of the entire school. Later, the female lead wrote a sad essay about her secret crush, caused by feeling inferior because of her roommate’s beautiful looks. This led the original owner to become a scheming green tea in everyone’s eyes, and she was eventually cyberbullied to death. Floating comments jump up: 【The supporting character is so scheming. Is she trying to get attention?】 【It’s fine. Once the male lead rejects her tonight, she won’t be able to jump around anymore.】 Emily Chen originally wanted to chat with Arthur Sterling. But she noticed his follower count suddenly increased by one. Suppressing her anger, she clicks into my homepage. After scanning around and seeing the photos, a hint of dissatisfaction reveals itself in her eyes. She keeps feeling that this figure looks indescribably familiar. And my process of starting this account is very similar to hers. If it’s not posting talents, it’s posting about a secret crush. Arthur Sterling’s alt account is only known to a few close friends around her, and she deliberately showed it off in a group chat. She guesses it might be some little heiress who caught wind of it. So, she directly @’s Arthur Sterling under my photo: 【Nice figure, do you like it?】 Arthur Sterling casually lingers on the screen for a second, the photo flashing past. 【Boring…】 Seeing the reply, Emily Chen laughs out loud. She turns around and shares this as a joke within their circle. Floating comments jump up: 【Hahaha, the male lead looked at the photo the supporting character painstakingly took and just said ‘boring’.】 【Lmao, working hard for nothing.】 【Just a clown supporting character. If it weren’t for her confession, I reckon the male lead wouldn’t have agreed to make the female lead’s identity as his fiancée public.】 【After all, the male lead is currently developing the game ‘Phantom Journey’ behind his family’s back. It’s still in closed beta, and he doesn’t want to cause any extra trouble.】 【Feelings will grow over time after marriage~ The male lead isn’t frigid at all. After marriage, the female lead is going to be shocked faint by the tricks this dog of a man comes up with.】 【The male lead’s family are all old-fashioned. They oppose him making games. The little childhood friend is the only one who understands him in the future.】 【In the future, the male lead’s game will be a massive hit, becoming a national sensation. Even the streamers who broadcasted it early on will make tens of millions.】 I extract information from the floating comments. A few days ago, I already applied for the closed beta qualification for “Phantom Journey” on the official website. Emily Chen still doesn’t know about the game’s existence. Using the game to get close to Arthur Sterling is the best entry point. 4. My game ID is still 【A Cup of Oolong】. I curl my lips, switching screens to message Arthur Sterling while grinding my game level. In the original text, the supporting male character, Julian Vance, is also grinding mobs here. He’s the male lead’s roommate, and they’re all in the same circle. Back then, after reading the female lead’s essay about her inferior secret crush, he misunderstood the original owner as deliberately trying to be the other woman, and he cursed her out the most viciously online. Stupid, reckless, and self-proclaimed righteous. He’s the most suitable to be used as a tool. I target Julian Vance, team up with him, and then steal his mob at the final hit, opening my mic and saying coquettishly: “Thank you, big brother.” Julian Vance’s hand trembles, his victorious smile freezing on his face. Arthur Sterling looks at his phone. The screen pops up a complaint from his good bro: 【Bro, there’s this highly skilled cross-dresser who stole my mob! My ‘First Blood of the Server’ title is gone!】 【I hate this! That person called ‘A Cup of Oolong’ or whatever is now at the top of the leaderboard! So shameless!】 Floating comments jump up: 【The supporting character’s methods are just dirty! Who steals the last hit!】 【Just deliberately trying to attract the supporting male character’s attention. Stop dreaming, the supporting male character only likes pure, innocent girls.】 After following Arthur Sterling, I only sent him one sentence: 【Thank you, Arthur, for bailing me out before~ Can I treat you to dinner tonight?】 After that, I posted a screen recording of the game with the “Phantom Journey” tag on my new account. 【The experience of this game is awesome!】 Smooth operations, combined with hyped-up editing and background music, quickly gained a wave of popularity. Arthur Sterling looks at the familiar ID, a trace of surprise appearing on his face. He clicks on my profile picture. The first thing he clicks open is the game recording I edited. The cover is the settlement screen where Julian Vance got his mob stolen. Floating comments jump up: 【Lmao, the male lead is a straight guy through and through; he’s only interested in games.】 【Suddenly relieved, the male lead definitely won’t pay much attention to the supporting character.】 【Even if the supporting character plays games well, so what?】 At the end of the game video. He unexpectedly hears a sticky, charming: “Thank you, big brother.” The video comments also suddenly increase here. Arthur Sterling’s finger pauses slightly. Then he drags the progress bar back. And listens again. In the original text, he is a closet voice-con. He only discovers he’s a voice-con while in the female lead’s bed. I deliberately recorded this voice at the end of the video. I bet he would watch to the end. The floating comments are all cursing— 【What exactly is the supporting character being so slutty for!】 Arthur Sterling restrains himself and only replays it once, then exits the video. On my homepage, the only photo showing my full body is of my back. The composition is great, my body proportions are excellent, and I didn’t even use a leg-lengthening filter. Logically, he should exit the homepage. But he takes an extra look and finds it somewhat familiar. He then clicks on the new video posted today. It’s a clip of me playing a piano piece, fluid music pouring out. The caption is: 【If my confession fails today, I’ll change my name to Tisu and beat up scumbags.】 He suddenly guesses who the woman on the other end is. Because Emily Chen just sent him a message. 【Come to the dorm tonight; my little roommate has something to say to you.】 Arthur Sterling: 【Tisu again? Didn’t you tell her about our relationship?】 Emily Chen replies vaguely: 【A young girl’s crush is understandable. You can just reject her privately later, right?】 He tries to search his memory to see if he ever offended Tisu. His mind only retains the clumsy “Happy Birthday” I played last time. In his perception, apart from her beauty, Tisu has no memorable traits and stutters whenever she gets close to him. Online, however, she is much more vibrant. Logically, he shouldn’t agree to have dinner with me privately. But he hesitates. First, he clicks into the piano video and comments: 【Just started learning? Fast progress.】 Floating comments fly up rapidly. 【??? Why is the male lead paying attention to the supporting character?】 【Poseur! The female lead has studied piano since childhood; how can the supporting character compare!】 I reply with a cute emoji, lying righteously: 【Yeah, just started! Even the teacher praised me for having a talent for it.】 【Plus, I learn everything super fast!】 Arthur Sterling looks at the “scumbag” in the caption, his finger pausing slightly, then finds the chat box and replies to me. 【I’ll pick you up downstairs at five.】 The time Emily Chen arranged for him is 8 PM. He thinks a private rejection earlier might be more appropriate. He doesn’t think the tiny ripple that just stirred up in that instant will make him betray his fiancée. The male lead in the original text has always been principled, so the supporting character’s confession tonight is bound to fail. What I need to do now is pull myself from the position of the “other woman” to the identity of an innocent party. I curl my lips and reply with a cute emoji: 【Okay! (finger hearts)】 Then I send another sentence. 【Can we not order anything too expensive.】 【Kitten begging for mercy gif.】 Arthur Sterling looks at the conversation and raises an eyebrow. I send a screenshot, saying pitifully. 【My roommate said I needed to buy a nice dress, and now I have no money.】 The screenshot is of a ripoff dress Emily Chen strongly recommended, along with my payment page showing $25,000. Arthur Sterling looks at the big red dress and remains silent for a moment. In less than three seconds. He replies: 【Send your card number.】 I don’t play hard to get; I quickly send it over. My bank card receives a deposit of $30,000. The note tells me to eat well. The money I spent in the game easily multiplied and came back to me. This kiss was worth it. It’s his first kiss; he’ll definitely remember it deeply. And this round, I have the upper hand. His bottom line was breached, but he feels guilty and can’t blame me. Killing two birds with one stone. A person’s bottom line is always slowly lowered.

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My mom loves asking me to buy things for her. But she has “bad eyesight,” so when she transfers me the money, she always misses a zero. I never really cared and just quietly made up the difference myself every time. Until my sister started acting passive-aggressive in front of me: “Every time Mom buys something, she transfers you the money to buy it for her.” “I’ve never seen you post the actual receipts. Who knows how much you’re pocketing off the top.” My mom just smiled and didn’t explain, seemingly agreeing with my sister. My heart instantly went cold. Over the years, she’s asked me to buy all sorts of things, big and small, and every time, she underpaid me. And she’d always brush it off with: “My eyesight is bad, I hit the wrong button.” Adding it all up, I’ve subsidized her at least thirty to forty thousand dollars, only to be branded a thief. So, when my mom once again transferred me money to book a four-thousand-dollar New Year’s Eve dinner, I accepted the transfer, turned around, and booked a four-hundred-dollar dinner instead. … No one at the dining table touched their silverware, their faces showing various expressions as they looked at the food in front of them. I urged them, “Don’t just sit there, eat up.” My mom’s face was so dark it looked like it was dripping water. She was only holding back her temper because of the other people present. Suppressing her anger, she asked, “Are the rest of the dishes still coming? Go find a waiter and hurry them up.” “That’s everything,” I replied flatly, then urged the relatives again, “Hurry and eat, or the food will get cold.” Smack. My mom slammed her chopsticks down, her chest heaving heavily. “We have a huge table of over a dozen people, and you only ordered these few dishes?” A relative next to her chimed in, “Chloe, is there a mistake? It wasn’t like this in previous years.” In previous years, the table was piled high with king crab, lobster, and endless seafood. This year, there were a total of six dishes, making the table look empty. The only thing even remotely related to seafood was a plate of salt and pepper shrimp. I couldn’t blame them for finding it weird. “No mistake,” I shook my head. My mom’s eyes turned red with anger, and she demanded, “I gave you money to handle the New Year’s Eve dinner, and this is what you feed everyone?” I glanced at the food on the table and sighed. “I had no choice. Funds were limited, so this is all we could get.” My sister, Mia, slammed the table and stood up, pointing at me. “Don’t think I don’t know! Mom sent you four thousand dollars to organize this dinner.” “This whole table put together isn’t even worth five hundred bucks! Did you pocket the rest of the money?” “I know you always use the excuse of buying things for Mom so she transfers you money, just so you can skim off the top. But you’ve gone too far this time!” Hearing my sister’s words, the relatives’ looks toward me instantly changed. My mom added from the side, “Chloe, I usually don’t say much when you do this.” “But right now, the whole family is gathered for New Year’s Eve dinner. Is it appropriate for you to pull a stunt like this?” My uncle’s son started whining, “Dad, I want king crab! Didn’t you say there’d be king crab today?” My aunt scolded me, “Chloe, I always thought you were a good kid. How could you do something like this?” The others present also chimed in, criticizing me. My mom spoke up right on cue, “Alright, go find a waiter and add more dishes right now. We’ll let this slide for today.” The relatives also tried to smooth things over, telling me to quickly go find a waiter and order more food according to the usual standard. But I remained unmoved and said coldly, “I can’t.” “Why can’t you?” My mom couldn’t help but raise her voice. I turned to look at her. “Mom, did you forget?” “You only transferred me four hundred dollars. Ordering these dishes already spent all the money.” “I even put in a few bucks of my own.” A hint of panic flashed across my mom’s face. She clearly hadn’t expected me to just say it out loud. But she quickly covered it up. My mom fake-coughed a few times, constantly gesturing with her eyes. “What nonsense are you spouting? I clearly sent you four thousand.” My sister mocked me even more, “Still trying to deny it? I heard Mom on the phone with you. She said she transferred four thousand!” “Four thousand turning into four hundred. Even if you wanted to skim, you shouldn’t be so greedy.” With my sister as a witness, the relatives looked at me with even more disdain. My uncle said angrily, “Chloe, profiting off your own mother—do you have a conscience?” Seeing that they didn’t believe me, I had no choice but to pull up the transfer record from my mom. “Look, my mom only sent me four hundred dollars at the time.” My mom did call and say she was sending four thousand for the dinner. But when the money came through, it was only four hundred. This was her usual trick. If I didn’t bring it up, she’d act like she didn’t know. If I did bring it up, she’d use the excuse of bad eyesight and missing a digit. Then she’d criticize me: “So I sent you a little less, do you have to come specifically to remind me? I raised you, and you’re not even willing to spend a little money on me?” “You’re really nothing like your sister. What an ungrateful wretch!” My aunt, sitting next to me, took a look and looked up. “Sis, you really only sent four hundred.” My mom couldn’t hold her face anymore. She gave a dry laugh. “I’m getting older and my eyesight is bad. I probably missed a zero by accident.” With that, she glared at me again. “If I sent the wrong amount, why didn’t you say something earlier?” Reluctantly, she sent me the money again, her tone a bit stiff: “Alright, the money is sent. Go order according to the previous standard. Don’t delay everyone’s dinner.” I was just about to speak when Mia beat me to it. “Mom, why are you giving her money?” She gave me a cold smile, then raised her voice. “Over the years, you’ve probably made tens of thousands off Mom!” “It’s just one time she accidentally underpaid you. Can’t you make up the difference yourself?” “Because you didn’t get to pocket the change this time, you deliberately made Mom lose face in front of the relatives, didn’t you?” My mom gave her a reproachful look. “You child, how can you talk nonsense in front of the relatives.” She seemed to be scolding her, but in reality, she was tacitly agreeing with Mia’s accusation that I was skimming off the top. My hand paused, then I clicked ‘Return’ and said flatly, “In that case, I’m returning the money. You can order the food yourself, so you won’t say I’m skimming again.” My mom’s expression froze. She knew clearly that according to the previous standard, a table would cost at least a thousand bucks. My mom is very competitive in front of relatives. Her marriage wasn’t happy, so she planned to make up for it elsewhere. Every year, she used the excuse of hosting the New Year’s Eve dinner to prove to the relatives that she was doing well. Before, I silently subsidized it to give my mom face in front of the relatives, but now I didn’t want to. Mia rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Why are you acting all high and mighty now?” “Weren’t you going to return the money? Don’t just return this one time! If you’re going to return it, return all the money you’ve made off Mom!” “Since all the relatives are here today, let’s settle the accounts clearly and see exactly how much you skimmed!” Hearing this, my mom’s face changed. She pulled Mia’s hand. “What accounts are we settling on New Year’s? If there’s an issue, we’ll talk about it when we get back.” “No! I want to talk about it now!” Mia forcefully shook off my mom’s hand. With red eyes, she said sharply, “Don’t think I don’t know. You just use the excuse of having my sister buy things for you so you can legitimately send her money and subsidize her!” “We’re both your children, why are you so biased?” “Today we must settle this clearly in front of the relatives. You must transfer me every penny you’ve subsidized her over the years, without missing a cent!” Seeing my sister’s resentful expression, I understood. She wasn’t making this scene to stick up for Mom. It was just that she felt Mom was secretly subsidizing me, and she felt it was unfair. So she wanted to cause a big scene to get her share of “compensation.” My uncle spoke up for Mia. “Sis, didn’t you always claim to treat both daughters equally? How can you be biased towards Chloe?” “Mia, Uncle supports you. You have to bravely fight for your rights!” The other relatives also sided with Mia. It wasn’t that they genuinely wanted to help Mia; they were just taking the opportunity to watch our family drama. My mom’s face gradually grew paler. She forced a smile: “You adults shouldn’t follow a child in making a fuss. Who among you doesn’t know I treat both daughters the same.” “I’ll go find a waiter to order…” Saying that, she got up to leave. Mia blocked her path with outstretched arms. “Mom, are you feeling guilty and trying to run away?” My mom gave a forced laugh. “My phone broke a few days ago, and I just got a new one. All the chat history is gone. Even if I wanted to check the accounts, there’s no way.” “How about this, I’ll send you two thousand…” My sister interrupted her with a cold smile: “You think two thousand is enough to brush me off? The money you’ve subsidized Chloe over the years is definitely more than two thousand!” “Besides, what I care about isn’t the money, it’s fairness!” Her words rang loud and clear, and my aunt led the applause. “Well done, Mia.” “If you’ve suffered a grievance, speak up. We’ll all back you up.” My aunt looked excited and raised her phone, pointing it at us. She was a minor influencer with a few tens of thousands of followers on a short-video app. I instantly understood what she was trying to do. Sure enough, using my burner account, I checked my aunt’s profile and saw she was live streaming. However, there were only a handful of people watching. Dissatisfied with the viewer count, my aunt added a few more provocative comments, hyping up the relatives. Seeing the relatives on her side, Mia puffed out her chest, feeling even more confident. She said loudly, “You always say you treat us both equally, but behind my back, you favor Chloe. Did you think I couldn’t feel it?” “Today, I must demand fairness for myself!” My mom looked at me with pleading eyes, wanting me to step in and say something. I sighed inwardly. Although I was disheartened by my mom’s actions, this was ultimately our family business. It was one thing to talk about it in front of relatives, but now that my aunt had started a livestream, the nature of it changed. Because of my aunt’s instigation and the relatives’ agreement, more people were pouring into the livestream to watch the drama. I didn’t want our family business to be used as my aunt’s tool to gain traffic, nor did I want a bunch of ignorant strangers discussing it. So I interrupted Mia. “Whatever it is, we’ll talk about it when we go back. Let’s just eat properly for now.” I gave her a look, but Mia obviously didn’t get it. She scoffed. “What right does a beneficiary like you have to speak here?” “I’m the one who’s being treated unfairly. Is it wrong for me to demand an explanation now?” “If we go back, you and Mom definitely won’t admit to the favoritism, so we must clear it up now!” Mia was relentless, and my mom’s face grew uglier by the second. Suddenly, whatever she thought of, her expression calmed down. She looked up at me. “Chloe, the fact that I secretly subsidized you under the guise of buying things was indeed unfair to Mia.” I froze. Just as I was about to ask her when she had ever subsidized me, I heard my mom continue: “The chat history is gone, and besides, it’s hard to calculate all the scattered bills over so many years.” “But I estimate it adds up to around twenty thousand.” “How about this, you give your sister ten thousand, and we’ll let this matter rest.” After finishing, she ignored my reaction and turned to ask Mia for her opinion. Mia wrestled with it for a moment, then nodded reluctantly. “Fine, whatever.” So the reason she didn’t agree to the two thousand compensation my mom offered earlier was because she thought it was too little. My mom looked at me again, signaling me to hurry up and send the money. To save her own reputation, she was forcing me to admit to something that never happened, and she wanted me to give Mia money. I was absolutely infuriated and laughed. Mia rolled her eyes at me and urged, “What are you staring at? Hurry up and send me the money.” I stared intently into my mom’s eyes. “You’re saying that over the years, using the excuse of buying things for you, I’ve pocketed over twenty thousand. Then show me the proof.” My mom looked away. “I already told you the chat history is gone. Where am I supposed to get proof?” Then she whispered in my ear, “Just send the money to Mia first. Making a huge scene during the New Year will just make us a laughingstock to the relatives.” “When we get home, I’ll explain it clearly to Mia and have her give the money back.” She thought that just like when she sent the wrong amount before, a casual “I hit the wrong button” would make me compromise. But this time I was unusually firm. I wasn’t going to accept this just because of a few words from my mom. Otherwise, both the relatives and the netizens watching the stream would believe I had been skimming money off my mom all these years. When that time comes, no matter how I explained, they wouldn’t believe it, and I’d lose ten thousand dollars for nothing. I raised an eyebrow. “Without proof, on what grounds are you saying I skimmed money?” At first, the netizens didn’t understand what was happening, but my aunt typed out an explanation in the chat. Hearing the whole story, the netizens all thought I had skimmed money using the excuse of buying things for my mom. I lowered my eyes and saw that the livestream chat was now full of people cursing me. Mia slammed the table and said shrilly, “Mom already admitted it, and you’re still stubbornly denying it!” “You just see that Mom said the chat history is gone, so you’re refusing to admit it, right?” The other relatives also chimed in, urging me to fork over the money. “Chloe, you guys are blood sisters after all. Don’t make things too ugly over a little money.” I said coldly, “If there isn’t any, there isn’t any. I will not send her money.” My sister’s eyes instantly reddened. The next second, a slap landed on my face. My mom slapped my cheek so hard it went numb. My mom pointed at me, filled with righteous indignation. “You are truly too selfish! Your sister didn’t even haggle over the exact amount, and was willing to just take ten thousand and let this go.” “But you value money more than family ties!” My heart completely turned cold. “Fine, didn’t Mia say I used buying things for you as an excuse to skim money?” “Then let’s calculate it clearly. If I really did profit, I will return every single cent.” Mia scoffed disdainfully. “Sounds nice, but the chat history is gone. Where are you going to check the accounts?” I waved my phone. “It’s fine. Mom’s records are gone, but I still have mine.” Hearing this, my mom’s face turned a bit pale. But before I could even open the chat screen with her, my mom suddenly snatched my phone while my guard was down and smashed it hard on the floor. “I didn’t want to show the transfer records because I didn’t want to see you sisters fighting endlessly over a little money.” “I didn’t expect you to completely fail to realize my good intentions.” “You clearly got more benefits than your sister, yet you stubbornly refuse to take out a little money to share with her. You really disappoint me!” Looking at her expression and tone, if I hadn’t known the truth, I really would have been fooled by her. I picked up my phone. The screen was shattered, and it wouldn’t turn on at all. My mom let out a barely noticeable sigh of relief. She seemed to think that with my phone broken, there was no way to check the accounts. Unfazed, I pulled out a stack of paper from my bag. Seeing the contents, my mom’s face changed drastically. She lunged forward to snatch the papers away. But this time I was prepared and dodged to the side. My mom’s face was dark, and she gritted her teeth. “Give that to me!” Seeing the commotion, the relatives were curious about what was on the paper that made my mom react so strongly. Even my sister asked in confusion, “Mom, is there something on those papers?” My mom realized she was overreacting and gave a few dry laughs. “It’s nothing, she’s just holding a few pieces of paper and trying to be mysterious.” My sister furrowed her brows. “Didn’t she just say she has the bills there? Then why did you smash her phone?” “You don’t dare let us see the bills because there’s something fishy about them, right? The amount you subsidized her is definitely more than twenty thousand!” My mom’s refusal to let others see the bills caused suspicion. But they all thought it was because the money she subsidized me was more than the twenty thousand she claimed. That’s why she didn’t dare let anyone see the bills. My aunt was fanning the flames, loving the drama, and casually driving traffic to her livestream: “Yeah, first you said your phone chat history was gone and you couldn’t produce the bills.” “Then Chloe said she had the bills, and you smashed her phone. Isn’t it obvious you don’t dare let us see the bills?” Hearing this, my sister said angrily, “You really are biased towards my sister!” “You tried so hard to keep me from seeing the bills, just because you were afraid I’d ask for more money, right?” My mom opened her mouth, completely unsure of what to say. She indeed didn’t dare let anyone see the bills. But not because of how much she had secretly subsidized me over the years, but because every time she transferred money, it was short one digit. She cared about her face in front of the relatives. She always said she had money on hand and didn’t need her children to spend money on her, and instead subsidized us from time to time. I don’t know if she secretly subsidized my sister in private, but I hadn’t received any for all these years. Not only had I not received any, I had actually paid out twenty to thirty thousand dollars out of pocket. And as a result, I was accused by her of using this to skim money. If they saw the transfer records now, her lies in front of the relatives all these years would be exposed. She tried to explain, “I didn’t let you see the bills because I didn’t want to see you sisters calculating back and forth over a little money, and ending up hurting your relationship.” My sister sneered. “Then when you secretly subsidized my sister, why didn’t you think it would hurt our relationship?” “You’re just making excuses for your favoritism!” I waved the papers in my hand. “It’s fine, even though the phone is broken and we can’t look at the bills, I’ve already printed out the bills from all these years in advance.” “Didn’t you say I used buying things for Mom to skim money? Let’s calculate exactly how much I skimmed now.”

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At my twenty-fourth birthday party, my fiancée’s sponsored student almost died from an allergic reaction to a fruit wine I gave him. That day, I discovered the ambiguous, intertwined feelings between them. I insisted on breaking the engagement, but Chloe brought both our parents and cried in front of me, begging for my forgiveness. Under the persuasion of our parents, considering the five-billion-dollar partnership between our two families, I compromised. But on the third day after our wedding, she got into a car accident. Her lower body was severely injured, rendering her unable to be intimate. To prevent her from being blamed by my family, I had to lie to the outside world, claiming I preferred the DINK lifestyle and didn’t want children. Four years later, on a foreign variety show, I saw my wife, Chloe, playing games with a little girl. After some investigation, I discovered that four years ago, Chloe had settled abroad with Liam. She even gave birth to his daughter, Emma, and was currently pregnant with another. I stormed into her office to confront her, only to accidentally overhear her talking with a friend. “Just to punish your husband for giving Liam a glass of wine, you faked a car accident and haven’t let him touch you for four years? You’re really something.” Chloe casually examined her new manicure and sneered, “Who told him to almost kill Liam back then? This is his lesson.” “When my daughter with Liam grows up, I might consider bringing her back to let him acknowledge her as his daughter. He has the title of my legitimate husband and gets a daughter for free. He should be content.” My body felt like it was plunged into an ice cellar. So, all these four years of visiting doctors and praying to gods everywhere, my bottomless tolerance towards her, were all a punishment for a single glass of wine. Since that’s the case, this marriage of convenience can go to hell. 1 The conversation inside continued. “Chloe, honestly, your husband treats you really well. A pampered rich kid, traveling everywhere to find famous doctors for you, even kowtowing up the mountain to pray for blessings.” “Isn’t it a bit too cruel to treat him like this? Making him celibate for life, growing old without children, it’s a bit…” Chloe’s mocking laughter rang out. “This is the price he pays for hurting Liam.” “So what if he’s a rich kid? Does that mean he can bully Liam just because he has no one to rely on? I’m just making him taste the bitterness others have suffered, so he doesn’t spend his whole life only knowing how to bully people.” Her friend sighed. “Chloe, aren’t you afraid your husband will find out the truth and make a huge scene demanding a divorce?” Chloe’s gaze immediately sharpened. “Autumn, you didn’t get soft-hearted and tell him, did you?” Autumn shook her head, helplessly looking down and sipping her tea. Chloe’s cold voice continued. “Don’t you dare ruin my big plan. I’ve been plotting this for half a year.” “Since I promised Liam I wouldn’t let him touch me for the rest of his life, and that our children will be the sole heirs of both families, I can’t let Liam down.” Chloe’s tone was full of warning, terrified of leaking any information, failing her scheme, and making her Liam sad. I couldn’t help but recall those bitter nights. My desires were clearly about to explode, yet I endured and didn’t touch her. It was hard on her to fake heartache, trying to use various little tricks to help me release. At that time, I even thought she had no choice either. It turns out she was just keeping herself pure for her little lover. I listened to the conversation inside in humiliation, my heart feeling like it was pierced by ten thousand ice swords. So she wasn’t just treacherous, she was vicious. These four years, amidst the gossip of high society, enduring the humiliation, I gritted my teeth and bore it all. My knees still bore the scars from kneeling while praying for blessings, stinging every time it rained. Back then, I devoutly hung the amulet I prayed for around Chloe’s neck. What was she doing then? Rolling in the sheets with her sponsored student, enjoying paradise, even mocking my stupidity and pitying me. Then letting her group of friends judge me with sympathetic and mocking eyes. I wiped away my tears, turned and left, and canceled the American specialist I had booked for Chloe. The person on the other end asked in surprise, “Mr. Vance, this is Professor Chemistry, whom you pulled so many strings to get. Why are you suddenly canceling?” I laughed self-deprecatingly, “Because my wife is cured, and she even gave birth to a beautiful daughter.” 2 That night, when Chloe came back, I almost couldn’t control the urge to rush over and tear her apart. I wanted to confront her, why did she lie to me like this? Was it really just because I gave Liam a glass of fruit wine? For four whole years, the torment I suffered, from sadness to worry, even preparing to live a monk’s life with her forever, all ended up being just a joke. I watched Chloe calmly walk into the living room, throw herself into my arms, tilt her head up, and kiss the corner of my mouth. “Hubby, I learned some new tricks tonight. I want to make you happy too.” I stared fixedly at Chloe, trying to see if there was a trace of guilt or a guilty conscience on her face. Finally, I gritted my teeth and nodded. “Okay!” That night, Chloe washed up and wore a bathrobe, while I lay naked on the bed as she requested. She raised an eyebrow and winked at me. I sneered, carefully examining her expression. Following her line of sight, I finally discovered the anomaly. In the eyes of the huge wedding photo opposite the bed, there was a faint glimmer of light. I instantly understood. She clearly didn’t love me, so why was she willing to use various little tricks to please me? Before I could react, Chloe threw off the thin blanket covering me, exposing my naked body. Thinking about who might be on the other end of that micro-camera? A wave of nausea washed over me. I vomited with a “bleh,” spraying it right onto Chloe. Chloe immediately frowned in disgust and pushed me away. “Arthur, if you’re disgusted by me, just say so. There’s no need to be so disgusting.” “From today on, go sleep in the guest room. No need to force yourself.” If it were in the past, I definitely would have patiently coaxed her, then willingly tried again and again, enduring the humiliation and anger. But this time, I just silently stood up, looked at her coldly, said “Okay,” and turned to walk out. Chloe froze, then with a bang, a teacup was smashed onto the floor. “Arthur, I knew you weren’t sincere towards me! It’s only been four years, and you’re already disgusted by me, aren’t you?” I paused, turned back, and looked at her self-deprecatingly. “Chloe, aren’t you disgusted?” Chloe looked at the seemingly knowing expression on my face and couldn’t help but freeze. All her accusations instantly stiffened on her face, her eyes darting around guiltily. “Arthur, what nonsense are you talking about? We’re a loving couple, what’s disgusting about that?” I slammed the door shut, never wanting to look at her again. That once pure and elegant aura was now only left with shameless disgust. The next day, while she was at work, I decisively hired a private investigator. When the private investigator placed the investigated information and videos in front of me, I instantly slumped into my chair. In that moment, I had the urge to take a knife and hack her to pieces. Chloe, how could you deceive someone like this? Aren’t you afraid of going to hell? Since that’s the case, the evil you have committed, I will definitely repay double. 3 I holed up at home for three whole days, unable to face those videos. Even less daring to imagine how many people had seen them. When Chloe came back, she saw me sitting by the window, drunk. She came over, took my arm, and sighed. “Arthur, I’m sorry. Did someone gossip again? If you really can’t stand it, let’s get a divorce.” She looked so sad, so deeply in love. I calmly pushed her away and stared dead into her eyes, trying to see a fraction of sadness, trying to see if my sacrifices over the years were worth even a little bit. “Chloe, I didn’t do anything wrong. Why treat me like this?” Chloe froze completely, then her eyes reddened with grievance. “Arthur, I can’t please you. I understand if you despise me, but I really don’t want to leave you.” Saying that, she hugged me and cried. At this moment, I seemed to see the Chloe from ten years ago. Back then, she followed me around all day, calling me “Brother Arthur,” bringing the best pastries to my hands. When climbing mountains with me, she chattered like a happy little sparrow. Under the brilliant starlight, the young girl’s eyes were brighter than the stars. She held my hand tightly. “Brother Arthur, I don’t want to leave you in this lifetime. Let’s be together forever, okay?” Back then, I thought we would have a forever future. Until Chloe and I went playing in the mountains and met fourteen-year-old Liam. He was being held down by several men, trying to lift him onto a tricycle. He knelt on the ground, struggling desperately and begging, “Dad, don’t give me away. I’ll go up the mountain to chop wood, I’ll go to the fields to plant vegetables, I can make money.” Tears mixed with dust plastered his dark face, his hair messy and rough. From the murmurs of the people around, I learned that it was his father, wanting to sell him to an illegal brick factory as a laborer to get money to build a house. I immediately felt pity, scolded those people away, and protected him behind me. In the end, after an argument, Chloe gave all our travel expenses to Liam’s dad, saving him, and promised to sponsor his education in the future. I didn’t expect that after graduating from college, Liam would run straight to the city to find Chloe and stay by her side as an assistant. He constantly played the victim, acting timid and subservient in front of me, as if I were bullying him. Chloe said more than once that Liam was timid, telling me not to be forceful when speaking to him, to be gentle. I thought he was just naturally unpresentable. I didn’t expect he was deliberately digging traps for me. Until my birthday, I kindly handed him a glass of fruit wine. “Liam, let me introduce you to some friends. Hang out with them more in the future.” I didn’t expect that after taking just two sips, he would clutch his stomach and say I forced him to drink, intentionally causing his allergy. He cried hoarsely, clutching his stomach and collapsing into Chloe’s arms. That day, Chloe looked at me with eyes like poisoned arrows. In the end, she said nothing and rushed Liam to the hospital. That day, I was also furious. I had a huge fight with Chloe and wanted to break the engagement. Ultimately, under her pleading and the mediation of both our parents, I naively thought the matter was just over. But I didn’t expect the seed of resentment had already been planted. Chloe believed I intentionally tried to kill Liam and began using her whole life to punish me. I apathetically raised my hand, touched her head, and sneered, “Chloe, if you had to choose between me and Liam, who would you be reluctant to leave?” A flash of panic immediately appeared in Chloe’s eyes. “Arthur, why bring him up out of nowhere? Did you hear someone say something?” “I haven’t contacted him for a long time, don’t overthink it.” I lowered my eyes, wiped away my tears, and stood up apathetically. “No one said anything.” “I was just feeling sentimental. If I hadn’t made Liam drink that glass of fruit wine back then, maybe you guys would have been together for five years.” Seeing her expression visibly tense up and her back stiffen, she blurted out, “Arthur, how could I possibly be with a lowly mud-leg? I’d rather die alone in this life than be with him.” I sneered, supporting my body and slowly walking towards the bedroom, clutching the message Liam had just sent me. “Arthur, do you know what Chloe says about you? A high-and-mighty rich kid, not even as good as a gigolo in a club.” “Oh right, to prove her sincerity to me, every time you act slutty, she specifically video calls me. I thought it shouldn’t go to waste, so I did a live broadcast. The fans watching exceeded a million. Everyone praised you for being slutty enough.” Chloe, if you betray me, I will never let this go. I will make sure you get your retribution. 4 I silently deleted all the messages, without questioning or roaring. Because I know, if roaring could solve problems, the ruler of this world wouldn’t be the tiger, but the donkey. The five-year project between our two families was successfully completed. I specifically chose Blueberry Manor and invited all relatives, friends, and partners to celebrate together. On this day, I specially prepared a huge gift for Chloe. She even giggled and asked me what I had prepared. I just smiled and told her, it would be something she’d never forget for the rest of her life. The crystal chandeliers of the cooperation celebration banquet reflected the mingling of guests. Chloe took my arm and walked onto the stage. As the confetti bloomed above our heads, it represented the success of the Vance-Smith cooperation. I smiled, took the contract, and secured the interests belonging to the Vance family. Amidst thunderous applause, I took the microphone, my gaze sweeping across the entire venue. “Distinguished guests, relatives, and friends, today is not only the successful conclusion of the Vance-Smith cooperation, but also the fifth anniversary of my marriage with Chloe.” “Today, I have a big gift I want to give her, to let everyone witness Chloe’s true feelings for me over these five years.” As the applause died down, a few bodyguards carried in two large boxes, even wrapped with exquisite silk bows. I chuckled lightly and pushed Chloe in front of the boxes, signaling her with my eyes to open them. The entire venue instantly fell dead silent. Everyone craned their necks, curiously looking at the wide boxes, wondering what precious gift I would give. Chloe looked at me sweetly, then reached out, undid the latch, and flipped open the lid of the box with a smack. Under her shocked gaze, a man slowly stood up from the box. The moment he looked up and saw Chloe in front of him, he immediately burst out crying and hugged her tightly. “Wife, you scared me to death! Didn’t you tell me to bring our daughter back to attend the celebration?” “Getting stuffed into a box right after getting off the plane, it’s really, too scary.” Saying that, he turned his tears into laughter and hugged Chloe’s waist. After three seconds of silence, the entire venue suddenly erupted in an uproar. “What’s going on? Why is this man calling Chloe ‘wife’?” “And brought a daughter? Isn’t Chloe infertile?” Chloe’s face changed drastically. She immediately spun around and flipped open the other box. Her daughter was inside, eyes tightly shut, sleeping soundly. Chloe was immediately horrified. She lunged over, snatched the child out, and shouted loudly. But the little one just slumped her head on her shoulder, motionless. Chloe panicked. After patting her a few times, she cast her gaze on me. “Arthur, what did you do to Emma?” I sneered and walked forward, staring at her with chilling eyes. “Chloe, why are you so nervous? Could it be this is your daughter?” “Oh, right, I forgot. Our Ms. Smith was injured in a car accident, she probably couldn’t give birth to such a cute child.” Saying that, the ring on my hand gently traced across the child’s cheek, leaving a red mark. Chloe froze. Without pondering for even a second, she forced a smile onto her panicked face. “Arthur, don’t misunderstand. This child… this child…” In a rush, even someone as shrewd as Chloe couldn’t find a suitable excuse for a moment. Suddenly she seemed to think of something and immediately presented the child in front of me. “Arthur, this child is Liam’s little niece. Liam knew we couldn’t have children. To repay our kindness, he specially gave this child to us to be our daughter.” As she spoke, her voice steadied, becoming excited for finding such a good excuse. “Arthur, look how cute this child is. Haven’t you always wanted a child? Good people get good rewards. Liam is grateful for our sponsorship and really gave us a child.” Seeing the child in my hands, Liam couldn’t help but get anxious. Just as he was about to rush over, Chloe grabbed his arm and glared him back. I slowly stroked the child’s soft hair. My sharp ring traced across the child’s delicate face again and again, leaving white marks. Watching Liam’s eyes turn red with anxiety, admiring Chloe nervously swallowing and her eyes darting around. Suddenly, I grabbed the child by the neck and sharply rebuked, “Liam, you almost died by my hands once. Do you want your daughter to die by my hands too?” Liam was horrified. A high-pitched yell echoed through the hall. “Arthur, that’s Chloe’s daughter! You can’t hurt her!”

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I dated my brother’s best friend in secret for three years, until his non-biological sister returned from abroad. I immediately decided to break up and, turning right around, agreed to the marriage arranged by my family. The engagement party didn’t invite any outsiders; it was just our own relatives. Right as I was serving tea and formally changing how I addressed my future in-laws, my brother’s phone rang. He answered and joked playfully: “You’re not even coming to Chloe’s engagement? She used to follow you around calling you ‘brother’ all the time when she was little.” The other end of the line suddenly went dead silent. It took several seconds before Arthur’s hoarse voice came through: “Whose engagement?” 1 “What’s up, did you split with your mysterious boyfriend?” My brother, Liam’s, tone was irritatingly smug, clearly enjoying the drama. No wonder. For these past three years, I had adamantly refused to make my relationship public. He had warned me long ago: “A man who doesn’t even have the guts to come home with you to meet your parents, what kind of responsibility can he have? You’ll break up sooner or later.” Back then, I wouldn’t listen to a word of it, firmly believing that true love would last forever. As a result, reality slapped me hard in the face. My tone was flat: “Yeah, we broke up.” Hearing how decisive I was, the other end of the line was quiet for a good while. “Did he bully you?” I hadn’t felt much of anything anymore, but that question suddenly made my nose sting. I took a breath and shook my head at the empty air: “No, it was an amicable split.” “Fine. If he dares to bully you, I’ll definitely teach him a lesson.” “Chloe, there aren’t many men you can rely on. If you really want to get married, it’s better to find someone from a family that matches ours. At least it’s solid.” “Okay, you set it up. I’ll come back the day after tomorrow.” Just as I hung up. Arthur pushed the door open and came in: “Who were you on the phone with?” Afraid he’d see I’d been crying, I didn’t turn around: “A classmate.” “Hmm.” He walked right past me and went into his study. Together for three years, and he’d always been this cold. I used to always think that was just his personality, that he couldn’t act affectionate with anyone. Until last night, when I came back early from a business trip. I originally wanted to sneak in and surprise him. His study door was always shut tight, but that day it was slightly ajar. Warm yellow light spilled through the crack. I leaned in, about to knock, but saw Arthur inside with a pained expression. His eyes were fixed on his phone, one hand moving beneath the desk. I froze on the spot. The person on the screen wasn’t just anyone. It was his family’s adopted sister, Lily. He was so engrossed he didn’t even hear me open the front door and leave. I sat in a hotel room all night, thinking a lot. And finally understood. Arthur’s coldness towards me these past three years wasn’t because of his personality. His refusal to make our relationship public wasn’t because he was afraid my overly protective brother would give him trouble. It was all simply because— He didn’t like me at all. He just needed a smokescreen to cover up his feelings for that “sister.” So, I, who had chased after him, was the perfect shield. That night, Lily posted a status update: “Coming back to the US tomorrow, hurry and come welcome me~” 2 After finishing the call with my brother, I took a cab back to the villa I shared with Arthur. There were still some things I needed to pack and take away. He was eating breakfast. Looking up and seeing me, he flatly told the housekeeper to make another portion. “Didn’t know you were coming back at this hour, didn’t prepare yours.” I nodded: “Okay.” It’s not that he didn’t know; he just didn’t want to know and couldn’t be bothered to ask. Arthur’s movements paused. He looked up from his phone, a trace of confusion flashing in his eyes. Yes, if it were the past, I would definitely have squeezed in next to him and snatched his breakfast. Saying, “Who told you not to prepare mine? Then I’ll just eat yours.” Or hugged him from behind, pinched his ear, and asked if he forgot me because he didn’t love me anymore. Arthur was smart; of course, he could instantly notice my change. But he didn’t say anything more, just nodded: “I’m going to the office, eat slowly.” He took the suit jacket the housekeeper handed him. Hesitated for a moment. Just as I thought he might be waiting for me to bounce over and help him put it on like usual… He put the suit jacket on himself. The sound of his footsteps and the door closing vanished together. The housekeeper asked me: “Ms. Miller, what would you like to eat?” I shook my head: “I’m not eating. Help me find a few cardboard boxes, I need them today.” I took my suitcase back to the bedroom. When the housekeeper brought the boxes, I packed up my clothes and daily necessities. Then I went to Arthur’s walk-in closet. Over the years, I had given him quite a few ties, cufflinks, clothes, watches, and things like that. But he rarely used them. Unless I forced him to wear them, those things barely saw the light of day. Just like me as a girlfriend, only meant to be hidden in the dark. I swallowed the bitterness in my throat and packed the things I gave him into the boxes one by one. It took a long time to finish packing. I sat on the edge of the bed to catch my breath. My phone received a message from Arthur: 【I had the driver go pick you up, he’ll be there in half an hour.】 Concise and to the point, couldn’t even be bothered to give context. He was so sure I would never refuse him. I smiled self-deprecatingly. Fine, it was time to tell him we were breaking up. 3 The lights flashed erratically in the club. This used to be one of my favorite places to go, too. I was spoiled growing up, with a fiery personality. My friends all joked that I was the little spitfire of our social circle. At the anniversary celebration for my brother’s university, I saw Arthur for the first time and was attracted by his icy demeanor. I beat around the bush asking my brother if he had a girlfriend. My brother rolled his eyes: “With that iceberg face of his, who would dare get close to him?” My heart leapt with joy. He was cold, I was hot. A perfect match. I started chasing him relentlessly behind my brother’s back. I even changed my college application from New York to Miami, where Arthur was. When my brother found out I changed my choices, he was so angry he yelled at me. But despite the yelling, he still cared about me and called Arthur, asking him to look out for me. I secretly rejoiced: everything was going according to my plan. Back then, I thought I was so smart, that I had calculated both Arthur and my brother. Now I know, I was pathetically stupid. The waiter led me to the door of the private room. It was lively inside. Someone was jeering and asking: “Arthur, you keep that little girlfriend of yours hidden tight, rarely bringing her out to meet the guys. Now Lily’s back, and this is your favorite sister. Gotta ask you, who’s more important, the girlfriend or the sister?” I stopped in my tracks. Held my breath, waiting for the answer. Arthur took a sip of his drink, saying nothing. Lily stomped her foot and pouted at him: “Brother!” Only then did Arthur smile. His glass clinked against the marble table. His cold, clear voice rang out: “You can always get a new girlfriend, but I only have one sister. Who do you think is more important?” “Ooh~~ so cheesy.” The group jeered. Lily stood up triumphantly, pointing at more than half the people in the room: “You, you, and you, you lost the bet, pay up.” Arthur didn’t understand: “What’s going on?” Lily explained: “They made a bet with me, betting on whether you cared more about your girlfriend or me. The losers each have to transfer me a thousand dollars.” Amidst a chorus of wails, everyone pulled out their phones to transfer the money. Arthur looked at their exaggerated reactions and chuckled: “Serves you right!” I raised my hand and knocked on the door. 4 The lively atmosphere from a moment ago suddenly stopped. Arthur looked over; there was an empty seat next to him. He hadn’t brought me to meet his friends many times. But each time, he gave me enough face. When I was chasing him to the point of almost giving up, he actually offered to take me to meet his friends. That time, his friend said to me: “Sister-in-law, besides Lily, Arthur has never brought another girl here.” At that time, I only saw Lily as his sister. Didn’t think much of it. I even foolishly thought that Arthur was just cold on the outside, but actually cared about me inside. Thinking about it now, he was probably just putting on a show, or it was purely good upbringing. To him, it was a zero-cost method to make me even more dead-set on him. Back to reality. I ignored the empty seat next to Arthur. And sat in the corner furthest from him. Arthur’s face darkened: “Chloe?” I smiled, saying nothing. Lily picked up a glass of wine and walked towards me: “You must be Chloe, right? I’m Lily, Arthur’s…” She paused, as if not knowing how to say it. Arthur filled in: “Sister.” Lily frowned, a bit impatient. She handed me the wine, saying as if out of spite: “Right, sister. I just got back to the States. Chloe, here’s a toast to you.” Without having to think much, I immediately felt Lily’s hostility towards me. That was definitely not the attitude a sister should have towards her brother’s girlfriend. So, Lily also liked Arthur. Thinking of Arthur masturbating to her photo in the study. I only felt it was absurd. I smiled faintly: “Welcome back, but I’m not feeling well, so I won’t drink.” The corners of Lily’s mouth turned down: “Chloe, aren’t you being a bit disrespectful? I came all this way back, and this is my welcome party, and you won’t even drink a toast from me?” “I said I’m not feeling well.” Lily became even more unhappy, turning back to look for Arthur: “Brother, does she not like me?” Arthur’s eyes were icy, and his tone had no warmth: “Chloe, stop making a scene, drink it.” I almost laughed coldly out loud: “You called me here just to make me drink?” He lifted his eyelids and said flatly: “Lily wanted to meet you.” So, it was just because Lily wanted to see me. Just to make both of them wake up and stop having fantasies about each other. Using me as a tool. I stood up: “Now that we’ve met, can I go?” Probably sensing that I was exceptionally uncooperative today. Arthur’s eyes darkened. I knew he was angry. But I didn’t want to coddle him anymore. “What exactly have you been making a fuss about all day?” The atmosphere in the room grew cold because of his lowered tone. I looked into his eyes, smiling meaningfully. Arthur, I know all about your little secret. I’m not playing along anymore. I turned to leave, but Lily grabbed my wrist: “Chloe, I’m the main character today. I haven’t agreed to let you leave yet.” I slapped her hand away and slapped her across the face: “No parents to teach you manners, is that why you’re so unruly?”

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My childhood sweetheart, the husband who loved me more than life itself, was set up and ended up sleeping with the new female communications officer. After the drug wore off, the first thing he did was drag the girl in front of me, knelt down, and said I could punish him however I saw fit. After seven years of deep love, I treated it as an accident, softened my heart, and forgave him. For the next five years, we treated each other with mutual respect, becoming the loving couple everyone envied. Until the night Arthur was promoted to Major General. I specially took a leave of absence and flew for 11 hours to surprise him. Instead, I overheard a conversation between him and a woman at the door of his office. “So clingy. We haven’t been in touch for just an hour, and you’ve almost blown up my phone.” “Just wait. Tonight, I’ll make sure you can’t get out of bed.” My hand, poised to knock, froze. I carefully pushed open the slightly ajar door just a crack. Looking closely, I was instantly stunned. This woman was that very same communications officer from years ago. … The woman was held in Arthur’s arms, her lace panties already pulled down to her knees. The woman hugged him tight: “I missed you.” Arthur’s voice was suggestive: “Tonight, you can reach your hand in, follow my waist, and touch all the way to…” Like a ghost possessing me, I took out my phone and sent Arthur a text message. [Arthur, is your promotion ceremony over?] He didn’t reply. The woman took out two boxes of condoms from the drawer of Arthur’s desk. The same brand and flavor, the ones I was familiar with, the ones Arthur liked using with me the most. Arthur’s voice was cheerful: “Today is the great day of my promotion to Major General. You call the shots on how many times we do it.” I looked down at my phone; still no reply. The smile on the woman’s face grew wider: “You make it sound like I’m the one begging you for it!” Arthur also smiled dotingly: “Alright, alright, let’s get dressed, and then we’ll do it till we’ve had enough.” Seeing them getting ready to come out, I hurriedly hid in a corner, my hands trembling as I pressed the call button. The mechanical female voice replied coldly: “The number you have dialed cannot be reached at the moment.” I understood. Arthur had turned on “Do Not Disturb” mode. This year, Arthur said he had to prepare the materials for his promotion to Major General. As soon as he entered his office, he was too busy to answer calls. It wasn’t the first time I couldn’t reach him. Coming back to my senses, Arthur and the woman were already walking out of the office, hugging each other. I slightly turned my head to look. With just one glance, I was nailed to the spot. Arthur was wearing a crisp military uniform, and on his face was the joyful smile I was so familiar with. The woman tilted her head up and dropped a light kiss on the corner of his lips. Arthur smiled gently: “Pulling this trick again.” The corridor lights were dim, but I happened to see his face clearly. The owner of this face had accompanied me through thirty years of my life. At age three, I accidentally fell in the military family compound and cried loudly. He shoved a bullet casing ornament into my hand: “Here, I’ll protect you from now on, don’t cry!” At age fourteen, imitating a scene from a movie, he hid my photo in his tactical bag. After I found it, his ears turned red. “I just like you, so what?” At age eighteen, our first love. After Arthur and I had our first kiss, he was so excited he treated the whole unit to a meal. “I wish I could tell everyone that I am the happiest person in the world.” At age twenty-five, a successful proposal. In front of both our families, Arthur swore to love only me for the rest of his life. Everything froze on the night before our wedding. When I opened the door to his dorm room, he was naked and entwined with a strange girl. That day, everything was too chaotic. Everyone said he was set up, drugged, and that’s why he slept with the new communications officer. As his childhood sweetheart, I should give him a chance. After the drug wore off, the first thing Arthur did was drag the girl in front of me, knelt down, and said I could punish him however I saw fit. Seeing my silence, he picked up a dagger and pointed it at his own heart. “Chloe, as things stand, I’ve wronged you.” “If you don’t believe me, I’ll cut it open and show you. You’re truly the only one in my heart!” Tears blurred Arthur’s face. His voice trembled: “Don’t leave me, wife, I beg you. I’ve loved you for so many years.” “We grew up together, give me one chance. If you don’t want me, I really will die…” After seven years of deep love, I treated it as an accident, softened my heart, and forgave him. I thought we were inseparable, that we would go from childhood friends to growing old together. But this second. Our thirty years finally collapsed. Chapter 2 I arrived at the military base dorms in a daze. My mom sent a message: [How is it? Arthur must be thrilled to know you’re there, right?] I took a deep breath, rubbed my sore eyes, and pretended to be calm as I replied: [I just got to his dorm, haven’t told him yet.] The dorm door was pushed open from the outside. It was Arthur. Our eyes met. His expression was unnatural for a few seconds, but he quickly regained his composure. “Why didn’t you tell me in advance you were coming, so I could pick you up at the airport?” My expression was indifferent: “Wanted to give you a surprise.” Arthur walked over smiling and gave me a big hug: “I couldn’t bear to let you do that.” “You must be tired from the flight, right? It’s just my promotion to Major General, yet my wife had to go through the trouble of flying over.” Arthur wanted to say something else, but his phone rang. As he looked down to reply, the familiar gentleness and patience appeared between his brows. Then he turned his head and said to me apologetically: “My comrades invited me out for dinner tonight to celebrate my promotion. I’ll have to wrong you for tonight, honey.” Before I could speak, he grabbed a piece of clothing from the closet. I instantly understood. He came back to the dorm to get the personal item Mia had forgotten. This dorm, where Arthur temporarily lived after being transferred to the Cloud City military district, I had taken the time to decorate for him. For this, I took a week off from the Seacity military district, missing out on a major mission. But right now, the tactical watch I spent half a day hunting down at a military auction and brought over personally was gone. Even the photo of the two of us stuck to the fridge had vanished without a trace. A wave of nausea seeped into my heart along with the clothes. I stood up abruptly, grabbed my suitcase, and headed for the door. Arthur followed: “Are you angry?” He hugged me from behind: “The dorm isn’t clean. I’ll book you the best room at the guesthouse.” “I promise, I’ll spend the whole day with you tomorrow, okay?” As usual, he pressed against my cheek, wanting to kiss me. I turned my face away. He didn’t mind and left impatiently. Across from the dorm, a man walked out and whistled at me. “Major General Hayes has a girlfriend, I’ve seen her. Why are you looking for a married man?” “Everyone who lives here knows them, they live very happily.” The man kept talking and actually stepped forward, trying to hug me. Like a reflex, I kicked him hard. The man cried out in pain, and I dragged my suitcase towards the stairs. Even when I stumbled and fell awkwardly to the ground, I didn’t dare stop to see where I had scraped my skin. Hearing the man’s angry curses behind me, I was terrified of getting into trouble, so I got up and ran downstairs. Heading straight to the military airport, I sat blankly in the waiting hall. I didn’t understand. Why did Arthur cheat again? During the first two years of our marriage, I often had nightmares. In my dreams, Arthur was holding a strange girl, both of them stark naked. When I woke up, my heart would always ache. Arthur would hold me, coaxing me over and over. “It’s all my fault. I made my wife sad again.” He changed the passwords of all his electronic devices to my birthday and introduced me publicly at military events. What he did every day, who he met—he always reported to me in detail. Even when he had to stay outside while executing military missions, he would leave the video call on all night, falling asleep to the sound of my breathing. He and I were both carefully repairing that trust. Exactly when did it start? Faintly recalling that woman’s name, I opened the military forum and searched. It took me only a minute to find her among many accounts with the same name. Only because that profile picture was taken in Arthur’s dorm. Chapter 3 Behind the photo hung a hand-drawn military topographic sand table painting, which I had specially commissioned. Just because Arthur said he liked it, I paid a special visit, standing outside the master’s studio for a whole afternoon to move him. Mia usually shared her daily life on the military forum. I scrolled down her forum homepage. The earliest post related to Arthur appeared three years ago. Mia and Arthur had their fingers intertwined, the background being the training ground of the Seacity military district. [I’m with my god from when I was eighteen!] At the same place, eighteen-year-old us held hands for the first time. The night breeze was cool, and Arthur was so nervous his palms were sweating. “When our hair turns white, we’ll come back here together.” Mid-July the year before last, right on our wedding anniversary. Arthur said he had a meeting at the military district, but his social media showed him accompanying Mia on an outing around the military base. Last New Year’s Day, I was hospitalized with a high fever. Arthur appeared in Mia’s post, focused on disinfecting a scrape on her fingertip. The hand holding my phone was shaking. Arthur’s full face didn’t appear in any of the photos. But the familiar side profile made it impossible for me to continue deceiving myself. With a casual swipe, Mia’s latest post loaded. The lace maid outfit in the picture was so revealing that taking an extra glance made me feel sick. [The reward he prepared for me tonight.] So, what Arthur just went back to the dorm to get wasn’t Mia’s personal item, but the sexy gift he had prepared for her. In all the years Arthur and I had been together, he never played this kind of kink with me, yet he could go to such lengths for another woman. Someone left a comment on the post: [Brother-in-law eats this well? Sister loves him too much.] Mia replied: [I couldn’t help it. I asked him today when he fell for me.] [He said it was five years ago, the day I bravely told him I liked him for the first time. He praised my eyes for being frighteningly bright, saying he could never forget.] [Thinking that he was also thinking of me these past few years, my heart just melted.] Five years ago was the day I caught them in bed. I pursed my lips tightly. Mia posted a short video. The camera focused on a large bed covered in rose petals. Mia spoke: “You’re thirty now. Do you have any new plans for our relationship?” Arthur’s gentle voice came through: “Plans?” “I do want you to give me a child.” The camera shook, and the sound of fabric rubbing violently could be heard. My fingertips went stiff. I dialed wrong several times before finally calling Arthur. The phone rang three times before finally connecting. My voice trembled: “Arthur, am I still in your future plans?” He was silent for a few seconds, then said casually, “Yeah, why wouldn’t you be?” Immediately after, Mia’s laughing voice came from the other end: “Hubby, stop answering the phone, come here.” If I hadn’t stumbled upon Arthur and Mia, I probably would have continued being kept in the dark by Arthur. The past love, the future we envisioned together. At this moment, suddenly vanished into thin air. Perhaps because I was silent for too long, Arthur became slightly angry. “Are you not trusting me again?” “For you, I rejected dozens of transfer orders from the Seacity military district, just because you’re always so suspicious!” “It wasn’t easy for me to get a temporary transfer to the Cloud City military district. I got promoted to Major General here tonight, and I’ll be going back to the Seacity military district in a few days.” “I’m considering our future too. Can you not be so willful?” I laughed softly. “Arthur, you’re right.” “I am suspicious.” “I am willful.” “When you get back to the Seacity military district, we’re getting a divorce.” Chapter 4 Arthur hung up the phone first. He snorted coldly: “Fine, whatever you want.” The dial tone came from the receiver, hitting my heart like a drumbeat. On the way back to the Seacity military district, I didn’t sleep a wink. I used to think happiness was within reach. But now, everything has fallen through. After resting at home for a day, I received another message from Arthur. [I’m back at the Seacity military district. We’re having a family dinner tonight, don’t give me attitude in front of my parents.] [Chloe, you’re an adult. You should know your limits when throwing a tantrum.] I replied, agreeing to attend. When I sorted myself out and appeared at the Hayes family’s old estate, both families were already there. Arthur sat down next to me. He looked at my averted face, his tone helpless. “Are you still angry?” He took out a bullet casing ornament and shoved it into my hand. “It’s my fault, okay?” “An apology gift for you. Smile, hm?” My palms were ice-cold. Just yesterday, before I was preparing to go home, Mia posted a new video on the forum. On a messy king-sized bed lay a bunch of gifts. Mia opened them one by one: a limited-edition tactical watch, a custom-made military dress uniform, keys to a modified Jeep… Only one bullet casing ornament she looked at with disgust: “This thing isn’t special at all, I don’t want it.” The person taking the video laughed dotingly: “I get promoted to Major General and you receive the gifts, and you still despise them. Can I just go throw it away then?” I opened my hand, letting the ornament fall to the ground. Arthur frowned: “What more do you want from me? Take it or leave it.” Mother Hayes smiled affectionately, trying to ease the tension. “Chloe, I heard you specifically rushed to the Cloud City military district to celebrate Arthur’s promotion to Major General, but he didn’t accompany you because he was having dinner with his comrades. He was wrong to do that.” My mom tried to smooth things over from the side. “You child, you insisted on running over there without telling Arthur. By the way, didn’t you find Arthur’s grandmother’s belongings? Did you give them to him?” “Grandmother’s belongings?” Arthur froze, turning to look at me in disbelief. “Chloe, did you really find them?!” He stood up abruptly, the corners of his mouth rising uncontrollably. The coldness in his eyes melted, rippling with undisguised excitement. I didn’t avert my gaze, seeing every bit of his emotion clearly. The elders of both families laughed out loud. “Look at this silly boy.” I said softly: “No.” “Someone offered a higher price, so I sold them.” The atmosphere froze. Arthur’s excitement froze on his face. His eyes panicked for a few seconds before he forced a smile: “Chloe, stop making such jokes.” I didn’t reply, pulling out the divorce agreement I had prepared in advance. Then I gave a slight smirk: “Arthur, I’ve seen Mia.” “If we don’t divorce, are you going to let her be a mistress for the rest of her life?” Chapter 5 “What Mia?” Arthur stared at me intently. “Who’s been talking nonsense to you?” “Honey, we’ve been together for almost thirty years, do you have no trust in me at all?” The Hayes family breathed a sigh of relief and chimed in. “That girl named Mia, she disappeared years ago.” “Chloe, these past few years, Arthur has reported his whereabouts to you wherever he went. Let’s not bring up what happened back then.” Mother Hayes even reached out, wanting to take away the divorce agreement. “Chloe, I can understand that you resold the belongings and won’t hold it against you, but you can’t joke about divorce.” “Put it away quickly, you scared us to death.” Father Hayes righted the teacup he had just bumped, letting out a sigh of relief. Even my mom darkened her face and glared at me. “What nonsense are you talking about.” Looking at their concerned yet slightly reproachful faces, I suddenly felt it was absurd. Opening my mouth, I couldn’t speak for a moment. How could I not trust Arthur? For the past five years, I didn’t dare bring up any details related to Mia. I never dared to actively recall that nightmare-like scene of catching them in bed. I believed Arthur’s promise that it wouldn’t happen again, carefully maintaining this marriage. But how did it still come to this? No one hoped more than I did that all of this was fake. But my aching heart reminded me I had to stay clear-headed. I gently pushed Mother Hayes’ hand away. My voice wasn’t loud, but it instantly silenced the entire old estate. “You don’t need to put the agreement away. I’m serious.” I looked at Arthur, enunciating every word: “I’m not joking.” Arthur’s face changed instantly. He fiercely grabbed my wrist, making it hurt: “You’re joking, right?!” Arthur’s voice rose sharply. “Chloe, how could you possibly divorce me…” “Why couldn’t I?” I laughed out loud, forcefully shaking off his hand. I slammed my phone heavily onto the table. The screen lit up, showing Mia’s forum homepage. “Then tell me, what is this?!” Mia’s profile picture was exceptionally glaring under the lights. “Five years ago, you said you were set up and drugged, that you mistook her for someone else, and I believed you.” “For five years you’ve been obedient to me, and I believed that too.” “But Arthur, tell me, what is this? Why is she in your Jeep, why is she wearing my pajamas in your dorm, in your bed, asking you about plans for children?!” “And then you even answered Mia, saying you wanted her to have a child!” With every question I asked, Arthur’s face grew a shade paler. He opened his mouth, seeming to want to defend himself. But when his eyes fell on the phone screen, all his excuses got stuck in his throat. “It’s not… it’s not what you think.” Arthur stumbled back a step dejectedly, bumping into the dining chair with a harsh scraping sound. The truth was laid bare in front of everyone. Arthur’s parents looked at their son, who looked like he had lost his soul after being exposed, too shocked to speak. My parents’ eyes reddened even more, looking in disbelief at the son-in-law they had always treated as half a son. Father Hayes’ voice trembled: “Arthur, is what Chloe saying true?” Arthur didn’t answer. He suddenly rushed over, wanting to hug me, but I stepped sideways to dodge him. “Honey, listen to me explain, I was wrong…” He stammered: “I was… I didn’t want to do anything with Mia…” “The one I love is you, it’s always been only you!” This sentence again. Five years ago, he was like this too, kneeling in front of me with tears streaming down his face, promising me I was the only one in his heart. I bent down, picked up the bullet casing ornament on the floor that Mia had despised, and placed it in Arthur’s hand. “Arthur, your love is too dirty, I can’t accept it.”

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“Eight hundred bucks?” I stared at the red envelope tossed onto my desk. Inside, there was only eight hundred dollars. Over the New Year’s holiday, I hadn’t gone home. I pulled three consecutive all-nighters to fend off a massive hacker attack, single-handedly saving the company’s five billion dollars in assets. My boss, Preston Croft, had been overjoyed and promised me an eight-million-dollar year-end bonus. But just as I stepped out of his office, I overheard his true thoughts from the other side of the mahogany door. “Did that stupid girl actually believe me? Just snap a photo, send out a company-wide victory email, and stuff eight hundred bucks in an envelope later. She’ll be so grateful she’ll drop to her knees.” “Give eight million to a dirty code monkey? Please. As soon as the holidays are over, I’ll find an excuse to fire her!” I thought he was joking. But when that eight hundred dollars was actually placed on my desk, my mind went completely blank. All my colleagues were staring at me, watching the show with eager eyes. I let out a cold sneer and silently deleted the firewall code I had just spent days deploying. Then, I dialed the personal number of the CEO of our biggest competitor. “Your Chief Security Officer position? I accept.” 1 “I’ll also throw in a super backdoor to your biggest rival’s server as a bonus.” I hung up the phone. I immediately hacked into my boss’s personal computer, grabbed a few highly explicit private photos, and forwarded them directly to his wife. At the desk next to mine, Tyler, the biggest kiss-ass in the office, deliberately raised his voice to show off. “Wow! Ten thousand dollars! The boss is so generous this year!” Having said that, he turned to me, pretending to be casual. “Hazel, you’re our Technical Director. You did the company a huge service. The boss must have given you a massive envelope, right?” The office fell dead silent. Dozens of pairs of eyes turned to look at me. Preston’s right-hand woman, our HR Director Brenda, swayed her hips as she walked past my desk and dropped a comment: “Hazel, honey, young people shouldn’t care so much about money. Every opportunity the boss gives you is an investment in your growth.” I gripped that red envelope so tightly my nails almost dug into my palms. I hadn’t closed my eyes for three days and three nights. My eyes were bloodshot. I had stared dead at the code on the screen, my fingers flying across the keyboard. The company’s core data, worth five billion dollars, had hung in the balance of my cyber warfare with that hacker. It could have been lost at any second. At the very last moment, I found the enemy’s vulnerability, successfully counterattacked, and deployed a brand-new firewall. In that moment, the entire tech department was cheering. The office doors were pushed open, and Preston walked in, surrounded by a flock of executives. They all looked like they were watching a circus act, and I was the main attraction. Preston wore a fake smile, calling me out in front of everyone. “Hazel, are you satisfied with this year’s bonus?” He paused, deliberately raising his voice. “Eight hundred bucks is a lot. It’s enough for you to buy two nice outfits for the holidays.” Whoosh— The crowd erupted in roaring laughter. That sound made my stomach turn. The company’s entire technical framework, built from absolute scratch, was constructed by me, line by line of code. I used to treat those lines of code like my own children. In the early days of the startup, I used to squeeze into a tiny, hundred-square-foot apartment with his wife, Vanessa, splitting a single cup of instant ramen. She would slurp the noodles, her eyes sparkling as she promised me: “Hazel, once our company goes public, I promise to buy you a mansion with an ocean view!” Now, she was wearing an incredibly expensive designer gown, standing elegantly beside Preston. She looked at me with the exact same look you’d give a poor relative begging at your doorstep. I rushed forward, my voice trembling slightly. “Vanessa! That’s not what you told me back then!” Vanessa clung to Preston’s arm. “Hazel, a person needs to know when to be content.” “Preston verbally promised you eight million just to motivate you. How could you actually take it seriously? You’re being so immature.” Preston glanced at me, making no effort to hide his absolute contempt. “You really think a dirty code monkey is a company partner? Without us in sales running the business on the front lines, your tech department is just a pile of garbage that burns through cash!” “Given Hazel’s lack of competence and inability to fulfill the duties of Technical Director, effective immediately, she is reassigned to the server room as an administrator. Her primary duties will be equipment supervision and daily cleaning!” Everyone gasped. This was pure humiliation. He was trying to force me to quit. Server room administrator? Even the janitors looked down on that job. My heart, in that moment, turned completely to ice. I suddenly smiled. A freezing, bitter smile. In front of everyone, I crumpled those wrinkled eight hundred dollars into a ball and threw it with all my might, smashing it right into Preston’s greasy, smug face. “Keep the money. Buy yourself a coffin!” “If it’s not enough, I’ll chip in a little extra!” 2 I walked out of the CEO’s office without looking back. On the way to my desk, all my colleagues avoided eye contact, whispering among themselves. An apprentice I had personally mentored quickly lowered his head when he saw me, pretending to organize his desk, not even daring to call me “mentor” anymore. Another male colleague, whom I had saved from being fired by fixing a major live-server crash, actually rolled his eyes at me as I walked past. He muttered just loud enough for me to hear: “Serves her right. Who told her to offend the boss? Really thought she was someone special.” I wasn’t surprised. I thought of the incredibly gifted fresh grad who, during a tech review meeting, publicly pointed out that Preston’s exorbitantly expensive outsourced tech proposal “didn’t align with basic logic.” The very next day, he was sent to the admin department to fix printers. Less than a week later, that proud young kid resigned. I thought of Vanessa. I don’t know when it started, but she began loving to host these “women in the workplace” seminars. The guest speakers she invited would preach on stage: “A woman’s true success is finding a successful man and becoming his most solid backing, doing the supporting work.” At the time, Vanessa even smiled and pulled me on stage, asking me to share how I could better “support” the sales department in hitting their quotas. I thought of the male executive who got drunk at the annual gala and got handsy with me. Afterward, not only was he not disciplined, but he was actually promoted for landing a big contract. Vanessa even came to me with fake sympathy, advising: “Hazel, flies don’t bite seamless eggs. You need to watch your boundaries when interacting with male colleagues, so people don’t get the wrong idea.” Incident after incident. All the grievances I had deliberately ignored came rushing back to me now. I used to think she was just changed by love and a comfortable life. Only now did I finally understand: she was rotten. Rotten to the core. I walked to the elevator and pressed the down button. Vanessa’s voice echoed from behind me. “Hazel, go back and beg Preston right now. Apologize to him, and you might still have a chance.” I didn’t turn around. I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the basement parking garage. The elevator doors slowly slid shut, cutting off her hypocritical face. The phone in my pocket suddenly vibrated. It was an unknown number. I casually hung up. But they immediately called back. I answered the phone. “Who is this?” From the other end came a deep, male voice, calm and direct. “Hazel? This is Sterling Pierce.” The CEO of Apex Tech. Our biggest rival. “The Chief Security Officer position. The base salary is eight million a year, plus five percent equity in the group.” “The signing bonus is ten million. It can be wired to your account right now.” Before I could even process the information, he continued. Every word was exactly what I needed to hear. “Our group just fully acquired a top-tier hardware lab in Germany.” “Now, it’s under your control.” “All those ideas of yours, the ones Preston called ‘cash-burning garbage,’ now have a place to become reality.” I looked at my pale face in the elevator mirror, my eyes sharp and piercing. Suddenly, I smiled. “Deal.” “But I have a little personal business to take care of first.” 3 I went back to my workstation, preparing to format my personal PC and take my belongings. The sharp click of heels on the floor approached. Vanessa arrived with two security guards in tow. She put on her “good sister” mask again, saying with fake concern, “Hazel, don’t be so impulsive. Let’s talk this out properly. If you leave now, what will happen to the company?” I couldn’t be bothered to look at her. My fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up the command line terminal, preparing to wipe my personal development environment and all server access keys. On the screen, dense lines of code began scrolling rapidly. Vanessa couldn’t read code, but she instinctively knew that whatever it was, it was vital to the company. Her face changed instantly. Ripping off her gentle mask, she shrieked: “Hazel! Don’t you dare touch the company computers! Are you trying to destroy evidence?!” I stopped what I was doing and looked at her coldly. “My computer. My rules.” My glare seemed to trigger her. She suddenly yelled at the surrounding office: “Security! Grab her! She’s trying to steal core company code to sell to our rivals!” She pointed at me, screaming at the two guards rushing over. “She just attacked the company servers! I saw it with my own eyes! Arrest her immediately and call the cops!” The two guards, Dave and Mike, were guys I knew. I had helped them fix their home computers and troubleshoot their phones in the past. They looked deeply conflicted, hesitating in place. Vanessa’s tone turned venomous. “What are you two standing there for? Do you want to get fired along with her? This is corporate espionage! She’s going to prison!” Under the threat of losing their jobs, they finally gritted their teeth and flanked me on both sides. Vanessa walked up to me. “Hazel, trying to fight me? You’re too green.” “I’m not just going to make you roll out of this company. I’m going to destroy your reputation. With the label of a corporate spy on your back, you’ll never work in this industry again.” She stood up straight and ordered the guards. “Lock her in the server room! The signal is completely shielded in there. Let’s see how she contacts the outside world now!” “When the police get here and catch her red-handed, we’ll deal with her!” My phone was violently snatched away. They shoved and pushed me toward the server room. With a massive bang, I was shoved hard into the freezing, humming server room, which was kept below fifty degrees year-round. The heavy metal door slammed shut and locked behind me. 4 The cold air inside the server room was biting, freezing drafts rushing down my collar from all sides. But I felt incredibly calm. I almost wanted to laugh. Locking a programmer inside a server room? How is that any different from putting a mouse in a grain silo? I curled up in a corner of the room, avoiding the security cameras. Then, I lifted my foot and pried off a fake decorative rivet from the heel of my stiletto. It was a micro-USB drive. It contained a master-level backdoor program I had written for myself. It could bypass all the company’s existing security systems and drill straight into the core root of the servers. I expertly unplugged an ethernet cable and connected my portable micro-terminal. However, before I could even begin typing, the server room door suddenly swung open. Preston walked in with a cold sneer, carrying a very expensive-looking black briefcase. “Trying to sabotage us from the inside? Hazel, are you really that naive?” He placed the briefcase on the floor and opened it, revealing a sophisticated piece of black hardware. “Meet the military-grade hard drive data cracker. That so-called encryption algorithm on your computer is a joke to me.” He wanted to defeat me technically, in the realm I was most proud of, to crush all my pride. He forcefully booted up my personal laptop and plugged the cracking device’s cable into it. “I’m giving you one last chance. Hand over the access keys to all your private code repositories within sixty seconds.” “Otherwise, I’m calling the police immediately and charging you with endangering information security. That charge is enough to keep you in a cell until the floor rots!” I feigned absolute terror. “No… please don’t call the police… I’ll give them to you, I’ll give you everything…” Just as he thought he had won and forcefully shoved the data cable into my laptop’s USB port… I pressed a pre-programmed shortcut combination on my keyboard. Pop. A soft sound. His supposed million-dollar military-grade cracking device went completely black. A faint wisp of blue smoke drifted out of it. It was completely fried. Preston’s face went from white to red, then red to a sickly green. Furious, he raised his hand, ready to slap me. “You bitch! You dare play me?!” Right at that moment, Vanessa rushed in. Seeing the fried equipment, she immediately let out a piercing shriek right on cue: “Oh my god! I knew it! You ungrateful wretch, you’re trying to destroy the lifeblood of our company!” They played off each other flawlessly, getting ready to formally convict me. Suddenly! WEE-OOO-WEE-OOO! The highest-level security alarm blared through the entire building. Emergency red lights flashed frantically. An IT guy in a plaid shirt came stumbling and rolling into the server room. “Mr. Croft! Mrs. Croft! It’s… it’s a disaster!” “All our client data, financial reports, core source code… everything… it’s all been locked!” “The hacker… they sent a ransom note! They want… they want a billion dollars in ransom!” 5 “How is that possible?!” Preston snapped back to reality, grabbing the IT guy by the collar. “What about the firewall?! Is the three-million-dollar firewall I bought just for show?!” The IT guy looked like he was about to cry. “It’s useless, sir! The attack… it seems… it seems it was launched directly from the very bottom layer of our system! Our firewall didn’t detect a single anomaly from start to finish!” Preston’s head snapped toward me, his eyes locking onto mine. The murderous intent in his gaze looked like he wanted to swallow me alive. Meanwhile, on the massive screen in the company’s main control room, the ransom note was automatically projected. A gigantic, dripping-blood skull took up the entire screen. Beneath the skull was a striking line of text: “One hour. One billion dollars. Or every dirty secret your company holds will be global headline news tomorrow.” At the very bottom, a countdown timer was dropping rapidly: … Vanessa finally broke. It wasn’t until this very moment that she finally realized something. This company she was so proud of, where she thought technology was irrelevant—its absolute lifeblood had always been in the palm of my hand. She completely abandoned her elegant facade. She threw herself at me like a madwoman, grabbing my hands desperately. “Hazel… no! Master Hazel! I beg you, please think of something! This company… this company is your life’s work too!” Preston finally bowed his head as well. “You… you restore the system.” “Eight million… no! Ten million! I will wire it to you right now! Just fix this problem!” The panic on their faces made them look like ants on a hot skillet. “Okay.” A look of ecstatic joy instantly washed over their faces. “Hurry! Hurry! Get to the control room!” Under the complex gazes of every employee in the company, I calmly walked toward the front doors. Preston and Vanessa followed behind me like two dogs, still anxiously urging me on. “Hazel! The control room is this way! You’re going the wrong way! Come back!” I didn’t turn around. I walked straight to the glass front doors and pushed them open. Outside, a black Rolls-Royce Phantom was parked quietly at the bottom of the steps. The door opened, and the tall, imposing figure of Sterling Pierce stepped out personally. He walked around the car and opened the rear passenger door for me. He gave a slight bow and gestured for me to get in. 6 Vanessa chased me to the floor-to-ceiling windows upstairs and caught sight of this exact scene. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor, muttering mindlessly: “Apex Tech… It’s Sterling Pierce…” Preston was still holding out in his office, frantically calling his technical lifelines in Silicon Valley. On the other end of the line, after hearing his description, the expert replied coldly: “Preston, someone who can lock your system from the root without triggering a single alarm… we can’t mess with a god like that. Get your affairs in order.” The countdown on the big screen ticked away, second by second. Time was up. The homepage of the company’s official website was instantly hijacked, replaced by a massive, dynamic graphic. Highly explicit nude photos of Preston in luxury hotels, offices, and even his own home, alongside graphic chat logs with various influencers and female subordinates, began looping like a slideshow. Immediately after, the cell phones of every CEO and executive of our core clients received a multimedia message at the exact same time. The contents were screenshots of their highly classified trade secrets stored on our servers, attached with a message: “Your company’s data security has been fully compromised. Good luck.” In an instant, the company’s customer service lines blew up. The sales department lines exploded too. Every executive’s personal phone was ringing off the hook. On the other end were furious interrogations, contract termination notices, and demands for massive compensation. Every major financial news app started frantically pushing breaking news alerts: [Following Massive Scandal, Tech Firm XXX’s Stock Plummets 90% at the Bell, Triggering Circuit Breakers!] The risk management department of our partner bank called. The voice on the other end was icy. “Mr. Croft, our bank has decided to immediately freeze all your corporate bank accounts and initiate asset preservation procedures. We demand immediate repayment of all outstanding loans.” One piece of devastating news after another completely buried Preston. Then, his personal phone—the one he hadn’t smashed yet—suddenly popped up a notification. It was the headline from the world’s largest tech news outlet: [BREAKING! Genius Programmer Hazel Officially Joins Apex Tech as Chief Security Officer & Chief Scientist of Klaus Labs!] The featured image was from a press conference. I was wearing a sharp white suit, shaking hands with Sterling Pierce, with the massive Apex Tech logo behind us. The woman in the photo was confident and powerful—completely different from the miserable girl they had humiliated just hours ago. Preston stared dead at that photo. He couldn’t catch his breath. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted, falling stiffly to the floor. Looking at her unconscious husband, Vanessa finally let out a blood-curdling scream. Meanwhile, at the welcome banquet Apex Tech was hosting for me, I elegantly raised my champagne flute and smiled slightly at Sterling Pierce beside me: “A small welcoming gift. I hope you like it, Mr. Pierce.”

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After I got out of prison, I had no home, no degree, only a severe case of “Princess Syndrome.” My best friend sighed as she watched me unable to take my eyes off the luxury goods. “Miss Sterling, the only thing that fake heiress can’t beat you in is your eye for these things. Why don’t you just become a luxury sales associate?” I did it for three years, and every year I was the top seller. In the third year, Evelyn Sterling came into the store to order custom leather shoes. It just so happened to be my turn to serve her. I knelt down practicedly, just about to help her take off her shoes, but she helped me up. Her tone was surprised: “Chloe, how can you do this kind of thing?” She seemed to have never imagined that her once cherished and pampered daughter would now serve people so properly. I used her leverage to stand up and smoothly talked her into loading $200,000 onto a VIP card. She generously complied. As she was leaving, she asked somewhat tentatively, “Chloe, do you still hate Mom?” I flashed a standard professional smile and escorted her out. Then I immediately turned to my manager and requested a transfer to another store. I had long since stopped hating her, but I also didn’t want anything to do with the Sterling family ever again. 1 It was raining heavily when I got off work. Evelyn’s car was parked by the side of the road, hazard lights flashing. She rolled down the window and called out to me, “Chloe, Mom will give you a ride home.” I looked at the ride-hailing app on my phone; the wait time was endless. So, I smoothly got into the car. Life these past few years had taught me one truth: never pass up an opportunity to make yourself comfortable when it’s available. Otherwise, this whole life will just be a tribulation. The driver was still Uncle Wang. Seeing me, he chuckled happily: “The eldest miss looks a bit different.” “More composed than before, a bit like Mr. Sterling.” “Uncle Wang, just drive your car.” My father’s death was a thorn in all of our sides; even a slight mention brought unbearable heartache. A soothing classical melody soon flowed through the car. Evelyn originally looked like she had something to say, but after my father was mentioned, she leaned back wearily against the seat, her expression dark. I took advantage of a gap in the music to speak up: “Uncle Wang, just call me Chloe. I stopped being the eldest miss of the Sterling family a long time ago.” Uncle Wang still chuckled; Evelyn’s attitude didn’t affect him at all. “It’s just a habit. I can’t change it after all these years.” 2 Listening to Uncle Wang’s gentle voice, I couldn’t help but smile too. When I was 14, right at the peak of my rebellious phase, Evelyn brought home a child she had been sponsoring. Her original name was Ruby Chu. Later, when Evelyn found out both her parents were dead, she had her change her last name to Sterling. Thinking “Ruby” didn’t sound nice, she changed her first name to Clara. I was Chloe Sterling, she was Clara Sterling. But everyone said Clara was well-mannered, attentive, and thoughtful. No wonder she won Evelyn’s deep affection. In contrast, I was arrogant and conceited, worse than a child from the mountains. A rebellious teenager has her own pride; how could I allow myself to be outdone? I scolded every gossiping servant in the house. Tired from scolding, I sat on the sofa to catch my breath, only to run into Evelyn coming around the corner, her eyes full of disgust. Beside her, Clara, wearing the latest season’s new clothes, leaned affectionately against Evelyn, looking radiant. I knew it was all her doing. Ever since she arrived, no matter what I did, I was labeled a bully relying on my family’s power. Clearly, I was friendly to her at first, but she always acted hesitant and timid. Within a few days, rumors spread that the Sterling family’s eldest daughter looked down on the poor girl. I swore to Evelyn, argued, and hugged her in tears, asking her: “Mom, why don’t you believe me?” But she only sighed: “Chloe, when will you grow up and be sensible?” She always thought I was uneducated and useless. It’s like she forgot she once said that no matter what Chloe did, Mom would always have her back. I wanted to rip off Clara’s mask and show Evelyn her dirty heart. But I don’t know why, what came out of my mouth was: “What status do you have to be wearing that dress?” A dress that changes with every season—if Evelyn hadn’t allowed it, how could she wear it? Evelyn’s favoritism had shown signs long ago; I was just too stupid, still wanting to fight for a win. After that day, Clara Sterling changed her name to Mia Sterling. The Sterling family’s only precious Mia. And I was an utter joke. 3 The only two people standing by my side were my dad and Uncle Wang. My dad was too busy with work and felt guilty towards Evelyn. Even if he knew I was wronged, he would just give me more money. Evelyn despised me even more, thinking I would do anything for money. Uncle Wang was originally my dad’s driver. Later, after hearing that Mia was being picked on, Evelyn assigned Uncle Wang to pick up and drop off Mia, showing that the entire Sterling family stood behind her. But no matter how Mia tried to curry favor, Uncle Wang remained unmoved and didn’t say a single extra word. Instead, when he ran into me, he would remind me: “Miss, it’s getting cold, dress warmer.” Seeing me depressed, he would comfort me: “Miss, you are madam’s own flesh and blood. She still loves you.” Does she? I actually stopped believing that a long time ago. But I was still grateful for his kindness. A dark cloud of mockery hung over my head, and only Uncle Wang tried hard to let a ray of light shine through for me. The car drove slower and slower; I knew we were almost at my place. “Uncle Wang, just stop here. It’s hard to get into the alley ahead, and even harder to get out.” Evelyn seemed to have just woken up from a dream, looking at the surrounding environment in shock. “Chloe, you… you live here?” I smiled and politely said goodbye: “I’ve taken up Mrs. Sterling’s time. Thank you for dropping me off.” She looked a bit pained: “Do you really have to talk to me like this?” I bowed slightly. Opened my umbrella, and walked alone into the heavy rain. 4 When I got home, I noticed a new friend request on WeChat, with the note [Mom]. My manager said Evelyn had specifically asked him for my contact info, praised my excellent service, and specifically loaded $2,000,000 onto a VIP card. “Chloe, keep this big client happy, and the top seller spot is yours.” I hesitated for a long time. Thinking of Autumn’s medical condition, I finally clicked accept. “Thank you for your support, Mrs. Sterling 😁😁” It kept showing “typing…” I waited for a while, not knowing what long speech she was preparing to send, so I eventually tossed my phone aside and went to take a shower first. When I came back, I found many messages had been unsent. Only one sentence remained. “The anniversary of your father’s death is the day after tomorrow. Are you coming?” That sentence gave me nightmares all night. The dream kept repeating the events from back then. Mia was suddenly diagnosed with leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant from me. But I was pregnant at the time. I refused to abort my child; I would rather give up everything in the Sterling family and run far away. But the night before I was to leave, Evelyn pulled me aside for a heart-to-heart. She talked about how I hated having long hair when I was little, but she really wanted to raise a princess-like daughter. So, for her birthday, I showed up wearing a rainbow wig, only to get scolded for being too flashy. The more I thought about it in the middle of the night, the sadder I got. I woke my mom up crying, saying: “I just wanted to make Mom happy.” She also talked about elementary school. My grades were bad, but after hearing someone mock my mom for “not knowing how to teach her child” after school, I forgot to eat and sleep and scored a perfect 100 on a test. The price was that I lost a lot of weight. When I rested my pointy chin on my mom’s shoulder, she said: “My shoulder hurts, and my heart hurts too.” Evelyn looked at me nostalgically: “Chloe, do you still love Mom like you did when you were little?” “Of course, but Mom, do you still love me?” “…Of course.” If only I could have seen through her evasive eyes in the dim light. I wouldn’t have taken that drugged glass of water. When I collapsed, I happened to land in a warm embrace. Clearly, soft fingertips brushed across my cheek, gently wiping away the rolling tears. But when I woke up, I could only face cold reality. My own mother drugged me and aborted my child. That child was hard-won. With the child gone, I also lost the chance to ever have children again. 5 In the empty hospital room, I had only one thought: I wanted to get revenge for my child. To hell with my biological mother. From that day on, in my heart, she only had a code name: “That Woman.” I rushed back single-handedly. In the cool autumn breeze, I was wearing a thin hospital gown. They were celebrating Mia’s birthday. I smashed the massive villa to pieces with a baseball bat. If the security guards hadn’t stopped me, I would have definitely bashed their heads in. Even exhausted, I still roared. The anger in my eyes made That Woman stumble back in fear, supported by Mia. In the end, they decided to lock me up in a mental asylum for “recuperation.” If my dad hadn’t rushed back in time, I would have long become a delirious lunatic. Or maybe just a pile of white bones. When my dad returned, he brought the truth. The so-called leukemia needing a bone marrow transplant was nothing but a play directed and acted by Mia herself. Her target was my fiancé. My engagement to Julian Vance was set when we were children. After the Vance family’s renewable energy business skyrocketed, their status far surpassed the Sterling family’s. No matter how That Woman paraded Mia around their social circles, they couldn’t find a better match than this. So Mia had secretly been in touch with Julian for a long time. And I, back then, trying to win my future mother-in-law’s approval, went through countless IVF treatments and finally got the key to enter the Vance family. 6 Now that the truth was out, That Woman just hugged Mia affectionately. “Since it’s like this, let Mia marry into the Vance family.” “What else can we do? Can we just give up the Vance family’s backing?” “As for Chloe…” She seemed to think of something very troubling to her, glanced at me, and then looked away. “The villa in the north side of the city is yours now. Move there today.” I grew up in the south side, yet she was sending me to the north side. I didn’t want to stay in this house anymore either, but letting this matter pass so lightly? Absolutely impossible! My father threw a fit, and That Woman whimpered softly: “What can I do? I already have such a sweet daughter like Mia, do you want me to lose her too?” “It’s all because you’re never home. How am I supposed to manage her all by myself?” “If I can only have one daughter, it has to be Mia!” “You want to kick Mia out? Then I’ll leave with her.” In the end, it was my father who compromised. The day I left the Sterling family, he said: “When your mom figures things out, don’t hold a grudge against her.” But he didn’t know I resented him too, so I didn’t even say goodbye. I lurked in the darkness like a venomous snake. Watching Mia and Julian get married, with That Woman attending the wedding beaming with joy. Hearing that the young Mr. Vance gifted the Sterling family’s young miss a yacht, they gleefully threw a party. The Sterling and Vance families formed tight business ties, and the media called Mia a lucky charm. That day, my father called me: “Mia is pregnant. Morning sickness made her lose a lot of weight.” “You must have had it even harder back then.” “Chloe, it’s been so many days. Has your body recovered?” I heard myself reply woodenly: “No. Is she at the Vance family hospital? I’ll schedule my appointments to avoid her.” “She’s at the Sterling family hospital.” Everything that followed replayed like slow motion. I drove to the hospital and saw That Woman supporting Mia, laughing and talking. My father and Julian were walking side-by-side, a picture of harmony. I stepped on the gas. Accelerate, accelerate, accelerate. I was going to kill Mia at the happiest moment of her life. My child was so innocent; what right did she have to have a child? Everyone’s faces changed drastically. My father rushed out, pulled Mia away, and crashed onto my windshield. Blood spread along the spiderweb cracks in the glass before he tumbled down. I slammed on the brakes desperately, smashing into the steering wheel. My chest tightened, then ripped apart. My car door was pulled open, and I was dragged out. That Woman smashed her bag onto my head. Something scratched my cheek; before I could see what it was, I was slapped countless times in succession. The police cars arrived, and I was taken away. My father’s dying words were: “Don’t blame Chloe.” But That Woman and the Vance family hired the best lawyers, firmly demanding I be sentenced to the maximum penalty. The day I went to prison, they said Mia couldn’t keep her baby. I gave a small laugh. They cursed me again: “You psychopath, how can you still laugh?”

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For three years in a row, my mom drove relatives back to our hometown for the holidays. But every single relative who caught a ride with us ended up dead! The insurance company even sent a special investigator to see if it was murder for insurance money. They dug through our lives, past and present, but couldn’t find anything shady. This year is the fourth year, and I decided my mom and I would just squeeze onto a crowded Amtrak train. I mean, three relatives had already died. Whoever wants to ride in that car can have it! But my boss at the company, Fiona, insisted on catching a ride with us to save on train fare. I brought up the previous deaths to warn her off. But my boss just said: “What era is this? Still believing in that superstitious nonsense?” “I’m riding in it! Let’s see which Grim Reaper dares to take me!” Left with no choice, and not wanting to make things difficult for myself at work, I had to grit my teeth and let my mom drive the car onto the highway once again. The car had only been on the highway for a little while. My mom yelled at me, her voice thick with tears: “Son!! Don’t look back! Don’t look back!” I glanced in the rearview mirror and my hands and feet instantly turned ice-cold. My boss, who had just been snacking on sunflower seeds, now had her head blown open. The car hadn’t even stopped, and she was already dead. … My mom slammed on the brakes, and the car screeched to a halt on the shoulder. I pushed the door open, fell to my knees by the side of the road, and threw up violently. This is the fourth year, and the fourth person to die in the backseat of our family’s car. The sound of sirens approached. Captain Sarah Vance from the Criminal Investigation Detachment was the first to step out of her car. The insurance investigator, Chloe, followed closely behind. Before the police could even say a word, Chloe leaned in to look inside the car. Then she turned around, pointed at me and my mom, and cursed: “Well, well, you’ve gotten bolder! Even serial insurance fraudsters don’t have the psychological fortitude you two have!” Hearing this, my mom fell to her knees. “We’re innocent! Ms. Chloe, it was really her who insisted on riding in this car!” “I was going to buy train tickets this year. But Ms. Fiona used her position as boss to pressure my son. We had to take her!” Chloe let out a cold laugh and pulled a stack of documents from her briefcase. “Save it!” “The previous three times, it was your Aunt Martha, Uncle Bob, and cousin David. Every time, before the incident, huge accidental death insurance policies were purchased.” “This time, you also bought passenger liability insurance. That’s another few million coming in, isn’t it?” “We bought that as a package deal!” I rushed over to help my mom up. “Chloe, watch your mouth! Who would kill someone for that amount of money?” “That amount of money?” Chloe said coldly. “I’ve seen people kill their fathers and wives for money. Let alone an outsider?” Traffic on the highway backed up for miles. Many drivers rolled down their windows to rubberneck. “Holy crap, is that a headless corpse in the backseat?” “I heard it’s murder for insurance money. This mother and son look so innocent, but they’re ruthless.” “Stay back, don’t want to get blood on yourself.” Hearing the gossip around her, Chloe got even more fired up. She turned to Captain Vance and said: “Captain Vance, is there even a need for an interrogation? This is a high-IQ serial murder case. It must be dealt with strictly!” Sarah ignored her, waiting for the forensics report. Not long after, the medical examiner brought out the report, his face looking terrible: “Captain Vance, the preliminary results are in.” Everyone held their breath. The medical examiner pointed at my boss, Fiona’s, neck: “The characteristics are exactly the same as the previous three cases. The head exploded from the inside; it wasn’t smashed by an external force!” If it were one person, you could call it a bizarre disease. But four in a row, all in this same car? Police Captain Sarah stared at me with sharp eyes: “Mr. Miller, this is highly abnormal!” “Think carefully. Besides the fact that all four of them rode in your car, is there any other commonality? Don’t miss any detail!” My mom was just busy breaking down and crying, swearing she’d never drive again! Who had the mind to think about this! My mind was also a mess. Before, Aunt Martha just happened to be going the same way, Uncle Bob wanted to hitch a ride to transport some goods, and cousin David was just plain lazy. This year, my boss Fiona was even worse. She did it to save two hundred bucks on a train ticket. Commonalities? They were all relatives or acquaintances? Fiona was sort of from the same hometown. They were all on the highway? Well, duh, you have to take the highway to get back to our hometown. Suddenly, I remembered something. “Speak!” I pointed at the car: “None of them ever paid a dime for the ride, but… they all fought to pay for gas at the rest stops.” “Hah?!” Chloe scoffed. “Paying for gas? That’s what you call a commonality?” She spread her hands, shouting to the people around: “Listen to this, everyone! What kind of reason is this? They felt bad about taking a free ride, so they helped pay for gas, and that became the cause of death?” The onlookers started pointing and whispering too. “Yeah, that’s a bit of a stretch.” “He probably couldn’t make anything up, so he just threw out a random reason.” My face flushed red, and I argued loudly: “But that’s the only commonality! Besides that, what else was the same?” Sarah frowned, clearly unsatisfied with this answer either. She waved her hand, signaling her officers: “Check their social connections. See if this mother and son had any deep-seated grudges with the victims, especially Fiona, the one who died today.” Several officers immediately dispersed to verify. While waiting, Chloe wasn’t idle. She circled me, looking me up and down, her tone flirtatious: “Mr. Miller, I remember you’re Fiona’s secretary at the company, right?” “How does the saying go? When there’s work, the secretary does it. When there’s no work… hehe.” I clenched my fists: “Chloe, if you spout any more nonsense, I’ll rip your mouth off, believe it or not!” “Getting anxious?” Chloe curled her lip. “The little secretary wants to move up the ladder, but gets tired of being played with by the boss and wants to ditch her. So the little secretary teams up with his old mother to commit murder. This script makes perfect logical sense.” “Bullshit!” My mom lunged forward, ready to fight Chloe. “My son is innocent! And that bastard always docked his performance bonuses. My son couldn’t wait to stay away from her!” The police rushed forward and held my mom back. To prove myself, I took out my phone and pulled up the chat history with Fiona: “Captain Vance, look! This is our text history!” On the screen, Fiona had sent blocks of voice messages, and the text transcriptions read: “Hey Liam, still got an empty seat for the ride, right?” “Two hundred bucks for train fare is too expensive. Better save where we can.” “I already told your mom, so don’t be ungrateful.” And I wasn’t polite either. My replies were all: “Boss, it’s really not convenient.” “Our car is really cursed.” Captain Sarah scrolled through it, and her expression softened slightly. At this time, the officers who went to investigate also ran back. “Captain Vance, we’ve checked. The previous three victims had an average relationship with the Miller family. Even though they liked to take advantage of small things, there were no major conflicts.” Sarah said: “It seems the motive is indeed insufficient.” Chloe snorted from the side: “You can know a person’s face, but not their heart. What if this mother and son are psychopathic serial killers? Looking for a thrill?” “Shut up!” Sarah glared at her. “You need evidence to back up your words.” Since the motive was insufficient, they had to focus on physical evidence. “Search the car! Turn it upside down!” With an order, five or six forensic technicians squeezed into the murder car. The seats were removed, the floor mats were pulled up, and even the spare tire in the trunk was hauled out. Chloe also got into the car, using a flashlight to inspect. Half an hour later. A pile of miscellaneous items was laid out on the side of the road: half a bag of sunflower seeds, two empty water bottles, an old throw pillow, and a few toll receipts. There were no explosives, nor any mechanisms. The car was just an ordinary car. Chloe stood in front of that pile of things, her face ashen. “Impossible! Absolutely impossible!” Sarah was also getting a headache and could only look at my mom: “Have you offended anyone in the past?” My mom shook her head: “Officer, I’m just a small business owner. I always greet people with a smile. How could I dare offend anyone?” I nodded in agreement: “Captain Vance, I’m just a nobody at the company. I cower when I see my boss Fiona, let alone making enemies.” The clues were completely cut off. The scene reached an impasse. The insurance investigator, Chloe, suddenly stood up straight: “Fine, you can’t find anything, right? Then let’s recreate the scene!” She pointed at the car: “I don’t believe in this curse! Captain Vance, I request to ride in this car myself, and let this mother and son drive again! Right on this highway!” “I will expose their tricks on the spot! Let’s see if my head explodes too!” Sarah furrowed her brows: “Ms. Chloe, this is too risky. Setting aside the fact that this is evidence from a murder scene, what if…” “No what ifs!” Chloe interrupted. “This is the only way! I’ll sit in the victim’s seat, and I don’t believe I won’t catch them red-handed!” She turned to look at me and my mom: “Scared? If you have nothing to hide, what are you afraid of?” My mom turned pale with fear, clinging to the car door frame and refusing to let go: “I’m not going! The car eats people!” Chloe grabbed my mom by the collar and forcefully shoved her into the driver’s seat: “Cut the crap! Not cooperating means you have a guilty conscience!” “Mom!” I rushed forward to help but was stopped by two police officers. Sarah pondered for a moment and finally nodded: “Fine, this is also a good way to draw the snake out of its hole. Since Ms. Chloe insists, let’s try it.” She quickly issued orders: “SWAT vehicles will covertly escort them 500 meters ahead and behind. Install body cameras inside the car for full monitoring. If there is any abnormality, intercept them immediately!” Ten minutes later, the convoy was back on the road. My mom sat in the driver’s seat, shaking uncontrollably. I sat in the passenger seat, gripping my seatbelt. And Chloe sat swaggering in the backseat: the exact spot where Fiona had just been carried away from. “Tsk, Mrs. Miller, stop shaking your hands.” Chloe sat with her legs crossed, an obnoxiously punchable look on her face. “Is the AC broken? Why is it only blowing hot air?” My mom didn’t dare answer, not even daring to glance in the rearview mirror. Seeing no one was paying attention to her, Chloe took out her phone and started a livestream right there. “Hey guys, I’m currently in that head-exploding car! The one trending right now!” “Today I’m going to expose the truth for everyone, and see how this mother and son are faking ghosts and demons for insurance fraud!” She pointed the camera at my mom driving, and then at my pale face. “Look at how guilty they look! Folks, this is what you call refusing to shed a tear until you see the coffin!” “Send some gifts, and I’ll find the hidden mechanism in this car and show it to everyone!” Tens of thousands of people flooded into the livestream instantly, and comments flew by. [What a warrior! Actually daring to ride in this car?] [It must be insurance fraud. How could a human head explode for no reason?] [This insurance lady is kind of pretty, risking it all for justice!] [I think this mother and son’s eyes are shifty, they’re definitely hiding something!] Chloe watched the comments and laughed even more arrogantly: “Once we finish this stretch of highway, I’m going to make sure you two rot in jail!” Ten minutes, twenty minutes, fifty minutes passed. The car drove steadily on the highway, and nothing happened. No explosion, no mechanisms, not even another car cutting us off. Chloe’s vigilance slowly dropped, replaced by mockery. “You don’t dare make a move as long as I’m here, right?” “Nothing happened this whole way. What does that prove? It proves that the previous ‘accidents’ were all man-made!” Right at this moment, my mom suddenly clutched her stomach. “No, I can’t… I… I can’t hold it…” I knew my mom had this old issue. Whenever she got nervous, she got the runs. “Hold it in!” Chloe scolded. “Trying to use this as an excuse to slip away?” “I really… I really can’t! I’m going to crap my pants!” My mom squeezed her legs together, slammed on the gas, and the car turned into the rest stop 500 meters ahead. Chloe covered her nose: “Such bad luck! Dropping the ball at the crucial moment!” My mom pushed open the car door, covering her behind, and rushed frantically towards the public restroom. The cars behind us followed us in, and Captain Sarah got out with plainclothes officers. “What’s the situation?” Sarah asked me, keeping her voice low. I pointed towards the restroom: “My mom has an upset stomach.” Chloe squeezed out from the backseat. “Faking it, absolutely faking it.” She sneered: “Trying to use a bathroom break to distract us? Or trying to destroy evidence in the bathroom?” With that, she followed her toward the restroom. Sarah reached out to stop her: “Ms. Chloe, don’t go. We can just monitor the perimeter outside.” “Monitor what perimeter?” Chloe shook off Sarah’s hand. “Will you take responsibility if she runs away? I have to keep an eye on her and see what tricks she tries to pull!” Watching Chloe walk into the women’s restroom, Sarah sighed helplessly, waving her hand to signal her subordinates to guard the restroom entrance and windows. “As long as she’s still inside, she can’t fly away.” Sarah comforted me. “Mr. Miller, don’t be too nervous. The innocent have nothing to fear.” I was just about to nod when my phone suddenly vibrated. Taking it out, it was a text from an unknown number. The content was only three short words: [Pay for gas.] A chill ran through my entire body. Who sent this? Why pay for gas? We hadn’t even gotten gas! I handed the phone to Sarah: “Captain Vance, look at this…” Sarah took the phone, and the moment she saw the content, her expression changed drastically. “Something’s wrong!” She yelled into her earpiece: “Everyone rush in! Now!” Before I could even react, several SWAT officers had already kicked open the main door of the women’s restroom. However, the expected confrontation didn’t happen. A few seconds later, a voice came through the walkie-talkie: “Captain Vance, only Mrs. Miller is in the restroom… she’s currently occupying a stall.” Sarah was stunned: “Where is Chloe? Could a living, breathing person just fly away?!” She strode into the restroom, and I followed, forgetting about the whole gender-separation thing. Inside the women’s restroom, only my mom was there. Chloe had vanished into thin air. “Lock down the rest stop! Search every inch!” Sarah roared. The entire rest stop sprang into action. My mom and I stood waiting in place, watching the police turn over every corner. The green belts, the supermarket shelves, the undercarriage of the large semi-trucks parked nearby… Nothing. Absolutely nothing! Just as everyone was nearing despair, a terrified scream came from behind the gas station. “Here! Captain Vance! Over here!” Everyone swarmed over. It was the large dumpster behind the gas station. A pair of feet wearing dress shoes was sticking out, still twitching slightly. The upper half of the body was buried in the garbage pile. Two police officers rushed up to pull her out. “One, two, heave!” As the body was pulled out, my mom and I screamed! Chloe’s head had exploded! The severed stump at her neck was a bloody mess! And beside her corpse was a crumpled gas station receipt. Police Captain Sarah picked up the receipt, looked at it just once, and her pupils dilated in shock. Then she turned around, and addressed the crowd: “I know why the heads of the people who hitched a ride in your car all exploded!” Sarah pinched the oil-stained receipt, staring sharply at me and my mom. “Two hundred dollars. Chloe wanted to fill up this car with gas before she died.” My mom was shaking all over in fear, snot and tears covering her face, completely failing to understand what Sarah was saying. “Officer… so what if she pumped gas? We didn’t ask her to!” Sarah gave a cold laugh, her gaze locking onto us. “Pretending? Keep pretending.” “I also had someone check the gas records of the previous three victims for those years.” “Aunt Martha, pumped $150.” “Uncle Bob, feeling guilty about hitching a ride and transporting goods, pumped $300.” “Cousin David, pumped $200.” I still didn’t understand: “Captain Vance, what do you mean?” Sarah slapped the receipt against the hood, making a sharp sound. “Is the meaning still not obvious enough? You mother and son thought the relatives didn’t give enough for gas money!” “Especially you, the mother. Mrs. Miller is famously stingy. Did you think that with gas prices rising, this little bit of money was like paying off beggars?” “So you rigged the car!” This deduction was practically flawless—if you ignored the lack of logic. I was trembling with anger, pointing at Sarah’s nose: “Are you crazy? Who would kill someone over a few hundred dollars in gas money? Let alone serial murder?” “And on the highway? Do we have a death wish?” Sarah slapped my hand away, her eyes dark. “Of course, normal people can’t understand the logic of psychopathic killers.” “In this world, I’ve seen plenty of cases where people murder for a dollar, or because of a single look!” My mom was wailing loudly over there: “We’re innocent! I was using the toilet at the time! And Chloe went into the bathroom with me! When did she even pump gas?” “Shut up!” Sarah roared. At this moment, the officer responsible for retrieving the surveillance footage ran back, sweating profusely. “Captain Vance… the security cameras at the rest stop are completely broken.” The surroundings instantly fell dead silent. They didn’t break earlier, they didn’t break later. They had to break precisely at this critical moment. So, relying solely on deduction clearly couldn’t convict us. Sarah had us brought back to the interrogation room at the Highway Patrol station. We were locked up for a full twenty-four hours. I was interrogated non-stop, asked everything from whether I abused small animals in elementary school to whether I had recently purchased chemical reagents. My mom had it even worse. She was questioned until she almost passed out several times, just repeating those same few sentences over and over: “I didn’t kill anyone.” “I really didn’t kill anyone.” “That car is truly cursed.” By the evening of the next day, the door to the interrogation room opened. Sarah walked in, sporting two huge dark circles under her eyes, holding a report, her face looking defeated. She threw the report onto the table. The only clue was the text message sent to my phone: [Pay for gas.] The tech department traced that number. It was a disconnected number. So they could only make a decision that went against their instincts. “Mrs. Miller, Mr. Miller. Based on the current evidence, we cannot detain you.” “However, you remain prime suspects… you cannot leave our surveillance area.” Hearing that we could leave, my mom’s legs went weak, and she almost fell to her knees: “Thank you, righteous judge! Thank you, honorable judge!” I supported my mom, but my heart felt no relief whatsoever. “Captain Vance, then how do we get back to our hometown? It’s already the 28th of the lunar month.” Sarah stared at me: “How do you want to get back?” I gritted my teeth: “Take the train. Even if it’s standing room only, we’ll stand the whole way back.” “That car… we don’t want it anymore. You guys keep it.” This car has claimed four lives in a row. Who would dare drive it? Sarah, however, narrowed her eyes. It was the look she got when she saw her opponent reveal a flaw. “No. You must drive the car away.” “And…” Her tone became eerie, “I also need to head in that direction for some business.” “Since you’re too scared to drive, I will.” “I want to see if this car really specializes in eating people who don’t want to live.” I looked at her in horror: “Captain Vance, don’t mess around! That car is truly…” Sarah took the car key from her pocket and tossed it in her hand. “What? Afraid I’ll die in the car, and you won’t be able to escape involvement?” “Don’t worry, I have a tough life.” “If, under these circumstances, my head also explodes, then consider it me dying in the line of duty.” “If it’s your heads that explode…” “Then perfect, the case is solved.”

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Arthur cheated, a one-night stand. The girl got pregnant, caused a scene in front of me, and demanded Arthur take responsibility. Arthur smoked a cigarette and left the choice to me. “It was just once.” “If you can forgive me, we’ll live our lives well.” “If you can’t, we divorce.” I looked pale, asking with a trembling voice: “It’s your fault, right?” “If we divorce, you’ll admit it’s your fault, right?” 1 My marriage to Arthur was picking up my sister’s leftovers. Chloe is bubbly, cheerful, yet spoiled and willful. She refused to be trapped for a lifetime by a so-called arranged marriage. So she took a card with twenty million dollars and ran away. My mom doted on her youngest daughter and couldn’t bear to lose a good son-in-law like Arthur. So she pushed me forward. Acting as if as long as it was a daughter from the Smith family, Arthur would marry her. Who is Arthur Vance? In the capital, if a signboard fell, it would hit a row of his ancestors. He was the biggest fish in the pond. Chloe fleeing the wedding had already made him lose face. And they wanted him to marry me? Were they daydreaming? But I still went to see him once, volunteering myself, and he actually agreed. This year is the fourth year of our marriage. In front of outsiders, we are the model couple. But privately, we treat each other with utmost respect, maintaining the most basic etiquette even in bed. My mom kept pushing me, saying I should have a child by now, nagging me for being useless, saying if things kept going like this, I wouldn’t be able to tie Arthur down, and what if he ran away? I wanted to say, Arthur isn’t a dog. I want to tie him down, but would he let me? But I wouldn’t say it. I would only nod submissively and incessantly. My mom couldn’t stand seeing me like this the most, rolling her eyes and strutting away, swaying her hips. But what I didn’t expect was that I actually got pregnant. 2 My period was late by one, two, three, maybe four weeks. Last night I bought a pregnancy test, and it showed two lines. Today I went to the hospital and got a blood test. The doctor held the report. “9 weeks pregnant. Do you want to keep this baby or not?” “I think I want it!” I was a bit hesitant. Arthur didn’t know yet. This child was also outside of our plans. I had to go ask him. So, holding the report, I went straight to his company. When I arrived, Arthur was in a meeting. His assistant led me to his office, poured coffee, brought pastries, and asked me to wait a while. I picked up the cup, just about to drink. Can you drink coffee while pregnant? I don’t know. Let me check. Yes, you can. Then no problem. I took a small sip and sighed in satisfaction. I was only halfway through the sigh when sudden noisy arguments erupted outside, accompanied by a woman’s scream. I pushed the door open and locked eyes with a woman being held back. She roared, her eyes bloodshot: “Tell Arthur to come out! He knocked someone up, doesn’t he need to take responsibility?” Such a loud voice. Such a big scene. So many people. So embarrassing!!! I wished I could find a hole in the ground to hide in. I just wanted to say, this matter has nothing to do with me! Thankfully, Arthur appeared in time. He walked through the crowd with a cold face and saw me peeking through the crack in the door. That large, bony hand covered my eyes. I instinctively shrank back. He moved his hand and closed the door. I blinked. Hold on. My husband cheated, knocked someone up, and now the person involved has come knocking, and I don’t need to be involved at all? 3 Arthur indicated that it wasn’t completely unnecessary for me to be involved. He dismissed the crowd, whispered a couple of sentences to that woman, opened the door, and brought her in front of me. Looking at his breezy, calm, and composed demeanor, I really wanted to applaud. To be able to cheat with such self-righteousness, he was probably unprecedented and unrepeatable. The woman was very cool. Wearing simple sportswear, hair in a high ponytail, and a baseball cap. Sitting there with her legs crossed, her whole body screamed “Don’t mess with me.” But she was also genuinely pretty. Exquisite features, glamorous and cold eyes. Just based on her looks, it was hard to hate her. It’s just a pity she had a mouth. “This is your wife?” “Get a divorce.” “I’m pregnant, you need to take responsibility for me.” I pursed my lips. Well, I’m pregnant too, who’s taking responsibility for me? Logically, as the original wife, I should definitely have an advantage over a mistress. But when marriage becomes a battlefield, the more immoral one becomes the more self-righteous. “Sigh!” I sighed, grabbed a small cookie, and ate it. Milky and fragrant, not too sweet. Not bad. “Do you want one?” The woman looked disgusted, pointing at me. “Is she crazy?” Arthur rarely frowned, but he did now. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the lounge. He smoked a cigarette in silence. “Just once.” “I mistakenly drank spiked alcohol and accidentally slept with her.” “Elena.” He looked up at me, his gaze exceptionally serious. He said: “The fault is mine, you make the decision.” “If you can forgive me, we’ll live our lives well.” “If you can’t, we divorce.” The sudden appearance of the word “divorce” made my heart skip a beat, then accelerate rapidly. I uncontrollably pinched the web between my thumb and index finger. “It’s your fault, right?” “If we divorce, you’ll admit it’s your fault, right?” 4 Arthur looked at me seriously. He’s good-looking, better-looking than anyone else I’ve ever seen. I really like looking at him. Especially in bed, looking up from below, seeing his hazy eyes, listening to his sexy panting. All of this always makes me forget myself and experience ultimate pleasure. Divorce is quite a pity. But divorce isn’t impossible either. “So, your choice is divorce?” I nodded and pointed outside. “It’s already come to this, not divorcing won’t do!” “Just, with my mom, you’ll admit it’s your fault, right?” I confirmed again. Arthur’s expression, however, faded. Such unfamiliar and distant eyes are quite uncomfortable. But I am best at dealing with inner discomfort. Take a deep breath, exhale, and it’s fine. Arthur stood up, brushed off non-existent dust from his clothes, and said calmly: “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.” Phew! Then I’m relieved. “If we divorce, I don’t want anything else, I just want Vanguard Pharmaceuticals.” “Fine.” “But if it’s convenient for you, giving me a villa would be nice too.” “Okay.” “Then can I also ask for three hundred million?” Arthur looked back, staring at me. “You want everything, and still want a divorce?” “Don’t divorce, and it’s all yours.” I avoided his gaze, lowered my head, and stepped on my right foot with my left. Listen to him. Then don’t cheat! No cheating means no need for divorce. No divorce means wife and kids are all yours. ………… Wait. If he cheats and divorces, he still has a wife and a kid. Damn! As expected of a businessman chasing profit, he’s calculated everything perfectly. 5 The woman was sent away by Arthur. What they said, what he promised her, I don’t know any of it. By the time I came out of the lounge, the woman had already left. Not a single delicious pastry was left. I looked and looked again. When leaving, I couldn’t resist grabbing the assistant. “Those little cookies from earlier, could you pack some up for me?” Assistant Reed hesitated, looking like he had a lot to say but didn’t know how to start. Behind me, Arthur let out a cold laugh. “Pack them for her!” This incident blew up too big. By evening, my mom called. The first one, I didn’t answer. The second one, I still didn’t answer. The third one, I stared at the phone for a long time, then threw it into the sink. Finally, I sighed in relief. At the same time, I figured out an issue: I’m going to give birth to the child in my belly. This child, I will provide half of its chromosomes. It will grow nourished by my flesh and blood, come out of my body, and grow into a new living being. It shares a bloodline with me. That’s my dearest kin. What reason do I have not to give birth to it? Yes, I’m going to have this baby! This decision made me excited. I opened that four-hundred-thousand-dollar bottle of red wine in the wine cabinet. Can you drink alcohol while pregnant? No? No, in moderation. So, cheers! 6 At eight o’clock, my mom came storming over. The bang bang smashing on the door was enough to get her reported. But there was nothing she could do; I live in a detached villa. I put on my headphones and turned the volume to the max. Yet I could still faintly hear her cursing. Not clearly. But I could probably guess, it was nothing more than the “Elena is Useless Theory” and the “Meaning of Elena’s Existence Theory.” Lacking innovation, lacking distinctiveness, yet still something I didn’t want to hear. I don’t know how much time passed, but the sound seemed to stop. I don’t know how much more time passed, but my bedroom door seemed to open. Arthur took off my headphones. Holding my ruined phone in one hand, and a new phone in the other. Expressionless, speaking coldly. “Insert the SIM card yourself.” “The lab couldn’t reach you and called me. Call them back immediately.” I looked up at him. “Arthur, you didn’t admit your mistake.” “What?” “It was clearly your cheating that led to our divorce, yet my mom still came to cause trouble for me.” Arthur looked at me. Took a deep breath. “Got it. I’ll handle it.” Arthur handled it very poorly. I’m going to give him a bad review. My mom stormed the company and was stopped by security. At the time, I had just come out of the lab. After staying up all night, the sample’s reaction wasn’t optimistic. Several researchers were a bit discouraged and depressed. Arthur said that at a time like this, I should give them encouragement, give them hope, and mobilize them. “But they are human too; being discouraged and depressed is normal.” “Having chosen this profession, they possess the courage to start over again even after failing a thousand times.” This was what fascinated me the most. But the secretary said my mother was here, naming names and demanding to see me. She wouldn’t rest until she saw me. But the truth is, if I didn’t want to, she really wouldn’t be able to see me. I went down via the private elevator, got in my car, and sneakily prepared to leave. My mom suddenly appeared, standing right in front of my car, glaring at me fiercely. Left with no choice, I had to treat her to a cup of coffee. At the same time, I was counting on my fingers. We mother and daughter hadn’t seen each other for 372 days. We could have set a new record, but now it’s all for naught. What a pity. “You’re going to divorce Arthur?” “Mm.” “Are you sick in the head?” My mom launched her attack instantly, so fast it caught people off guard. Then came the continuous output. “Do you have no brains?” “In this world, are you, Elena Smith, nobler than others? Which man doesn’t cheat? Which man is completely innocent? Only you are so special, clamoring for a divorce over such a trivial matter. If you’re not embarrassed, I am.” “Who’s to blame when a man cheats? It’s yourself for not being able to keep him, to manage him.” “I’ve said it before, what’s the use of just having a smart brain! You don’t understand human relations at all, you’re oblivious, you have no social awareness, you’re rigid.” “Outsiders always say I favor Chloe. If you only had half of Chloe’s understanding, half her thoughtfulness…” “You would still be biased!” I interrupted her and finished her sentence. My mom choked, glaring at me and screaming. “Elena, you just have to go against me, don’t you?” No. I’m just tired, I want to sleep. I’m pregnant, the fertilized egg in my belly still needs to develop. Standing up, I wanted to leave. But my mom, as if her reverse scale had been touched, grabbed me, looking fierce, and just like countless times in my childhood, raised her hand to slap me. In that instant, I was terrified. I could dodge her, I could block her, I could even fight back. But my nerves seemed to be blocked, unable to make any reaction. I could only stand frozen. Blankly, like a puppet, even my breathing stopped.

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After accepting his proposal, Arthur Sterling and I ran into his gold-digging first love while traveling abroad. Due to domestic abuse from her ex-husband, the woman’s memory had regressed six years—back to the year before she eloped with a rich man. Upon seeing Arthur, she smiled brightly, throwing herself into his arms and calling him “Artie.” Not only did he not push her away, but he also took her to the hospital, paid her medical bills, and settled her debts. From then on, every time I mentioned our wedding, the woman would suddenly have a “medical episode.” The first time, I was trying on wedding dresses. I watched his hurried retreating back, becoming a joke in the eyes of onlookers. The second time, the woman had a sudden somatic symptom attack and smashed our newly taken engagement photos. He said she didn’t do it on purpose. The third time, he missed our appointment to finalize the wedding venue decorations, leaving me forgotten on a mountaintop for a whole day and night, just to read her bedtime stories. I tolerated it again and again, until the woman called the police, claiming I stole her engagement ring. When the police questioned us, Arthur held her and avoided my trembling gaze. “That ring… does indeed belong to my… fiancée.” No wonder the ring was too small. It turned out that from the very beginning, neither this ring nor this man ever belonged to me. For three days and three nights, I counted on my fingers, enduring a full seventy-two hours. It wasn’t until a letter of forgiveness from Mia Lin arrived that my innocence was finally restored. Arthur’s last messages were from three days ago. 【She’s sick, she didn’t do it on purpose. There’s no need for you to hold a grudge against a sick person.】 【Apologize early, get out early, don’t be stubborn.】 【Once Mia gets better, I will make it up to you.】 The silent police officers filled my mind; I felt as if I was being choked. It felt like I was back in that dark, cold, cramped room at the detention center, a chill creeping up my spine. It had been a year. A full year. Mia’s illness remained the same, but Arthur’s heart was increasingly biased toward her. In the past, I could still talk myself into staying. Now, only one thought remained in my mind: I couldn’t convince myself anymore. I was tired. Returning home, I opened the door. In the entryway, all my shoes had vanished. In their place were various pairs of high heels, the styles Mia liked. I froze at the door. A woman’s voice came from inside, getting closer. “How did you get in?” Looking up, the guarded and surprised look in Mia’s eyes was incredibly genuine. This was the home I had lived in for four years, yet she pointed at me, warning me with the tone of the lady of the house. “Ms. Jones, I don’t know why you are so obsessed with Artie, but he is my fiancé. As a woman, don’t you have any self-respect?” “I shouldn’t have let you out so quickly just because we’re both women!” My gaze fell on the sparkling ring on Mia’s ring finger. During those three days in the detention center, I only had one sentence from beginning to end. “The ring is mine, not hers.” The police even thought I had delusions and contacted a doctor for a psychiatric evaluation. The facts proved that I did have delusions. Only the delusion wasn’t about the ring, but about Arthur’s heart. I took a deep breath, suppressing the sourness in my heart. “Where is Arthur Sterling? Tell him to come out.” As my voice fell, the man emerged from the bedroom. Mia, as if finding her protector, hid behind him, her voice trembling. “Artie, hurry and kick her out! Tell her to stop harassing you!” He stroked her hair, comforting her gently. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll kick her out right now.” But when he faced me, his tone was like frost. “Chloe Jones, you’d better leave right now, this instant, or I’ll call the police.” Since Arthur brought Mia back to the country, I had lost count of how many times I’d heard this sentence. Every time, his explanation was the same. “Just bear with it a little longer, Mia will be better soon.” I bore it again and again, and now I even had to give up my marital home. I curled my lips in a ridiculous smile and bumped into the cabinet behind me. The wedding photo of Arthur and me that used to be there had been replaced by a wedding photo of him and Mia. The dazzling smiles of the two of them starkly contrasted with me, making me look like a comical clown. I felt as if I had been pricked by a needle, all color draining from my face, and I stumbled out the door. The rain outside was falling even harder. Behind me, Arthur made no attempt to make me stay; his entire focus was on Mia. Worried she might catch a cold, he decisively closed the door. The loud slam of the door echoed continuously in my heart. I opened my phone and, unsurprisingly, received a message from Arthur. 【Just bear with it a little longer, it will pass soon.】 For the first time, I didn’t reply instantly. I dialed the number for the wedding planning company. The previous nine weddings were forced to be canceled due to Mia’s illness. The tenth time, I wasn’t waiting anymore. Arthur, I don’t want you or the wedding anymore. 2 I had nowhere to go, wandering around until I stopped in front of the rental apartment Arthur and I used to live in. Pushing the door open, a strong musty smell hit my face. Before Arthur’s startup succeeded, we had lived in this two-hundred-square-foot apartment for three years. During the hottest, most restless summers, he would prop up his head and fan me on the bamboo mat until his arm ached and trembled. During the coldest, most biting winters, he would frequently change the cold towels on my forehead when I had a fever, staying awake all night. Once, we had an argument. He rushed out of the house, pulled me into his arms. “Chloe, don’t go. If you leave, my heart goes with you.” The time he forcefully brought Mia back to the country, I screamed at him hysterically. “Didn’t you hate her for leaving you and running off with a rich guy?!” With his back to me, his tone was calm. “That’s all in the past.” To this day, I finally understood how selfish Arthur was. He got over that hurdle in his heart and reconciled with Mia. But he left me in that sweltering summer, questioning a floor full of shattered pieces. The rain fell heavily, thunder crashing. Curled up on the hard bed frame, I woke up with a start, instinctively reaching forward for warmth like I used to. “Arthur, I’m cold…” The cold wall made me completely awake, unable to fall back asleep. I opened Mia’s social media account; she had updated it again. It was a series of photos of Arthur making a late-night snack for her. I kept scrolling back, and when I reached the last photo of the “Love Fried Rice,” my heart stopped. When Arthur used to work as a cook, he made me a bowl of “Love Fried Rice” every night, flattering me. “This is the Love Fried Rice exclusively for Chloe.” The promises of the past echoed in my ears. But the person who made those promises was far away, by someone else’s side. I closed my eyes. The pattering rain outside the window seemed to fall right into my heart. The next day, while I was washing up in the bathroom, I heard Arthur’s voice from outside. My movements paused, a moment of expectation rising. Did he remember that today was our anniversary and specifically come looking for me? The next second, Mia’s voice shattered my illusion. “Artie, is this where we used to live?” Arthur was silent for a moment before replying softly. “Yes. So you have to get better quickly and remember all our memories together.” He effortlessly erased my existence, like wiping away an inconspicuous water stain. A ringing filled my ears. My heart was fiercely gripped, hurting so much I couldn’t breathe. Arthur approached and pushed open the bathroom door. Our eyes met. He lowered his voice, launching a preemptive strike. “Chloe, what is wrong with you? Tracking us all the way here!” “Mia’s condition just showed some improvement. Whatever resentment or hatred you have, can’t you wait until she’s better to act out?” He closed the door too fast. I had just reached my hand out, and my fingertips were forcefully crushed. The fingers are connected to the heart. The pain shot straight to my core, and I couldn’t help but let out a miserable scream. The sound drew Mia over. The door opened. Her face suddenly turned pale, as if she had suffered a massive grievance. “Ms. Jones, how long are you going to keep harassing Artie?” “Artie already said he has no interest in you, the only person he loves is me!” “Please, I’m begging you, stop harassing my fiancé, okay? Please let us go!” She became emotionally agitated and had an asthma attack. Arthur expertly pulled out an inhaler to calm her breathing. Finally, he picked her up, giving me a fierce glare before leaving. “Mia Lin, are you satisfied now?!” From beginning to end, he never noticed my swollen, purple fingers. While treating the wound, my tears fell like pearls from a broken string. I remembered a time when I was wronged at work. Arthur rushed over without a second word to back me up. Because he was in such a hurry, he got into a car accident taking a corner and broke a rib. I scolded him for risking his life, but he brushed it off. “If it’s about my Chloe, even if I really have to risk my life, I’m willing.” Who could have thought that the person who hated seeing me wronged the most back then would be the one giving me the greatest grievance now? In this moment, my heart was completely shattered. 3 The next day, I picked a time when Arthur wasn’t around to get my luggage. I found that he had thrown all my things into the storage room. The plushies he used to give me were gathering dust in the corner, and the photo album I gave him for his birthday was torn to shreds. Looking at the mess on the floor, I finally understood. What I had been desperately protecting for the past year was nothing more than what Arthur discarded without hesitation. Just as I finished packing my things, a familiar voice came from behind. “Next time you come to the house, you can let me know in advance.” I turned around, feeling it was incredibly ridiculous. Catching the sarcasm in my eyes, Arthur coughed lightly. “I was afraid Mia would overthink seeing these things, so I temporarily put them here…” I was too lazy to listen and calmly interrupted him. “Just throw it all away.” Arthur froze in place, seemingly thinking he had misheard. After a moment, he sighed helplessly. “Chloe, there’s no need to say things out of anger. I know I’ve neglected you a bit lately.” “Once Mia is better, we’ll get married.” It seemed the wedding planning company hadn’t notified him yet that the wedding was canceled. Right, the only person he cared about was Mia. “Arthur, let’s break up…” The last three words were drowned out by Mia’s customized ringtone. Arthur’s expression instantly softened. “Yeah, I found the earring. I’m coming to find you right now.” “Be good, wait for me there, don’t move around.” The call ended, and his tone instantly dropped ten degrees. “Mia will be home for the next few days. Don’t show up and trigger her again.” I watched the man’s retreating back, my eyes full of sarcasm. That night, I had just booked my flight ticket when the police broke down the door again and took me away, wearing only my pajamas. This time, they even put handcuffs on me. In the deep autumn night, I shivered as I was escorted away. Only after interrogation did I find out that Mia had called the police again. She claimed she lost a set of jewelry and, upon checking the security cameras, found that I had sneaked into the house. She generously gave me two choices. Either apologize publicly and admit to the theft. Or she would press charges, and based on the value, I would face at least three years in prison. I sat stiffly in the police station all night. The coldness I hadn’t felt during those three years in the rental apartment all rushed to my heart. Like ice-sealed needles attacking from all directions, piercing my heart. At eight in the morning, Arthur arrived. With red eyes, I stared dead at him. “I didn’t steal anything.” He pursed his lips tightly, his tone indifferent. “I know, but that’s not important.” “Chloe, be good. Just apologize and you can come out.” “You don’t want the wedding delayed for three years, do you?” He reached out, wanting to hold my hand. I instinctively recoiled like I was electrocuted. At the same time, tears fell, my heart turning to ash. “Arthur, what exactly am I in your eyes?” This time, he didn’t answer. Ultimately, following Mia’s demands, I publicly apologized online, admitting to shamelessly seducing Arthur and stealing her belongings. Once the apology letter was made public, it caused a massive uproar. Countless netizens cursed me for being shameless and a disgrace to women. Friends who knew me deleted me one after another, wishing they could stay as far away from me as possible. Some netizens even started “shipping” Arthur and Mia. Digging deeper, they discovered the two had been together since graduating high school. On one hand, they praised Arthur for his unwavering loyalty, not forgetting his first love even after becoming successful. On the other hand, they praised Mia for being a well-deserved virtuous wife, accompanying Arthur from obscurity to vast wealth. From beginning to end, only I looked like a clown who loved but couldn’t be loved. Two days later, I walked out of the police station. The sky outside was clear, but my heart felt like it was covered by a dark cloud. Mia stood outside, holding Arthur’s arm, using a magnanimous tone. “Ms. Jones, I hope you truly turn over a new leaf after this incident.” “Don’t steal other people’s things, and don’t covet someone who doesn’t belong to you.” I no longer had the grief and anger of the past; I nodded numbly. “Yes, thank you, Ms. Lin. I won’t harass your fiancé anymore.” As I spoke, a flash of panic crossed Arthur’s face. He quickly suppressed it and drove away with Mia. He probably thought I was still throwing a tantrum, speaking out of anger. But this time, I was serious. Tonight at 8 PM, I will completely leave his world. 4 Before leaving, I went to a temple. Three years ago, I was pregnant with a child. At that time, Arthur’s career was on the rise, and I accompanied him to various social engagements. I only found out I was pregnant after I lost the baby. Back then, Arthur’s eyes were red, and he slapped himself hard across the face. “Chloe, I’m the one who failed you and the baby.” After I was discharged from the hospital, the two of us lit an eternal lamp for the child at this temple, and it had been lit for four years. Before leaving, I just wanted to take one last look at this child. As soon as I stepped into the main hall, I froze in place. Not far away, Mia was holding onto Arthur, standing in front of the child’s eternal lamp, acting coquettishly. “Artie, I heard the eternal lamps here are really hard to get. If you extinguish this person’s lamp and light mine, won’t she cause trouble for you?” “Just a little trouble. As long as you can live a long and healthy life.” Arthur was actually going to give the child’s eternal lamp to Mia! Anger flared up violently. Before Arthur could extinguish the lamp, I rushed over and blocked it. “No one is touching this lamp today!” The two of them were caught off guard by my shout. Mia reacted, biting her lip, looking incredibly wronged. “Ms. Jones, enough is enough!” “You wanted to steal the ring Artie gave me, you wanted to steal the jewelry he gave me, and now you even want to steal the eternal lamp Artie is giving me!” “Have you no shame?!” Her voice was neither light nor heavy, just enough to attract the attention of other visitors in the temple. My face was livid, my jaw clenched tight. “Mia Lin, I will say this one last time: I have never stolen anything of yours!” But she acted even more wronged, hiding behind Arthur and tugging at his sleeve. “Artie, quickly drive her away! I don’t want to see her anymore!” Arthur squeezed her hand and pointed towards the hall doors. “Chloe Jones, leave immediately. I don’t want to say it a second time.” I couldn’t hold back my roar any longer. “Why should I leave? You two are the ones who should leave!!” “Arthur Sterling, do you have any conscience left? Have you forgotten whose lamp this is? Aren’t you afraid the child will…” A slap unexpectedly exploded on my face, cutting off all my words. The metallic taste of blood quickly spread in my mouth. I stood frozen in place, my eardrums continuously torn by Arthur’s disappointed words. “Chloe Jones, can you calm down!” “Look at yourself right now, what’s the difference between you and a lunatic!” I stared up blankly, looking at myself through Arthur’s eyes. Pale face, red and swollen cheek. Indeed ugly, indeed manic. Indeed, as the man said, I was crazy. Driven completely crazy by him! The pent-up anger of a whole year completely erupted, and I lunged towards Arthur. But Mia resolutely blocked him. It was just a tiny scratch, but Arthur reacted as if he’d gone mad, kicking me away. I crashed into the eternal lamp behind me. With a bang, the lamp fell to the ground and extinguished. Scalding wax splattered onto my calf, just like the blood the child left on me the day of the miscarriage. Winding, solidifying, turning into eternal pain, deeply carved into my heart. Arthur picked up the unconscious Mia, his voice turning cold. “Making such a scene, are you completely satisfied now?” “Chloe Jones, killing the child once wasn’t enough, you had to kill him a second time!” “What right does someone like you have to be a mother!” He left without looking back. I stood rooted to the spot, looking at the solidified wax on the ground. Laughing and laughing, tears welled up. Finally, I collected the wax into a box. As night fell, I went down the mountain and took a cab to the airport. Before boarding the plane, I received a message from Arthur. As always, high and mighty. 【Mia is awake, come over and apologize to her.】 If it were in the past, I definitely would have questioned him hysterically again. But now I had no strength left. I just calmly blocked all his contact information. Then I walked straight towards the boarding gate, never looking back.

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