Chapter 1
Chapter 1
When the gates of the mental asylum closed behind me, the wind outside was biting cold.
The nurse handed me my discharge papers, her eyes filled with pity. “Miss Han, I wish you a peaceful life ahead.”
I looked down at the date on the paper.
Three years and twelve days.
The grandest wedding of my life was canceled three years ago today.
That night, I was supposed to wear a wedding dress and marry Qi Shuheng.
Instead, half an hour later, I was wearing a blood-stained nightgown as my father, Han Chengde, personally pushed me into an ambulance.
He said I’d had a breakdown.
He said I almost killed Tang Ruoqi.
He said that for the sake of the Han Family and the Qi Family’s dignity, I had to be sent away for treatment.
And that treatment lasted for three years.
A black Maybach was parked outside the hospital gates. The window rolled down, revealing an excessively calm face.
“Miss Han, Mr. Li sent me to pick you up.”
I didn’t get in. I only asked, “Has the engagement banquet at Shengjing Hotel started?”
The driver was taken aback. “It has. Young Master Qi and Miss Tang just took the stage.”
I smiled. “Then the timing is perfect.”
Half an hour later, dressed in a simple black dress and high heels, I walked into the penthouse ballroom of the Shengjing Hotel.
The crystal chandeliers were blindingly bright, and the stage was covered in white roses.
Qi Shuheng, looking sharp in his suit, was holding Tang Ruoqi’s hand as he announced the alliance between their two families to the entire room.
Tang Ruoqi wore a champagne-colored gown, her belly slightly protruding. She smiled like a princess favored by fate.
And I, the lunatic who had been locked away for three years, had become the old debt they were most reluctant to mention.
Someone recognized me first.
A scream sliced through the silence of the room like a knife.
“Han Sui’an? Isn’t she still in the mental asylum?”
“Heavens, how did she get out?”
“Quick, stop her!”
I walked toward the stage step by step. Security guards surrounded me but hesitated for a second when they saw the discharge papers in my hand.
That second was enough.
I raised my hand and slapped Qi Shuheng hard across the face.
The crisp sound echoed through the entire ballroom.
Tang Ruoqi immediately shrank into his arms, tears flowing on cue. “Sister, please don’t make a scene. Brother Shuheng didn’t do anything to wrong you…”
“He didn’t do anything to wrong me?”
I looked at her, my voice not loud, yet clear enough for everyone in the front row to hear. “You’re holding your event at the hotel I booked, you stole the man I was engaged to, and you’re wearing my mother’s heirloom as an engagement necklace. And now you’re telling me you haven’t wronged me?”
Qi Shuheng’s face turned ashen, his anger suppressed. “Sui’an, you’ve just been discharged and your emotions are unstable. I can overlook this. Go back immediately, and I’ll pretend today never happened.”
“Go back?” I laughed. “Back to the mental asylum, so I can keep staying out of your way?”
I pulled a document from my bag and slammed it onto the champagne tower.
Glass shattered everywhere.
“I’m not here to crash a wedding today.” I looked at Han Chengde, who had already stood up below the stage. “I’m here to claim my inheritance.”
My father finally lost his composure, roaring at me, “Drag her out of here!”
But in the next second, the ballroom doors opened again.
A tall, slender man walked in, carrying a briefcase, followed by two lawyers as witnesses.
He stood by my side, his tone as steady as if he were reading a weather forecast.
“The final will and testament of Old Master Han is officially being unsealed today.”
The room fell into a dead silence.
I tilted my head to look at him.
I had met him once, three years ago.
At my mother’s funeral, he had stood behind my grandfather, never saying a word from beginning to end.
I remembered his name very clearly.
Li Baiyan.
And the first sentence he spoke after opening the document pushed the entire Han Family into the fire.
“Ms. Han Sui’an is the sole effective heir designated by Old Master Han.”