Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Under the dim yellow glow of the streetlights, two familiar figures stood close together.

Duan Yi wore a casual, reckless smirk as he roughly pressed Hu Fei’s head toward him, whispering something in her ear.

Hu Fei responded shyly, playfully swatting at his chest with a coquettish pout.

Duan Yi’s laugh grew even more unruly; he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

Today was our first wedding anniversary. I had intended to surprise him, only to stumble upon this scene instead.

I stood not far away, a cake box dangling from my hand. My feet felt like they were encased in lead, rooted to the spot.

The surrounding clamor had nothing to do with me as my vision began to lose focus.

Duan Yi looked up. He clearly saw me, yet instead of pulling away, he wrapped his arm around Hu Fei’s waist and pulled her tighter, closing the gap between them.

We stared at each other through the faint moonlight, neither willing to back down.

Duan Yi’s eyes darkened. He turned his cold profile toward me, looking deeply into Hu Fei’s eyes as their faces drew closer and closer.

It was as if he were testing my breaking point.

At this stage, he couldn’t even be bothered to play the part of the devoted husband anymore.

The night wind whipped my long hair into a messy tangle. A chill rose from the depths of my heart, sweeping through my body as my fingernails dug slowly into my palms.

In the end, I didn’t have the courage to watch until the finish. At the very moment their lips were about to meet, I turned and fled.

My heart throbbed with a sharp, agonizing pain, and tears blurred my vision.

I had only just woken up from a nightmare; I didn’t have the strength left to keep up appearances.

I ran too fast and tripped, falling hard onto the pavement. A large patch of skin was scraped off my knee, and blood flowed freely, yet I felt no pain. I simply didn’t have the courage to stand back up.

A pair of pale, cool hands reached out. Duan Yi’s voice was like ice, devoid of any warmth. “Get up. Stop acting fragile; it doesn’t suit you.”

I stared fixedly at Duan Yi, trying to find even a flicker of his former tenderness in his eyes.

In the past, if I suffered even the slightest scratch, Duan Yi would be more anxious than I was. He couldn’t stand to see me sad or crying.

Now, even though I was in so much pain I could hardly breathe, he didn’t even knit his brows.

I didn’t know when it started, but Duan Yi had become a completely different person.

He smoked, he drank, he got into fights, and he cheated on me without the slightest bit of restraint.

He did everything I hated.

I couldn’t believe his heart had truly changed, so I asked him for a reason over and over again.

No matter how difficult things were, we could face them together. Even if he were terminally ill, I would rather stay by his side and never leave.

I didn’t want to be the tragic heroine of some angst-filled novel, kept in the dark and forced to hate him while he martyred himself for what he thought was “my own good.”

But he pushed me away time and time again, using a blunt knife to slowly flay my heart, draw blood with every stroke, and challenge my limits.

Just as he wished, he had finally exhausted all my strength.

My tears continued to flow uncontrollably, yet my voice was eerily calm. “Duan Yi, you destroyed me. You really deserve to die.”

Those long, pale fingers trembled imperceptibly.

He was the one who had pursued me first, barging into my life without warning and using every trick to win my heart.

That summer, he had been willing to give up his life just to save me.

We had been through so much and worked so hard to finally be together. How could he just stop loving me out of nowhere?

Where exactly did things go wrong?

This wasn’t the first time I felt trapped in this terrifying nightmare.