Chapter 1

Chapter 1

In the sprawling villa, Qin Jiajia lay sprawled on the floor, enduring kick after vicious kick from the man towering over her.

Zhong Mingjiang ground his teeth. The sight of the freckled woman with vacant eyes filled him with disgust. He spat hard in her face. “Look at the state of you, and you still think you have the right to stop me from seeing other women?”

“Ah! Don’t! Please…” Her cries grew louder as his assault intensified.

“Please, Mingjiang, stop! This is your baby!” Qin Jiajia curled around her belly, shielding it with both arms.

All she had done was curse at Luo Xia after catching Zhong Mingjiang having sex with her in the living room. For that, he had turned on her with this savage fury.

Compared to Luo Xia, she was nothing but mud under his shoe. Worthless.

She did not regret cursing Luo Xia. Her only regret was that she had not stabbed the woman to death.

“Mingjiang, I was wrong. Please stop. I’m begging you!”

Without warning, warmth streamed down her leg. Blood flowed in an unbroken rivulet.

Something inside Qin Jiajia went hollow. Her eyes emptied as her heart plunged into an icy abyss, sinking deeper and deeper.

“Even a tiger won’t eat its own cub….”

“As if you’re worthy of carrying my child!” Contempt flashed in Zhong Mingjiang’s eyes.

Regret gnawed at Qin Jiajia. She never should have married him. She never should have trusted Luo Xia so completely.

At the sight of her, a trace of apparent pity crossed Luo Xia’s face. “Mingjiang, don’t. Jiajia is my best friend. You can’t treat her like this….”

“Ah Xia, you’re so kind. I love you more every day.”

“We should call a doctor for Jiajia. What if she dies and comes back to haunt us? I’m afraid of ghosts….” Luo Xia’s lashes trembled. She narrowed her eyes and looked down at Qin Jiajia.

Good. Seeing Qin Jiajia reduced to something less than an insect finally put her mind at ease.

“Ah Xia, money makes even ghosts do your bidding. If one comes for me, I’ll bury it in cash! Nothing makes me happier than spending a fortune on you….”

A coy blush appeared in Luo Xia’s eyes as Zhong Mingjiang swept her into his arms.

“Mingjiang, you’re so strong…. Your muscles are getting harder too….”

“You little temptress….”

Qin Jiajia’s eyes turned to ice. Her legs shook and blood poured from her body, but she summoned the last of her strength and forced herself upright. Snatching the fruit knife from the table, she lunged at Luo Xia.

“Go to hell!”

“Ah! Ah!” Luo Xia shrieked and ducked behind Zhong Mingjiang.

He kicked Qin Jiajia aside. She crashed to the floor.

“Try hurting Ah Xia and I’ll kill you myself!” Zhong Mingjiang snarled.

Qin Jiajia stared at Luo Xia, a deathly pale smile on her lips. “Luo Xia… why? Why are you doing this to me?”

She had paid for Luo Xia to study abroad. Without Qin Jiajia, how could Luo Xia ever have the life she did now?

Luo Xia arched a brow. Arrogance flickered through her eyes before she softened her voice. “I’m sorry, Jiajia. I just love Mingjiang too much. I can’t control myself. I tried to let you have him, but he’s so hopelessly in love with me that he’d rather die than live without me. How could I stand by and watch the man I love die?”

Qin Jiajia laughed bitterly. Evil people always found it so easy to justify their sins.

Everyone had told her to be kind and sincere, never false or calculating.

No one had warned her that too much kindness could be exploited, that people would use her until she had nothing left to give, then throw her away.

When she learned that both her husband and her best friend had betrayed her, she had humbled herself until she was no more than a speck of dust.

She had even tried to persuade them to turn back before it was too late.

Instead, Luo Xia told Zhong Mingjiang that Qin Jiajia had hit her, threatened her, and tried to kill her.

Zhong Mingjiang knew exactly what kind of woman Qin Jiajia was. He knew what kind of woman Luo Xia was too. He simply had no desire to defend his wife. Worse, he had seized upon the lie as an excuse to humiliate her.

“Luo Xia, I always thought of you as my sister….” Qin Jiajia sobbed. “Why would you do this to me? What have I ever done to deserve it?”

Luo Xia crouched beside her. The coppery reek of blood left her feeling wonderfully refreshed. “If you had ever wronged me, I wouldn’t have everything I do today. That’s the problem: you treated me far too well.”

Her face twisted with laughter. “We’re sisters, aren’t we? Sisters share their blessings and their burdens. You’ve been Mrs. Zhong long enough. I’m only helping take some of the weight off your shoulders. With such a frail little body, how could you possibly bear it all yourself? Tsk, tsk….”

The wicked never needed a reason to do wicked things.

“Luo Xia, stop wasting your breath on that hag. I’m taking you upstairs.” Zhong Mingjiang cut them off and carried Luo Xia away with undisguised impatience.
Moans of pleasure drifted down from upstairs, scraping across every raw nerve in Qin Jiajia’s body.

She dragged herself along the floor. Each agonizing inch left another smear of blood behind her.

As long as there was a single breath left in her body, she would kill that faithless pair.

She had kept to herself and harmed no one. How had she ended up like this?

She thought fate had already shown her the full extent of its cruelty. Then several uninvited guests entered the villa.

“Where is she?”

“Mrs. Zhong? Mrs. Zhong!”

“Luo Xia asked us to come help with your abortion. While we’re at it, we’ll remove your uterus….”

Qin Jiajia’s feet trembled. She wanted to run, but not a shred of strength remained in her body.

Luo Xia had arranged everything in advance, hiring unscrupulous doctors from backstreet clinics to break into the house and forcibly remove her uterus when she was defenseless.

Now that they could see she was utterly incapable of fighting back, they made no attempt to hide their lawlessness.

“Stay away from me….”

“Don’t panic, Mrs. Zhong. We work fast. You have nothing to worry about….”

Qin Jiajia’s voice was so faint she could barely hear it herself, every word a hoarse rasp. “No… please….”

Her struggles were useless. Several of them pinned her to the floor and, without giving her any anesthetic, cut the uterus from her living body.

There were no earthshaking screams, only feeble, broken pleas for help.

Pleas addressed to empty air.

Qin Jiajia began hemorrhaging during the procedure. The doctors, all brought in from small, out-of-the-way towns, panicked and fled. One glance at their faces was enough to see the terror in their eyes.

Qin Jiajia felt cold. Colder and colder, until the chill became unbearable. Then burning heat swept through her, alternating fire and ice.

Her uterus had been cut beyond recognition. Qin Jiajia reached out with bloodless fingers and touched that warm, blood-drenched piece of her own body.

Luo Xia, what hatred could you possibly bear me? What did I ever do to make you treat me this way?

We were sisters. The very best of friends.

Qin Jiajia and Luo Xia had grown up in the same orphanage.

Whatever Qin Jiajia had, she always gave half to Luo Xia.

When they grew up, they left the orphanage and found work. They rented a place together, earned money together, and remained as close as sisters, each supposedly willing to give the other her very heart.

Back then, Qin Jiajia believed that having a friend like Luo Xia was the greatest blessing of her life.

To have someone to love and a true confidante: what more could anyone ask for?

She had not understood how helpless affection became when confronted with cold reality.

When Qin Jiajia was twenty, at the beginning of summer, she suddenly learned that she was the granddaughter of the celebrated painter Qin Mo. Overjoyed, she told Luo Xia before anyone else.

Luo Xia had seemed thrilled for her. She had even bought wine and a feast so they could celebrate.

“Jiajia, when you join the Qin family and start living the good life, you won’t pretend you don’t know me, will you?”

“Of course not. I’ll ask Grandpa to let you move in with us. The house is so big, and with just Grandpa and me there, I’d be a little scared….” Every word Qin Jiajia spoke came from the heart.

The speaker had meant nothing by it. The listener heard far more.

Luo Xia already envied Qin Jiajia’s good fortune. That guileless promise sent her jealousy spiraling beyond control.

It swelled into an irresistible, primal force until nothing could contain it.

Luo Xia’s biological mother was a widow from the countryside. Men from the village had violated her, and Luo Xia had been born as a result. Even she had no idea who her father was.

Qin Jiajia, meanwhile, was the granddaughter of the famous Qin Mo, destined for an entirely different life.

Fate was cruel. Fate was unfair.

Luo Xia pretended she had drunk too much and went to the bathroom.

Soon afterward, Zhong Mingjiang knocked on the door. The moment Qin Jiajia opened it, he forced himself on her.

She screamed for help until her throat went raw, but there was no one to save her.

Afterward, Luo Xia claimed she had passed out drunk in the bathroom and heard nothing. Weeping, she begged Qin Jiajia’s forgiveness.

The apartment was barely forty square meters, yet Luo Xia said she had heard nothing. Qin Jiajia had not doubted her for a second.

Only much later did she discover that Luo Xia had planned every detail.

The moment Luo Xia learned that Qin Jiajia was the Qin family’s granddaughter, she sought out Zhong Mingjiang. The two had joined forces then and laid their trap together.

Even Zhong Mingjiang’s assault had been part of their scheme.

Qin Jiajia had known none of it. Like a fool, she continued showering Luo Xia with kindness, stepping blindly into the pit they had dug for her. By the time she saw how deep it had become, she no longer had the strength to climb out.
Zhong Mingjiang had said, “Jiajia, I’ll take care of you for the rest of our lives. From now on, I’m your man….”

Luo Xia had said, “Jiajia, it’s not as though you’ve lost out. Mingjiang is so handsome! Marry him. Marry him!”

Grandpa had said, “As long as it makes you happy, you have my blessing….”

And so she yielded and became Zhong Mingjiang’s woman.

But Zhong Mingjiang only wanted the inheritance Grandpa would leave her.

Not long after Grandpa made his will, he died.

Without hesitation, Qin Jiajia had the entire inheritance legally transferred to Zhong Mingjiang to fund his new business.

Her only condition was that he send Luo Xia abroad to study, bringing Luo Xia one step closer to her dream. Zhong Mingjiang agreed.

Never forget the friends who stood beside you before fortune smiled. Qin Jiajia had always taken that promise between sisters to heart.

Zhong Mingjiang later made a fortune and became the powerful businessman everyone respectfully called Mr. Zhong.

Qin Jiajia, meanwhile, went from the cherished granddaughter of the Qin family and heir to tens of millions, to the shameful wife he kept hidden from the world.

Zhong Mingjiang claimed that if she made herself too beautiful, she would attract other men, so he gave her a pittance for living expenses each month. While Luo Xia glittered in gold and jewels, Qin Jiajia wore bargain-bin clothes ordered online.

She regarded Zhong Mingjiang as her husband. He treated her like garbage, too filthy to look at twice.

Her young body had been tormented until no vitality remained.

Only when he saw her at her most wretched could Zhong Mingjiang feel superior. The abuse never stopped, all to prop up his laughable masculine pride.

He lived off a woman’s money yet insisted on playing the mighty man. He was no different from a whore demanding to be praised for chastity.

When Luo Xia returned from studying abroad, she pretended to pity Qin Jiajia and visited often. In truth, she was sleeping with Zhong Mingjiang. If Qin Jiajia had not discovered their affair, she might never have learned that the two of them had planned everything from the beginning.

Then a fire burned it all away.

Through a haze, Qin Jiajia heard a dog barking somewhere nearby.

Agony seared through her body. Her breaths grew shallower as panic closed in.

Black smoke billowed around her. The air reeked of blood….

No one knew what truly happened in the villa that night.

The newspaper told this version of events:

Though born into a distinguished scholarly family, Mrs. Zhong had no sense of shame. Even after marriage, she carried on a string of affairs. While Mr. Zhong was away attending a business function, she invited a lover into their home. During their tryst, a violent gas explosion erupted downstairs. Mrs. Zhong and her lover died at the scene. By the time Mr. Zhong returned, the villa had burned to an empty shell. Speaking to the press, the grief-stricken Mr. Zhong uttered no word of blame against his wife. He even held a funeral for her that drew the attention of the entire city.

Now, that page of fabricated news was held between a pair of slender hands.

Their owner was a beautiful woman. Her eyes shone as she reapplied her lipstick with one hand, her gaze fixed on the two-year-old article.

Zhong Mingjiang. Still every bit as skilled at putting on a show.

“Stop reading that.” Gu Cangbei took the newspaper from her hand.

That night, after Zhong Mingjiang and Luo Xia discovered she still had one breath left, they had feared she might somehow survive and go to the police. They immediately set the fire and fled.

Gu Cangbei arrived in time. He pulled her charred, mutilated body from the villa and took her to a hospital.

Everyone believed she was dead.

She had never died at all.

Gu Cangbei took her overseas, where her entire body was painstakingly reconstructed.

She had a new face now. Sometimes even her own reflection looked like a stranger.

“This is what kept me alive. Are you sure you want to take it away?” Gu Xinyue narrowed her eyes and snatched the paper back.

Revenge was the only reason she still lived.

Night stretched endlessly beyond the windows. Streetlamps flickered through the slats of the blinds, casting narrow bars of light across the spacious balcony.

Luo Xia tossed and turned on the luxurious double bed, unable to sleep.

Zhong Mingjiang had used a cocktail party as an excuse to go out and had yet to return. It was impossible not to imagine what he might be doing.

He had often seen other women over the years. Afraid of damaging their marriage, Luo Xia had always looked the other way. Zhong Mingjiang had come to take her tolerance for granted.

A long sigh drifted from the bedroom. Luo Xia got up to use the bathroom.

When she returned, her phone screen was glowing.

She picked it up without thinking and glanced at the message.

One look was enough to make every hair on her body stand on end.

“Ah!” Her scream tore through the entire house….