Shen Xie had never liked coming home late.

Tonight, however, she had no choice.

The meeting that was supposed to last until midnight had ended unexpectedly early. Instead of returning to the Shen residence, she decided to visit the apartment Hao Zeyu had prepared for her.

She hadn't told him she was coming.

She wanted to surprise him.

The moment she stepped out of the elevator, Shen Xie noticed that the apartment door was slightly open.

She frowned.

She clearly remembered locking it that morning.

Pushing the door open, she stepped inside.

The lights were on.

Then she heard a woman's laughter.

Shen Xie froze.

It was a voice she knew better than most.

“Zeyu, what if Xie comes back?”

Qiao Ruxi.

Her best friend.

A man's low chuckle followed.

“She won't. She told me she'd be working late.”

Shen Xie's fingers tightened around the strap of her handbag.

For a moment, she couldn't move.

Then she slowly walked toward the living room.

The scene before her was painfully clear.

Hao Zeyu was sitting on the sofa.

Qiao Ruxi was beside him.

Too close.

Close enough that there was no explanation worth hearing.

Neither of them noticed Shen Xie.

She stood silently at the entrance.

Three years.

Three years of engagement.

Three years of defending Hao Zeyu whenever her family questioned him.

Three years of believing that he loved her.

And Qiao Ruxi...

She had known her since they were young.

Shen Xie had trusted her enough to tell her everything.

Her dreams.

Her worries.

Even the smallest details of her relationship.

A bitter realization slowly settled in her chest.

She had handed both of them every weapon they needed to hurt her.

Qiao Ruxi suddenly looked toward the doorway.

Her face went pale.

“Xie…”

Hao Zeyu turned.

His expression changed instantly.

“Shen Xie?”

She looked at them.

Neither spoke.

She didn't cry.

She didn't shout.

She didn't ask how long it had been happening.

Some truths were too ugly to require confirmation.

Shen Xie lowered her eyes.

“I forgot something.”

She turned around.

“Xie, wait!”

Hao Zeyu rushed after her.

She pressed the elevator button.

“Listen to me. It's not what you think.”

The elevator doors opened.

Shen Xie stepped inside.

She looked at him one last time.

“Then don't explain.”

The doors closed between them.

Only then did her composure begin to crack.

Her phone vibrated.

Hao Zeyu.

She stared at his name.

The call ended.

Then came another.

She switched off her phone.

Outside, rain had begun to fall.

Shen Xie walked without an umbrella.

The cold water slipped through her hair and soaked her clothes.

She barely noticed.

Her mind was filled with fragments of the past.

Her grandfather's warnings.

Her brother's distrust.

Her mother's quiet questions.

Are you certain about him?

She had always defended Hao Zeyu.

For him, she had moved away from the Shen residence.

For him, she had rejected opportunities offered by her family.

For him, she had repeatedly told herself that love meant choosing the person she loved over everything else.

Now she wondered whether she had simply been foolish.

A sharp horn suddenly tore through the rain.

Shen Xie looked up.

Headlights blinded her.

A vehicle was speeding toward her.

She tried to move.

Too late.

The impact came without warning.

Pain exploded through her body.

Her vision blurred.

She heard shouting somewhere nearby.

Footsteps rushed toward her.

Then a man's voice cut through the chaos.

“Call an ambulance.”

His voice was calm.

Commanding.

Shen Xie struggled to open her eyes.

Through the rain and blurred lights, she saw a man kneeling beside her.

Dark hair.

A sharp, unfamiliar face.

A black coat.

And near the edge of that coat—

A small silver-black orchid embroidered into the fabric.

Their eyes met.

For a few seconds, neither looked away.

Then darkness swallowed her.

---

The hospital doors opened.

“Female, mid-twenties. Severe trauma from a traffic accident.”

Doctors and nurses rushed her toward the emergency room.

The man who had brought her in remained outside for only a moment.

His gaze followed the doctors.

His assistant approached.

“Sir.”

The man glanced at him.

“Handle it.”

“Yes.”

He turned away.

Then stopped.

“Make sure she survives.”

His assistant looked toward the emergency room.

“I understand.”

The man walked away.

He had no reason to know the woman whose life he had just tried to save.

Not yet.

---

The nurses rushed Shen Xie into the emergency room.

“We need her identification and emergency contact.”

One nurse checked her handbag while another spoke with the doctor.

“Her phone is here. It's locked.”

“Emergency contact?”

The nurse glanced at the screen.

“Hao Zeyu.”

“Call him.”

Another nurse looked through the belongings that had arrived with her.

“There isn't a family contact?”

“Not listed.”

“Then contact this person first. The patient's condition is critical.”

The call was placed.

Meanwhile, the man who had brought Shen Xie to the hospital had already left.

His assistant had completed the necessary arrangements and paid the initial medical expenses before disappearing into the night.

Nobody in the emergency room knew why a stranger had taken such careful responsibility for an unconscious woman.

And nobody knew that the person listed as her emergency contact was the very man who had betrayed her.

Hours later, the hospital corridor was silent.

Hao Zeyu arrived.

Qiao Ruxi was with him.

The doctor stepped outside the room.

“Her condition is critical.”

Hao Zeyu's face turned pale.

“Doctor, please save her.”

Qiao Ruxi covered her mouth, tears running down her cheeks.

Inside the room, Shen Xie couldn't move.

She couldn't open her eyes.

But she could hear.

Footsteps.

Voices.

Hao Zeyu's trembling breath.

Then the door closed.

Silence.

Qiao Ruxi whispered,

“What if she wakes up?”

For several seconds, there was no answer.

Then Hao Zeyu spoke.

“She won't.”

Shen Xie's heart seemed to stop.

His voice became even quieter.

“After tonight, there won't be anyone left who can tell a soul what really happened.”

Her fingers slightly twitched beneath the blanket with no strength left in them.

For the first time since the accident, fear overwhelmed the pain.

What has really happened?

The monitor beside the bed continued to beep.

Slowly.

Steadily.

Almost cruelly.

Shen Xie wanted to open her eyes.

She couldn't.

Her body felt impossibly heavy, as though every bone had been buried beneath stone. She tried moving her fingers, but nothing happened as if all strength has been lost.

Then she heard Hao Zeyu voice again.

“Wanqing, we can't stay here.”

Su Wanqing's voice was barely audible.

“What about her?”

“She won't wake up.”

Shen Xie's heart clenched and a known pain flowed out.

She had known, realisation downing upon her.

She had already understood that they had betrayed her.

But hearing those words beside her made the truth cruelly unbearable.

Su Wanqing hesitated.

“What if someone investigates the accident?”

“They won't.”

“How can you be sure?”

A long silence followed.

Then Hao Zeyu spoke.

“The driver is already gone.”

Shen Xie's breathing became shallow.

Driver?

She tried to remember.

The headlights.

The screech of tires.

The impact.

Had someone actually hit her deliberately?

Su Wanqing lowered her voice.

“And the surveillance?”

“Taken care of.”

Shen Xie's blood ran cold.

This was no accident.

Someone had planned this-her death.

She tried desperately to move.

Her fingers.

Her eyelids.

Anything.

Nothing responded.

Hao Zeyu walked closer to her bed.

For a moment, Shen Xie could feel his presence beside her.

The same man whose hand she had held countless times.

The same man she had defended against her family.

The same man who had told her that he loved her and would do anything for her.

His voice was quiet.

“Don't blame me, Xie.”

A pause.

“You made me choose.”

Shen Xie wanted to scream.

Choose what?

What had she done?

Why had he wanted her dead?

Before she could hear more, the door opened.

A nurse entered.

Hao Zeyu immediately stepped away.

His voice changed again.

“Doctor, how is she?”

The performance resumed.

The crying.

The worry.

The devoted fiancé.

Shen Xie listened until the voices faded.

Then darkness slowly closed over her.

The last thing she remembered was the silver-black orchid on a stranger's coat.

And a pair of unfamiliar eyes looking directly into hers as if it has seen through her soul.

---

The next morning, rain continued to fall over Jingdu.

The news reported a tragic traffic accident.

Nothing unusual.

A young woman from a prominent family had been critically injured.

The report lasted less than a minute.

By evening, it was forgotten.

But in another part of the city, a man stood before a floor-to-ceiling window.

“Sir.”

Lu Jing placed a file on the desk.

“The woman from last night is Shen Xie.”

Xia Yucheng's gaze remained on the city bustling below.

“Shen Xie?”

“Yes.”

Lu Jing paused.

“She is the granddaughter of Shen Zhenyuan.”

That finally made Xia Yucheng turn.

“Her fiancé?”

“Hao Zeyu.”

A faint crease appeared between his brows.

Lu Jing continued.

“We've been investigating the Hao family for three months.”

Xia Yucheng picked up the file.

His eyes moved across the first page.

Then stopped.

“Interesting.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

He closed the file.

“Continue the investigation.”

Lu Jing nodded.

Neither of them knew that the woman lying unconscious in the hospital had just become connected to an investigation that was much larger than they had realized.

Shen Xie tried opening her eyes and all she could hear is the chirping of the morning birds , a ray of sunlight shone upon her delicate face.

For some reason, that was the first thing she noticed.

Birds.

Not hospital monitors.

Not nurses.

Not the light rain hitting against the glass.

But singing of Birds.

She frowned.

Her head throbbed.

Slowly, she closed and again opened her eyes, this time with more clarity in the eyes.

A familiar ceiling appeared above her.

She stared at it.

For several seconds, she didn't understand.

Then she slowly sat up as if the hear from the bed scared her.

Her breathing stopped, her body froze.

Then the reality came back slowly.

This wasn't the hospital.

This was her old bedroom.

The bedroom she hadn't slept in for years.

The pale curtains.

The antique cabinet beside the window.

The framed photograph of her family on the bedside table.

She reached for it with trembling fingers.

Her family.

Her grandfather.

Her father.

Her mother.

Her brother.

All of them were smiling.

Alive.

Shen Xie stared at the photograph.

Her fingers began shaking.

“No…”

She looked around.

Her phone was lying beside the pillow.

She grabbed it.

The screen lit up.

The date appeared.

Shen Xie's face went completely pale.

She checked again.

Then again.

The date hadn't changed.

She knew this date.

She remembered it.

She remembered exactly what had happened on this day.

She had turned twenty-one.

She had been newly engaged to Hao Zeyu, the heir of Hao Family.

And she had not yet begun distancing herself from her family.

Her phone suddenly rang.

Shen Xie flinched.

The caller's name appeared on the screen.

Brother.

She stared.

Her hand covered her mouth.

Shen Yichen.

Alive.

She answered with her voice trembling lacking the strength of the vigorous women she had been in her previous life.

“Hello?”

There was silence on the other end.

Then a familiar voice.

“Why do you sound like you've seen a ghost?”

Shen Xie's eyes filled with tears.

She couldn't speak.

“Xie?”

“I…”

Her voice broke.

“I'm fine.”

“Are you crying?”

“No.”

“You're definitely crying.”

Despite herself, Shen Xie laughed.

A small, broken sound.

Her brother went quiet.

Then his voice softened.

“Did something happen?”

Shen Xie closed her eyes.

For one moment, she wanted to tell him everything.

She wanted to tell him that she had died.

That Hao Zeyu had betrayed her.

That Su Wanqing had betrayed her.

That someone had arranged her death.

That she had heard them talking beside her hospital bed.

But she couldn't.

Not yet.

“I just missed you.”

There was another silence.

Then Shen Yichen sighed.

“You're strange today.”

“Maybe I am.”

“Come home for dinner tonight.”

Shen Xie's throat tightened.

“Okay.”

“Grandfather will be happy.”

The call ended.

Shen Xie lowered the phone.

Her tears finally fell.

She had forgotten how much she missed hearing his voice.

She had forgotten what it felt like to have her family alive.

She wiped her tears from her face.

Then her expression slowly changed.

The grief remained.

But beneath it was something colder.

She remembered everything.

The apartment.

Hao Zeyu.

Su Wanqing.

The accident.

The hospital.

The words.

And the man in the black coat.

The silver-black orchid.

Shen Xie looked toward the window.

She had been given another life.

She didn't know why.

She didn't know who had given it to her.

But she knew one thing.

She would not waste it.

Her phone vibrated again.

A message from Hao Zeyu.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

Shen Xie stared at it.

In her previous life, she would have smiled.

Today, she simply deleted the message.

Then she whispered,

“Let's see how long your perfect life lasts.”

---