Yu Sheng walked out of the bathroom, wiping her hair. Droplets from the ends fell onto her collarbone, spreading a faint chill.
Sophia immediately came over, her blue eyes full of grievance. "Sheng, someone really fierce just called you!"
She exaggeratedly gestured, trying to imitate that cold tone. "She kept asking why I was at your place, like I did something bad."
Yu Sheng paused slightly and took the phone to check the call log.
When she saw the name "Shen Yunmian," a trace of understanding flashed across her face, along with a sense of helplessnessas expected."
"It's fine," she reassured. "Go get some rest. I'll take you to try authentic breakfast tomorrow."
Sophia looked at her worriedly. "Are you sure it's okay? That person sounded very angry."
"Don't worry," Yu Sheng forced a small smile. "I can handle it."
After sending off Sophia, who kept looking back, Yu Sheng took a deep breath and called back.
The moment the call connected, suppressed breathing came from the other end, as if the person was trying hard to steady herself.
Silence stretched between the two ends of the line, like a taut string.
After a long time, Shen Yunmian's strained voice came through: "…Sheng Sheng."
"Is something wrong?" Yu Sheng asked directly, her tone calm and unreadable.
That light, casual greeting pierced Shen Yunmian's heart. She tightened her grip on the phone, her knuckles turning white. "You were… showering just now? That foreign girl said your clothes got wet…"
"Mm, I accidentally got them dirty while eating." Yu Sheng understood her thoughts too well and immediately caught the implication. She admitted calmly, "Sophia will be staying here for a few days."
The other end fell into an even longer silence, with only increasingly heavy breathing audible.
After a long while, Shen Yunmian's voice carried an almost imperceptible tremor. "Sheng Sheng… are you coming back tonight?"
"No," Yu Sheng answered decisively. "I'll come by tomorrow to pack my things."
Those words were like ice water poured over her, freezing Shen Yunmian instantly. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
"I've read the divorce agreement," Yu Sheng continued. "Some terms need to be confirmed in person. Let's talk when we meet tomorrow."
"…Okay." Shen Yunmian responded mechanically, her voice hollow. "Anything is fine."
"Anything else?"
"…No."
"Then I'm hanging up."
The busy tone sounded, like the final toll of a bell.
Shen Yunmian remained standing in the center of the empty living room, still holding the phone in the same position.
The dull pain in her heart quickly spread through her entire body. Rationally, she knew Yu Sheng wouldn't do anything improper, yet the poisonous vines of jealousy and fear still wrapped tightly around her, tightening further, the dull ache radiating outward until she could barely breathe.
This feeling was unbearable, like having a piece of her torn out alive, leaving only hollow pain.
She staggered toward the wine cabinet, her vision already blurring. The doctor's warnings had long been thrown to the wind. She took out a bottle of strong red wine, not even bothering to find a corkscrew, twisting the cork open with trembling hands.
"Ugh…" The first gulp burned down her throat, forcing a muffled groan from her.
The alcohol scorched her esophagus and stomach, bringing sharp spasms of pain, yet she seemed not to feel it—instead, there was a self-destructive sense of relief. The physical pain temporarily suppressed the heart-wrenching despair.
Not enough. Far from enough.
Tilting her head back, she drank straight from the bottle.
Crimson wine spilled from the corners of her mouth, sliding down her pale neck, staining the front of her clothes like a vivid streak of blood. Under the violent assault of alcohol, her stomach protested fiercely, waves of twisting pain forcing her to bend over, cold sweat forming on her forehead.
"Ha…" she gasped painfully, yet still didn't stop drinking.
The intoxication surged like a tide, quickly blurring her consciousness, her vision spinning and swaying.
After two bottles, Shen Yunmian could no longer hold on and collapsed onto the cold carpet.
The pain in her stomach came in tightening waves, but she seemed numb. She only lifted her heavy eyelids, staring blankly at the phone screen—
On it was Yu Sheng's smiling face, bright and beautiful, set deliberately as her lock screen.
Tears poured down silently, mixing with the wine stains on her face, leaving her utterly disheveled.
"Sheng Sheng…" she murmured to the person in the photo, her voice slurred, "I miss you so much… I really miss you… smile at me again… like before…"
The alcohol stripped away all her disguises, and the regret she had suppressed across two lifetimes burst forth like a collapsing dam.
She reached out with trembling fingers, trying to touch the vivid face on the screen, only to meet cold glass.
"I don't want a divorce… I really don't…"
The intense stomach pain and the tearing sensation in her heart intertwined, making her curl up like a wounded animal, letting out broken, suppressed sobs. Under extreme pain and alcohol's haze, distorted lights began to appear before her eyes.
Was it a hallucination?
She seemed to see Yu Sheng standing not far away, her expression gentle, smiling at her.
Just like when they had first gotten married, when her eyes were full of only her.
"Sheng Sheng!"
She reached out desperately toward the illusion, her voice hoarse and pleading: "I'm sorry! I know I was wrong! I really know I was wrong!"
"I shouldn't have ignored you… shouldn't have thought everything you gave was only natural…"
"I'm a bastard! The stupidest bastard in the world!"
She pounded her chest hard, the pain there almost exploding.
"You can hit me, scold me, anything… just please don't abandon me… don't leave me…"
Tears blurred her vision, and even the illusion before her seemed to grow hazy, which only made her more panicked. "I won't do it again, I'll change… I really will change… please give me one more chance. Just once… Sheng Sheng… please…"
She repeated apologies and pleas incoherently, her voice becoming more and more slurred. Another wave of severe stomach pain struck, making her curl into a ball, her body trembling slightly, cold sweat covering her forehead, her face pale as paper.
She clutched her head in pain, muttering in disarray, "What's the use of living again? I still can't keep you… what should I do?"
What she didn't know was that, in her drunken haze, her finger had already accidentally pressed redial.
Yu Sheng, who was about to go to sleep, heard the ringtone. Seeing that it was Shen Yunmian calling, she paused for a few seconds before frowning and answering. Before she could speak, she heard suppressed sobbing from the other end.
"Sheng Sheng…" Shen Yunmian's voice was thick with drunkenness, "I miss you so much…"
Yu Sheng frowned even more. "You've been drinking?"
"I'm sorry… I know I shouldn't disturb you…" Shen Yunmian's voice came in fragments, "but I can't help it… when I think about you leaving, I just…"
"Shen Yunmian." Yu Sheng's voice turned cold. "We'll talk tomorrow."
"Don't hang up!" Shen Yunmian suddenly became agitated. "Sheng Sheng, do you know how I lived after you left in the previous life?"
Yu Sheng's hand, about to hang up, froze.
"I could see your shadow every day… at the study door, in the living room, in the bedroom…" Shen Yunmian's voice trembled with sobs. "I thought I could keep living like that, but in the end… in the end I still couldn't hold on. On the anniversary of your death… I went to find you…"
Those words exploded in Yu Sheng's mind like thunder.
Shen Yunmian's sudden change, her unreasonable concessions—every doubt connected into a single line at that moment.
She had been reborn too? When? After waking from the car accident?
The realization shocked Yu Sheng beyond measure. She tried to ask more, but Shen Yunmian was too drunk, her words incoherent, clearly unable to answer properly.
Yu Sheng immediately grabbed her car keys and rushed out without hesitation. She had to find out the truth.
The night was deep, streetlights stretching into flowing bands of light outside the car window.
Yu Sheng gripped the steering wheel tightly and pressed the accelerator, the car slicing through the night as it sped toward Jiuxi Bay.
Every red light made her restless, her fingers tapping unconsciously against the wheel.
Shen Yunmian might have been reborn too—this thought thundered through her mind, leaving her unable to calm down.
Those unreasonable compromises, the almost humble attempts to please, the pain hidden deep in her eyes… none of it had been impulsive. It was all repentance soaked in blood and tears.
But even so, could the harm of the previous life really be erased?
Yu Sheng's heart was in turmoil.
She wanted to know the truth immediately, yet feared facing what that truth might be.
—
Shen Yunmian lay collapsed on the cold carpet, two empty wine bottles scattered beside her.
"Sheng Sheng…" she murmured unconsciously, tears mixing with wine stains as they trailed down her face. "I miss you so much…"
As she murmured, a "beep" sounded at the entrance as the fingerprint lock opened.
Shen Yunmian lifted her head dazedly and saw a familiar figure standing in the doorway, backlit.
She blinked her drunken, misty eyes and smiled foolishly. "Sheng Sheng? I'm dreaming about you again… this time… it feels so real…"
Yu Sheng walked closer with a frown, the strong smell of alcohol hitting her.
Looking at Shen Yunmian slumped on the floor, dazed, her voice was as cold as ice. "Shen Yunmian, what did you mean on the phone just now by 'living another life'?"
The words were like a bucket of ice water poured over her.
Shen Yunmian stiffened, sobering instantly.
She stared at Yu Sheng in disbelief, her voice trembling uncontrollably. "Sheng Sheng, you… why are you here?"
"Answer me." Yu Sheng stepped forward, her gaze sharp as a blade. "You were reborn too, weren't you? Since when?"
Shen Yunmian's face turned deathly pale.
She looked away in panic, her lips trembling, wanting to deny it—but unable to hide under Yu Sheng's gaze.
"I…" she lowered her head, her voice barely audible, "after waking from the car accident…"
"So," Yu Sheng's voice carried suppressed anger, "you remember everything from the previous life?"
"I remember… I remember it all…" Shen Yunmian clutched her head in pain, tears pouring out. "Sheng Sheng, I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"
"After you left, every day when I came back to that empty house, I finally understood how lonely you had been…"
Her voice broke apart, thick with sobs:
"I knew I had to live properly. I had too many responsibilities. The Shen family needed an heir. I even underwent insemination surgery, thinking that would let me hold on—so that in the future, all the wealth of both families could be left to our child…"
Yu Sheng's eyes widened in shock, her fingers tightening unconsciously.
Shen Yunmian looked up at her through tear-filled eyes. "But I still couldn't hold on… On the anniversary of your death, I lay in the bathtub… watching the blood spread little by little… it felt like… like I could see you again…"
"Stop talking!" Yu Sheng cut her off sharply, her chest heaving.
Even though she had already suspected it, hearing Shen Yunmian describe the tragic end of the previous life still made it hard to breathe.
Shen Yunmian shrank back at her shout, like a child who had done something wrong, sobbing softly. "Sheng Sheng, I know I don't deserve to ask for your forgiveness… I just… miss you too much…"
Yu Sheng looked at her in silence.
The Shen Yunmian before her was fragile and disheveled, completely different from the cold, proud President Shen.
Anger, shock, and an indescribable bitterness tangled within her.
Yu Sheng let out a long sigh and murmured, "No wonder you suddenly agreed to the divorce after waking up."
Shen Yunmian said anxiously, "Sheng Sheng, I don't dare to hope for your forgiveness. I only ask that you don't drive me away. Even if… even if I can only watch you from afar…"
"Watch me?" Yu Sheng closed her eyes, suppressing the turmoil inside. "And then what? Watch you keep living in the shadow of the previous life, using guilt and self-destruction to bind my life?"
"No! I'm not…" Shen Yunmian tried to explain in panic, but found she had no words.
"Shen Yunmian." Yu Sheng interrupted, her voice filled with deep exhaustion. "We've both died once. Everything from the previous life, like you said, was retribution. I endured mine, and you endured yours."
She looked into Shen Yunmian's eyes and said clearly, word by word: "In this life, I only want to live for myself. Divorce isn't to punish you—it's to free myself. Do you understand?"
Shen Yunmian stared at her blankly, as if her soul had been taken away.
After a long time, she finally spoke with difficulty: "I promise you… the divorce won't change." Tears slid down silently as she forced out a smile uglier than crying. "Sheng Sheng, in this life… you must be happy."
Yu Sheng looked at her, forcing herself to stay composed, her emotions in turmoil.
The resentment from the previous life seemed to blur at this moment.
In the end, she said nothing. She only looked deeply at Shen Yunmian once before turning and leaving the suffocating room.
The door closed softly.
Staring at the door that cut off all her hope, Shen Yunmian finally collapsed to the ground, breaking into uncontrollable sobs.
The suppressed crying echoed through the empty room, filled with bone-deep despair.
And outside, Yu Sheng leaned against the cold car door, looking up at the heavy night sky, unmoving for a long time.
The truth was clear.
But this dead end had become completely unsolvable the moment the truth was revealed.
She let out a soft sigh, took out her phone, and called a private doctor for Shen Yunmian.
After one last glance at the lit window, she drove away.
—
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