The morning sunlight pierced through the gap in the curtains, falling onto Shen Yunmian's heavy eyelids.
She woke with a splitting headache, fragments of last night's memories stabbing into her mind—
Rebirth… she had said rebirth!
Panic gripped her instantly, even more suffocating than the hangover.
She scrambled to find her phone, dialing Yu Sheng's number with trembling hands.
"Sheng Sheng!" As soon as the call connected, she cried out anxiously, her voice hoarse. "Listen to me! I didn't mean to hide it from you! I just… I was just afraid…"
Her words tumbled out chaotically, as if she wanted to tear out her heart.
"I was afraid that if you knew, you'd hate me even more… despise me even more… I was afraid we wouldn't even have this last bit of room left…"
The other end was quiet, only faint breathing could be heard as Yu Sheng listened to her disordered confession.
After a long while, Yu Sheng's calm voice came through, cutting her off:
"Are you done?"
Shen Yunmian froze, as if paused, all her words stuck in her throat.
"Shen Yunmian." Yu Sheng's voice was soft, yet carried undeniable firmness. "Let it all pass, okay?"
"All those things from the previous life… yours, mine, all the love and hate, the entanglement and pain…"
She paused, as if carefully choosing the most precise words.
"Let them all stay in the past. Okay?"
Shen Yunmian gripped the phone, her knuckles turning white.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, yet found that any words at this moment felt pale and powerless.
That unspoken word seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. Shen Yunmian used all her strength to force it out from deep in her throat, carrying a raw, bloody bitterness: "…Okay."
The call was hung up.
Shen Yunmian let her arm fall weakly, as if all the strength in her body had been drained. She maintained that posture, sitting in the empty room for an entire day.
As the sun set and dusk fell, she didn't dare close her eyes, afraid that once she slept, time would slip by even faster.
The night became unbearably long. Every second felt like torture, yet she would rather remain in this moment forever than face the cruelty of tomorrow.
Shen Yunmian stayed awake until dawn, watching the sky outside shift from deep black to pale gray.
The agreed time for the divorce still arrived.
In the study at Jiuxi Bay, the atmosphere was heavy.
The lawyer placed two finalized copies of the divorce agreement on the table and explained the key clauses in a formal tone.
"Miss Yu, President Shen, the terms regarding property division and equity transfer have all been listed. If there are no objections, the agreement will take effect immediately upon signing."
Yu Sheng's gaze calmly swept over the document as she was the first to pick up the pen.
"Wait!" Shen Yunmian blurted out almost instinctively, her voice carrying a faint tremor. She looked at Yu Sheng, her eyes holding the last trace of struggle. "Sheng Sheng, those shares and properties—won't you reconsider?"
Yu Sheng lifted her eyes, clear as spring water, cutting her off. "Shen Yunmian, we've already discussed this. I'll accept the compensation, but no more than necessary." She paused, her tone resolute. "Let's stop here. It's better for both of us."
Those words completely sealed off any thoughts Shen Yunmian had of trying to salvage things. Her lips moved, but in the end she could only offer a pale explanation: "I'm not trying to use money to win anything back… I just… I just hope you can live more easily."
"I understand." Yu Sheng replied lightly, then lowered her head, focusing on the agreement.
She signed her name neatly where required. The pen scratched steadily and decisively across the paper, as if cutting off not just a name, but everything between them.
That sound was like fine shards of ice, piercing Shen Yunmian's heart again and again.
Now it was her turn.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she took the pen that felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
The cold touch of the pen spread from her fingertips to her heart. She wrote extremely slowly, heavily, each stroke seeming to consume all her strength, visibly stiff and difficult.
Finally finishing, she slowly pushed the document toward Yu Sheng. Her gaze, however, fell unintentionally on Yu Sheng's empty ring finger. The ring she had custom-made was never given in the end.
Yu Sheng took the document, checked the signature without pause, then handed it to the lawyer. As the process concluded, Shen Yunmian felt her world collapsing.
"Sheng Sheng…" As Yu Sheng stood up, she instinctively called out again, her voice faint as a sigh.
Yu Sheng stopped, turning slightly to look at her. There was no impatience in her eyes, only calm.
Shen Yunmian looked at her, countless words stuck in her throat, finally turning into a broken plea: "In the future… can we still… occasionally have a meal together, like friends?"
Yu Sheng looked at her quietly for a few seconds, then gave a faint, relieved smile.
"We'll see. Who can say what the future holds?"
Shen Yunmian froze in place. That "we'll see" was like a fragile piece of driftwood, giving her a pitiful chance to breathe in the depths of despair. Maybe… maybe it wasn't completely over?
However, what came next quickly shattered that unrealistic hope.
They still had to go together to the civil affairs bureau to complete the final divorce procedures.
The drive there was suffocatingly silent.
Several times, Shen Yunmian wanted to speak, to say something—anything, even something trivial like the weather—but seeing Yu Sheng's calm profile as she gazed out the window, all her words were swallowed.
The procedure was mechanical and efficient. The staff confirmed information according to protocol, their tone flat.
"Are both parties divorcing voluntarily?"
"Yes." Yu Sheng's voice was clear.
Shen Yunmian felt as if her heart had been struck hard by those simple words. She opened her mouth, and when the staff looked at her, she could only squeeze out the same word from her dry throat: "…Yes."
When the two divorce certificates were finally handed to them, Shen Yunmian felt her fingertips turn cold. They were heavier than any document she had signed earlier, formally marking the end of their relationship.
Yu Sheng took hers, glanced at it carefully, then placed it properly into her bag.
"I still have some things at Jiuxi Bay. I'll pack them up today and take them with me." She turned to Shen Yunmian, her tone as ordinary as discussing work. "I'll leave once I'm done. It won't take long."
Shen Yunmian could no longer speak, only nodding blankly.
Back at Jiuxi Bay, Yu Sheng went straight upstairs to the master bedroom, beginning to pack the last of her personal belongings.
Shen Yunmian stood in place, listening to the faint sounds of drawers and cabinets opening upstairs. Each sound felt like a knife stabbing into her heart.
She stood there for a long time before finally coming back to her senses.
The moving company arrived on time.
The workers efficiently carried out packed boxes and furniture one by one.
The large villa gradually filled with a hollow, emptied silence.
Shen Yunmian stood in the shadows of the second-floor corridor, like a ghost, silently watching everything below.
She watched Yu Sheng direct the workers, arranging everything for her departure—without the slightest trace of reluctance.
When the workers began moving the piano Yu Sheng occasionally played in the living room, Shen Yunmian finally couldn't hold back and walked downstairs. A thin layer of dust had already settled on the piano lid, just like their relationship.
"This piano…" Shen Yunmian stood beside Yu Sheng, her voice dry. "Are you taking it too?" She remembered the rare moments Yu Sheng sat at the piano, sunlight falling on her profile.
Yu Sheng was checking the inventory list. Hearing her, she looked up at the piano, her expression unchanged. "Yes. It'll just gather dust here." She paused, then added, "And there's space for it at the new place."
The words "new place" pierced Shen Yunmian like needles.
There was no her there, no shared memories.
"Sheng Sheng," Shen Yunmian looked at her calm profile, her chest tightening, driven by a near-desperate emotion. "Can you… leave something behind? Anything…" Let me feel that a part of you is still here. She couldn't say the last part.
Yu Sheng finally turned to face her directly. Her gaze was complicated—there was pity, a hint of fatigue, but more than anything, determination. "Shen Yunmian," she said her full name, her tone steady, "let yourself go. I'm taking everything. It's cleaner this way."
Not even a trace of remembrance was left for her.
Shen Yunmian staggered back half a step, her face pale, watching as the workers carefully carried the piano out the door, as if taking away the last bit of her hope.
At last, everything was loaded onto the truck.
Yu Sheng stood at the entrance, giving one final glance to the place she had lived in for years.
Shen Yunmian stood not far away, greedily looking at her back, as if trying to carve this moment into her bones.
As if sensing it, Yu Sheng paused before opening the door.
But she didn't turn back. She only tilted her head slightly and left one final sentence, her voice soft but clear:
"Shen Yunmian, goodbye."
Then she opened the door and walked out.
The car door shut, the engine started, and the vehicle slowly drove away.
Shen Yunmian rushed to the window, watching as the car carried away the most important person in her life, disappearing resolutely into the distance. She gripped the curtain tightly, her nails digging into the fabric, her heart feeling as if a piece had been torn out, hollow and exposed.
Night fell, and the villa sank into dead silence.
Shen Yunmian wandered at the doorway of the master bedroom. The space that once belonged to both of them now felt suffocatingly empty.
In the end, she pushed open the door to what had once been Yu Sheng's room.
There was still a faint trace of Yu Sheng's presence—like the lingering note of her usual perfume, barely perceptible.
Clinging to it like a lifeline, she lay down on the bed, trying to draw even a little bit of that illusory warmth.
But she tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Every corner of the room reminded her that the person was gone.
Deep into the night, everything was silent.
Her body, finally exhausted, drifted into a restless, shallow sleep.
In her dream, the light was soft.
She heard the faint click of a key turning in the lock, followed by familiar footsteps from the entrance.
Her heart leapt, and she stumbled out of the bedroom.
She had come back.
Yu Sheng stood in the living room, a faint smile on her face, no coldness or distance in her eyes—just as if she had simply gone out for a while and had finally returned home.
At that moment, the overwhelming joy of regaining what she had lost surged over Shen Yunmian like a tsunami!
She knew it! She knew Sheng Sheng wouldn't really leave!
The decisiveness of the day had only been a nightmare. Now that she had woken up, everything had returned to the beginning.
"Sheng Sheng!" she choked out, almost throwing herself forward, wanting to tightly embrace the person before her who felt so real it made her want to cry—to feel her warmth, to tell her how much she regretted everything, how much she missed her.
She reached out, just about to touch the soft fabric of her clothes… but suddenly grasped nothing.
The scene before her shattered like a broken mirror, fragment by fragment, dissolving into nothingness.
Yu Sheng's figure, her gentle smiling face, all vanished into emptiness.
Shen Yunmian abruptly opened her eyes! All she saw was the familiar yet strange ceiling, blurred into a suffocating shadow in the darkest hour before dawn.
No footsteps. No lights. No Yu Sheng returning.
Only deathly silence. The warmth and joy that had felt so real just moments ago now stood in cruel contrast to the cold emptiness and despair after waking.
So this was what it meant—losing something after having it was a thousand times more painful than never having it at all.
She remained frozen in the position she had awakened in, unmoving, letting the overwhelming despair and hollow emptiness slowly devour the last of her strength. Her tears had long run dry, leaving only numb, dull pain grinding through her entire body.
Outside the window, the pitch-black darkness slowly, painfully, gave way to gray.
A new day began.
The first day… without Yu Sheng.
—
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