Lin Anqiao woke up in the hospital.
She had been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.
"You only have three months left."
The doctor delivered the final verdict.
Lin Anqiao’s heart sank lower and lower with every inch.
Before she fainted, she had been standing in line in the rain to buy a cake for her son, Fu Xiaochuan.
She had slept soundly for a whole day, and not a single person had looked for her.
Her stomach was in severe pain. With trembling hands, she dialed the phone number of her husband, Fu Jingzhou.
He quickly rejected the call.
Stubbornly, Lin Anqiao dialed again. Once the call went through, she rushed to speak: "Fu Jingzhou, I'm sick. The doctor said I..."
On the other end of the line, Fu Jingzhou’s voice sounded extremely impatient. Cold and detached, he interrupted her: "What kind of tricks are you playing again? Stop faking it, I'm busy."
What was she even expecting?
Lin Anqiao’s heart sank, and a wave after wave of exhaustion surged through her.
A breezy female voice came through the earpiece: "Brother Fu, you're having dinner with me, why are you even answering a call?"
Lin Anqiao froze for a fraction of a second. She recognized that voice.
Qiao Yusu, the white moonlight hidden deep in Fu Jingzhou’s heart for seven years.
All these years, his coldness toward her was entirely because of Qiao Yusu.
Qiao Yusu was his "being busy."
A child’s voice came from the other end of the line: "Yeah, Daddy, it’s rare for the three of us to have dinner together!"
The call was abruptly disconnected.
A family of three?
Lin Anqiao gave a bitter laugh.
The boy on the other end of the phone was the son she had risked her life to give birth to during a difficult labor.
Since when had they become a family of three?
Suddenly, Lin Anqiao felt extremely tired.
She had endured this marriage for seven years, and she felt like giving up.
The wind rattled the hospital windows noisily. Silently, Lin Anqiao applied for discharge.
Walking to the central plaza, she clutched her stomach and looked up to see Fu Jingzhou appearing on the plaza’s mega screen.
On the screen, he looked aloof and noble, his phoenix eyes filled with gentleness.
"Fu Group’s achievement of this milestone is inseparable from the hard work of one person, who is also the most important person to me."
The next instant, Qiao Yusu’s face appeared on the screen.
With Fu Xiaochuan, she stood beside Fu Jingzhou, looking just like a family of three.
A fine, dense ache spread through Lin Anqiao’s stomach.
Waves of numbness welled up in her heart.
She had married Fu Jingzhou for seven years, working diligently at Fu Group and wearing herself out for the family until she got cancer.
Yet Fu Jingzhou claimed to the outside world that she was just an ordinary employee.
He didn't even allow her to attend important events hosted by Fu Group, let alone appear on a mega screen.
Even her own son refused to acknowledge her as his mother.
A video that television audiences nationwide could watch—Fu Jingzhou found it too embarrassing to bring her, yet he brought Qiao Yusu instead.
"President Fu and his wife are truly a match made in heaven, and their son looks like he’s carved out of jade. What a happy family of three."
A passerby looked up, saw the mega screen, and sighed with envy.
A bitter ache gripped Lin Anqiao’s heart, and even her voice was hoarse: "Did you say they are a family of three?"
"Yeah, what else?"
What else.
Lin Anqiao froze in place.
For all these years, Fu Jingzhou had indeed never once acknowledged her.
Then, after she died, would there even be anyone who remembered who she was?
That enormous screen illuminated the tenderness in the depths of Fu Jingzhou's eyes with crystal clarity.
He had never looked at her like that.
When she had a difficult labor and her delivery was switched to a c-section, a ferocious scar was left across her lower abdomen.
After she gave birth, he never touched her again.
Lin Anqiao fell silent, staring fixedly at the screen.
Her heart seemed to stop beating, plunging into absolute stillness.
On the screen, the host was playfully probing into their relationship.
Fu Xiaochuan answered ahead of everyone else: "She is my mother!"
Lin Anqiao’s heart plummeted to the very bottom.
She had thought that her son’s aloofness toward her was simply human nature.
Yet, despite his cold temperament, he favored Qiao Yusu alone.
He even publicly acknowledged Qiao Yusu as his mother.
She had poured her heart and soul into the Fu Family, abandoning her parents and her career, dedicating herself entirely to domestic life.
Her son’s indifference, her husband’s ruthlessness—she had endured it all.
In the end, she got nothing.
The marriage she had held onto for seven years felt like a joke.
Lin Anqiao the corners of her mouth twitched, profound weariness filling her heart.
She wanted a divorce; she didn't want to endure any longer.
She refused to waste her last three months on someone who wasn't worth it.
Returning home, Lin Anqiao’s stomach ached terribly. Silently clutching her abdomen, she sat in a daze on the sofa.
I don't know how much time passed before night fell completely.
*Snap*, the glaring lights flashed on.
The harsh glare made Lin Anqiao narrow her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw Fu Jingzhou standing at the doorway with Fu Xiaochuan, staring at her with displeasure.
Lin Anqiao glanced at her phone: 1:00 AM.
Fu Jingzhou frowned slightly, his expression detached: "Lin Anqiao, why are you sitting in the living room in the dark?"
The impatience in his eyes made Lin Anqiao give a bitter laugh.
She shook her head and said nothing.
"I was keeping Yusu company this afternoon, so it wasn't convenient to take your call. What did you want to tell me this afternoon?" Fu Jingzhou asked again in a deep voice.
There wasn't a trace of care in his tone, as if he were just carrying out a routine duty.
He spoke of accompanying Qiao Yusu with complete righteousness.
Without the slightest consideration that she was his wife.
Suddenly, Lin Anqiao didn't want to say anything at all: "Nothing."
Fu Jingzhou frowned impatiently, wanting to say something, but Fu Xiaochuan interrupted: "Mom, don't you even know how to tidy yourself up? With the lights off just now, I thought you were a female ghost."
His tone was thin and cold, identical to his father's.
There wasn't an ounce of affection toward her.
Lin Anqiao’s stomach churned violently once more.
Recalling the pretty face on the mega screen that afternoon, she lowered her eyes and let out a cold laugh: "Right, I'm not as pretty as your Auntie Yusu."
As if touching Fu Jingzhou’s reverse scale, his expression instantly turned icy.
Fu Xiaochuan spoke with displeasure: "We just went to dinner with Auntie Yusu this afternoon. Housewives like you always treat others like imaginary enemies for no reason!"
Lin Anqiao’s head throbbed, stung by his tone that treated her like a stranger.
Her voice went hoarse.
Lifting her gaze, she saw Fu Jingzhou staring at her with a chilly, gloomy expression: "Lin Anqiao, since you care so much about Yusu's existence, why did you resort to schemes to marry me seven years ago?"
He was referring to seven years ago, when someone drugged him and she got into his bed.
Afterward, she became pregnant with Fu Xiaochuan, leaving Fu Jingzhou with no choice but to marry her.
Qiao Yusu had left the country because of it.
Consequently, Fu Jingzhou blamed everything on her.
He was thoroughly convinced that she had drugged him.
No matter how she explained, he refused to believe her.
Because of this, he grew to detest her.
Yet she, because he had saved her life when she was young, had loved him with all her heart after marriage and endured every single one of his cold faces.
Clearly, she was a victim too...
Lin Anqiao twitched the corners of her mouth, her voice very soft: "Today is my birthday."
Fu Jingzhou paused for a split second, then furrowed his brows deeply: "It's just a birthday, I'll make it up to you tomorrow."
Just a birthday?
Lin Anqiao smiled.
For seven years of marriage, he had never once remembered her birthday.
Nor did he remember their promise last year—that this year, when her birthday coincided with the once-in-a-decade fireworks festival, he would stay by her side to watch the fireworks.
She shook her head, her voice calm: "No need. Let's get a divorce."
From now on, she wouldn't need him to accompany her for her birthday anymore.
Whether it was her husband or her son, she wanted neither of them.