Outside the window, the biting north wind howled like a ferocious beast with its jaws wide open, roaring and raging as it whipped up massive flurries of snow.
Lying on an emergency hospital bed in the Rongcheng First Municipal Hospital was a middle-aged woman with a gaunt figure and an aged face. Under her oxygen mask, her pale, cracked lips parted slightly, letting out a faint voice.
"Yue... Yueshan... Where is he?"
The nurse beside her tried to comfort her. "Mrs. Xu, we've been trying to get in touch with him. Please don't worry."
"Am... Am I going to die?"
Lu Jinse could feel the blood rapidly draining from her veins...
The nurse leaned close to her ear. "You won't. You must hold on. As long as you have the surgery, there's hope."
Lu Jinse gave a weak nod.
Half an hour ago, she had suffered a sudden, massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage... Luckily, a caregiver had discovered her in time and rushed her to the hospital for emergency treatment.
When Xu Yueshan received the caregiver's call and arrived at the hospital, the nurse had approached him with the consent form. "Mr. Xu, your wife's gastrointestinal hemorrhage was caused by a gastric tumor, and she urgently needs surgery. Please sign here."
Just as Xu Yueshan reached for the pen, his phone rang.
Lu Jinse heard his gentle reply, "Alright, I'm coming right now."
With that, Xu Yueshan dropped the pen and hurried away.
Lu Jinse heard the nurse mutter in disbelief: "Huh? Why did he leave? What could possibly be more important than his wife's life? Even if he's in a rush, does he not even have time to sign a form?"
A bitter smile touched the corner of Lu Jinse's lips. She knew who had called.
Huang Yushuang.
Xu Yueshan's first love, his white moonlight.
For thirty years, whenever that woman called—no matter how important the matter, even if it involved a multi-million-dollar contract waiting to be signed—he would drop everything without a moment's hesitation and rush unconditionally to her side.
Rage! Resentment! Despair! Remorse!
These complex emotions swept through her entire body like sweeping glaciers and cold currents.
Thirty years of bitter devotion could not buy her even a sliver of his concern, nor his presence at her deathbed!
Lu Jinse wanted nothing more than to put a quick end to this painful life...
...
The nurse took the surgery notice and walked over to the emergency doctor, speaking in a low voice. "Dr. Li, we can't find a family member to sign the form. We can't proceed with the surgery."
"What surgery? The patient's condition is deteriorating rapidly!" the emergency doctor snapped angrily. "Start emergency measures now! Quick, increase the blood transfusion and administer adrenaline!"
"Yes!"
Just as the nurse finished speaking, the bedside monitor let out a sharp, piercing string of beeps.
Three flat lines appeared on the screen—
...
Lying beneath the shadowless lamp, Lu Jinse's wide-open eyes resembled two cold, dim, lifeless stars.
A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye, landing on the blue medical pad where it dissolved into the vast expanse, leaving not a trace behind.
She died with her eyes unclosed, consumed by eternal grievance.
...
Though Lu Jinse was dead, a wisp of her soul floated in the hospital room, refusing to leave.
She watched as Xu Yueshan, dressed in a sharp suit, walked into the room hand in hand with Huang Yushuang.
Huang Yushuang even wore a smile, a sight that stabbed sharply at Lu Jinse's heart.
Lu Jinse watched as Xu Yueshan pulled back the white sheet...
On his nearing-fifty, exceptionally well-kept face, there was not a trace of grief. Instead, he let out a long breath of relief, as if a heavy burden had finally been lifted from his shoulders.
Lu Jinse's heart died completely.
Just as she was about to leave, she heard Huang Yushuang speak.
"What a pity. Sister was so strong, how did she not manage to hold on?"
"Dead is dead. It's a relief for both of us." Xu Yueshan's tone was flat, devoid of any discernible emotion.
"Yueshan." Huang Yushuang hugged his waist in a flutter of emotion. "Sister is dead. Now we can finally be together openly, a family of three enjoying domestic bliss."
Domestic bliss!
Lu Jinse's soul felt as though it had been struck by lightning, her stumbling footsteps halting abruptly.
Xu Yueshan patted her back. "Shuangyu, I've let you suffer a lot of grievances all these years."
Huang Yushuang looked somewhat regretful. "Since you had no feelings for her, why didn't you divorce her earlier? We're both getting old now."
"Ah!" Xu Yueshan let out a sigh. "Wasn't it because I couldn't bear to let you suffer? If I had divorced her, you would have been left to take care of my paralyzed mother. What difference would it have made whether we met every day like this or were actually married? Only a meeting of souls truly matters."
Huang Yushuang stood on tiptoe and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "Yueshan, you're so good to me. I'll make sure the rest of your life is happy and full of joy."
The corners of Xu Yueshan's mouth curled up. "You're good to me, too, and you've always kept me in your heart—finding some sucker to father Xiaoyue for me, ensuring our Xu family line continues."
Huang Yushuang smiled even more broadly. "Yueshan, if I hadn't been worried about that yellow-faced hag discovering our relationship, I would have wanted to have five children for you!"
Boom!
Lu Jinse's entire belief system collapsed completely!
Yuan Xiaoyue, the child showered with affection by the entire Xu family, turned out to be the son of Xu Yueshan and Huang Yushuang!
She had been a supreme fool.
Not only had she spent thirty years of her youth acting as an unconditional beast of burden for the Xu family, but she had also lived out her life as the ultimate joke!
Lu Jinse screamed in the depths of her frantic soul.
Just you wait!
Even as a ghost, she would never let this pair of adulterous scum go!
Her world plunged entirely into darkness.
—**—
"That ungrateful wretch is so narrow-minded! She knows how hard it is for Shuangyu to get by as an orphan and a widow, doesn't she? Besides, Shuangyu's husband died saving me."
"Why fuss with a child? What's a broken bracelet worth? Was there any need to push the kid into the river? That's attempted murder!"
"If I didn't care about the engagement with Yueshan, I'd go straight to the police station and report her, get her locked up! Evil deserves its retribution!"
"Auntie, please don't be angry. It's all my fault today for not watching the child properly. It's my responsibility, sob..."
"Shuangyu, you're just too kind. This has nothing to do with you. It's all that ungrateful little wretch Jinse's fault! I couldn't stand the sight of her from the start! If it weren't for the engagement, I never would have let Yueshan marry her! Coming from such a low-class background, she has no manners at all. Looking like a regular vixen..."
...
Through a hazy fog, Lu Jinse heard several people murmuring and hurling foul, filthy curses at her, while someone sobbed.
So annoying.
What is going on?
There's no peace even after death.
Lu Jinse slowly opened her eyes... and froze instantly. Standing in the room were one man and two women.
Xu Yueshan had his hair styled in a thick, layered fringe, wearing a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses—a proper, well-dressed scumbag hiding behind a veneer of refinement.
Her mother-in-law, Gu Xiulan, had her black hair slicked down with hair gel as if it had been licked by a calf.
And standing beside them was the woman with braided hair, her tear-stained face flushed pink like pear blossoms in the rain.
Wasn't this precisely Xu Yueshan's white moonlight, Huang Yushuang?
This scene.
It was far too familiar.
Because these three often stood right in front of her staging their grand dramas.
Clowns putting on a show.
Could this be what they meant when they said even ghosts wouldn't let them off?!
To hell with this!
She was already dead, yet these pieces of trash still had the nerve to come here and disgust her!
Hatred surged from the depths of Lu Jinse's heart, and malice welled up to match her daring. She threw off the quilt, climbed out of bed, and walked straight toward Xu Yueshan.
Without a moment's hesitation, she delivered a resounding slap right across that smooth, handsome face!
*Crack!* A crisp, sharp echo rang out.
The room, lively just a moment ago, plunged into a dead, tomb-like silence.