"Mr. Li, the patient's condition has stabilized, and she has a strong will to survive. Do you really want to remove the ventilator?"
The doctor's voice carried a hint of hesitation, but it was no match for the man's dominance and cold indifference.
"She's already reduced to this. Living is just a form of torture for her. We might as well end it sooner."
Jiang Wanyi slowly opened her eyes. Through her blurred vision, she saw her stern husband giving orders to the doctor, while her son sat coldly to the side, playing a game on his phone.
A searing, excruciating pain racked her body—ninety percent of her skin had been completely destroyed by burns.
These were the scars left behind by a mother trying to save her son. Unable to move a single muscle, she could only roll her eyes to look at her completely unharmed son, tears streaming down the corners of her eyes.
"Dad, aren't we supposed to go pick up Auntie Jiaojiao? She's been at the police station for so long, she must be terrified!"
Li Cheng'an put away his phone and said to his father.
Father and son were practically cut from the same cloth, except that Li Jinchuan's demeanor was far more steady, while Li Cheng'an carried an extra layer of arrogance.
Jiang Wanyi twitched her index finger, veins bulging on her forehead. Jiang Jiaojiao—that arsonist! The father and son had actually signed the settlement agreement behind her back!
Her throat emitted a ragged, rattling sound of pure fury. Her vocal cords had been ruined by the thick smoke, leaving her utterly unable to speak.
Li Cheng'an looked down at his mother from his height, his expression filled with disgust:
"Mom, if you really love me, just go in peace. Only Auntie Jiaojiao is fit to be my mother. If you hadn't schemed to crawl into Dad's bed back then, how could I ever have ended up with such a shameful mother like you?"
By the end, Li Cheng'an's tone was laced with venom.
Jiang Wanyi closed her eyes and rolled them back. She couldn't understand it—she had devoted her youth and energy entirely to her husband and son, so why had she ended up meeting such a violent death?
The father and son looked down at her without a trace of pity. Once they finished instructing the doctor, the two of them left without a single backward glance of attachment, as if Jiang Wanyi were nothing more than some filthy object.
"An—An'an—"
Jiang Wanyi mustered every ounce of her strength, squeezing a dry, hoarse sound from her throat. Yet the son she had carried in her womb for ten months didn't even turn his head.
Beep, beep—
The monitor sounded an alarm. The doctor pulled off the ventilator and shook his head. Jiang Wanyi had already drawn her last breath, and a single tear of blood slipped down her unrecognizable face.
...
"Miss, how could you fall asleep while getting an IV? It's very dangerous, didn't you know?"
A familiar Cantonese voice rang in her ear. Jiang Wanyi snapped her eyes open, panic written all over her face as she gasped for air like a fish out of water.
On the verge of death, with no oxygen reaching her lungs, she had felt a needle-like agony in her chest that even eclipsed the pain of her burns. Large beads of sweat rolled down her forehead.
"Miss, are you alright?"
The middle-aged woman beside her spoke up. Only then did Jiang Wanyi realize that, in her extreme panic, she had been tightly gripping the woman's wrist. She quickly let go.
"I'm sorry."
"Eh? Miss, aren't you from Hong Kong? Is there family with you?"
Jiang Wanyi stared blankly. Back in 2008, Li Jinchuan's business had hit a rough patch, and he had set his sights on the mainland, moving the entire family there for a decade.
She had grown so accustomed to speaking Mandarin that it had slipped out instinctively.
But here—
Jiang Wanyi stood up in a daze, scanning her surroundings. It was a hospital with luxurious decor yet outdated equipment. She looked down at the back of her hand—it was smooth as before.
Her hands trembled slightly, as if finding this utterly unbelievable. She hurriedly grabbed the woman's wrist and asked anxiously:
"Excuse me, where is this? What is the date?"
The woman, sporting a fashionable perm, looked at her in surprise and replied in fluent Cantonese:
"Are you out of your mind? This is Queen Mary Hospital! The date? The eighth day of the ninth lunar month, 1998. Hey, what are you doing?"
Concern flickered in the woman's eyes, unaware that Jiang Wanyi's pupils had violently constricted. In a flash, an impossible thought crossed her mind.
Had she been reborn?
She looked at everything around her, wanting both to laugh and to cry. Truly, the heavens had mercy on her, granting her a chance to start all over again!
"Hey, move aside!"
Before Jiang Wanyi could recover, another commotion broke out in the emergency room. Dozens of doctors and nurses were swarming around a tall man in a black trench coat.
The man possessed sharp, rugged facial features, deep and exquisitely chiseled, as if every detail were a masterpiece of divine craftsmanship. The moment he appeared, he commanded the attention of everyone present, though he radiated a keep-away-from-me aura, and his cold eyes held a trace of acute anxiety.
The obvious cause of his anxiety was the woman cradled in his arms. Her face was obscured as she lay softly against him, seemingly unconscious.
"Tsk, what a handsome guy. Too bad he's already taken."
The woman who had been chatting with Jiang Wanyi said with a sigh of regret. Seeing Jiang Wanyi staring fixedly in that direction, she asked out of curiosity:
"Miss, do you know that person?"
Jiang Wanyi pulled back her gaze. She tried her best to remain calm, but her clenched and slightly trembling fists betrayed her true emotions:
"He is my husband."
"Ah?"
The woman hadn't expected such a dramatic turn of events. She froze for a moment:
"Then—then the young lady in his arms..."
"Is my cousin, and my husband's mistress."
Jiang Wanyi took a deep breath, her eyes blazing with monstrous hatred. Not only was she her husband's mistress, but she was also one of the chief culprits who had driven her to her death in her past life.
The woman was struck dumb, at a loss for words, while inwardly cursing Jiang Wanyi's husband for being absolute scum.
Having a mistress was one thing, but how could anyone mess around with their own wife's sister?
Without another word, Jiang Wanyi cleanly and decisively pulled the IV needle from the back of her hand and walked apathetically out of the hospital.
The weather, right after a torrential downpour, was cold enough to chill one to the bone. Jiang Wanyi wrapped her thin trench coat tightly around herself and hailed a taxi by the roadside.
Sitting in the car, the streetlights outside flickered across Jiang Wanyi's face. Her body began to tremble involuntarily, escalating into spasms. She bit down hard on her lips to keep from making a sound.
Jiang Wanyi hugged her arms tightly around herself, her eyes holding both the lingering fear of having cheated death and a mixture of terror and hatred. In her heart, she was incomparably grateful that heaven had given her a second chance at life.
In her previous life, she—the proud eldest daughter of the Jiang Family and her mother's apple of her eye—had actually abandoned her career and talents to become a housewife, squandering her entire life on that cold-blooded pair of father and son.
Jiang Wanyi clenched her fists so tightly that her body trembled slightly. In this lifetime, children and husband alike—she wanted none of them!
She only wanted to love herself well!
As for the culprits who had caused her death, she would not let them go either!
Jiang Wanyi resolutely wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and looked at the ten-carat diamond ring on her right ring finger. Once upon a time, she had treasured it like a priceless treasure, but now she found it nothing more than an eyesore. Without a shred of attachment, she pulled the ring off and tossed it out the car window.
That Jiang Wanyi, who had endlessly doted on and catered to her husband and son without principles, would completely vanish tonight.