“Hahaha… so after squeezing every last bit of use out of me, you just dump me and still want my life too?!”

“And you think I’ll just let you all off the hook after I die? Dream on!”

Nathan Whitfield was beyond furious. His voice cracked as he roared into the phone, grief and rage tangled together like barbed wire.

From the other end came a soft, almost elegant voice, slow and steady, the kind that made a person’s skin crawl.

“Nathan, it’s not that I don’t want to protect you. But they traced it back to you. When the fire reaches the carriage, you cut it loose to save the king. That’s just how it is.”

The man paused, then added in a calm, almost gentle tone, “I can promise you this: once you’re dead, and there’s no evidence left, I—and the people above me—will make sure your parents, your wife, your child… they’ll be looked after.”

Nathan’s whole body shook with anger. “Why me? Why does my life have to pay for this? You’re the ones who did everything. I was just a pawn you forced onto the board…”

A cold snort came from the other side.

“Hmph. If you don’t die, then no one in your family gets a good ending.”

The voice turned lighter, almost casual, which somehow made it even more terrifying.

“Your daughter, Lily Whitfield… six years old, right? Just started first grade at Jiangcheng Primary School. Cute little girl.”

Nathan’s eyes went bloodshot in an instant. He bellowed, “Touch my daughter and see what happens!”

The man’s reply was flat, emotionless. “The Discipline Inspection Commission is already downstairs.”

“You don’t have much time.”

“I’m sure you’re smart enough to make the most sensible choice.”

A beat of silence.

“Goodbye, Nathan.”

Click.

The call ended.

On the rooftop, Nathan stood in the wind, the city lights flickering beneath him like a sea of broken stars. Then he suddenly laughed.

It was a harsh, shattered laugh, full of despair.

He laughed and laughed, until tears started pouring down his face.

His fingers trembled as he sent a voice message to his parents.

“Mom, Dad… your son’s unfilial. In this life, I only managed to become some tiny nobody of an official, and all I ever brought you was worry. You never got to enjoy a single good day because of me. If there’s a next life… I still want to be your son.”

Then he sent one last message to his wife, Vivian Caldwell.

“My love… I’m the one who failed you. I even dragged you into this mess. The people I’ve wronged most in this life are you and Lily. Tell Lily her dad loves her. Really loves her.”

Tears blurred his vision.

He threw the phone away, lifted his head, and took one long, final look at the world.

Then he stepped forward and jumped.

From the sixty-seventh floor.

Below him was a bottomless abyss.

Online headlines exploded:

Deputy Director of Investment Promotion Bureau of Jiangfan County, Jianghong City, Nathan Whitfield, Falls to His Death

Sources from relevant authorities state that Nathan Whitfield had suffered from long-term depression…

Nathan Whitfield’s eyes flew open.

He was drenched in cold sweat.

It felt like he’d just crawled out of a dream that went on forever.

No, not a dream.

A nightmare that had eaten up his whole life.

He had jumped from a building.

He had killed himself.

When Nathan Whitfield looked up and saw the face in the mirror, he froze.

He was stunned on the spot.

The man in the mirror was clearly him, but not the him from the end of the road. This was the younger version of him—clean-cut, bright-eyed, full of that easy confidence only youth could carry. Sunlight seemed to cling to his face.

On the table sat an old-fashioned desk calendar.

July 2, 2001.

Nathan’s pupils tightened.

“Isn’t this... the year everything happened?”

“I came back to twenty-four?”

Then, like a bolt of lightning, a thought ripped through his mind.

“Oh no. Today... today is that day...”

The moment that idea flashed by, his whole body went rigid. His neck turned stiffly as he looked back.

On the bed beside him lay a young woman, sleeping quietly.

Her face was soft with the flush of wine, like a flower blooming after spring rain. The fitted work suit on her body was neat and restrained, but somehow it only made her figure stand out more—curves smooth and precise, proportions almost unreal. The heels on her feet made her long legs look even more absurdly striking.

She had that kind of beauty that hit hard at first glance and stayed in the mind after. Refined. Cool. Intelligent. A little distant. Yet under that polished calm was a trace of natural charm that couldn’t be hidden no matter what.

Her cheeks were red. Her breathing was soft.

She looked fragile enough to make anyone lower their voice.

“Audrey... Sinclair?”

The second he recognized her, Nathan felt his scalp go numb.

Not because she wasn’t beautiful.

But because this woman—this breathtaking woman right here—had been the source of his worst nightmare in his previous life.

Back then, he had just graduated from Jiangcheng University and had been assigned to the county government office, General Affairs Section One.

For two years, he had worked like a machine, steady and serious, never slacking off. Drafting documents, handling affairs, organizing meetings—he did it all. Bit by bit, his skills sharpened. His writing got stronger. His judgment got better. He was young, but he was clearly rising fast.

And he’d been lucky.

County magistrate Nolan Caldwell had valued him a lot. Not just casual approval either—real appreciation. Nolan had personally picked him to be his secretary. After two years of service, once he met the required term, he was given deputy section-level treatment, a Level Four Principal Staff Member.

At twenty-four, he was already considered one of the promising young faces in the county government.

Young, capable, full of momentum.

Who knew how many people had envied him behind his back.

And then came July 2.

That day, Nolan Caldwell led the county leadership team, along with people from the county government office, the finance bureau, and other departments, to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for a major investment project worth hundreds of millions.

The event was lively. Everybody was in high spirits.

And after that came the drinking.

They drank hard.

By the end, everyone was plastered.

At the ceremony, Nolan Caldwell, a man who almost never praised anyone, did something rare—he praised Nathan Whitfield in front of everybody.

That one sentence was like a starter pistol.

The crowd instantly got the message and began circling Nathan with glasses in hand, urging him to drink one after another. By the end, Nathan was completely gone, so drunk he didn’t even know what was happening around him.

Audrey Sinclair, the acting director of the Finance Bureau, had also attended the event.

At the dinner table, she got the same treatment. Toast after toast came at her from every side until she was drunk senseless too.

She was only twenty-five.

She had been sent down to the county for a temporary post just three months earlier. Beautiful, young, and striking in a way that didn’t belong in a small county office, she was like a golden phoenix dropped into a chicken coop. Before long, people in the county government had privately dubbed her the public crush of the whole compound.

A woman that young, that pretty, and yet able to parachute straight into the position of acting Finance Bureau director—anyone with half a brain knew she was no ordinary person.

Some said she came from the province and had serious backing.

Others said she was only here for a year or so at most, and then she’d be promoted and transferred out.

Logically speaking, a rose with thorns like that, no matter how gorgeous, shouldn’t have invited anyone’s bad ideas.

But after drinking, Nolan Caldwell’s mind clearly went sideways.

Putting on a face full of concern, he hinted to Ashton Norwood, the office director, to “arrange for someone to take care of Director Sinclair,” so no one could later say the county had neglected a female cadre on temporary assignment.

Ashton Norwood understood immediately. No extra explanation needed.

Then he passed the order straight to Nathan.

Nathan felt, deep down, that this wasn’t appropriate. The whole thing gave him a bad feeling. But an order from above was still an order. He had no room to refuse.

So he booked a room at the hotel and helped Audrey Sinclair inside to rest.

In his hazy memory, Ashton Norwood had also come in afterward and said a couple of things, telling him there was no need to go back downstairs and that he should just stay in the room and keep an eye on Director Sinclair.

But Nathan himself was drunk to the point of spinning.

The alcohol surged up all at once, his head felt heavy as lead, and before he knew it, he passed out.

When he woke up, the world collapsed on him.

Audrey Sinclair had been raped while drunk.

And he was lying in the same bed with her.

For a second, Nathan’s brain went blank. His scalp went numb. Cold sweat broke out all over his back.

Audrey Sinclair was furious and shattered. Her eyes were red, full of humiliation and rage. She raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face.

“You animal!”

The slap landed crisp and brutal.

Nathan was stunned. His face burned, but his mind was in even worse chaos. He tried to explain, tried to speak, but the words jammed in his throat. No matter what he said, it sounded weak. No matter how he looked at it, the scene in front of him was fatal.

He had a gut feeling something was seriously wrong.

This was a setup. It had to be.

He wanted to find evidence, anything that could prove his innocence, but before he could do a thing, Nolan Caldwell had already arrived with people and shoved the door open.

They came in aggressively, without giving him even a second to breathe.

No questioning. No listening. No room for explanation.

They directly framed it as him forcibly molesting a female cadre on temporary assignment.

Just like that, the label was nailed onto him.

Only later did Nathan learn how terrifying Audrey Sinclair’s background really was.

City level? Provincial level?

That was nothing.

She had come from the capital.

The case blew up across the whole country.

A senior leader from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection even wrote a direct instruction: unheard of. The nature of it was vile, the impact even worse. Investigate it at once.

The top level took it insanely seriously. A joint task force made up of ministry officials, provincial people, and city-level investigators was sent straight into Jiangfan County to dig into the case.

Nathan Whitfield fought back with everything he had. He argued every point, every detail, refusing to just roll over.

And to be fair, the joint inspection team did uncover a few suspicious things.

But the problem was, a lot of the evidence from the hotel had either vanished for no clear reason, or somehow ended up pointing right at Nathan. On top of that, Audrey Sinclair already had an extremely bad impression of him. She bit down on one claim and never let go—said it was him, full stop.

Then the pressure came crashing down from every side.

Province. City. County.

All of them wanted a heavy sentence.

Nathan had a thousand things he wanted to say, but none of them mattered. No matter how he defended himself, it was useless. In the end, he could only grit his teeth and carry the whole thing alone.

He was just a minor deputy section-level cadre.

And yet they publicly announced his expulsion from both his Party membership and his post.

Wronged?

He was more wronged than Dou E. Totally, absurdly, crushingly wronged.

His future was done. Completely wrecked.

And that was only the beginning.

One disaster after another came at him like a chain reaction.

His girlfriend cheated on him and threw herself into someone else’s arms without even looking back.

Even with no formal conviction on him, Nathan was locked up in a detention center for a full two years. Two whole years. During that time, he went through all kinds of inhuman abuse. By the end of it, his right thumb was permanently crippled.

First trial. Second trial. Final review.

At one point, he was this close to being branded a rapist.

But he refused to admit guilt. Clamped his jaw shut and kept appealing, again and again, holding on by sheer stubbornness.

His parents never gave up either.

They ran everywhere they could, telling anyone who would listen, petitioning through tears, dragging their aging bodies from place to place just to beg for justice for their son.

Thankfully, Nathan’s fate hadn’t run out completely.

He met a good judge. A rare one. Someone with a conscience.

That judge took the pressure head-on and ruled that the evidence was insufficient, sending the case back more than once for reconsideration.

In the end, the whole case just... fizzled out.

No clean answer. No real accountability. It was left hanging, neither fully closed nor truly corrected.

Back then, there was no state compensation system to speak of, so there was no way for Nathan to claim anything back.

He wasn’t sentenced in the end, sure.

But so what?

He had still been expelled from the Party. Still lost his job. Still got shut out of official circles like he was untouchable.

As for how he later clawed his way back into the system and became deputy director of the county investment promotion bureau under the banner of a democratic party—that was another long, bitter story all on its own.

His career had only just started.

And that woman ruined it all. Completely.