"Su Yue, drop the act."
The man's voice was cold and impatient right by her ear, so familiar it made her scalp tighten.
Su Yue slowly forced open her heavy eyelids.
The first thing she saw was Ethan Langford's face, several years younger.
She froze for a second. Wasn't she dead?
Then why was she seeing Ethan Langford again?
The moment she thought of her family dying one by one, a fierce hatred surged into her eyes.
"Ethan Langford..."
She ground out the three words through clenched teeth.
She threw an arm out and lunged at him, but before she could even touch him, he kicked her away.
Ethan frowned and looked down at her from above, disgust plain in his eyes. "Su Yue, what the hell are you doing? You just took a little fall. Why are you being so dramatic?"
He couldn't be bothered with her "crazy" behavior. In a cold voice, he said, "When Sister-in-law gets back, transfer your publicity department job at the textile mill to her name. If you do that, I won't hold this fake fainting thing against you."
Su Yue slumped on the floor. Her stomach burned with pain, but she had gone completely still.
Wasn't this exactly what Ethan Langford had said on the day they were supposed to register their marriage?
Before she could sort it out, a sharp stab of pain suddenly shot through the back of her head.
She lifted a hand and touched something sticky.
Then she looked around. Yellowed white walls. Faded red paint on them spelling out "Strive Through Hardship." A heavy sting of disinfectant filling the air.
Su Yue blanked out for a moment, then suddenly realized something.
She had been reborn. Reborn to the very day she and Ethan Langford were meant to get their marriage certificate.
It had happened the same way in her last life too. On the day of their registration, Alice Langford had said just one thing—that her son had a fever—and Ethan had immediately dropped the marriage registration to accompany her and Preston Langford to the hospital.
Su Yue had gone with them and helped get the child to the hospital, waiting until Preston's fever finally came down.
Then she had only suggested that maybe they should go get the certificate first and come back after that to look after Preston.
And for that, Ethan had snapped at her, saying she was selfish and had no sympathy at all. When she tried to explain herself, he shoved her hard.
The back of her head hit the wall, and she blacked out on the spot.
Not only did Ethan fail to call a doctor, he even said she was pretending.
After roughly shaking her awake, he said those same words to her.
Back then, she was still young, and her family had just run into disaster, so in the end she agreed to transfer her job to them.
She never imagined that was the start of the miserable years that followed.
Ethan had always carried a torch for Alice Langford. Marrying Su Yue had only been something he did because he had no choice.
After they got married, he didn't just drug her and leave her bedridden year after year, he also intercepted everything she mailed to her family, and every letter her family tried to get to her.
He had done it too cleanly, too quietly. She never noticed a thing.
It wasn't until the Su family was rehabilitated and all their property was returned, and Ethan, as the Su family's son-in-law, took over all the family assets, that Alice came swaggering over to show off in front of her.
Only then did she learn what those two had done all these years.
Alice had held the suicide note her mother left behind.
With a smug face, she told Su Yue that one year after her grandfather was sent away, he died. Right before the family was rehabilitated, her sister-in-law was violated. Her nephew tried to save his mother and was pushed into the river and drowned.
Her brother killed the man in revenge for his wife and son, and was sentenced to death.
Her father couldn't take the blow and died in one breath.
Her mother had watched her son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and husband all die before her eyes. She left Su Yue one final letter, then drank poison and killed herself.
When Su Yue read her mother's last letter, grief and fury hit all at once. She spat out a mouthful of blood and fainted under the strain.
Alice and Ethan locked her up directly after that and left her there to live or die.
She didn't know how long she had been unconscious. When she woke up, it was already dark.
She took the medicine her grandfather had left her before being sent away—the one meant to save her life—and used her final strength to lock those two shameless people inside the house, then set it ablaze.
But her body had been ruined by years of drugging. The medicine was too strong, and she couldn't bear it.
After doing all that, she had no strength left. She sat outside their door, listening to their agonized screams from inside the house, and let the flames swallow her too.
Ethan Langford had no idea the person in front of him had already changed at the core. Seeing Su Yue sitting on the floor without moving, his brow furrowed.
Earlier he had only pushed her once and she had "fainted." Now he'd kicked her, so who knew what kind of act she'd put on this time.
Thinking that, he reached out and grabbed her arm roughly, trying to yank her up by force. "Are you hearing me or not? Stop playing dead."
The moment his palm touched her arm, Su Yue's eyes turned ice-cold.
Before Ethan could even pull, she suddenly raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face.
Smack!
The crisp sound rang especially loud in the quiet hospital room.
The slap came too suddenly. Ethan didn't react in time at all.
A burning pain spread across his face. His pupils widened, and his expression instantly darkened. "Damn it, you dare hit me?"
Face gloomy, he raised his hand to hit her back.
The second she noticed his movement, Su Yue tilted her head and leaned back, narrowly dodging his slap.
Then she grabbed the stool beside her and swung it hard at his shin.
A piercing pain shot through his leg. Ethan's face turned white on the spot.
"Ah—my leg..."
He fell backward onto the floor, clutching the shin she'd hit, even starting to suspect the bone had broken.
The pain twisted his once-gentle features into something hideous. Gritting his teeth, he hissed, "You bitch, just you wait. See if I don't kill you for this."
He had never really taken Su Yue seriously. So even though her whole temperament seemed different now, he didn't think much of it.
He only assumed his earlier words had set her off.
Su Yue pressed her lips together and said nothing. Using the stool for support, she slowly got up from the floor.
Then she lifted it again and smashed it down at him.
Ethan hadn't expected her to dare hit him again. Startled, he hurriedly threw up an arm to block it.
The moment his arm struck the stool, he felt like he could hear bone cracking.
His face went sheet-white from the pain, and he let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.
Hearing his cries, Su Yue felt as if she had gone back to those years again—years when she could only lie in bed, helpless, watching that shameless pair spend her money on a lavish life while tormenting her without restraint.
Her eyes were bloodshot, nearly dripping red. Her voice was hoarse beyond recognition.
"Come on, then. Let's see whether you kill me first, or I kill you first."
As she spoke, her hands never stopped. She was almost trying to beat him to death, swinging the stool down at him again with brutal force.
Ethan was truly scared now by this sudden, vicious madness of hers. He scrambled away in a sorry panic, but he still took another solid hit from the stool.
His whole body shuddered uncontrollably. Cold sweat poured off his forehead.
The sharp pain all over his body made him reflect, for the first time, that maybe he'd been too hasty. He should've waited until after they got the certificate to bring this up.
By then, even if Su Yue was unhappy, she would only be able to swallow it. After all, she would've had nowhere left to go.
Seeing the miserable state he was in, Su Yue only felt a rush of savage satisfaction.
Her chest rose and fell hard. Her whole body trembled from agitation. She wanted nothing more than to kill him right here and now, to avenge both her old self and her family.
But she couldn't.
Her grandfather and the others still needed her.
She took a deep breath and used every bit of strength she had to force down the violent urge clawing through her chest, the urge to kill him.
Her hands gripped the stool so tightly her knuckles turned pale blue.
The moment Ethan noticed she had stopped, he immediately quit reflecting and opened his mouth to curse her out again. But then he happened to meet her blood-red, murderous stare.
The insults already at his lips were swallowed back down.
Even his voice softened a little.
"Don't get the wrong idea. My brother's gone. Sister-in-law is raising the child all by herself. I just wanted to help her out more."
