Protologue

Jing Lihua was shoved to the cold floor.

Her light green eyes darkened with pain.

She slowly lifted her head and glanced at the man on the sofa. His expressions broke into a cold smile looking at the woman at his feet.

Looking at that heartless smirk, a sharp pain pierced her heart.

She shut her eyes for a moment; a pair of tears trickled down her eyes. 

A tightness enveloped her chest.

Pain; it was all she felt. It was all she had been feeling for so long. To the point, she was so used to it that she didn't care anymore.

'Why...

Why did he have to do it?

All I did was love him with all I had.

Where did I go wrong...

We were married.

We had decided to spend the rest of our lives together.

Su Liwei...

Remember our marriage vows?

You had sworn to protect me.

You had promised to make me the happiest woman in the world.

Everything was so perfect.

We had everything we wanted.

We could spend the rest of our lives together but you...'

Jing Lihua opened her eyes again.

Once her hazy eyes regained focus, the pain and hurt in them were replaced with sheer coldness. Her eyes even darkened to a deeper shade of green.

In an instant, everything inside her numbed down, and an emptiness remained.

"Congratulations, President Su. You win in the end." Her voice was sharp. 

So cold that it was impossible to detect any emotion from it.

The man's expression didn't change.

A slight contempt flashed over his features. He glanced at her briefly before rising. He walked to a drawer and grabbed out a black shining object.

Jing Lihua didn't even flinch as she saw her death approaching. Her calm eyes were fixated on him. He turned back and walked to her.

"It was your fault for believing me. If you weren't blinded by your fantasies, you could have seen right through me. But you let your emotions manipulate you."

Su Liwei loaded the gun.

In the big silent room, there were only two of them. The noise created by the gun being loaded reverberated across the room.

But that wasn't what she was thinking about.

His words were what made her fall into deep thoughts.

Her lips curled up into a lopsided sneer.

'I can't deny it after all... It was my fault.'

Jing Lihua was just ten years old when one day, she met a quiet boy named Su Liwei. Sitting under a lone maple tree in a small part, he was like a little angel.

That day, something had 'clicked' in her heart.

Ever since then, Jing Lihua knew he was the one for her.

Whenever she thought about someone with whom she could spend her life, his name would automatically surface.

Fate brought them together when under her persistence, her grandfather arranged a marriage proposal to the Su family. 

She still recalled how happy she was the day their engagement was finalized.

But...

Ever since that day, he had started treating her coldly.

Jing Lihua didn't let this dishearten her.

She thought, she would win him after marriage.

After all, if he really didn't want her, he could simply nullify the engagement proposal.

Why else would he agree for the marriage if he didn't hold the slightest affection for her?

After they married, Jing Lihua thought the happiest moments of life would start after that particular day.

She tried her best.

She gave it her all.

But what she didn't know was after that specific day, no matter how hard she tried the outcome would be the same.... a horrible nightmare would start; a nightmare that would shatter her little world.

"Was it all fake? All of it?" Jing Lihua's couldn't help but ask. Her voice cracked a little.

Now that her death was already in front of her eyes, she didn't hesitate.

Su Liwei stared at her coldly. He didn't reply.

After her marriage, Jing Lihua had inherited the Tang enterprise from her maternal grandfather. Her position was strong and envied by many. However, in Jing Lihua's eyes was neither her family's company nor its wealth.

If there was anything that her eyes held, then it was him

Her husband, her lover; Su Liwei.

She gave everything in his hands. To keep him happy, she stayed at her home away from the office, to be an idol wife in his eyes. She thought maybe if she did so, he would like her more.

But no.

It had always been something else that was in his mind. 

"Su Liwei... Are you really going to be this heartless to not even grant a dying person his last wish? I just want to know why did you do all this." Her sharp eyes softened down a bit.

She had made up her mind; she would die that day.

After that, no more tears appeared in her eyes...

Her eyes were only slightly glistening through the remnant of tears.

A sad smile covered her thin, light pink lips.

Su Liwei went down on his knee in front of her. He grasped her chin with his one hand while the other hand lazily held onto a gun.

His eyes were cold and clear. Like a chilling piece of marble.

Looking at this Jing Lihua couldn't help but wonder, what was it that made her fall in love with him?

"No?" Jing Lihua laughed lightly at his silence.

"I know that you didn't do it for my family's wealth, Su Liwei. I know you this much well. If you don't want to tell me why did you do all that before you kill me then that's fine too."

She lifted her head slightly. Her bright green eyes looked directly into his eyes. They were fearless, still glistening from the remnant tears; they could tug at any man's heart.

Through years of suffering had dulled her striking features, her eyes were one of the features that were still clear and encapturing.

"But when you kill me, do it while looking into my eyes. Do not look away when you shot through me."

'If you do not even flinch when you kill me, at least I would know that all of that was fake. I would know it had only been me, the idiot who had been clinging up to the fantasy alone. That... you had never ever felt anything for me.'

At her words, finally, Su Liwei's cold expression turned even chillier.

"Do it, Su Liwei. Don't let your emotions manipulate you." She repeated the same words he had said to her.

His grasp on her face tightened to a painful extent. 

"Is your life so worthless that you would throw it away just like that?" 

"Would you rather let me leave this room alive if I begged you to let me go?" Jing Lihua answered his question with another question.

They both knew the answer: he wouldn't. He couldn't. Then it shouldn't matter whatever she said.

Why did he sound angry?

Before he could say anything, she chuckled. "Would you be surprised if I said that... actually, within my eyes, my life is actually this worthless now." Her smile disappeared.

Her grandfather was dead. 

Within the span of the last few years, he had made her cut ties with her friends and family.

No one would even notice if she disappeared.

There was nothing that was holding her in this world anymore.

Suddenly, the grip on her chin loosened.

Su Liwei rose and raked a hand through his hair, looking perturbed all of a sudden.

Observing his strange actions, Jing Lihua wondered to herself. 'I can never figure out this man, can I?'

He glanced back at her; their eyes matched.

For a moment time froze.

She was reminded of the silent boy, she had once seen that evening in that park.

"I..."

Before anyone of them could utter another word, the door to the peace and quiet of the room was shattered. Someone shoved open the door with a loud noise.

.

.

.

"You haven't killed her yet?"

"Get out," Su Liwei's voice fell a few notes low as he glanced at the intruder. The lower tune only meant it held an undertone of threat.

However, the woman totally disregarded his warning. Clutching her stomach, she boldly rushed to his side.

"You have to do it, Su Liwei. Your Uncle won't let you off if you don't. Think about our child if not anything else. As long as this woman is alive, we can't find peace in our lives."

Jing Tian glanced at the woman who was on her knees. Undisguised contempt flashed across her face as she found her smiling.

"What are you smiling at cunt? Don't you see your position, huh? Why don't you call for your grandfather to save you now?"

Jing Tian hardly controlled her impulse to kick the woman on her knees. She didn't want to leave a vulgar image of her's in Su Liwei's eyes.

'That whore always had her grandfather back her up. My whole life she had been using her grandfather's wealth and Tang family name to suppress me and make me feel inferior. Now she has finally lost her backing and everything, she got what she actually deserved!'

With tears staining her cheeks, her unkempt hair; and years of harsh circumstances Jing Lihua naturally delicate features had hardened. Looking at this, Jing Tian felt a surge of satisfaction.

She was not as beautiful as she used to be.

The phoenix that once soared high the sky... had now lost its wings.

She was nothing but a shell of what she used to be.

"You are this confident because you must be thinking Su Liwei would let you leave. But let me tell you, if your body is leaving this room today then it's only under the condition it is dead."

However, Jing Lihua merely laughed.

Jing Tian was speechless.

"Little sister," Jing Lihua whispered in a light tune; almost playful: "What are you trying to do?"

"You..."

"Su Liwei knows very well that the baby in your stomach is not his. He has been playing with you all along. Just like he had been playing with me. Have you not realized it by now?"

Jing Tian's eyes widened in shock."What the fuck Jing Lihua? You have seen that you can't save yourself now so are you going to use ridiculous lies drive a wedge between Su Liwei and me to get back at me?"

"Whether I am lying or not, we both know it very well, little sister."

"You fucking bitch! Just shut the fuck up!" Jing Tian felt like she was going mad with anger and fear. Terrified, she glanced at Su Liwei. Looking at his cold expressions, she calmed down a bit. "Our relationship is not so weak that baseless words from your mouth can drive a wedge between us."

Jing Lihua quietly clicked her tongue. 

Shifting her eyes, she glanced at Su Liwei.

Su Liwei's gaze was fixed on Jing Lihua all the time.

After a long silence, his voice resounded in the room. 

"Take her away."

"Brother Su?" Jing Tian's eyes widened in shock. She couldn't believe it.

Weren't Su Liwei expressions very cold just now? Did it not mean he didn't believe Jing Lihua's words?

Or was it...

That whore was telling the truth...

He had known all along that the baby in my stomach is not his?

Jing Tian was horrified.

"Brother Su, whatever she had told you, she is lying!" Frantically, Jing Tian cried.

However, the man was as cold as ice. He paid no heed to her pathetically desperate explaining. 

Jing Tian cried as a few men grabbed her and started to drag her away. Her eyes were bloodshot with anger as she glared at Jing Lihua.

"You fucking Bitch! I'll never forgive you!"

Once her cries died out, silence dominated the room once again. Jing Lihua silently rose and her calm eyes met the man's eyes in front of her.

"You want to know why I did all that?" Su Liwei's eyes looked unfathomable. His cold eyes had calmed a bit. It appeared he had finally made a decision. "Your mother..." 

A shrill noise rang out from her behind. Jing Lihua felt her body jerking forward. Before she could understand what's happening, two more noises followed.

In front of her eyes, she saw a horrified face of Su Liwei.

'This is so strange. I have never ever seen fear on his face.'

Before she could reach a conclusion, he rushed towards her. His lips moved but she couldn't hear anything. Enveloped in a strange warmth, Jing Lihua opened her mouth to say something. But no words came out.

Slowly, the scene in front of her eyes shifted.

'What's happened?'

'Grandfather, why did mother name me Lihua?' An innocent child had once asked.

'Lihua means pear blossom. It is a symbol of spring. When your mother married your father, she was very sad. But then she had you' Her grandfather laughed and pinched her small nose adoringly.

'Grandpaw don't do it. I don't like it!' She glared at her grandfather.

'You gave her hope and lightened our world. You gave her a reason to live on'

Unconsciously, Jing Lihua's hand reached out to touch those happy memories, but in a moment, they disappeared like they never existed in the first place. And so eternal darkness swallowed her whole.