It had been raining for days, and on the day of An Mi’s burial, a fine drizzle persisted as a large crowd gathered. Bo Ye was hell-bent on forcing Tang Shi to her knees before An Mi’s grave, as if determined to make her kneel there until she died. Tang Shi struggled, but he slapped her hard across the face. “Don't you dare play innocent,” he snarled. “You, of all people, have no right to!” Stifling the pain, Tang Shi suddenly broke into a laugh. It was a thin, desperate sound in the drizzling rain. Without a second thought, Bo Ye strode forward and kicked her viciously at the corner of her mouth. The force sent her sprawling, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood. Bo Ye’s leather shoes appeared in her field of vision. She looked up at him, and suddenly, something inside her went numb. *So cruel,* she thought. *This man… I was the one who was wrong.* Her mistake was ever loving him. Tang Shi gritted her teeth. “Don't even think I'll kneel for her!” “For the crime you committed, kneeling is getting off easy!” he roared, hauling her up only to slam her back onto the ground. But Tang Shi didn’t cry out in pain. She laughed. “I turned a blind eye to your string of mistresses and affairs. I pretended not to see the gossip about you in the papers every day. My role as your wife was no better than a dog's. Do you have any conscience at all? You think I’d want to kill An Mi? What is she? In terms of family, education, or background, does she measure up to even a single finger of mine?” “So you finally show your true colors.” Bo Ye used the tip of his shoe to tilt her face up. “I have a special gift for you today. I wonder if you’ll like it…” As soon as he finished speaking, a line of police officers appeared at the entrance. Before Tang Shi could even process what was happening, they rushed forward, pinned her down, and snapped handcuffs onto her wrists. The moment she saw the steel shackles on her hands, Tang Shi began to struggle wildly. “Let me go! On what grounds are you arresting me?!” “Murderer! She’s a murderer!” “And she’s supposed to be a lady of the Tang family! What a disgrace!” “Utterly heartless! The evil that lurks in people’s hearts!” “Poor Mr. Bo, to have a wife like her!” Reporters and cameras swarmed her, capturing every flicker of her panic. Tang Shi’s face was ashen, her expression lost and vacant. “Who sent you to arrest me? Who?” “Hah. Do you think, in a country of laws, they would wrongfully accuse you without absolute proof?” The man's voice came from behind her. When she turned, he was holding an urn, dressed in a bespoke suit, looking every bit the emperor as he re-entered her world. Tang Shi’s eyes reddened. “Bo Ye, you had me arrested?” A faint smile touched Bo Ye’s lips. “I’m merely giving An Mi the truth she deserves. The police and I reviewed the security footage together.” “The truth? The truth?” As if she had heard the world’s greatest joke, Tang Shi began to laugh hysterically. Everyone pointed at her, yet they kept their distance from her crazed state. The live broadcast captured her deranged image for all thirteen billion people to see. Before the entire nation, she was a demon. The handcuffs rattled as she thrashed against them. She screamed at Bo Ye, “Bo Ye! Do you have a shred of conscience?! Five years of marriage! Even a dog wouldn’t be humiliated like this!” “Humiliated?” Bo Ye stepped forward and seized her chin. “How can it be humiliation when you’re paying for your own crime?” “I told you I didn’t do it! What right do you have to arrest me!” Tang Shi let out a bitter laugh. Her final struggles were futile; the reflection of herself in his eyes was utterly pathetic. *Smack.* The familiar sting of a slap. Huge tears rolled down Tang Shi’s face. Suddenly, with both hands, she snatched the urn from Bo Ye’s grasp and, in front of everyone, smashed it to the ground. “I’m telling you, Bo Ye, in this lifetime, I would never stoop to doing something like that! Believe me or don't, but I will not let a dead woman walk all over me! You’ll get what’s coming to you one day!” Bo Ye roared like a madman, his hands closing around Tang Shi’s throat. “How dare you! How dare you!” “Then kill me!” Tang Shi’s laugh was laced with tragedy. “You believe her so much you’d sacrifice my innocence. Is there anything you won’t do? You’re only doing this because you know I love you! You want to tear my heart out, don't you?! Well, go on! It’s already in a thousand pieces, what’s one more cut?!” The police officers moved in, dragging Tang Shi away towards the police car. The crowd watched the spectacle unfold, a shiver running through them as they saw the terrifying, contorted expression on the handsome man's face. Bo Ye’s gaze was fixed on Tang Shi’s retreating back. “Tang Shi, a lifetime of penance won’t be enough for what you’ve done!” Tang Shi laughed twice, forcing the tears back. “Bo Ye, you’ll regret this! Maybe the baby in An Mi’s belly wasn’t even yours! If you ever find out that what you did to me today was wrong—” *If you ever find out that what you did to me today was wrong…* As if from nowhere, the drizzle turned into a downpour, cold drops falling on every heart. In an instant, the rain intensified, as if the heavens themselves were moved to rage. The torrential rain battered her body. Tang Shi was shoved into the car, but her manic laughter continued to spill out, piercing the ears of everyone at the burial site. “Bo Ye, if I live, I pray I never see you again! If I die, it will be my greatest fortune!” *Deep love is useless, and longing is met with contempt.* She understood. She finally understood. Bo Ye had left her no way out. He divorced her only to throw her in prison, to make her pay for her foolishness for the rest of her life. Tang Shi laughed until she coughed up blood. When the police car window was rolled down, a thousand camera flashes illuminated her frenzied state. But she paid them no mind, her eyes locked on Bo Ye. “I was wrong.” Suddenly, the fight drained out of her. “Bo Ye,” she said, “I realize now I was truly wrong…” Bo Ye took a step forward, about to speak, but the woman lifted her head. Her eyes were lifeless as she looked at him, her entire world crumbling within them. “Bo Ye, the gravest mistake I ever made… was falling in love with you.” Five years of marriage, five years of love, shattered in a single day. He had never given her a shred of trust. That was why he could be so cruel, so heartless, casting her into hell and turning all her devotion into a complete and utter joke. *Bo Ye, in this life, you owe me far too much!* The police car sped away into the storm. Tang Shi’s sigh was quickly lost in the downpour, as fleeting and hopeless as her final gaze—empty, numb, like an old woman on the verge of death. He should have been happy. He had gotten revenge for An Mi… but now that the moment was finally here, Bo Ye stumbled back a step. The wind howled behind him, the cold rain seeping through his suit and chilling him to the bone. Now that the moment was here, why did it feel like a gaping hole had opened in his chest? Why did hearing her final, whispered words feel like a thousand needles pricking his heart?