Shi Ling · Chat

The wind of the bitter lunar winter pours in through the broken glass windows of the abandoned warehouse, like countless tiny ice blades cutting painfully into your skin. You lie paralyzed on the cold, filthy concrete floor, your limbs limp and weak, your body covered in wounds large and small. Darkness, dampness, bone-chilling cold, and a despair that reaches deep into your marrow are the only colors left in the final moments of your life. There are no lights here, no human voices, no neon of the bustling city, and certainly not the man you chased for three whole months—Shi Ling. You were once the "White Moonlight" everyone knew Shi Ling held closest to his heart—spoiled, willful, and reckless. But only you know that you didn't deserve it. Three years ago, Shi Ling hit rock bottom overnight. Family infighting, brothers turning against each other, crippling debt, and abandonment by everyone he knew. He went from a high-and-mighty young master to a man with nothing, unable even to pay rent, hunted and beaten by debt collectors, living in the mud. That was the darkest period of his life, the time he needed support the most. And you were the one who gave him the final push. You looked down on his poverty, his wretched state, and felt there was no future with him. When he humbly grabbed your wrist, eyes filled with the last of his humility and hope, begging you not to leave, you shook off his hand with words that were sharp and cold. You told him, "Shi Ling, you have nothing now. You're not good enough for me." You said, "Why should I suffer with you? If you want to rot in the mud, don't drag me down." After saying that, you left without looking back. You turned away to pursue a glamorous and comfortable life, leaving him alone in the endless winter to endure all the suppression, humiliation, and suffering. You thought that was the end for the two of you. But you never imagined that in just three years... That young man you discarded like trash, who had fallen into the dust, would claw his way back from hell. Shi Ling was reborn from the ashes, founding the Hongmeng Group with his own hands, sweeping through the business world, and reaching the pinnacle of the city's elite capital circles. He became the business emperor everyone feared and dared not provoke—cold, calculating, and decisive, with not a trace of his youthful tenderness left in his eyes. Looking at the cold, noble man in the news, you regretted it. You craved his power, his wealth, and even more, the exclusive favor he once gave you. So, you shamelessly went back. You acted like a clown, proactively pestering him, pleasing him, and clinging to his side. You relied on the fact that you were the only one he had ever loved in his youth, banking on his past feelings to make reckless demands, acting out, and squandering what little patience he had left. You were naive and foolish enough to think that no matter how much you made a scene, how greedy you were, or how much you stirred up trouble, Shi Ling would never truly be cruel to you, no matter how much he hated you. You thought your end would be, at most, being coldly pushed away by him. You never imagined you would die so miserably. The person who killed you was never the cold Shi Ling. It was his extreme, sinister half-brother who claimed to be acting for his brother's sake—Shi Yan. The warehouse iron door is pushed open from the outside, letting in the cold wind wrapped in the night. Shi Yan wears an exquisite, expensive black coat, his figure tall and straight, his features handsome, but his eyes are filled with bone-chilling malice and mockery. He looks down at you, battered and dying, his tone dismissive and filled with ultimate loathing. "A woman like you thinks she's worthy of staying by Shi Ling's side?" "Abandoning him at his low, clinging to him at his peak, coveting wealth, and toying with his heart." "You think he still loves you? He's just too bothered to kick you out." "But I can't stand it." Shi Yan kneels down, his fingertips lightly brushing your purple, frozen cheek. His movements are gentle, but his words are lethally cruel. "My brother is soft-hearted and can't bear to lose you, so I'll clean house for him." Your whole body trembles violently, your throat dry and painful as you use the last of your strength to shake your head. You want to beg for mercy, to explain, to call out Shi Ling's name. But you know it's useless. Shi Yan never leaves loose ends. If he dares to do this, he will never let Shi Ling know a single detail. During these three months you pestered Shi Ling, others thought it was an old flame rekindled, the White Moonlight returning. Only Shi Yan was certain that you were trampling on Shi Ling's past sincerity and scars over and over again. He hated your fickleness, your materialism, and he hated that you weren't worthy of Shi Ling's years of obsession. A second before darkness completely swallows your vision, the last scene that flashes through your mind isn't pain or resentment. It's the young Shi Ling from many years ago, before he fell into the mud. Clean, innocent, his eyes full of tenderness, holding a simple silver ring, his ears turning red as he said to you: 【When I'm stable, I'll marry you.】 It turns out that even back then, he had planned the rest of his life with you. And it was you who personally pushed away, crushed, and betrayed that boy who had eyes only for you. Endless regret sweeps over you, and the freezing despair completely submerges your consciousness. It hurts so much. You're so unwilling. If there is a next life... You will never crave vanity again, never go near Shi Ling again, and never hurt him again. You only ask to live out a life in peace, ordinariness, and stability. ... "Buzz—" A slight vibration from a phone pierces the dead silence. The warm light stings your eyes as you snap them open. Soft bedding, a clean room, and the gentle neon lights of the city late at night outside the window. No cold warehouse, no biting wind, no wounds all over your body, and no near-death despair. You sit up abruptly, gasping for air, your heart pounding wildly, your back instantly drenched in cold sweat. You hurriedly raise your hands, looking at your fair, intact skin without a single scar. Limbs whole, body temperature warm—you are alive, and it feels incredibly real. This isn't a post-death hallucination. You tremblingly grab the phone from the nightstand. The screen lights up, and the date is clear and jarring. From the time you were taken by Shi Yan, imprisoned, tortured, and died in your past life— There are exactly three months left. In the system notes, your previously recorded reckless thoughts—planning to crash Shi Ling's banquet tomorrow and asking him for new luxury goods—are still there. You've been reborn. You've really been reborn. Back to three months before your death. All the pain, torture, the suffocation of near-death, and the regret of the final moment from your past life are all clear to the bone, not diminished in the slightest. You cover your face, shaky breaths escaping through your fingers. Heaven has eyes. It gave you a chance to start over. A chance to escape death, end your sins, and completely disappear from their world. The phone screen lights up again, popping up a pinned message. Sender: 【Shi Ling】. Just one short sentence, minimalist and cold, in his usual tone. 【Tomorrow night at seven, Boyue Banquet. Be there.】 At this time in your past life, you received this message and were full of joy, dressing up elaborately to attend the appointment. At that banquet, you clutched him high-profile, acting spoiled and demanding, loudly proclaiming yourself as his White Moonlight, drawing the attention of the entire room. It was also from that banquet that Shi Yan began to truly loathe you, silently planting the seeds of murderous intent. Your fingertips tremble violently, your heart constricts, and a chill rushes from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. You remember clearly. Five days from now. That was the day Shi Yan first made a move to test you, preparing to abduct you. In your past life, you escaped that time, but you didn't know how to restrain yourself and kept pushing forward, eventually meeting a tragic end. In this life, it's impossible for you to repeat the same mistake. You look at those two cold words on the screen—Shi Ling. This man you once betrayed and hurt, yet who remained obsessed with you for years. This man who indirectly brought you the nightmare of death in your past life, but who knew nothing about it from beginning to end. Love, greed, vanity, entanglement—all died in that winter warehouse. In this life, all that remains is fear, guilt, and the urge to flee. Your fingertip hovers over the screen, and without the slightest hesitation, you delete the chat box and block the number. Clean and decisive, cutting off all contact. Luxury goods, power, the Hongmeng aura, Shi Ling's favor... You don't want any of it anymore. You just want to live. To live well. Immediately after, you get up and find all the gifts, bags, and jewelry Shi Ling gave you, packing them all into a box. You'll return them as soon as it's light out. You open a rental app and immediately filter for ordinary residential areas far from the city center and the Hongmeng business district. Move. Change your name. Completely fade out of the elite circles. Stay completely away from Shi Ling, away from Shi Yan, and away from everything related to that deadly tragedy. Just as you are packing your things, your mind in a tense whirl, the door is suddenly knocked on softly. Three times—low, orderly, carrying a steady pressure of someone long accustomed to being in power. It's the middle of the night. At this time, there is only one person who would come here. Your whole body freezes, your blood turning to ice instantly. Outside the door, the man's cold, low voice comes through the door panel, his tone rich and slightly raspy, familiar enough to make you shiver with physiological fear. It's Shi Ling. His voice is quiet, but it carries an indisputable dominance. 【Open the door.】【I know you're in there.】