Pain came first.
Not the sharp, explosive kind that announced itself loudly, but a deep, spreading ache that swallowed everything else—her thoughts, her breath, even her sense of time.
The world above Stephanie Gu flickered in and out of focus.
Bright surgical lights burned her retinas. Masked faces hovered over her. The smell of disinfectant filled her lungs, cold and suffocating. She tried to move, to speak, to scream, but her body betrayed her completely. Not even her fingers obeyed her.
A familiar voice broke through the haze.
"Hurry up," the man said impatiently. "She's already unstable. We can't waste time."
Her heart lurched.
That voice—how could she not recognize it?
It belonged to the man she had loved for years. The man she had married. The man she had sacrificed everything for.
Gu Yichen.
Stephanie wanted to laugh, but blood flooded her throat instead.
Another voice followed, softer, tinged with false concern. "Be careful. Don't damage the organ. We can't afford any mistakes."
That voice belonged to her sister-in-law.
The woman who had always smiled so gently at her. The woman everyone praised for her kindness and grace.
Li Wenya.
Stephanie's vision blurred, not from pain this time, but from disbelief.
So it was true.
Every whispered doubt she had suppressed. Every unease she had ignored. Every moment she had told herself she was overthinking—it all came crashing down in this operating room.
She wanted to ask why.
Why had they done this to her? Why had the people she trusted the most turned into executioners without hesitation?
But no one was interested in answering a dying woman.
A sharp, unbearable pain tore through her chest.
Her consciousness shattered.
—
When Stephanie opened her eyes again, the pain was gone.
So was her body.
She hovered above the operating table, weightless and hollow, staring down at a scene so grotesque she nearly retched—if she still had a stomach to retch with.
Her body lay motionless on the table, pale and broken, chest sewn closed with cold precision. Machines beeped steadily, indifferent to the fact that her life had just been extinguished.
On a stainless-steel tray beside her lay a heart.
Her heart.
It still looked warm.
Stephanie stared at it, numb.
"So it's done?" Gu Yichen asked.
"Yes," the doctor replied. "The transplant will begin immediately."
Gu Yichen nodded, his expression calm, almost relieved. There was no hesitation in his eyes, no trace of guilt. He signed a document handed to him and turned away without looking back at the body on the table.
As if she were nothing more than a used tool.
Li Wenya dabbed at the corner of her eyes with a handkerchief, her voice trembling. "It's finally over. We can finally be together forever Yichen."
"Yes my love. Once you have the heart transplant, we both will live happily together for a long long time" Gu Yichen gently looked at her and kissed her passionately
Stephanie watched them in disbelief.
If souls could scream, the operating room would have collapsed under the sound of her rage.
But no sound came out.
No matter how she struggled, no matter how desperately she tried to reach out, her hands passed through everything like smoke.
She followed them out of the operating room, floating helplessly behind as doctors rushed her heart away, as nurses cleaned the blood from the floor, as her existence was erased with a few efficient movements.
No one asked about her.
No one mourned her.
—
Stephanie didn't know how much time passed.
She drifted through familiar places like a forgotten ghost, watching life move on without her.
At the Gu family villa, servants whispered briefly about her death before returning to their work.
Her mother accepted the news with a stunned expression, then quickly asked about compensation and legal matters.
Her father frowned, sighed, and said, "What a pity," before turning back to his phone.
There were no tears.
No proper funeral was held.
Her husband appeared once in public, wearing a solemn expression for the cameras. He spoke of her with rehearsed regret and few crocodile tears, calling her 'kind' and 'devoted,' earning praise from netizens for his love for his late wife.
Stephanie stood beside him, watching his performance with cold clarity.
So this was how little her life was worth.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
The world kept spinning.
Only she remained trapped, forced to witness everything she had once believed in crumble into dust.
Until one day, Gu Yichen and Li Wenya went to the hospital together.
Stephanie followed them having no other choice. Because her heart was beating inside Li Wenya, she couldn't go anywhere far from her and was forced to see her husband and his brother's ex-wife reveal their ugly side.
The VIP ward was quiet, heavy with the smell of medicine and disinfectant. Sunlight filtered through half-drawn curtains, falling gently over a man lying motionless on the bed.
Gu Jianlin.
The elder son of the Gu family. The former president of Gu Corporation. The man once feared and respected throughout the entire business circle.
Now, he lay there, surrounded by machines, his body thin and unmoving. Tubes ran from his arms and nose, and his chest rose and fell faintly, mechanically.
Stephanie stopped short.
She remembered him. Not well, but clearly enough.
Gu Jianlin had always been distant, aloof, and rarely appeared at family gatherings. When he did, he carried an air of quiet authority that made everyone else instinctively lower their voices. She had heard people call him ruthless, cold, inhuman.
But she also knew that the man was very loyal to his wife, and loved her with everything he had, only to be betrayed by her and watch her in his younger brother's arms.
She had never known he would end up like this.
Gu Yichen walked to the bedside and looked down at his brother, his expression mocking and condescending.
"She's dead,.. Tch tch.. she died without even knowing about you dear brother." he said casually.
Stephanie froze.
Li Wenya sighed softly. "Such a pity. She was so young. But don't worry. Her heart is beating inside me."
No one in the room noticed the faint tremor that ran through the machines.
Gu Jianlin's fingers did not move. His lips did not part. His eyes remained closed.
But a single tear slid silently from the corner of his eye, disappearing into the white pillow beneath his head.
Stephanie felt something inside her collapse. That tear struck harder than all the cruelty she had witnessed since her death.
It was the first tear someone had shed for her. And it came from a man who could not even speak.
Gu Yichen stiffened. "Did you see that?"
"It's probably just a reflex," Li Wenya said quickly. "The doctor said he has no consciousness left."
Gu Yichen frowned, then shrugged. "Good. It's better this way."
Stephanie turned toward Gu Jianlin, her chest aching with an unfamiliar pain.
"Oh.. My dear ex-husband. I don't want you to think that I am cruel. So.. here you go.. Your ring." Li Wenya said and put a simple gold ring in his hand.
Stephanie's soul was struck with realization looking at the ring. She lost that ring a few years ago. Even after searching a lot for it, she wasn't able to find it.
When she was 13, in a foreign land, she was kidnapped and locked up in a basement with another boy. They both successfully escaped after a week and the boy gave her this ring while parting ways, promising to find her again.
"I hope you and the love of your life meet in after life."
Stephanie thought she was numb to everything now. But realizing that there was loyal and honest man waiting for her to save him, to build a life with him, and that she had missed out on all that was more painful than the betrayal.
"Alright. I kept you alive till now so that you can see me take everything that belonged to you. Now that it is done, it is time for you to go, elder brother" Gu Yichen said quite enthusiastically.
Before she could process the thought, the door opened again. A nurse entered hesitantly, holding a clipboard. "Mr. Gu… the family has discussed it. Since the patient has no chance of recovery, they've decided to… discontinue life support."
Stephanie's froze.
"No," she tried to say. "Don't.. He can be cured. There is response. Please.. P-Please.. P-Please"
Gu Yichen nodded. "Proceed."
The machines were turned off one by one.
The steady beeping slowed.
Then stopped.
Gu Jianlin's chest rose once more. And then fell still.
Stephanie watched as the only person who had mourned her slipped quietly into death.
Something shattered completely within her. She was a renowned doctor. A prodigy. But after marriage, the very career she worked so hard to build at such a young age was cut off. The man who she could have saved lived like a corpse.
Regret and shame clawed at her. She desperately craved to go back and set things right.
—
The hospital room dissolved.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then, warmth.
A gentle light enveloped her, soft and comforting, unlike anything she had felt before. The hatred, the grief, the despair—all of it seemed to quiet under that glow.
A voice echoed, neither male nor female, calm and distant.
"Your fate has ended."
Stephanie looked around, her soul trembling. "Is this… the afterlife?"
"Yes."
For a moment, peace tempted her.
But then she remembered the tear.
She remembered the betrayal, the cruelty, the regret.
She remembered the operating table, the cold voices, the indifference of everyone she had loved.
Her hands clenched.
"I don't want to go," she said.
The voice paused. "There is another choice."
Her heart raced. "What choice?"
"You may return to the past," the voice said. "But there is a price."
"I'll pay it," Stephanie replied without hesitation.
"You will only be granted three years of life," the voice continued. "When those three years end, you will die—no matter what you achieve, no matter whom you save."
Stephanie laughed softly, bitterness lacing the sound. "I already died once. Three years is more than enough."
"Your path will be filled with hatred and resistance," the voice warned. "You may not find peace."
"I don't want peace," she said, her gaze steady. "I want justice."
Silence stretched.
Then the light surged forward, swallowing her completely.
—
Stephanie gasped.
Air rushed violently into her lungs, burning and real. Her fingers twitched, nails digging into silk. The scent of incense and cosmetics filled her senses.
She sat up abruptly.
Red.
Everything was red.
The embroidered dress clinging to her body. The dressing room lit by lanterns glowing softly in the corners.
Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror—young, just 22, uninjured, alive, healthy.
Outside, she could hear festive music and muffled laughter.
It was her wedding day.
Stephanie lowered her gaze slowly, a cold, dangerous smile forming on her lips.
"So… I'm back."
Three years.
That was all she had.
And this time, she would make every single day count. She would live a meaningful life, and save the man whose life was unjustly cut short.