"Do you want to destroy your own future?"
Mother Xie's sobbing came to an abrupt halt. Outside the doors, hundreds of guests waited, their gazes burning with anticipation.
She forcibly suppressed the shock in her heart, her tone hardening. "Wen Zhishao is a brilliant doctor! Marrying her is the best choice you could make. Your entire future relies on—"
Xie Chi lifted his eyes to look at her. His indifferent gaze was like unmelting glacial ice. Mother Xie fell silent instantly.
His voice was cold, yet it carried a reckless, irreversible determination. "Then let it be destroyed."
Xie Chi turned and threw open the heavy doors.
Outside, the stern gaze of the former Supreme Commander of the war zone weighed heavily on him. "Xie Chi, you are the student I value most. Do not make a mistake."
"You can go find that girl after the ceremony..."
Xie Chi looked at the old man before him and stood at attention, saluting. "My apologies, Sir. I cannot wait a moment longer."
Under the stunned gazes of the crowd, he enunciated every word clearly: "My engagement to Wen Zhishao is hereby annulled."
The crowd sucked in a collective breath of cold air. Was Xie Chi crazy? Did he know what consequences his actions would bring?
But Xie Chi didn't care. Facing the confused stares, he repeated, "My engagement to Wen Zhishao is void."
He strode out the door, allowing the violent sunlight to swallow him whole.
Wen Zhishao finally snapped out of her daze. She stumbled after him in her high heels, blocking his path.
Xie Chi lowered his eyes. There was no longer a trace of tenderness in them, only a freezing coldness. "I have wronged you."
Wen Zhishao bit her lower lip, then spoke with feigned resolve. "Xie Chi, I know everything. I will go with you to find Ciyou."
"After all, she left because of me... I bear responsibility too. Besides, we are one. Even if the wedding wasn't completed, in my heart, I am already your wife."
Xie Chi looked at her silently for a long time—long enough for Wen Zhishao to almost believe he would change his mind. But in the end, he simply nodded and said, "Okay."
Late at night, at the base.
Wen Zhishao had just changed into her nightgown when her phone rang urgently. Seeing the caller ID on the screen, she frowned.
She silenced the phone and walked quietly toward the backyard.
"What is it?" Her voice was thick with displeasure.
A man's gloomy, cold voice came through the receiver immediately. "Xie Chi already knows. The thing you promised me—"
"Why are you panicking?" Wen Zhishao sneered, her tone carrying a detached indifference. "Didn't the news say it? The Doctors Without Borders base was attacked by unidentified armed forces! There are multiple casualties. Even if Jiang Ciyou is dead, it's perfectly logical. As long as you don't speak and I don't speak, no one will know you were the one who killed her."
"Withholding intelligence will only get you a disciplinary write-up at most. Don't worry, the helicopter to take you abroad is ready. You can leave tomorrow night."
Wen Zhishao hung up the phone, venomous resentment churning in her gut.
This meticulously planned, highly anticipated wedding had been ruined by a dead person.
Jiang Ciyou, you truly are a curse... you can't even die in peace!
If I had known, I should have made your death more 'spectacular.' I should have left you in a drug trafficker's bed or an enemy camp. I should have ruined your reputation completely and seen if Xie Chi would still pine for you then.
She took a deep breath, blocked the number, and raised her head to resume her usual mask of innocent purity as she walked back toward her room.
Thump!
She had barely taken two steps when she crashed solidly into a figure. Wen Zhishao looked up in terror, and in the next second, a piercing scream tore through the night sky.
"Ah—!"
"So." Xie Chi advanced on her step by step, every word dipped in bone-chilling hatred. "It was you who made the move."
Those eyes she had once been so infatuated with were now indescribably cold, looking at her as if she were a corpse.
"Xie Chi... l-listen... listen to my explanation..." Wen Zhishao instinctively sensed the danger. She swallowed hard and squeezed out a few tears. "I can explain. It's not what you heard. Ciyou didn't want to live anymore... I did it to set her free..."
"Set her free?" Xie Chi said flatly.
Then, his slender fingers suddenly tightened. He gripped Wen Zhishao by the throat and lifted her off the ground.
Wen Zhishao's feet left the floor. Her face instantly turned a terrifying shade of purple-red, her eyes bulging, tears mixing with saliva as they ran uncontrollably down her face.
"Xie... Chi..."
Just as her consciousness was about to fade into darkness, Xie Chi suddenly let go. Wen Zhishao collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
She tried to speak, but a sharp agony exploded in her chest—he had kicked her. She retched, vomiting a mouthful of fresh blood.
Xie Chi's expression didn't change in the slightest. There was no twisted anger, no pleasure from revenge, not even a frown. It was as casual as drinking water or eating a meal.
"Now, you can start confessing." He bent down, grabbed Wen Zhishao by the hair, and forced her to look up at him. "Do not lie."
None of this reached the land torn apart by war.
Deep inside a dark, damp air-raid shelter, an old man spoke in a language she couldn't understand. Anxiously, he pushed a box of dirty compressed biscuits toward Jiang Ciyou.
"I'm not hungry. Please, eat it yourself."
Jiang Ciyou pushed the biscuits back. She forced a weak smile, then slowly dragged herself to the entrance of the cave.
The intense sunlight hit her pale face. She finally couldn't hold on anymore and let out a muffled groan, bending over in pain as black spots danced before her eyes.
So hungry. So hungry. So hungry...
"I told you, stop giving your rations away."
A helpless voice drifted down from above. Jiang Ciyou tipped her head back at the sound, cold sweat sliding from her forehead.
"My memory isn't very good..."