The cold metal of the ring struck Ethan's face with a sharp sting before bouncing humorously, yet tragically, onto the floor.
Ethan slowly stood up.
His deep eyes were clouded with a fractured disbelief, his voice raspy and hollow. "Sarah... you!"
Sarah Su looked down at him from her perceived heights of elegance, her face twisted in a mask of pure loathing.
"Me, what? Today is the day of my grand wedding.
What is a common convict like you doing here? You're a jinx on my luck!"
Hearing this, Ethan felt as if he had been struck by a physical bolt of lightning.
He stared at her as if she were a total stranger. "What? Sarah... aren't you marrying me today?"
Beside her, her bridesmaid Jessie Xu couldn't contain herself, erupting into a shrill, mocking laugh.
"Haha! This is too much! Sarah is about to marry into one of the wealthiest families in the city. Who the hell do you think you are?"
Ethan's heart sank into an abyss. His fists clenched until the knuckles turned white as he locked eyes with Sarah. "What are you saying? Who... who is the groom?"
In that heartbeat, the agonizing memories of three years ago sliced through Ethan's mind like jagged glass.
The Memory: Three Years Ago
Inside a dimly lit hotel room, the air was thick with a predatory tension.
Wesley Wang, a notorious wealthy scion of River City, had his hand clamped around Sarah's chin. He pinned her against the sofa—she was dressed in a provocative, stylized uniform—while he forced a glass of red wine toward her lips with a leering, predatory grin. "Drink! Drink it all!"
But Sarah, instead of fighting for her life, moved her body with a practiced, inviting rhythm.
Her voice was a sickening, artificial coo: "No... Young Master Wang, don't..."
Seeing this, Wesley's hunger only intensified.
He let out a manic laugh. "You little temptress, you really know how to get me going!"
With a brutal pull, he tore the black stockings from her legs and lunged his heavy frame over her.
At that moment of perceived violation, a frantic Ethan kicked the door open.
Seeing the scene, his eyes turned bloodshot with a murderous rage.
"You bastard! Get away from Sarah!"
Losing all reason, Ethan grabbed a heavy desk lamp and brought it down with all his might against the back of Wesley's head.
The Old Rental House
Later, inside their cramped, dilapidated apartment, Ethan sat in a stupor, crushed by the gravity of what he had done.
Sarah knelt beside him, making a solemn, tearful vow: "Ethan... if you just go away for three years, we'll get married the moment you're out. I'll take care of your mother and your sister. I promise."
Believing in that hollow love, Ethan allowed the police to lead him away in cold iron shackles.
The Abyss of Prison
In the darkness of a windowless cell, Ethan lay curled on the damp floor, enduring the systematic brutality of the hardened inmates who kicked and punched him into a bloody pulp.
It wasn't until they grew bored and left that an old man with a strange, piercing gaze drifted out of the shadows toward the dying Ethan.
It was that moment—and the supreme inheritance of the Dragon Temple—that rewrote his destiny forever...
The memories shattered, and a booming, arrogant voice dragged Ethan back to the harsh light of reality.
"It's me, of course! Who else could it be but me!"
Ethan snapped his head up, his eyes wide with a soul-deep shock. He stared at the man stepping out from the grand hall.
Their gazes locked. Wesley Wang, standing with his arms crossed over his expensive suit, looked at the plainly dressed Ethan with a gaze of absolute, unadulterated contempt.