Chapter 2 — An Amicable Parting

Not only the corporate shares, but the house and the car registered under my name, alongside the personal savings my father had left behind for me, have all been successfully transferred to Wan Ning Chu's name.

I should have been furious, should have shrieked with rage, but instead, I simply burst out laughing. Lam Sam Tran furrowed his brows, likely supposing that my mind had finally shattered under the strain. I laughed for a long time, laughed until hot tears streamed uncontrollably down my cheeks.

"Do you have any remote idea what I endured during those three agonizing years locked away behind prison walls?"

He remained utterly silent.

During my very first year, inmate Matron Sun discovered how easily intimidated I was and forced me to hand-wash over three hundred pairs of socks for her. The water in the dead of winter was freezing, and my raw hands were covered in painful, bleeding cracks from the biting cold.

During my second year, she compelled me to kneel right outside the filthy restroom door to serve as her personal footrest. I knelt there in that humiliating position for three full months, and to this very day, whenever the weather turns gloomy and damp, my knees still ache with a dull, throbbing pain.

"You Duo..."

I refused to grant him the opportunity to continue, pressing forward with my accusations.

"I took the fall for your crimes, I served prison time meant for you, and my poor father was so consumed by grief and rage that he literally died of a broken heart. Not only have you stripped away every single possession I once owned, but now you even wish to banish me entirely from the Capital City."

Lam Sam Tran's expression shifted through a kaleidoscope of emotions. He said, "I am sorry, You Duo. You have every right to hate me, but none of this has anything to do with Wan Ning Chu."
Even at this late hour, he was still desperately shielding her from any consequence. This pathetic display only served to make my entire existence look like a cruel, absurd joke.

"I do not hate you."

My voice remained remarkably soft, stripped of any heavy emotional weight.

"Because you are simply not worthy of my hatred."

With that final declaration, I picked up my coffee cup and hurled its dark contents squarely across his chest, then turned sharply on my heel and walked away. I refused to touch the severance check Lam Sam Tran had left behind. The funds I possessed of my own were meager at best, forcing me to rent a terribly cramped and dreary apartment. Yet on the very night I finished moving my few belongings into the new place, I unexpectedly received a digital photograph on my phone. In the image, my father's gravestone had been smashed into countless jagged pieces. And standing right beside the desecrated memorial was the unmistakable figure of Lam Sam Tran.

The photograph arrived in the dead of night, piercing through the quiet hours of dawn. In the image, my late father's headstone was shattered into four distinct fragments, and the photographic portrait etched into the stone had been viciously slashed right down the very middle. Without even taking the time to change out of my sleeping clothes, I rushed directly to Lam Sam Tran's luxury residence. I stood outside the iron gates of his sprawling villa, screaming his name for a full half-hour before he finally bothered to step outside with unhurried grace. Before I could even draw breath to speak, he struck the first blow.

"That vicious post circulating online was uploaded by you, wasn't it?"

"What post are you talking about?"

He emitted a cold, derisive chuckle, whipped out his smartphone, and shoved the glowing screen directly into my face. The text clearly detailed how Wan Ning Chu had repaid immense kindness with monstrous betrayal, stealing Lam Sam Tran away from me, and how Lam Sam Tran, blinded by his affection for Wan Ning Chu, had heartlessly driven me into a prison cell.

"You Duo, stop playing games and pretending to be innocent. Aside from you, who else on this earth understands the intricate history between the three of us with such precision?"

Indeed, aside from myself and Lam Sam Tran, the only other person who possessed such intimate knowledge of those dark events was Wan Ning Chu herself.

"I did not publish that post."

Yet Lam Sam Tran flatly refused to grant my words even a shred of belief.

"If not you, are we supposed to believe Wan Ning Chu did it to herself?"

"Do you have any concept of the fact that because of this malicious post, she suffered a severe shock, fell into threatened miscarriage, and is currently confined to a hospital bed desperately trying to save her unborn child?"

"You Duo, the ashes of your father have already been relocated by my orders to an undisclosed location. If you wish to discover their exact resting place, you will immediately post a public retraction and apology online."

"You must state publicly that three years ago you willingly and voluntarily took the blame for me, that I had been exclusively dating Wan Ning Chu from the very beginning, and that you were nothing more than a desperate interloper trying to wedge yourself between our genuine romance."

Hearing such a monstrous demand, my entire body trembled with white-hot fury.

"So, simply to vent your frustration and seek vengeance on behalf of Wan Ning Chu, you chose to desecrate my father's grave and his mortal remains?"

"Do not forget for a single second that had it not been for my father's unwavering support and financial backing, you would never have achieved the success you enjoy today."

"You desperately need to be taught a harsh lesson."

It was tragic that his features were entirely devoid of even a flicker of genuine remorse.

"I have warned you repeatedly. You are permitted to harbor whatever resentment you like toward me, but you must never dare to touch her."

"You Duo, that public confession and apology will be posted by tomorrow morning, whether you willingly choose to do so or not."

He paused for a brief, calculated moment before delivering the final, crushing blow. The words he uttered plunged my soul into an unprecedented abyss of cold dread.

"If you fail to comply, I will ensure the entire world learns that right before his death, your father signed a formal legal agreement completely severing all paternal ties with you."

Because of the unforgivable disgrace you brought upon the family name, he refused to acknowledge a daughter like you any longer. As far as legal documents are concerned, his only true daughter now is Wan Ning Chu. Come the annual Tomb-Sweeping Festival, you won't even possess the basic legal right to step foot near his grave to pay your respects.

I completely lost whatever fragile grip on my temper I had left, raising my hand and striking him across the face with a resounding, vicious slap.

"Lam Sam Tran, you are utterly devoid of human decency and shame!"

Lam Sam Tran pushed his tongue against the inside of his bruised cheek, letting out a low, mocking laugh.

"I will graciously grant you one single night to thoroughly consider my terms."

"Before ten o'clock tomorrow morning, if I do not witness the exact statement I requested published across the internet, the signed disownment agreement drafted by your father will be broadcast publicly for everyone to see."

With those final words, he summoned the estate security guards, gesturing sharply for them to physically eject me from the premises. I fought fiercely against the guards' iron grip, struggling until I finally stood upright. When I raised my head to look at him once more, my eyes were completely flooded with an unmasked, bottomless hatred.

"Lam Sam Tran, do you truly believe that because I currently possess nothing in this world, I am entirely powerless to destroy you?"

Lam Sam Tran offered no reply to my rhetorical question. But the look of absolute disdain plastered across his features spoke volumes. It was glaringly obvious that this was precisely what he believed. I stared at him in unbroken silence for a long, heavy moment, and then, slowly, a cold, terrifying smile spread across my face.