Chapter 7 — Calling Off the Engagement with the Master Surgeon

When Gu Jing Shen caught sight of me, he trembled so violently that he tumbled straight off his chair. He scrambled and crawled into the corner of the room, his eyes wide with a look of absolute, soul-crushing terror. He finally understood the full reality of his situation. I had never needed to rely on poison or physical weapons. I was, quite simply, a deity whose every spoken word manifested into truth. Now, he was terrified even to utter the phrase "I have a headache," fearing that his skull might rupture right then and there. I calmly placed a bouquet of chrysanthemums on the bedside table next to Lam Van Van.

"You all seem to be in such spirited health," I remarked.

Mother Vuong, upon seeing me, began to shake with uncontrollable fury. She opened her mouth to lash out, her voice raspy with malice. "You poisonous wretch..."

Gu Jing Shen, horrified that she might provoke me, lunged forward and clamped his hand over her mouth. "Shut your mouth! Do you want to die? Do not provoke her!"

Hearing my voice, Lam Van Van began to struggle convulsively on her bed. "To Thien Thien! It is you, isn't it? It is you who caused me to end up like this!" Her face was twisted in agony. "Kill me! I beg you, just kill me!"

The tumor pressing against her nerves turned every passing second into a waking nightmare, a torment worse than death itself. I stood by the bedside, observing her with cool, detached indifference.

"Lam Van Van, your accusations are hardly fair," I replied smoothly. "After all, it was you who claimed at our engagement party that you were suffering from terminal stomach cancer. It was your mother who insisted her legs were shattered. It was Gu Jing Shen who repeatedly lamented that his heart felt as if it were being carved by knives. And it was your parents who insisted they were on the brink of a cerebral hemorrhage."

I swept my gaze around the hospital room, a mocking smile curling my lips. "You all loved to play at being victims so convincingly, didn't you? I am merely a kind-hearted soul, helping each of you turn your fabrications into reality. How does it feel? Are you satisfied with the experience?"

The room fell into a deathly, suffocating silence. Gu Jing Shen closed his eyes in despair, tears tracing paths down his cheeks. He realized, deep down, that they had brought this devastation upon themselves. Having savored their misery to the fullest, I turned and walked out of the ward. Behind me, the room erupted into a cacophony of desperate, wretched wailing.

A week later, I received word from the hospital. Gu Jing Shen had finally reached his breaking point. In the dead of night, he had ripped the oxygen tube from Lam Van Van, watching blankly as she gasped her final, agonizing breaths before expiring. Unable to bear the crushing weight of his grief and the guilt of his actions, he had climbed to the roof of the hospital. From the twenty-eighth floor, he cast himself down, his body shattering upon impact. Mother Vuong, hearing the news of her daughter's death while still confined to her own bed, suffered a fatal stroke and passed away instantly. As for the elder Gu couple, with no one left to provide for them, they languished in a nursing home, living a life that was little more than a slow descent into oblivion.

With Gu Jing Shen gone, the Gu family’s medical empire was left without a head. I moved in with calculated precision, acquiring their entire hospital network and pharmaceutical holdings for a pittance. The influence of the To family rose to an unprecedented zenith.

I sat in the executive office on the top floor of the newly acquired conglomerate, swirling a glass of vintage red wine as I gazed at the glittering city lights through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The world outside remained oblivious to the true nature of my power. This ability to transmute and inflict pain was not merely a tool for retribution. Each time I willed their lies into truth, I was harvesting a year of their life force. Lam Van Van, Gu Jing Shen, Mother Vuong—all the years of vitality they had forfeited were siphoned directly into me.

I walked over to the massive mirror standing against the wall. The reflection staring back was radiant and luminous, my skin as smooth and vibrant as that of an eighteen-year-old girl. I smiled softly to myself, raised my glass, and toasted to my own eternal prime.