Chapter 7 — My Husband and My Best Friend

It was not until half a year later that the verdict for Xiao Xu was finally handed down. Because Lin Xun had not died instantly at the scene and was himself the provoking party, Xiao Xu’s actions were legally classified as homicide committed under extreme agitation and sudden provocation. I even personally submitted a petition for leniency on his behalf. In the end, Xiao Xu was sentenced to a mere ten years in prison. Just ten years. Upon hearing this news, Yun Chen’s face instantly drained of all color, turning a stark, ghostly white.

How can this possibly be? He is a murderer! she cried out, her voice trembling with disbelief.

I merely nodded, my expression calm.

His mother came to find me, and she knelt right there on the hard ground. Considering her advanced age and the hardships of her life, my heart softened, and I signed the clemency appeal for him.

Why would you do that?

Yun Chen stared at me as if looking at a monster, her eyes wide with sheer panic. Do you have any idea how miserably this is going to destroy me? Once he gets out of prison, he will undoubtedly come after me for revenge!

I looked back at her with a faint, chilling smile. This, after all, had been my exact intention from the very beginning. Infidelity is a matter involving two people. By what logic should Lin Xun be the only one to pay the ultimate price? Furthermore, because she was entirely unable to repay the massive debt she owed me, Yun Chen would soon be legally classified as a debtor subject to severe restrictions on her civil rights. When that day came, she would not even be able to board a flight to leave the country. Trapped and cornered, she would be forced to live out her remaining days in relentless torment and crippling anxiety, perpetually waiting for Xiao Xu to emerge from prison and exact his vengeance. It was said that she had written numerous letters to Xiao Xu during his incarceration, desperately trying to explain herself. But I had written to him as well. Just a single letter. Inside, I enclosed the complete chat history between Lin Xun and Yun Chen. With those explicit conversations in his hands, Xiao Xu would never, under any circumstances, believe a single word that came out of Yun Chen’s mouth.

The next time any news of them reached my ears, it was already eight years later. Having exhibited exemplary behavior behind bars, Xiao Xu had earned an early release. The very first thing he did upon stepping outside the prison gates was to hunt down Yun Chen. He refused to let her go. Naturally, he refused to let himself go, either. I caught a fleeting glimpse of their names in a local news report scrolling across the internet. After pausing for a brief second, I simply flickered my finger and scrolled right past it. All of that was already a chapter buried deep in the past, weathered by many long years. As for myself, I had already embraced a brand new life, far away from the shadows of yesterday.