Chapter 15 — Reborn: This Hell Is Mine

Cracks In The Perfect Shell

Kỷ Tuệ Nghi started losing sleep about three weeks ago.

At first, she told herself it was just normal work pressure — her media company was growing faster than ever thanks to contracts from businesses related to Hưng Thịnh, causing her workload to skyrocket. But deep inside, she knew the real reason was not that simple.

Things started to get strange after the information about the high-tech real estate deal. She passed that information to Hưng Thịnh with absolute confidence, believing that she had a great opportunity to prove her worth. But when the deal actually took place, the terms were completely different from what she reported — there was no acceleration, no price changes in favor of the foreign partner as she had heard. When Đắc Thịnh heard the news, he called her with an unusually cold voice, asking if she was sure about her source, leaving Tuệ Nghi confused and not knowing how to explain.

She reassured herself that perhaps the corporation's plans changed at the last minute, a completely normal thing in business. But then, Ý Vy's careless statement during the family meal about the corporation reviewing the security system because of suspected information leaks, combined with her sister's calm but profound eyes when she said "I believe the truth will be exposed, it's just a matter of time", began to make Tuệ Nghi feel an uneasiness that could not be dispelled.

She began to notice small details that she had never noticed before - the way Ý Vy sometimes looked at her with an unpredictable look for a few seconds before returning to her familiar friendliness, the way Bách Nguyên recently seemed more secretive whenever she stopped by the house, Ý Vy's seemingly harmless gossip always had a detail that touched on what she was most worried about.

One evening, while sitting alone in her apartment, Tuệ Nghi pulled out an old photo album and flipped through photos taken with Ý Vy from her childhood at the orphanage. In those photos, she saw two sisters laughing innocently, holding hands, without any trace of future calculations or conspiracies. She sat silently looking at those photos for a long time, tears suddenly welling up in her eyes, even though she didn't understand why.

Perhaps, a deep part of her heart still truly loves her sister, still remembers the warm years that have passed. But the other part, the part that has been nourished by the pain of being considered "no special ties" for more than ten years, the part that Đắc Thịnh skillfully aroused and took advantage of, still continues to motivate her on the chosen path, even though her heart is full of contradictions.

She called Đắc Thịnh's assistant, her voice a bit more urgent than usual. "I think something is wrong. My sister seems to know something. I need to see Mr. Thinh."

The meeting took place that evening, at a private bar that Đắc Thịnh often used for sensitive conversations. He listened to Tuệ Nghi express his concerns, his face still remained calm as usual, but his eyes revealed a colder calculation.

"What do you think they found out?" Đắc Thịnh asked, his voice was gentle but there was an underlying pressure hidden inside.

"I'm not sure," Tuệ Nghi replied, clutching her wine glass tightly. "But there are small signs that make me feel uneasy. Maybe we should suspend all activities for a while, waiting for the situation to calm down."

Đắc Thịnh was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "No. If we stop now, all our efforts up to now will be meaningless, and if they really have evidence, stopping will not help you avoid responsibility. On the contrary, we need to accelerate the plan and complete the goal before they have enough evidence to act."

"What's the plan?" Tuệ Nghi asked, her voice a bit panicked.

Đắc Thịnh looked at her for a long time, then spoke slowly, his voice cold and chilling. "As long as Đường Ý Vy is Chung Bách Nguyên's wife, she will always live in her shadow, no matter what she does. But if that woman is no longer there, things will be different. Bách Nguyên will need someone to rely on in times of crisis—someone close to him who understands the Chung family's internal affairs. My group will also have a chance to renegotiate all the deals previously lost to Chung Bách Nguyên while his family was in turmoil after losing its spiritual pillar."

Tuệ Nghi heard those words and felt a cold chill run down her spine. She understood that Đắc Thịnh was referring to something that went far beyond any boundaries she had ever set for herself. "You're talking about..." she didn't dare finish the sentence, her voice trembled.

"I'm just talking about removing the biggest obstacle in both of our paths," Đắc Thịnh replied, his voice still as calm as if he were discussing completely normal business. "You don't need to intervene directly. Just provide me with her travel schedule in the near future, especially the days when she has to drive alone on deserted roads. Let me take care of the rest."

Tuệ Nghi sat motionless, unable to say a word. In her mind, the image of Ý Vy gently hugging her on her wedding day, her warm voice saying "thank you for always being by my side", mixed with the dull pain of over ten years, with the cold words "that girl has no special ties" that she overheard when she was fifteen years old. Those two conflicting emotions tugged in her heart so fiercely that she felt like she was about to suffocate.

"I need time to think," she said, her voice shaking, then stood up and left the bar without waiting for Đắc Thịnh's answer.

On the way home, Tuệ Nghi stopped the car on the side of the road and sat and sobbed alone in the dark. She didn't know if she was still sane enough to distinguish right from wrong. The jealousy, the hurt buried throughout her childhood, and now the pressure from a calculating person like Đắc Thịnh, all combined, pushed her to the brink of a decision that a part of her knew there would be no turning back from.

She took out her phone, reopened the conversation with Ý Vy, looked at the last text message her sister sent her just a few days ago: "Are you free this weekend? Come have dinner with me and my husband. We haven't sat down and talked much for a long time." A normal, warm message, without any signs of suspicion.

Tuệ Nghi looked at that text for a long time, her finger gliding across the screen as if she wanted to type an answer, a confession, an apology. But in the end, she turned off the phone screen, leaned her head against the steering wheel, and let the darkness outside the car swallow her.

She didn't know, just not far away, in her warm house, Ý Vy was also sitting in front of the window, looking out at the night, feeling a vague feeling of insecurity gradually growing in her heart - a feeling that the decisive moment that she had been preparing for nearly three years was finally approaching.

The next morning, Tuệ Nghi came to the company with dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, trying to apply makeup to cover the traces of fatigue. Colleagues in the company, who were still familiar with the image of an active and confident Tuệ Nghi, began to whisper to each other asking if something was wrong with her. She dismissed all questions with a forced smile, using the excuse of work pressure, then closed the door to her private office and sat silently in front of the computer screen all morning without being able to type a single word.

At noon, she received another text message from Đắc Thịnh's assistant, with just one sentence: "Mr. Thinh needs an answer before the end of this week." Tuệ Nghi looked at that line and felt like a rope was tightening around her neck. She understood that she had gone too deep into a game that now, wanting to withdraw was no longer as easy as before - Đắc Thịnh held in his hands enough evidence of the times she passed internal information, enough to completely destroy her career and honor if she dared to betray the agreement.

In the afternoon, when Ý Vy called to inquire as usual, a familiar warm voice rang out on the phone, Tuệ Nghi had to bite her lip to keep her voice from shaking. "Sister, I'm a bit tired lately. Let's talk more another day." She hung up the phone quickly, without waiting for Ý Vy to respond, then put her head down on the table, covering her face with her hands.

She knew she was standing at the most important crossroads in her life. One path was to turn back, confess everything to her sister, and accept the legal consequences while retaining at least part of her conscience. The other was to continue going deeper, betting everything on Đắc Thịnh's promise of a new position and the recognition she had craved all her life.

And in that panic and inner turmoil, the weakest and most hurt part of Tuệ Nghi's personality began to lean towards the wrong decision.