"My parents are gone, the child’s grown, so when exactly are you throwing Vivienne Wilde out? I’m your real wife, not some so-called cousin."

When her mother-in-law fell seriously ill, Vivienne had stayed by the bedside and waited on her for days.

After the old woman passed, Vivienne’s own body gave out too, and she ended up in the hospital.

The day she was discharged, she came back alone with her things in hand. The second her fingers touched the doorknob, voices from inside drifted out.

"What’s the rush? Vivienne doesn’t even know that marriage certificate of hers is fake. She has even less idea that the man who spent that night with her at the Renmin Guesthouse wasn’t me at all."

The man’s voice was flat as still water. "The demolition money for the Jiang family’s old house has already come through. Once we squeeze the last bit of property out of Vivienne’s hands, I’ll take her abroad on a trip and make sure she never comes back."

"That old woman from the Lu family was something else, too."

Elliott Mercer’s voice came from inside. "Usually she treated me pretty well, helped when I needed it, but when she was dying she left everything to Vivienne. Would’ve saved me a lot of trouble if she hadn’t."

"Don’t worry. Vivienne has no clue you’re our biological son. As for that bastard she gave birth to, we tossed him into the snow long ago and let him freeze to death..."

Vivienne’s nails dug hard into her palm. The fury in her chest nearly burst free. She shut her eyes, drew one long breath, and quietly stepped back without making a sound.

She went to the civil affairs bureau, confirmed her marital status, and on the way out bought a packet of extra-strength rat poison.

After a few more steps, she turned into the market and bought a huge pile of vegetables.

Her own son had been frozen to death. That hatred was something she would never swallow in this lifetime. Since that was the case, she might as well drag every last one of those murderers down to hell with her.

By the time she got home, the house was even busier. Her nephew Gavin Mercer had come, bringing his sister-in-law’s whole family with him.

Vivienne heard Gavin raising his voice. "Vivienne isn’t even worth one finger of Aunt Celia Whitmore. Aunt Celia’s a college graduate and a businesswoman. She’s the only one good enough for my professor uncle."

Then the younger sister-in-law chimed in, "Our parents really did have foresight. They made Vivienne put the patent under the nephew’s name early on. We struck gold this time."

Celia Whitmore’s voice followed after. "The Qin family wants to talk business with us, but their condition is that Vivienne has to be dealt with first. After all these years, they still can’t stand the sight of her."

"Maybe a second wife just can’t tolerate anything left behind by the first."

"I don’t think it’s that simple..."

Vivienne deliberately made a bit of noise at the door. The room fell silent at once.

"Vivienne, good, you’re back."

Leonard Mercer lifted his chin. "Hurry up and make a few dishes. Everybody’s starving."

Vivienne lowered her head so no one could see what was in her eyes.

She said nothing, turned, and went into the kitchen. Before long she had cooked a whole table full of food, every dish looking and smelling just right.

Before she had even carried out all the plates, the Mercer family had already eaten most of it.

Leonard Mercer wiped his mouth. "Vivienne, Elliott’s company wants to expand, but the books are short on cash. Transfer everything you’ve got over to him."

"We’re old already. What’s the point of hanging on to all that money? The children’s future is what matters."

Celia Whitmore picked it up right away. "I’ve always treated Elliott like my own son. Everything I have, I’m planning to leave to him. You’re his birth mother, so surely you’re not going to be stingier than me?"

In the past, every time Vivienne heard Celia say things like that, she would pour even more of herself into Elliott, terrified of being outdone. But that was before.

"Whether I’m his real mother or not, you people know that better than anyone."

A faint smile appeared on Vivienne’s face, strange and unreadable.

"You want all my property? Wait for your next life."

The marriage certificate was fake. Rat poison might not be reliable either.

Just in case that stuff failed, Vivienne had already mixed a few herbs of her own into the food. Enough to send them off nice and clean.

A thread of unease suddenly rose in Celia’s heart. "What do you mean by that?"

The medicine hit fast.

"Ugh—you vicious bitch!"

"Help! I don’t want to die..."

Curses, screams for help, wails, sobbing—all of it crashed together like a wave boiling up from underground, then slowly, little by little, died away.

Vivienne looked over the bodies sprawled all across the floor. In the end, her gaze stopped on Celia Whitmore.

Everyone else had already stopped breathing. Only Celia still had her eyes open.

She had jammed her fingers into her mouth and was sucking on them desperately, like she was trying to draw something out.

Celia Whitmore had a secret.

Vivienne didn’t know what that secret was, but she knew there was no time to hesitate. She made up her mind on the spot, grabbed the kitchen cleaver from the counter, and under Celia’s horrified stare, brought it down at her neck without the slightest pause.

With a shrill scream, a ball of green light shot out from the center of Celia’s brow.

The space around her suddenly twisted into a whirlpool. Vivienne had no time to react before she was caught up and dragged inside.

...

Vivienne found herself in a pure white room.

Other than a table and chair set, and two books lying on the table, there was nothing else in the room.

Vivienne glanced over them and got the exact same look an old man on the subway gives his phone.

"One Night of Chaos: Don’t Even Think About Running, You Playful Educated Youth?"

That title was blunt enough to tell people at a glance what kind of trash was inside.

Vivienne had no interest at all.

She pushed that one aside, and the cover of the book underneath came into view.

"The Capitalist’s Daughter Joins the Army, and the Rough Man Breaks the Bed at Night?"

Vivienne wore that same expression again. Modern literature really was beyond her.

If she didn’t get it, then fine.

She casually tossed the books aside and looked carefully around. The four walls were sealed tight. Never mind a door—there wasn’t even the shadow of a window.

Still unwilling to give up, Vivienne kicked, scratched, and fussed with the walls for quite a while. But whatever they were made of, not a single mark was left behind.

She dropped down into the chair.

If she couldn’t get out, she might as well read the books. Maybe there was some clue hidden inside.

Vivienne opened the first one.

One look, and she was genuinely startled. It was clearly a love story with Leonard Mercer and Celia Whitmore as the leads, written from Leonard Mercer’s point of view.

In the book, Leonard Mercer was graceful and refined, all charm and deep feeling, while Celia Whitmore was lively, sweet, and kind-hearted.

At the start of the story, Leonard Mercer went hiking alone. The fine clothes on his back attracted a few thugs. They robbed him clean, shoved him down a slope, and left him there.

He injured his leg and couldn’t climb back up. Then rain started pouring down. He was on the verge of freezing to death when Celia Whitmore appeared out of nowhere and saved him.

That was when Leonard Mercer fell for her.

But what should have been a matter between just the two of them was strongly opposed by both families.

For one thing, their family backgrounds were worlds apart. For another, Leonard Mercer already had a fiancée.

But Leonard Mercer didn’t accept fate. He went back and forth between both families, lowering himself and drinking with the Su family until his stomach bled.

He never expected that when he woke up the next day, the Su family had already taken the money the Mercer family gave them and moved away overnight.

That was how Celia Whitmore disappeared without a word. It hit Leonard Mercer hard. He forced those feelings deep down into his heart, smiling and playing nice with his fiancée’s family on the surface while quietly searching everywhere for Celia’s whereabouts.

Just when he was almost out of hope, the political climate changed overnight, and the Mercer family was reported.

Thanks to a warning sent ahead by his fiancée, he and his nephew escaped disaster, but his parents were sent to the cowshed for reeducation.

His father was a scholar, a man who had spent his whole life with ink and paper, and his body was weak to begin with. His mother had grown up never lifting a finger. How could she endure that kind of farm labor?

Leonard Mercer couldn’t let it go. He pulled every favor he could, and in the end managed to go to the place where his parents had been sent down, under the identity of an educated youth.

At the educated youth station, he ran into Celia Whitmore again.

But he was no longer the pampered young master he had once been. He still had to worry about his parents in the cowshed. If anything else went wrong...

He didn’t want to drag her down with him...

The book spent a great many pages on Leonard Mercer’s thoughts and on that push-and-pull between him and Celia Whitmore, wanting to get closer yet holding back. To stop other people from talking, he told everyone outside that Celia Whitmore was his distant cousin.

Later, Leonard Mercer’s fiancée came looking for him.

With his parents pressing him hard, Leonard Mercer went with her to register their marriage.

He had planned to bury those feelings for good and live a steady life with his fiancée, but then something unexpected happened.