He rose slowly from his chair, towering over her, his aura freezing and suffocating.
"You may hold the title of Mrs. Li," he said quietly, each word enunciated with cutting precision, "But don't delude yourself into thinking that makes you anything more than a shadow in this house."
Her lips parted in silent shock as he continued, his gaze dead cold.
"From today onwards, you will stay here and fulfill your duties, but don't ever mistake your presence for love or acceptance. You are nothing to me."
For a moment, tears glistened in her eyes, then a faint, twisted smile curved her lips.
"That's fine," she whispered softly, "As long as I remain Mrs. Li… I will take everything I deserve. Piece by piece.!"
He said nothing, merely turning away to gaze out the window, dismissing her without a word.
As she walked out, silent and dignified, her eyes shimmered with poisonous triumph under the afternoon sun.
Li Feng was left alone in the golden quiet of his study, his chest aching with a hollow emptiness that felt like it would devour him whole.
Their argument still echoed in his ears. Even as she had walked away moments earlier, silent and dignified, her eyes had shimmered with poisonous triumph under the afternoon sun.
But he hadn't missed the tremble in her steps as she turned the corner, nor the ghostly pallor creeping across her face.
Minutes later, the mansion staff erupted into chaos. A maid's scream split the silence, and by the time Li Feng rushed out, Shen Li had collapsed at the end of the hallway, unconscious and bleeding from her wrist.
His mind went blank with shock. For a heartbeat, he just stood there, staring at her crumpled form, her blood seeping into the pale carpet like a grotesque stain he could never scrub away.
Then something inside him snapped.
Without thinking, he dropped to his knees beside her, his hands trembling as he gathered her limp body into his arms. Her skin felt deathly cold against his, and the sight of the blood soaking through his sleeves twisted something sharp and bitter in his chest.
"Call the doctor!" he roared at the frozen maids, his voice cracking with a fury born of fear. "Now!"
As he carried her upstairs, her head lolled against his shoulder, her hair brushing his jaw lightly with each step. He clutched her tighter, feeling the faint thud of her weakening pulse against his chest, each beat echoing like a death knell through his ribcage.
Why… why would you do this…? The thought burned through him like acid, leaving only guilt and an anger he couldn't name.
But by the time he reached the master bedroom and laid her gently on the bed, his face had hardened again into its usual cold mask.
The doctor arrived moments later, working swiftly as his gloved hands moved with practiced efficiency to clean and bandage Shen Li's wound. The scent of antiseptic filled the room, mingling with the faint iron tang of blood still clinging to the sheets.
Mrs Shen hovered by her daughter's side, tears streaming down her face as she clutched Shen Li's uninjured hand, "Li'er… my poor Li'er…" she whispered brokenly.
Mr Shen stood rigidly near the foot of the bed, his eyes locked on Li Feng's stiff back. His voice trembled with suppressed rage as he finally spoke.
"Are you satisfied now?" he growled with fury, "Is this what you wanted? To drive her to the edge until she saw death as her only escape?"