Some people say you see your life flash before your eyes when you die.
Liana Zhou saw a fire, a knife, and Damon Qin's face—
Blank.
Cold.
Watching her bleed.
Scene: 10 Years Ago – Rain-soaked Mansion, 2:11 a.m.
The night began with a phone call.
Damon hadn't come home. Again.
Liana waited at the top of the stairs, dressed in red satin and silence.
She'd made him dinner. Lit candles. Tried, again, to matter.
He didn't answer her call.
But she did get a message—accidental, maybe.
A voicemail.
His voice: "Don't worry. She's just a placeholder."
She dropped the phone.
And with it, the last pieces of herself.
Scene: Forty Minutes Later – Empty Streets
She drove too fast.
Didn't care.
Straight to the hotel the tabloids had whispered about.
Suite 1903.
Shen Ruoyi opened the door in nothing but Damon's shirt.
"Didn't you get the memo?" Ruoyi purred. "He already chose me."
Liana didn't slap her.
She just smiled, stepped back, and said:
"He'll never forgive you for this."
Ruoyi blinked. "Forgive me? I'm not the one dying tonight."
Then the bodyguard hit her.
Hard.
Back of the head.
Blackness.
Scene: Warehouse – Unknown Location
Concrete floor.
Ropes around her wrists.
Her own blood, dripping like clock ticks.
She woke up in pain. In confusion.
In betrayal.
Because Damon was there.
Just standing.
Watching.
"You weren't supposed to see this," he said, voice hollow.
"Then lie to me," she whispered. "Tell me you didn't plan this."
"I didn't… mean for it to go this far."
"But you let it."
Silence.
She laughed—guttural, cracked. "Do it then. Finish it."
He didn't.
But Shen Ruoyi did.
Scene: Explosion – Moments Later
Liana saw the gasoline. Smelled it. Heard the lighter flick.
Ruoyi's face was feral. Damon tried to stop her—but not fast enough.
The fire ate everything.
Wood.
Ropes.
Skin.
Love.
Scene: In-Between — Her Last Breath
She saw Damon's silhouette in the flames.
He didn't run in.
He didn't save her.
He just whispered:
"You were always just a placeholder."
Then the ceiling collapsed.
Scene: Present Day – Liana's Apartment, Midnight
She woke screaming.
Sweat. Tears. Memory.
But no mercy.
She stared at the ceiling, chest heaving.
Alive.
And back.
Scene: Her Private Investigator's Office – Same Time
The file had been decoded.
Photos. Maps. Shen Ruoyi's bank transfers.
The real estate deed for the warehouse.
In Damon's name.
And finally—security footage.
Fuzzy. Black and white.
Damon walking away.
While she burned.
Scene: Liana's Apartment — Five Minutes Later
She didn't cry.
She loaded the footage into a second flash drive.
Taped a note to it.
> "For when I need to make him bleed."
She locked it in a drawer.
Lit a cigarette.
She didn't smoke.
But tonight, she needed to feel something burn.
Her phone pinged.
A text from Ruoyi.
> "We should talk. Woman to woman."
Liana smiled, all teeth.
> "Gladly. Wear something flammable"