Yu Li: "Ah! My God, Lei Ting, you bastard..."

To confirm whether Anning had truly had an abortion, Yu Li invited the doctor who performed the abortion to her home. Upon seeing the gestational sac the doctor brought, preserved in formalin in a beaker, Yu Li was utterly disheartened. The doctor put down the beaker, got up, and left. Fortunately, the Lei family wasn't angry; otherwise, how could he afford to offend them? It was better to have surveillance cameras. He had seen Lei Ting earlier and thought he had made a mistake, aborting a child meant for pregnancy. It turned out he hadn't done anything wrong. Luckily, he had kept the gestational sac; otherwise, how could he explain himself? The doctor, sweating profusely, ran out of the Lei family compound. Wu Ma closed the door, and the gate was locked. Grandpa Lei, Grandma Lei, Yu Li, and Lei Zhen—none of them felt good seeing the gestational sac; it represented the continuation of their Lei family line, now preserved in formalin.

Lei Ye: "Thunder, you come here."

Yu Li was afraid that Lei Ting would be agitated, so she specially sent Lei Ting to the pond to feed the fish. When she saw the pregnant sac and the crazy Lei Ting, Lei Ye decided to make Lei Ting face reality. He shouted loudly and called Lei Ting, who was feeding the fish, over.

Lei Ting: "Sir, what's the matter? Did the doctor say my child is very healthy? Will An Ning be back soon?"

Lei Ye: "Look what this is..."

Lei Ye pointed his dragon-head cane, and Lei Ting's unfocused expression returned to normal after just one glance. Staring at the gestational sac, Lei Ting's mind was flooded with images of the past few days. He knew this was An Ning's child, the child he had forced to abort, and also his child. Lei Ting instantly burst into tears.

Thunder: "I...I...I'm so small...just over a month old...I...I..."

Yu Li: "Mom, please choose an auspicious spot to bury this child!"

Thunder: "Bury him... my child... this is my child..."

Lei Ye: "You still know it's your child, there's a fetal heartbeat and embryo, you wicked thing."

When Master Lei struck Lei Ting on the back with his dragon-head cane, Lei Ting coughed up blood and lost consciousness. Yu Li and Grandma Lei, adhering to their family precepts, buried this innocent child after such a terrible incident.

When Lei Ting woke up, he felt pain in his internal organs and had difficulty sitting up. When Wu Ma saw that he was awake, she helped him to the living room. The family gathered around the dining table, and Wu Ma brought out the dishes and soup. Lei Ting glanced at them.

Thunder: "Grandpa and Grandma, Mom and Dad are eating."

Yu Li: "Mom and Dad, let's eat."

Lei Zhenyu: "Mom and Dad, let's eat."

Grandma Lei: "Old man, eat."

Lei Ye: "Let's all eat."

After exchanging the most basic family greetings, Lei Ting chewed on his bland and tasteless food.

Lei Ting: "Pah, pah, pah! Where did all this ginger come from? An Ning, I don't like ginger. Why did you put so much ginger in my food?"

After spitting out the food in his mouth, Lei Ting looked up. His parents and grandparents were watching him at the dinner table. He looked around and saw that An Ning was not there, and the food was not made by An Ning either.

Yu Li: "Eating ginger is good for you; it's warming and nourishing! Eat up!"

Thunder: "I don't like ginger..."

Yu Li: "Your health has improved so much now, all thanks to An Ning's help in regulating your body. She's been giving you certain things in your diet..."

Lei Nai: "Yu Li, don't say anything. Let this kid discover An Ning's good qualities on his own. We won't tell any of him."

Lei Ting: "Grandma, I truly know I was wrong. I beg you to help me persuade An Ning to come back. I promise I will treat her well."

Grandma Lei: "I'm even more eager for Anning to come back than you are. Liao Qian called me and said a few words of concern. I asked Anning, and he said he didn't know where Anning was. Don't call him anymore. It's not easy for him to be alone in Niujin."

Thunder: "I'm going to Niujin to find her."

Grandma Lei: "Have you forgotten what Grandma told you? Eat first."

Thunder: "It's all ginger, I can't eat it."

Lei Zhenyu: "If you're not going to eat, then get out! Get out! If you dare cause trouble outside, I'll beat you to death! Get out! If you don't eat, then go hungry!"

Lei Ting put down his chopsticks, clutched his back, and went back to his room. His grandmother asked Wu Ma to stew some medicine for him, and Lei Ting felt much better after drinking it.

The courtyard is now full of roses, all of them Anning's favorite roses. As the mistress of this courtyard, Anning should fill it with her favorite flowers. Leiting often stares at the roses in a daze, and when he thinks of Anning's radiant smile, he smiles too, but his smile is bitter. Leiting often has nightmares at night. Stimulated by so many things, Leiting is somewhat half-mad, especially when he wakes up in the middle of the night shouting regret. He often tries to run out in the middle of the night to chase after Anning. Lei Zhenyu and Yu Li either go to the company or stay home to see Leiting. They dare not attend family gatherings for fear of being questioned. Grandpa Lei and Grandma Lei have always been in poor health, so they stay in Anning and Leiting's house, keeping the doors and windows closed, to recuperate.

Lei Zhenyu hired a psychologist to counsel his grandparents. Yu Li, unable to bear the sight, let Lei Ting see a psychologist as well. With careful care, Lei Ting improved considerably, though he remained withdrawn, quiet, and ate only indoors. Yu Li lamented the family's misfortune, while Lei Zhenyu tried everything to contact An Ning, only to find she had blocked all contact. He exhausted all methods but couldn't find a single trace of An Ning.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon was full. Lei Ting went inside and lay down, looking through photos of An Ning on his phone. Last year on the Mid-Autumn Festival, the family had a meal together in the yard. An Ning smiled and said she wanted to have a child with Lei Ting, preferably a girl. Her formal name would be Lei Yue, and her nickname would be Manman. At that time, Lei Ting was thinking of Jasmine and only gave An Ning a few perfunctory words, taking a few photos of her bathed in moonlight. Now, the moon was still there, but An Ning was not. Looking at the photos and reminiscing about her, Lei Ting realized how much he wanted An Ning to come back.

Lei Ting disliked ginger, especially. However, the housekeeper and Yu Li always put ginger in Lei Ting's food under the pretext of conditioning his body. When An Ning found out, she personally cooked for him, replacing the spicy ginger with the equally warming cinnamon twigs. She also tried to make him all sorts of delicious food, hoping to get him to eat more. At noon, An Ning would cook lunch and take it to the company, watching Lei Ting eat before returning home. In the evening, An Ning would also prepare various state banquet-level dishes for him to eat when he came home. After An Ning left, no one cared about his diet anymore. Yu Li and Wu Ma didn't have the heart to take care of Lei Ting's diet. Every day, their meals were either seasoned with ginger or flavored with dried ginger. When it was time to eat, Lei Ting didn't want to eat. He already had no appetite, and without delicious food, he lost a lot of weight.

Flipping through his phone, he saw several close-up photos of An Ning. An Ning had fair skin, straight teeth, and two charming dimples when she smiled, making her very eye-catching. She also had naturally large, double-lidded eyes and long, flowing black hair. Having received a good education from a young age, she possessed a noble air and elegant demeanor. Just standing there, she was captivating, making one want to reach out and touch her. She was far superior to Jasmine in every way. Lei Ting had almost forgotten what Jasmine looked like; An Ning had already captured his heart. He only realized the depth of his feelings after she was gone. At this moment, Lei Ting felt like killing himself. He continued looking at An Ning's photos, but they were all gone. There were only a few. Lei Ting turned off his phone, leaned against the pillow he shared with An Ning, and hugged his blanket. Since An Ning left, he hadn't let anyone wash the blanket, afraid that washing it would erase An Ning's scent.

Lei Ting and An Ning's wedding night was in this new house, the day they got their marriage certificate upon returning to China. In this very room, An Ning looked shy and clueless, which surprised Lei Ting. Afterwards, Lei Ting discovered that she really was a virgin, which shocked him. He had assumed that An Ning, having grown up in a more open environment, had already been a virgin. When Jasmine was with him, she had already been a virgin. The more Lei Ting thought about it, the more he missed An Ning.

Thunder: "You gave me everything... and yet I hurt you so deeply in the end. How heartbroken you were when you left, did your stomach hurt... I... I deserve to die... I deserve to die."