Chapter 90. Goodbye.
Wen Chu's hands trembled uncontrollably as she gripped the steering wheel. Even after returning home, she still felt dizzy from the night's dramatic events. She sat back on the bed, bent her knees, buried her head in her arms, and rubbed her temples vigorously, trying to calm herself down.
Everything is messed up.
A wave of immense sadness and disillusionment washed over her, causing her carefully constructed facade of strength to crumble. Her emotions poured out like a floodgate bursting, and she finally lost control, sobbing softly.
It's all fake.
Twenty minutes later, Wen Chu raised her head again. She took a deep breath, stopped venting her emotions, and her expression slowly returned to calm.
She wiped the tears from her face and her wet arms, tucked the stray hairs behind her ears, and got out of bed.
She walked to her desk, turned on her laptop again, and began to continue investigating Wen Xue's overseas company with a blank expression.
As dawn broke, the truth hidden beneath the surface of the sea finally came to light.
When Wen Chu discovered that an account with the name "shane" appeared prominently in the company's internal transaction records, she already had a suspicion. Further investigation, including comparing the company's internal shareholder records, unusual fund flows, and Qi Siyan's private accounts, essentially confirmed her suspicion.
The mastermind behind the scheme against Wenxue Company was actually Qi Siyan, who was the company's secret controlling shareholder.
She stared at the result for a long time, her emotions no longer stirred. If this result had come out before yesterday, she would have found it unbelievable, but after last night, she felt there was nothing surprising about it.
At that time, she and Lu Ming were closely tied together. The best way for the other party to take advantage of the situation was to bring Lu Ming, the white moonlight that everyone knew and couldn't forget, back to the country, thus disrupting the delicate balance between her and Lu Ming. Then, she would try her best to play the good cop and gain her trust.
This step completely disrupted all her plans, leading to the current situation.
So, the news that said they had already broken up and each had new relationships, completely plunging her and Lu Ming into a cold war, might have been written at his instruction.
Wen Chu gave a weak twitch of her lips. She had even asked the person involved to help her investigate, but of course, she couldn't find anything. She was too oblivious and too naive to imagine that the other party would go to such lengths to get her and do so many things in secret.
Her attention was entirely focused on Lu Ming and later Wen Xue, thinking that Wen Xue was the obstacle she needed to overcome, but she overlooked the existence of Qi Siyan.
It's hard to say that this wasn't intentional on the part of the system. If she had known earlier that the other person was the second male lead who liked her and was a key NPC, perhaps she would have been more cautious from the beginning and things wouldn't have turned out this way.
But that's not necessarily true. Qi Siyan seems too good to be true. If it weren't for last night's incident, she would never have suspected him.
Wen Chu took another deep breath, stared at the table for a while, and finally made a decision.
"Sir...it's five o'clock, we're closing up shop..." The music in the bar had stopped, and only a few people remained. The cleaning staff began clearing the place and cleaning up. The waiters in the backstage area pushed and shoved each other, hesitating for a long time before finally choosing one unlucky guy and cautiously walking up to remind him.
Lu Ming was hunched over, his hands resting on his knees, his expression hidden in the dim light of the bar, and he didn't reply immediately. In front of him were a row of empty bottles and small snacks and fruits that had barely been touched.
The waiter was now sweating bullets.
After a long pause, the man finally spoke, replying softly with an "okay," then without another word, he picked up his coat, stood up, and left the bar.
Sitting in the back seat of the taxi, Lu Ming chuckled self-deprecatingly; it was, in fact, something he had expected.
My emotions rose and fell throughout the night, eventually settling into disappointment.
Hot water kept flowing from the bathtub. The woman lay inside, her eyes closed, her body soaked. The water gradually submerged her mouth and nose, and a conspicuous wound on her wrist was gushing blood. The blood stained the edge of the bathtub and flowed glaringly down the white tub wall to the floor, mixing with the overflowing water and seeping out through the crack in the bathroom door, leaving a bright red stain on the white tiles.
Her face was deathly pale.
Wen Chu stood in front of the bathtub, suddenly snapping out of her reverie. She realized that this was not a good idea. To quietly commit suicide by cutting her wrists was not only cowardly, but the process would also be long and painful. What if no one found out in the end? Wouldn't she end up as a giant in the bath?
She abandoned the idea, took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and it was already six o'clock. It was barely light outside. Wen Chu ate breakfast leisurely, then asked Baiyue's HR for leave.
Before leaving, she caught a glimpse of a large, well-framed seashell painting on the display case.
She made it little by little at home when she was first placed under house arrest, intending it as a birthday gift for Lu Ming's mother.
It's neither extravagant nor lacking in luxury, yet it expresses her feelings and is a handmade item; she imagines Lu Ming's mother would like it.
At that time, she thought that if Lu Ming came to find her, there was still a chance for them to reconcile, and preparing gifts for each other's mothers would not seem too hasty.
Wen Chu gazed at the painting, her eyes sparkling, and then tugged at the corners of her mouth. Unconsciously, she had already given the man so many chances in her heart.
Even though I was already very disappointed, I still held onto a tiny bit of hope that the other person would remember me and come back.
But reality has already given her the answer.
She walked over, took the painting down, and sighed silently.
With only a few days left until her birthday, she wouldn't be able to see Lu Ming's mother on this timeline.
Wen Chu hesitated for a moment, but ultimately took him out the door.
She contacted a courier and asked him to deliver the gift to the address Lu Ming had given her.
Let this painting go and meet Lu Ming's mother in her place.
Let it be considered a beginning and an end. It can also be seen as fulfilling their last promise to each other.
Wen Chu then went to the cross-river bridge. The water under the bridge was so deep that the bottom was not visible. However, there were too many people here. If she were rescued by a kind citizen, she would definitely be detained, causing a lot of unnecessary trouble.
Moreover, she was terrified of water. The feeling of being surrounded by icy water after crossing the river was extremely unpleasant. It would take at least two or three minutes of fear and pain to die, which was too painful for her to experience.
She stared at the cars coming and going, wondering if it was feasible to rush out and get hit by a car.
But what if she doesn't die from the impact, but only breaks an arm or leg? That would be even more painful, leaving her disfigured beyond recognition—she needs a slightly more dignified way to die that won't bother anyone else.
As she was thinking, her phone suddenly started vibrating. It was Qi Siyan calling. She must have woken up, discovered that she had run away, and was now incredibly angry and determined to find her.
Wen Chu calmly turned off her phone, thinking to herself that she had no chance. She was truly fed up with being torn apart in a relationship.
It seems she can't go home now. He'll definitely be waiting for her near her house and apologize.
Clearly, she doesn't need to apologize.
She wandered around outside all morning, trying to find the best place and the best way, but in the end she changed her mind.
She shouldn't have died so quietly and then started over.
Death requires courage, the process of dying is painful, and death is the price of rebirth.
When she first got the card, she thought she would avoid using it if possible. Now, she doesn't want to bear this pain and fear alone, while the people involved are not affected at all.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to disgust Lu Ming.
Undeniably, she hates him now.
While she was almost forced by Qi Siyan, he was probably sleeping with Wen Xue.
Such a comparison is truly ironic.
If she were an ordinary person without any special abilities, Wen Chu couldn't even imagine how miserable her current situation would be.
She wanted to inflict some trauma on people before this world was rewound, so that she could have some psychological balance when it reopened next time.
She wanted to see the fear and disbelief reflected in the other person's pupils in the moments before she died, in order to alleviate her own fear.
Thinking of this, Wen Chu suddenly laughed. She looked at the azure sky in the distance and thought that her ending was really similar to the vicious second female lead in the melodramatic novels she had read who threatened to kill herself.
This counts as fulfilling one's duties; there's no out-of-character (OOC) here.
It was still early, and she happened to see a quiet pub while driving, so she went inside.
No one knows where she went or can contact her.
This timeline has been completely ruined. She needs to go back to the time before Wen Xue returned to China and before Qi Siyan made a move against Wen Xue's company, which is the period before the Science and Technology Institute competition was announced. She needs to distance herself from Qi Siyan, let people know her true character, and make them no longer interested in her.
She remembered that she had an emotion-eliminating card. At the time, she thought that this useless card would never be needed, but she never expected that it would come in handy, and in a very important way.
She would use the card when necessary to reduce Qi Siyan's favorability towards her to 0%, so that no one would be interested in interfering in her love life, nor would they interfere because they disliked her.
She would do it again, no matter what, to stop the other party from using any means to bring Wen Xue back to China. She wanted to ensure that Wen Xue would only ever exist in memories.
If possible, Wen Chu would love to have another emotion-eliminating card, and the one she would use would be herself.
She wanted to erase all feelings for Lu Ming, focus solely on using her skills to increase his favorability, and then return to the real world, forgetting this absurd experience and having no further connection with him.
Ultimately, the reason she failed this time was that she got emotional, which made every step she took extremely difficult.
The tavern was nearly empty in the afternoon. Wen Chu sat there for three hours. The bartender was exceptionally hospitable to her and shared a great deal of bartending knowledge with her.
She was also allowed to try it herself and mix her favorite drinks.
Wen Chu did need to shift her focus to ease the tension of impending death, so she readily agreed.
Unfortunately, she still couldn't concentrate fully. Under the bartender's guidance, she unknowingly created a red and white sparkling cocktail. Looking at the colors, she suddenly realized that subconsciously, she wanted to make the "Heartbeat" cocktail that Lu Ming had once made.
Wen Chu gave a bitter smile to herself.
She was still reminiscing about Lu Ming from the past.
Humans really are despicable creatures.
She couldn't help but wonder, what if he had known then how he was treating her now?
Unfortunately, she will never know the answer.
Wen Chu took a sip of the wine in her glass, but unfortunately, the taste was completely different from what she remembered; it was too bitter and spicy.
For some reason, she started to get really into it, trying again and again, just to recreate the taste from her memory.
But even the closest attempt fell short.
As a result, she drank quite a lot of "failed products," but it was good, alcohol emboldened the timid.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, she said goodbye to the friendly bartender and returned to Baiyue.
Standing at the foot of the Baiyue Building, Wen Chu looked up at the logo at the top of the building and called Jiang Xing, pretending to ask someone to bring a document to Lu Ming. In reality, she wanted someone to check if Lu Ming was in his office at the moment.
The other party has been having endless meetings lately, and probably still is.
A short while later, just as she expected, she learned from Jiang Xing that the other party was having a meeting in the conference room on the eighth floor.
very good.
As she walked into the building, the employees she encountered greeted her. Tech guy Xiao Wang happened to see her at the elevator and asked her a technical question. Wen Chu patiently explained it to him before going up to the 13th floor.
She walked into Lu Ming's office, placed the wine glass with the ice already melted on his desk with a heavy thud, then casually tore off a piece of paper from the desk and neatly wrote two words with a ballpoint pen.
--goodbye.
She pressed the note under the glass, stood up from the table, and quietly surveyed Lu Ming's tidy desk. The things that had happened here flashed through her mind like a revolving lantern, and now they had all changed.
Her gaze inadvertently fell on the grumpy rabbit plaster doll on the cabinet next to her.
I don't know why things that should have been kept at the other person's home ended up in the office.
Wen Chu stared at the doll for a long time, the scene from that night at the amusement park flashing through her mind frame by frame. She could clearly remember Lu Ming's profile as he carefully colored it, and she had even vowed to steal it as a souvenir when she got back.
It seems unnecessary now.
Even if she had to go through it all again and see Lu Ming from that time again, she couldn't let herself fall in love. Going home would be her only goal.
Wen Chu swept the doll to the ground expressionlessly, and it shattered into pieces with a bang.
He then stepped out of the office, stepping over the small crumbs.
She walked up to the rooftop of the Baiyue Building. The wind on the top floor blew her hair around. Wen Chu brushed it aside haphazardly, walked to the edge of the building, stood on it, and looked down.
The height made her shiver involuntarily.
If he jumped, he would surely be smashed to pieces and die a horrible death.
She confirmed the method of using the rebirth card with the system once again—as long as she activated the item before she died, the card would take effect once her vital signs stopped, returning her to the point in time she specified.
Everything can start over.
Her father can come back to life, and she will cherish the time she spends with him even more.
When Wen Chu thought of the look in the old man's eyes before his heart stopped beating, an indescribable sadness welled up uncontrollably in her heart. Tears blurred her vision and made her throat dry.
In reality, she didn't even have time to see him one last time; he didn't even give her a glance.
Here, she at least saw the other person. Although they were silent, Wen Chu understood so much in that one glance.
She sat down silently on the rooftop, her feet dangling in the air, looking up at the azure sky above, at the tall buildings around her, and down at the bustling traffic below. As she looked around, she felt less afraid.
Lu Ming didn't sleep all night. He went home, took a shower, changed his clothes, and got rid of the smell of alcohol before heading to Baiyue to start a new week of work.
After sobering up, he had more things to worry about. He regained his calm and composed demeanor, and no one could tell what he was going through inside.
Wen Chu even took leave from work to avoid being held accountable.
After the meeting, Lu Ming returned to his office. Passing by Luo Wen's workstation, he couldn't help but stop and ask, "Wen Chu hasn't arrived yet?"
"Oh, Director Wen just came by, went to your office, and then left."
Lu Ming's eyelids twitched, he nodded, and went inside.
The first thing you see is plaster fragments scattered all over the floor.
His eyes stung, and he could hardly believe his eyes. He quickly went over to pick up the shards, but some parts were crushed beyond repair.
Lu Ming's hand holding the shards trembled uncontrollably, as if he could feel the woman's boundless hatred for him reflected in them.
He stood still, catching his breath, and looked at his desk, assuming the other person had come to deliver some newly compiled documents, but instead saw a glass of wine.
The liquor was almost entirely white, with only a thin, almost invisible layer of red at the very bottom. The ice in the glass had melted, and water droplets from the glass had accumulated on the table, wetting the paper strip underneath.
He looked at the drink, its color completely opposite to the one he remembered mixing for women. He still couldn't recall the emotions he felt when mixing drinks for people, but he could clearly feel the dull pain in his heart at this moment.
He stepped forward, and with a nervous heart, slowly unfolded the note hidden under the wine, then left it in place.
Lu Ming looked at the two words on the paper over and over again, and he could feel the woman's resolute determination when she wrote them, which made his heart tremble.
He crumpled the note into a ball, clutching it tightly in his palm, his Adam's apple bobbing. He closed his eyes, picked up the glass of wine, took a sip, and couldn't help but frown. An indescribable bitterness instantly spread through his mouth, tearing at his throat like a razor blade.
He clenched his teeth, tilted his head back and downed the glass of wine in one gulp. Then, he impatiently rummaged through the neatly arranged table, found a document among the files and used it as an excuse to stand up with a sullen face, intending to find someone to ask him what was going on.
Are you resigning?
Should we leave City A and go somewhere else?
No, absolutely not.
He took a deep breath, forcing his throbbing temples to calm down, gripped the documents in his hand, and headed to the seventh floor.
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Author's Note: I've been incredibly busy these past three times, completely exhausted. My boss is so pushy, he wishes I had eight hands! I even have to squeeze in time for revising. To make matters worse, the package I just picked up was stolen the next second, and my immunity dropped so I got hives. It's been such a blast! I really need to adjust, so I might be taking a few more days off in the future, but I'll try my best to write as fast as I can. [crying emoji]
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