Burning: From Hatred To Love

In the cold gloomy weather, a black Maybach cut through the rain, not slowing down even for the storm. Huge raindrops splattered across the windshield, sliding down the glass and making it difficult to see the road ahead. The man in the back seat of the car, however, seemed completely oblivious to the bad weather as he typed something on his phone.

All of a sudden, the driver slammed on the brake. The screeching sound of tires tore through the air as the car came to a halt on the empty bridge.

"What happened?" Edmund Lu asked unhappily with a frown.

The driver immediately turned his head and said nervously, "Mr. Lu, the car seems to have hit someone. I'll get out and take a look."

Before he could step out of the car, however, he saw a figure quickly approaching the window at the back seat of the car.

"Mr. Lu, please help me. My grandfather is in a serious condition at the hospital. The doctor said that he won't last even two months without a bone marrow transplant. There's no time left. In the whole S City, your bone marrow is the only match for my grandfather. Please save my grandfather, Mr. Lu," Pauline Song pleaded as she slapped the window hard. The rain mixed with the blood on her hands as it slid down the window. "Mr. Lu, I beg for your mercy! As long as you save my grandfather, I'll do anything!"

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and lightning flashed directly overhead. The wind was so strong that Pauline Song could hardly stand. However, she firmly kept her eyes on the man in the car and continued, "Mr. Lu, please give me a chance to explain. I beg you!"

However, Edmund Lu just took a look at his watch and asked the driver to start the car again, as if he hadn't seen the woman outside the car at all. When the engine of the car started all of a sudden, Pauline Song was so startled that she staggered back a few steps and fell down. The rain sliding across her face made it hard for her to keep her eyes open. Instead of crying out or sitting there in pain, she quickly wiped her face and got up to catch up with the car.

To her surprise, she found the driver standing in front of her with an umbrella. She scowled in frustration and grabbed his sleeve. "James, why are you here?"

"Mr. Lu asked me to tell you that you're shameless for appearing in front of him and asking him for help three years after ruining everything. Doesn't Peter Gu have any other means?"

Pauline Song frowned as realization dawned on her. 'It turns out that Mr. Lu is actually Edmund. Of course, how many billionaires could there be in S City with the surname 'Lu'? I should have realized it long ago!' She could imagine the sneer and mockery in Edmund Lu's tone.

Due to the sudden turn of events, her face turned pale and her body trembled slightly. "No, it's not like that," she choked out with tears in her eyes. As if remembering something, she suddenly grasped James Gao's hand tightly and begged in a panicked tone, "James, for the sake of our past relationship, can you ask Mr. Lu to see me? I remember that he will listen to your advice."

James Gao subconsciously glanced at the back seat of the car and saw that Edmund Lu was staring at his hand, which was in Pauline Song's grasp. Feeling nervous, he quickly pulled his hand away. "You can tell Mr. Lu yourself."

Upon hearing this, Pauline Song sidestepped him and happily ran to the car. The door was suddenly opened. Before she could react, she was pulled into the back seat of the car and then into a strong embrace. The light smell of tobacco wafted over to her nostrils. "Mr. Lu!" she exclaimed.

She raised her head and saw a pair of cold and ruthless eyes staring down at her. When she was about to say something, Edmund Lu's powerful hand pinched her chin. He spoke to her in a soft voice as if he was speaking to his lover, but his words were beyond cruel. "It seems that you've grown a lot in the past three years. In addition to stealing, you have also learned to seduce men."

Pauline Song felt a burst of anger after hearing his demeaning words, but she forced herself to calm down. She had come here to beg him for help, so she was already prepared to lose her dignity. Compared to her grandfather's life, her pride was nothing! The reason why she had risked her life to stop this car in the first place was that she could save her grandfather. It was almost impossible for her to get a chance to talk to the great Edmund Lu face to face. How could she waste this chance being pitiful?

Recalling the image of her grandfather still lying in the hospital bed, Pauline Song bit her lips hard and forced herself to endure the humiliation. Then she said in a trembling voice, "Mr. Lu, it doesn't matter how much you humiliate me as long as you are willing to save my grandfather. He can't wait any longer. Please save him for the sake of what happened three years ago."

A sneer appeared at the corners of Edmund Lu's lips. "You want me to save your grandfather? That won't happen unless I die."

His ruthless rejection stabbed her heart like a knife.

Pauline Song felt so helpless that she didn't even have the strength to cry. How could she have thought that he would be as gentle as before? The only reason he was talking to her was that he could humiliate her.

Edmund Lu's eyes darkened as he looked at the drenched woman with pale face. He knew he should have felt happy after saying such harsh words to her, but when he saw her pitiful face, his heart ached.

However, after a second, he regained his composure and his heart became stony once again. Without mercy, he pushed her out of the car. As Pauline Song fell awkwardly in the rain, her knees and elbows were grazed by the asphalt road. At the same time, the window of the Maybach opened a crack. Edmund Lu looked down at her with disgust and wiped the fingers that had just touched her face with a handkerchief.

"Take the money to change your face and seduce another man. It's disgusting." A pile of bills flew out of the window and landed near Pauline Song's feet.

Then, accompanied by the rumble of the engine and the thunder, the Maybach disappeared in the rain.

The strong wind from the departure of the car made the money fly all over the sky.

Pauline Song got up and tried to grab the notes with her hands, but she did not catch any of them. It was just like the 24 years of her life. She had tried so hard to do everything well, but had constantly been rejected by others. Even her grandfather, the only person who loved her, was lying in the hospital now.

It was close to midnight when the storm gradually subsided. Kneeling on the ground, Pauline Song picked up the notes one by one and put them into a suitcase. Suddenly, her eyes caught sight of a necklace. She picked it up and held it in front of her eyes. After standing in the rain for such a long time, she was freezing, and her hand that was holding the necklace was trembling.

The style of the necklace was very special, so she recognized it at once⁠-it was the gift that she had gotten from her grandfather when she turned eighteen years old. She hadn't cried when she was humiliated by Edmund Lu, nor had she cried when she was thrown to the ground by him. But when she saw the necklace, she couldn't help but burst into tears.

"You are so useless, Pauline!" she told herself.

'But the necklace disappeared since that night. Was it because...?'

Before she could think it over, the wind came again, blowing all the notes that she had picked up back to the sky.

Pauline scrambled to grab the notes while tightly holding onto the suitcase, fearing that the rest of the money would fly away as well. Just then, thunder rumbled across the sky as if the sky was about to collapse, and the rain intensified.

In the glow of the lightning that flickered overhead, the bridge was covered with the shadows of the trees nearby, sending a chill down Pauline's spine. She took out her phone in a hurry to call a taxi, only to find that it had run out of power. Letting out a despondent sigh, she began dragging the heavy suitcase home in the rain.

Along the way, she couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling that she was being followed. So when she saw a taxi coming towards her, she immediately flagged it down and got in without a moment's hesitation.

"Please go to the South Mansions."

The driver turned around to reply, but when he saw Pauline's face, he gulped and turned back to the windshield.

"Why aren't you starting the car?" Pauline prompted after a while, feeling perplexed about why the driver was just sitting there as if frozen in place.

"Right away, miss," the driver answered hastily. As he drove, cold sweat dripped from his forehead, and he maintained a tight grip on the steering wheel.

The car was moving at such a comfortable pace that, after a while, Pauline began to relax and even feel sleepy. As she was about to nod off, the driver turned around and handed her a flask. "This is the ginger soup that my wife made for me today. I'm sure you're freezing from the rain. Drink some of this to warm your stomach."

Pauline's first instinct was to refuse, but the driver seemed like a trustworthy person and she couldn't resist his enthusiasm. When she took it from his hand, she unintentionally caught a glimpse of herself in the rearview mirror and instantly lost all sleep.

Her face was deathly pale, and her long dark hair was stuck to her face, dripping with water. She looked like a ghost. No wonder the driver had acted so strange after she had gotten into the car! As she drank the ginger soup, she glanced at the driver and couldn't help thinking that he looked a little familiar. However, she couldn't put her finger on it.

It was half past one in the morning when they arrived at the South Mansions. As Pauline got out of the car and walked towards the house, a gust of cold wind blew, making her shiver.

Wearing her half-dry clothes and carrying the suitcase in hand, she entered the house with a solemn expression. As she walked up the stairs, she heard faint laughter. She approached her room with furrowed eyebrows. As she got closer, she heard two distinct voices coming from inside.

She stopped at the door, which wasn't completely closed. From between the thin gap, light leaked out of the room. Standing there, Pauline could see a mess of clothes scattered on the floor, all the way from the door to the bed. It seemed that the two people inside her room had been in such a hurry that they hadn't even bothered to close the door. There was another peal of laughter, followed by a woman's voice, which was seductive and playful.

"Peter, what if my sister finds out about our affair?"

The man chuckled casually. "So what? She can't do anything about it anyway. It's not like the old man can get up to help her." After saying those words, the man must have turned his attention back to the woman's body, because the next second, the woman moaned. "Hmm... You... You are so bad, Peter..." "You know you like this,

slut." "Peter, who is better in bed,

me or my sister?"

"Don't bring up that boring woman. I haven't even held her hand. How can she compare to you, baby? If it weren't for the shares held by the old man..."

Pauline had heard enough.

She felt sick to the stomach from the realization that the two people in the room were none other than her fiance, Peter Gu, and her elder sister, Tiffany Song. What was more, it seemed that their affair had been going on for a long time. They had completely played her for a fool. As she stood outside the door, her shoulders drooped with dejection. 'Pauline, your life is a failure. The whole family hates you. You thought there were two people who loved you, but one of them is lying in the hospital in a critical condition, and the other one is sleeping with your sister. How absurd!'

"What should we do about the old man after we get the shares from him?" Tiffany Song asked with a giggle.

For Pauline, this line was the last straw. She threw open the door and strode in, not even noticing that the suitcase in her hand fell to the ground. Watching the two people in the bed scramble to cover their naked bodies with the quilt, she let out a harsh, derisive laugh. "Why don't you continue? Since I'm such a boring woman, let me see what is interesting."

Tiffany Song immediately hid behind Peter with tears in her eyes. "Pauline, it's not what you think."

Pauline sneered. "Oh? Why don't you explain it to me then? Did Peter want to show you his new luminous watch in the middle of the night? Or did you want him to see your new luminous necklace? You're just a slut. How dare you still act innocent?"

Tiffany Song's eyes turned red because of Pauline's retort. "Pauline, don't blame Peter. It's all my fault. I love him so much! I've tried to break up with him, but I can't control my feelings."

Upon hearing this, Pauline clapped her hands and walked forward. "What a great love story! Put on your clothes. Don't you feel ashamed?" Then, she reached out to lift the quilt.

But before she could, Peter grabbed her hand to stop her and, at the same time, shielded the naked Tiffany Song behind him. "Enough! How can you insult your own sister like this? Besides, you have no right to blame her! Do you think you're so much better than both of us?"

Peter pointed at the suitcase near the door. "Didn't you get all that money by sleeping with someone? You're the one who acts innocent even though you're a slut!"

Tiffany Song immediately took this chance to chime in. "Yes, you betrayed Peter three years ago. How could you say that to me?" She raised her voice and added, "What's your taste in men now? Has it changed compared to three years ago?"

Peter got up from the bed, exposing his bare chest, and stood in front of Pauline. His hand slowly stroked Pauline's face. "I have to say that you have a quite seductive face. Otherwise, you couldn't have attracted so many men."

Pauline turned her face to the other side to avoid his touch and said coldly, "Don't touch me. You're dirty."

"Don't pretend to be chaste and undefiled, Pauline! You don't allow me to touch you, but you sleep with other men. Is it because I don't give you enough money?" In a fit of fury, Peter shed his gentle facade and shouted, "Is that much money enough to sleep with you for one night?"

Pauline was so angry that she trembled all over. She raised her hand and slapped Peter across the face. "Shame on you!

You planned everything three years ago! But I've been feeling so guilty about it that I've done everything you asked of me after that. For the past three years, I have been living in hell because of you. If it weren't for Grandpa, do you think you even deserve to stand here? I feel sick just looking at you," she spat out. Then, she turned to Tiffany. "And you, Tiffany Song... I have to thank you for being a garbage bin. Otherwise, I wouldn't know where to throw this piece of trash," she said, glancing at Peter with a wry smile.

Still holding the quilt up to her chest, Tiffany shot daggers at Pauline before scoffing all of a sudden. "You know something? The old man should have been cured a long time ago. But who asked him to favor you all the time? Because of that, I had to..." she trailed off meaningfully with a smug smile on her face.

Pauline's eyes widened in disbelief. Her voice quivered in anger as she asked, "How could you do this? Isn't he your grandfather too? You evil bitch!"

Their grandfather had been in the hospital for a long time. It hadn't been easy to find a suitable bone marrow donor for him, but last week, the hospital had finally found a match and even scheduled the operation. But that morning, at the last minute, the donor had unexpectedly withdrawn his decision. Their grandfather had been hours away from being cured! What was more, it had taken the hospital six years to find this bone marrow donor. How long would it take for them to find another one? Their grandfather was already so old. The clock was ticking by.

In the morning, Pauline hadn't understood why the donor had suddenly regretted his decision. But now, it turned out that Tiffany was the one who had meddled with the operation. She hated herself for not being able to save her grandfather from Tiffany's evil plans.

"Don't look at me like that." Tiffany held out her hand in front of her and casually took a look at her newly manicured nails before raising her head again. "It's all your fault. All I did was inform the donor of Grandpa's true identity. The donor immediately called the hospital and said that he wouldn't donate the bone marrow, which saved me a lot of trouble."

Pauline thought of that morning, when she had gone to the hospital to visit her grandfather before the operation.

When she was passing the doctors' office, the words "bone marrow" and "regret" had drifted over to her ears. She normally didn't have the habit of eavesdropping on other people's conversations. However, she had to be alert about everything that was related to her grandfather, so she immediately hid outside the door and listened closely.

One of the doctors said, "The old man in the ICU has been waiting for a bone marrow for quite a long time. We finally found a match, but the donor changed his mind at the last minute. What a pity!"

"Yes, you are right. But it's understandable for him to go back on his words. After all, the donor is Mr. Lu, a billionaire. Maybe he was afraid that something would go wrong during the operation and put his life at risk," another doctor replied.

As soon as Pauline heard this, she rushed into the office without caring about anything.

"Dr. Bai, please tell me who the donor is so I can go talk to him and save my grandfather!" She knelt down in front of the doctor and burst into tears. "Dr. Bai, I beg you."

At first, Daniel Bai wasn't intending to tell her the donor's identity. But after seeing her cry and even kneel down in front of him, he couldn't help but sympathize with her. So, he told her that Mr. Lu would head to B City at night for some business matters. There was only one route from S City to B City, so Pauline went there in the evening and waited there. Of course, she hadn't expected the donor to be Edmund Lu. It was probably God's way of punishing her.

"So, what do you think now? You don't feel so good, do you? Good, because I'm really happy." Tiffany plastered a cheerful smile on her face. "I like to see you suffer the most, so I will take everything you like and destroy everything you care about. I will never give you what you want! Only when you suffer will I feel happy.

I hate you. You are just like your mother, who is a tramp..."

Before Tiffany could finish her words, Pauline grabbed her hair and dragged her off the bed, causing her to fall to the floor on her knees. Peter stepped forward to help, but Pauline stopped him with a sharp glare. "If you don't want your photos to make the headlines tomorrow, you'd better hold still."

After that, she held Tiffany down and slapped her hard across the face.

"This slap is for Grandpa. I slapped you for being an unfilial grandchild."

Then, she gave Tiffany another slap. "This slap is for my mother. I slapped you for being disrespectful to your elders and to the deceased."

Tiffany's head was buzzing with the force of the two slaps. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she begged, "Stop it, Pauline. Please stop it."

Then, she raised her voice and screamed, "Dad, help me!"

This awakened the whole family, who rushed to the second floor and saw a naked Tiffany being slapped by Pauline.

"Miss Pauline Song, please stop it. She will die if you continue."

The servants pulled Pauline away and quickly covered Tiffany's body with the quilt. Pauline struggled against the servants as they dragged her back and threw her feet up to kick Tiffany but to no avail. Tiffany covered her face and sobbed pitifully. Looking at his daughter in such a state, Anthony Song's heart ached.

He immediately went over to her and, holding her in his arms to comfort her, turned to Pauline with an enraged look on his face. "How dare you hit your sister? Will you hit me tomorrow? Do you even still consider me your father?" He slapped Pauline across her cheek with such force that her face immediately swelled up.

A drop of blood fell from her bruised lip to her wrist. Looking down at it, Pauline tried her best to hold back her tears. "Dad, I'm the one who should ask if you even consider me your daughter! Ever since I was a child, no matter what happened, as long as I quarreled with her, I was the one you blamed! Look at you. As soon as Tiffany cried out for help, you rushed here without even bothering to put on a shirt."

Anthony Song was dumbfounded. He quickly coughed and changed the subject. "What did your sister do to you? Why are you so cruel to her? Couldn't you just talk things out? Why did you beat her?"

"She's the reason Grandpa couldn't have an operation today!" Pauline screamed hysterically.

"Dad, that's not true! Why would I ever hurt Grandpa?" Tiffany covered her swollen cheek and frantically shook her head. Tears fell from her eyes, making her look aggrieved.

"Pauline, it's okay if you're angry about me being with Peter. But how can you slander me like this? He's my grandfather too!" she cried.

Peter quickly took the opportunity to chime in. "Uncle, when Pauline walked in on me and Tiffany, she was very angry. Since it's my fault, I wanted to kneel down and beg for her forgiveness, but Tiffany apologized first. But I didn't expect that Pauline would take this opportunity to beat Tiffany and even slander her."

"What bullshit! Tiffany really said..." Before Pauline could finish her words, she felt another slap across her cheek.

"Shut your mouth! I know what kind of person your sister is. But you, you have been lying since you were a child. Since you're trying to frame your sister for something she didn't do, there's no room for you in this family," Anthony Song roared, pointing to the door.

Pauline clenched her fists and looked around the room in disbelief, but no one came forward to plead her case.

It turned out that no one considered her a part of this family, but she had foolishly treated this house as a shelter for so long. It was ridiculous.

She swatted her father's hand away and rushed out of the room without looking back. In her hurry, she didn't even take the suitcase with her.

Behind her came her father's roar. "Pauline, if you step out of this house, you will never be allowed to come back home!"

Pauline ignored him and continued walking. After all, this wasn't even her home! It had always been Tiffany's. Ever since her mother passed away, Pauline wasn't even a part of the Song family. No one in the family liked her or cared about her. Her existence seemed to be a mistake.

After a while, she sank onto a bench by the road, buried her head between her knees, and sniffed.

Where could she go now?

She raised her head and looked around aimlessly. Not far away, an LED screen shone brightly.

Pauline stared at the advertisement on the LED screen, lost in thought. Where would she spend the night without any money?

Just then, a few words caught her attention.