In the suburban area of Los Angeles in A Country, a blood red sports car drove along the road through tall palm trees before finally pulling up to an old castle.
Two big and strong guards walked over to stop the sports car. "Identification please," one guard said loudly, walking over to the driver's side. The driver's window rolled down slowly. The guard was shocked to see a delicate woman behind the wheel. A card was in her hand, an invitation. The woman gingerly handed it over to the guard.
"Hello there," Wendy Shangguan greeted as she waved the invitation in front of the guard.
"Ahem, I'm sorry." The guard coughed awkwardly. He took the invitation with both hands and double-checked it before letting her drive in.
There were a lot of people coming here today. It was because it was the birthday party of the Earl of the old castle. All the guests invited were either rich or powerful people in the entire country. There were waiters walking around with silver trays filled with champagne glasses. Everyone was busy chatting with each other -- whether it was about world economy, politics or something expensive they had bought recently.
At that moment, a woman in a red, off-shoulder dress came into the hall. Most of the people's conversations drifted off into silence, the woman's presence stirring intrigue. Her entrance, which was accentuated by the way her high heels crispily sounded against the marble floors, was quite the attention grabber.
The dress the woman was wearing flattered her white and smooth complexion, like a pool of blood against white snow. Delicately embroidered laces were sewn onto the delicate fabric. Her hair was in a messy but classy bun, several hair strands grazing her ears and the sides of her face, making her look sweet and innocent.
The men present seemed to have forgotten their female companions, their eyes glued onto this alluring woman.
One man walked towards the woman as he adjusted his tie. "Hello. Are you here alone? I'm wondering if I could have the honor to be your partner tonight," he said with a cheeky grin.
"I'm sorry but she has a boyfriend now." A deep and magnetic voice suddenly came from behind.
Hearing the cold voice interrupt, the man was annoyed. He turned around and saw who it was. "Mr. Harold?" the man exclaimed in surprise.
At the age of twenty-four, Harold He had become the chairman of the HX Group. He had developed the main structure the company had today, specializing on airline, industry, finance, tourism, and other forms of technology. In a short amount of time, his business had expanded internationally.
It was the first time the man had seen Harold He face to face. But what made him more surprised was that the woman he had approached walked over to Harold He and held onto his arm!
For the past few years, no one had seen Harold He with a woman in public nor were there even any gossips of any past girlfriends. Because of this, rumors about his sexual orientation started to stir. However, nobody had seen he got into intimate relationships with any man.
Knowing that he couldn't afford to offend him, the man smiled politely. "Forgive me. This beautiful lady here is Mr. Harold's girlfriend?"
Harold He glanced at him coldly and did not answer his question. He took Wendy Shangguan directly to the Earl and began to busily chat away.
Was that girl his girlfriend or not? He didn't admit or deny it. The guests started to whisper among themselves.
With a smile on her face, Wendy held Harold's arm, picked up a glass of champagne and clinked glasses with the other guests.
Just then, her phone started to ring. "Excuse me," she quietly said as she walked to a less crowded part of the room to check the message.
On Wendy Shangguan's cell phone, there were several pictures of a woman in a lotus dress who was tied up. The end of the rope tied to the back of an off-road vehicle.
Wendy's eyes widened in disbelief. She held her phone tightly, her body trembling uncontrollably and her breath coming in short gasps.
With her hand shaking, she tried to call the number that sent those photos. After a few attempts, there was no answer.
Noticing Wendy's panic, Harold walked over to her, taking a sip of his champagne.
'Something is wrong.' "What's the matter?" Harold asked in a low voice. Harold rarely showed any emotion on his face, but seeing Wendy's anxious expression made him uneasy as well.
Wendy's mind went blank. As she saw the address on the end of the message, she ran out of the hall without looking back.
"Wendy!" Harold yelled with a deep frown.
When Harold saw Wendy's pale face, he immediately walked up to the Earl and apologized to him. Putting the champagne on the table, Harold strode towards the parking lot.
"Wendy!" Seeing the red sports car roaring past in front of him, Harold immediately got into his car and quickly went in pursuit, stepping hard on the gas pedal.
Wendy's eyes were starting to get wet with tears as she tightly clutched the steering wheel with both hands. The photos she got of her mother flooded her thoughts. All Wendy could think about was to save her as soon as she could. Meanwhile, Harold kept on trying to contact Wendy through her phone.
"The subscriber you dialed cannot be reached for the time being. Please redial later," the cold, automatic voice kept saying. With a grunt, Harold kept on calling.
Wendy drove to the foot of the mountain. Just when she was about to contact the person who sent the photos, there was a sudden light beaming at the end of the road. It was the same off-road vehicle in the photos. The vehicle quickly ran past Wendy, much so that she was not able to see the person behind the wheel.
Wendy looked over at the car and her face suddenly turned pale! It was her mother who was being dragged by the off-road vehicle.
"No! Mom! Damn! You are all crazy! What are you doing?!" Wendy's eyes were red with anger. She immediately started her sports car and chased after them!
Sara Shuangguan's hands were tied with a hemp rope and hung at the back of the car. The fast off-road vehicle was running on the bumpy road. Her back rubbed against the cobbled road, and her white lotus dress was cut by the cobblestones.
Sara was almost about to pass out from the immense pain she was feeling. She was being tossed and turned around like a rag doll. There was a bloody path staining the dirt road at this point.
"Mom!" With a mournful look on her face, Wendy's fist landed on the steering wheel. She shifted the gear and sped up.
Looking at the bloody figure at the end of the car in front of her, she angrily and desperately chased after the car.
Harold had taken a detour and was already driving behind the speeding off-road vehicle. Hearing Wendy's desperate voice and seeing the figure dragged by the off-road vehicle in front of him, Harold immediately knew what was happening and hurriedly sped up to catch up.
The road was full of bumps and hollows. The chassis of the sports car was very low, so it was difficult to speed up. Hearing the voice from behind, Harold immediately looked in the rear-view mirror.
An off-road vehicle was running after them all of a sudden, quickly gaining on them.
Harold felt that there was something wrong with the situation. He clenched his teeth, feeling immensely tense. Without hesitation, he turned sharply, blocking off the vehicle's path.
"You brat, get out of the way if you don't want to die!" the person on the driver's seat stretched his head and scolded.
Harold had a hand tightly clutched on to the steering wheel while his other hand kept on dialing Wendy's number. His eye glanced coldly at the reflection on the rear view mirror.
Wendy's face was covered with tears. There was little that she could do at this point. With immense remorse and anger, she looked at her mother who was deeply in pain. Even from her car, Wendy could see that her mother already had blood coming out her mouth.
"No! Mom! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you! I will tear all of you apart!" Wendy shouted desperately.
Seeing that Harold was still blocking the way, the driver sneered and stepped on the gas, slamming hard on the side of Harold's car.
"Bang! Boom!" Instinctively, Wendy fumbled for the seat belt before hitting hard on the breaks. Just in the nick of time, she was able to fasten it on. Otherwise, she would have flown headfirst through the windshield.
The crushed car had lit up into flames. But, upon looking closely, Wendy saw the license plate number and thought that looked familiar.
Wendy could not believe what she saw. With her eyes wide open, her heart was racing madly in her chest. She hastily picked up the phone beside her, only to see dozens of missed calls from Harold on the screen.
Wendy called back in a hurry. She wanted to hear Harold's voice telling her that he was still at the dinner party! 'Please be okay... please be okay...' she prayed over and over in her head.
As she held the phone against her ear, she opened the door and ran out of the car. She had just taken a few steps when an off-road car knocked her off. Her head hit hard on the ground, and the ground was starting to pool with her blood.
Wendy was starting to lose consciousness. With her eyes fluttering, she saw a middle-aged woman walk out of the car that just ran over her. The woman walked over to Wendy, sneering down at her limp body.
Then, Wendy looked over to her badly mutilated mother and the flaming car next to her before finally losing consciousness.
"What happened to her? Is she badly injured?" the head teacher asked the doctor worriedly.
She didn't expect such a terrible thing to happen in her class. A girl, Shelly Wang, even threw a flowerpot from the upstairs at Wendy's head on purpose. If Wendy's parents came to school and made trouble, she would certainly be unable to escape the responsibility for it! At the thought of the Grade Two Student Union President Selection two months later, the head teacher was vexed!
"We've run some tests on her. There was heavy internal bleeding and a significant amount of brain damage. The patient is in a stable condition now, but is unfortunately in a coma. If she does not wake up in three months, there is a possibility that she might never regain consciousness. All I can suggest is to prepare for the worst." The doctor handed the results of the examination to the head teacher.
"Oh, Wendy..." A gentle voice sobbed.
Her familiar voice rang in Wendy's ears. 'Who is that... I think... I know that voice.'
Wendy struggled to open her eyes. It was as if she was in a deep abyss, and couldn't move a single muscle in her body.
"Don't cry, Sara. I've heard that the medical treatment abroad is much better than here. We could take Wendy abroad. Don't worry about the cost," someone said. The voice was coming from a man she couldn't recognize.
'Mom? Is my mother still alive? Abroad? What's happening here? We haven't been abroad for over a decade!'
As she heard her mother weeping, it was as if the car accident was all just a distant nightmare, even though it felt incredibly real.
Struggling in the darkness, Wendy desperately tried to open her eyes. Where was she? What was going on? All of a sudden, she felt a sharp pain in her head. At that moment, the pain and anguish she had felt earlier came flashing through her mind.
"Ah..."
"Wendy, you are awake! Does your head hurt? Doctor! My baby is awake!" Sara called out to the doctor, tears of joy rolling down her eyes.
With her eyes slowly opening, Wendy saw Sara's familiar figure. 'What.... What's going on? Mom's still alive?'
Sara was wearing a beautiful, white dress, her long hair in big loose curls. Her skin was so smooth and radiant that her whole appearance exuded class and elegance. More importantly, it looked as if Sara was still in her thirties!
'What's going on here!' Surprised, Wendy looked down at her body and saw that she was in her sky blue school uniform. This was her school uniform of primary school from so many years ago!
Astonished, Wendy looked around. She suddenly remembered that she actually did get hit by something when she was seven years old. Her mother took her abroad for treatment. After she recovered her injuries, she lived abroad and never came back.
Was she given another shot at life? Was this Wendy's rebirth? Looking at her slender hand, Wendy bit her fingernails nervously.
"Wendy, why are you sitting up? Just lie down and rest." Sara trotted over and sat on the edge.
With tears in her eyes, Wendy sniffed and held her mother tightly.
'It's not so bad! It's good to start all over again! Luckily, Mom's fine!'
All of their lives, Wendy and Sara had been kind to everyone they encountered and never got into fights or quarrels. Thinking of this, Wendy couldn't imagine who could possibly do such a horrible thing to them -- who was that middle-aged woman behind the wheel of the off-road vehicle?
There was no way she was going to let that tragedy happen again! Wendy was determined to find out who that horrible woman was. She couldn't help but think how much she would make that woman suffer.
Even though Sara felt immense relief and joy, she sensed that there was something wrong with her daughter. Carefully, she looked down into Wendy's tearful eyes as asking softly, "What's wrong, my dear? Are you feeling alright?"
Wendy didn't say anything, and only let her tears silently fall down to her chin.
"Sara, let her lie down in bed first," the man next to her said.
"Oh, yes. Of course." The doctor came forward to do an examination. He was very surprised that Wendy suddenly woke up. The doctor said that all the vitals of her body were stable. It was good that she was able to wake up. The doctor prescribed some medication and a few reminders before promptly leaving.
Wendy looked doubtfully at the middle-aged man standing beside Sara. The man had a distinguished temperament. Just when Wendy was about to voice out her thoughts, another woman came in.
With an accusing finger pointed at Sara, Shelly Wang's mother, Caroline Lin scolded, "You vicious bitch! Did your child teach my daughter to hit her with a flower pot?! How vicious you are! I'm pretty sure that you were just doing it for the money! This incident has been a real eye-opener for me!"
"What... I think we've had a terrible misunderstanding," Sara said with a frown.
When Sara heard that Wendy was rushed into the hospital, she came there as quickly as she could. It was absolutely distressing for her to find out that her daughter was knocked unconscious by her classmate who had hit her with a flowerpot.
"Misunderstanding? Are you kidding me? Do you think you can just easily get away with this? You fucking bitch! You've seduced my husband, and now you want to put the blame on my child! You are such a vicious woman!" Caroline Lin shouted hysterically. The envy in her heart grew stronger when she saw the elegant Sara.
All the shouting immediately drew attention of other people around. Everyone began to whisper, "Oh my God. I didn't expect that woman would seduce someone else's husband."
"Look at that bitch! She's obviously a temptress!" "Is it really true?"
"Shame on you!" "Who is she?"
The crowd didn't keep their voices down. Sara and Caroline Lin clearly heard what they were discussing. A vicious light flashed through Caroline Lin's eyes. 'I'm going to destroy this bitch!' she sneered to herself.
It was the first time that Sara had been slandered like this. Panicked, she straightened up, keeping her face and voice calm. "Lady, I really don't know who your husband is. You're mistaken. I didn't--"
"Are you for real?" Caroline interrupted, her voice as loud as ever. Caroline didn't expect Sara would still dare to defend herself. It made her even a lot angrier. "You really don't know who my husband is? Humph! How dare you lie to me! Maybe you don't remember him anymore because you've slept with so many other men?"
"Lady, please show some respect! You've gone too far. It's a crime to slander people like this. You are fabricating false information, assuming my personality and morals, and destroying my reputation! Defamation can earn you three solid years in jail. That's criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights! Do you really want to go through all of that? I don't know you nor your husband! I have nothing to do with you both!" Sara said helplessly.
P County was remote and people there didn't receive a good education, so they admired those well-educated people. Although they didn't quite understand what Sara had just said, they felt that what she was talking about was quite persuasive.
At that moment, the people who were listening in to the two women suddenly started to doubt the authenticity of Caroline's claim. Would such a beautiful and graceful woman really seduce other people's husbands?
Everyone's eyes fell on Caroline. She was wearing a lot of gold and silver jewelry, and her purple dress stank with money. It was easy to guess what kind of person her husband was from her appearance!
"She seems very rich! Why would she seduce that woman's husband? Is that woman crazy?"
"I heard that the woman's daughter hit her daughter's head with a flower pot. I guess that the woman was afraid that the lady would ask her to pay for the compensation, so she started attacking her like this!"
Hearing that everyone was suddenly on Sara's side, Caroline got very angry. "Slander?" Caroline scoffed anxiously, "You're now claiming that I'm slandering you? Go call the cops and try to get me arrested then! I'm not afraid of you! You bitch! To refresh your memory, my husband is the director of the famous building factory in our county! Are you sure you didn't seduce my husband?"
When she heard the words "director of the building factory", a fat and plump face appeared in Sara's mind. She was stunned for a second. She did not expect that the woman in front of her was George Wang's wife.
Seeing that Sara was stunned, Caroline seized the chance and scolded, "Aha! Now you remember! I didn't slander you, did I! You bitch! You want to seduce my husband just because he is rich! I'm going to hit you so hard you wish you were never born!"
In one swift movement, Caroline raised her hand and reached out to grab onto Sara's hair.
"Stop!"
"Please stop!"
Two people cried out in unison.
The man with Sara suddenly appeared behind Caroline and caught her arm, pulling her back.
With his hand around her wrist, he pushed Caroline aside, putting himself right in between her and Sara. "Sara, are you hurt?" he asked, looking up and down at her anxiously.
When Wendy saw the middle-aged man look at her mother with such worried eyes, she felt her heart skip a beat.
"Who are you! Were you also seduced by this bitch? Do you want to act a hero to save the beauty?" roared Caroline. When Caroline managed to stand up, she saw the man and Sara snuggling together. The sight of them made her grit her teeth in fury.
Holding Sara's arm, Derek Xie looked back at Caroline. "Excuse me, but if you have any problems with this lady, please communicate your concerns in a better way," he said sternly. "This is a hospital. All this commotion is not good for the other patients here. From your behavior, I have some serious doubts on how well-educated you are."
"Get out of my way! What do you know? Mind your own business!"
"She is my wife. Our daughter was almost brain-dead because of your daughter. And now you came here to say such awful things about my beloved wife. As a husband and a father, I say that it is very much my business! Who do you think I am?" Derek sneered with an iron face.
'What? His wife and daughter? He's that bitch's husband?!' Hearing this, Caroline's face stiffened.
Looking carefully at the man, Caroline examined the straight black suit he was wearing, and the watch on his wrist was quite exquisite. This man was definitely not at the same level with all the men in the county! The more she looked at them, the more she felt that they were a perfect match!
'Did I make a mistake? The man looked very rich and handsome. If she has such a perfect husband, why would she even bother seducing mine? It must be my lascivious husband who caused this terrible misunderstanding!' Caroline thought to herself.
Meanwhile, Wendy was still just quietly lying on the bed. When she heard the words "wife" and "daughter", her hands grabbed the sheets tensely.
This man... was her father! The father she had never seen in her previous life! Where was he when she was sick! Where was he when she and her mother were bullied abroad! Where was he when they were dying!
No! This man did not deserve to be her father. She did not have such a father. She only had a mother!
Dumbfounded by Derek Xie, Caroline was speechless. "Your wife seduced my husband. This bitch made you a cuckold," Caroline finally said after a while.
"Impossible," Derek Xie said without any hesitation.
Hearing the answer from Derek Xie, Sara breathed a sigh of relief and calmed herself down.
"Hey, what are you doing? Oh my! Mr. Derek, nice to meet you. I'm George Wang, the director of the building factory." Although his body was rather round, George Wang walked quickly to the front of Derek and extended his hand respectfully.
Derek turned around and looked at him coldly. He didn't raise his hand but raised his eyebrow at the stocky man. "Your wife said that my wife seduced you. Is this true? Huh?" Derek asked coldly.
George looked at the beautiful woman standing next to Derek. When he saw clearly who she was, he was panicked and cursed in his mind. Then he turned his head and glared at Caroline.
When she saw her husband's attitude towards that man as soon as he came in, Caroline knew that she had made trouble today. As George glared intensely at her, she immediately lowered her head with guilt.
Looking at Derek's cold face, George chuckled awkwardly. "Mr. Derek, it's just a misunderstanding. You will have to excuse my wife. Please forgive her. She is just a woman with little education."
Listening to what George said, Caroline felt embarrassed. She didn't say anything else and kept her head lowered.
Derek put his arm around Sara's shoulder and sighed, "Well, since you have said so, we can let it go. But my daughter's injury..."
"Mr. Derek, I'm so sorry. My girl had done a very bad thing. I will make sure she learns her lesson as soon as I see her! I will pay the medical fee for your daughter soon," George said politely, giving Caroline a quick wink.
As soon as Caroline got the hint, she quickly said, "Yes, our daughter has such a bad temper. We will let her know that she did a very bad thing."