Chapter 1

　　In the dining room, Andrea Qin put the last dish on the table. Looking at the rich candlelit dinner, she rubbed her shoulder, which was sore from all the work she had done. 　　"Andrea, have you really thought about it? If you don't go abroad for treatment, your condition will be life-threatening." Her friend Brenda Sun sat on the sofa and spoke in a distressed tone, watching as she set the table. 　　"Going abroad can only extend my life for half a year, so never mind that." 　　Andrea's tone was unusually calm. She handed a will to Brenda. "After I’m gone, I need you to do something for me." 　　The fingers holding the paper were thin and trembling slightly, as if they had exhausted all their strength. 　　When Brenda accepted the will, Andrea was relieved, but couldn't stop herself from coughing, and quickly covered her mouth with a tissue. 　　In the middle was a bright red spot. 　　"What, are you really not going abroad anymore?" Brenda didn’t mean to be persistent but it had just slipped out, and so she quickly changed the topic. "Today is your wedding anniversary. Shouldn’t Charlie come home? Shouldn’t you tell him?" 　　"It's okay." Andrea shook her head, her heart filled with bitterness. 　　In their three years of marriage, there were only a handful of days when he returned home. How could he remember their anniversary? He had hated her long before they were even married. 　　"Help me keep this a secret." Andrea crumpled the blood-soaked tissue into a ball and threw it into the trash can. 　　With advanced lung cancer, she can live for only three months at most, and she wanted to spend her final days quietly. 　　What's more, for as long as she had loved Charlie Jiang, he had hated her, and she was sure he would only mock her for her illness. 　　"Perhaps this illness is God's will, freeing him, and also freeing me." 　　Andrea stared intently at the candlelight. On her face was a wry smile that slowly faded. 　　After her friend had left, Andrea sat alone at the dining table, picked up the red wine glass in front of her, and toasted softly across the table. 　　"Happy anniversary, Charlie." 　　There was no one else at the table, only a red wine glass. 　　Ding. 　　There was a shuffling noise in the other room. 　　Andrea froze in the air with her red wine glass, and she turned her head in disbelief. She saw a figure opening the door and walking in. 　　"Charlie, are you back?" 　　Andrea's heart started pounding. Breathless with excitement, she stood up and walked towards him. 　　A slender figure emerged from the darkness, with his hands in his pockets. The candlelight outlined his well-defined, handsome features. There was no warmth in his eyes. 　　"Mrs. Qin, you have no self-respect at all, do you? Sending so many text messages, asking me to come home." 　　He was almost sorry for her. 　　It was as if a basin of cold water had been poured on her, and the expectant light on Andrea Qin's eyes quickly dimmed. The joy that had just emerged in her heart turned to sadness. 　　He never called her his wife. Except for the marriage certificate, there was no proof that they were married at all. The relationship between them was more distant than that between strangers. 　　Andrea grasped the tablecloth with her fingers, keeping her voice calm. "Those text messages, they were from last week." 　　That day, she had just been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and she had cried, desperately called him and texted him, wanting to be comforted. 　　He neither answered her calls, nor replied to the text messages. She had waited for him alone, her despair became resignation, her resignation became calm. 　　It turned out that he hadn’t read her text messages at all. 　　"Since you are back now, let's eat." 　　Andrea swallowed her sadness, pushed it back down her throat, and tried to raise her head and smile at him. She hurriedly brought the bowl to him. Maybe this was the last time she ate with him, and she wanted to cherish it. 　　Charlie watched her diligently bring the hot meal to him. What a pathetic woman. With a flicking gesture, he sent the bowl tumbling out of her hands. 　　"Do you think that I can eat now that I see your disgusting face?" 　　Clang! 　　The rice bowl fell to the ground and broke into pieces. 　　Andrea Qin's shoulder trembled, and it seemed that her heart had also cracked. She felt a tingling pain. In the last days of her life, was it even a luxury to have a meal with him? She pressed down the pain in her chest, and smiled nonchalantly. "How careless of me. Let me get you another bowl." 　　"You really do have no self-respect. You are hopeless!" 　　Charlie became impatient, grabbed her wrist, and yanked hard. "If your father had known that the happy marriage he had arranged for you just made your life miserable, would you say he should have just died in the hospital? " 　　He was tired of this woman. It was the Qin family that caused his father’s death. How could she live with herself? 　　Andrea's wrist felt like it was going to break. She struggled. 　　"Charlie, let's talk after dinner." 　　"I find it disgusting to have dinner with you, but I’ve finally come back to fulfill my duty as a husband." 　　Charlie sneered, and flung Andrea Qin at the bowls on the table. "Your dad will see with his own eyes how cheap his daughter is!" 　　He took out a remote control and pressed it. 　　On the projector opposite the dining table, a scene of a room appeared immediately, with an elderly patient lying paralyzed on the bed. 　　"Charlie, don't!" 　　Andrea Qin lay face down on the table full of oily soup, and her heart trembled.