After Marrying the Officer Chapter 1: Dying with Eyes Open

Following a grueling day of labor, Xia Chuyi massaged her aching shoulders and proceeded with tidying up the kitchen.

Bang. An abrupt sound echoed from behind her.

Startled, she spun around to discover a stout, balding man past his prime, dressed in a poorly fitted jacket and leaping down from the wall.

Upon identifying the man, Xia Chuyi stiffened, overcome by a mix of shock and dread.

"He Qing? What do you think you are doing!" she demanded, her voice sharp with indignation.

He Qing, her former fiancé and ex-brother-in-law, had persisted in harassing her at her establishment ever since their chance encounter at the fresh produce market the previous month.

To evade him, she had even begun shuttering her business early, yet she never imagined he would resort to scaling the back wall.

What kind of twisted design did this scoundrel have in mind?

"I simply dropped by to check on you, Chuyi. After all, we were family once..." he remarked, rubbing his hands together while licking his lips.

"Who considers you family? You were merely the Xia Family's son-in-law, and I abandoned those ties with the Xia household long ago. Get out—leave my shop at once!"

Nausea rose within Xia Chuyi.

"Don't be so cold, Chuyi. You haven't taken a husband all these years; are you not saving yourself for me?" He Qing offered an oily, revolting grin. "It has been quite a while since you felt the touch of a man, hasn't it?"

He surged forward to grab her.

"Help!" Xia Chuyi screamed, bolting toward the exit.

He Qing bridged the distance in two strides, clamping one hand firmly over her mouth while winding the other around her throat.

"My dear Chuyi, if you enjoy screaming, I will ensure you have plenty of opportunity for that in bed later!" He Qing mocked with a vulgar tone.

Xia Chuyi thrashed and kicked violently, shaking her head in an attempt to break free.

Ignoring her struggles, he dragged her toward the modest bedroom located behind the storefront.

Realizing his malicious intent, her resistance intensified, causing her hand to haphazardly strike the dishware sitting on the cupboard.

Her eyes ignited with sudden resolve; she seized a stack of porcelain bowls and hurled them toward He Qing with all her might.

Bang.

The porcelain pulverized against the floor.

He Qing hesitated for a heartbeat, snarling, "You wretched woman!"

With a searing pain in her scalp, her hair was yanked back, and she was hoisted upward before being slammed forcefully against the cupboard by her collar.

Her body collided with the wooden frame, sending a wave of agonizing blunt trauma through her organs. She collapsed to the floor, limp as a kite with snapped strings.

Crash—the remaining plates tumbled from the shelves, shattering upon impact with her body.

Sszz—a sharp, piercing sound filled the room as shards embedded themselves into her skin.

A fragment of porcelain pierced the back of her head.

She groaned as the copper taste of blood flooded her senses. Warm liquid seeped from her skull, soaking through her hair and trickling down onto the floorboards.

Observing the pooling blood, He Qing recoiled in alarm.

"Chuyi, I didn't intend for this to happen, I swear..."

"He... Qing... If I perish... I will never... forgive you!" Xia Chuyi gasped, forcing the words out through the overwhelming agony.

He Qing retreated a few steps, his voice laced with panic.

"No, no... this isn't my fault... it was Xia Lan! Xia Lan orchestrated this!"

"It was her doing all those years ago as well; she was the one who drugged you and Huo Shiqian..."

At these revelations, Xia Chuyi’s fading vision widened. "What... did you say?"

Xia Lan? It was her all along!

It explained why, on that fateful morning after her night of disappearance, Xia Lan had appeared so "anxiously" searching for her, only to "coincidentally" discover her in a drugged, disheveled state alongside Huo Shiqian.

"It was all Xia Lan, cursed be her name..." He Qing shouted, frantically fleeing the premises.

"Xia Lan..." she exhaled with her final reserves of strength, naming the architect of her lifelong misery.

Why, oh why!

She had dismantled her life three decades ago, and now, for a second time, she had finished the job!

Xia Lan!

What debt did I owe you that merited such malice!

The injustice burned within her!

Gritting her teeth, she dragged her bloody hand inch by inch across the floor in a desperate reach for her phone. Her strength failed, and the bloody fingerprint stalled as her thoughts fractured into darkness.

The past years flickered before her eyes like scenes from a fading film.

A life of relentless hardship: a father lost too soon, a frail mother, grandparents who favored her cousin, a forced departure from schooling, lost innocence, a stolen fiancé, a forced marriage to an elderly widower, the tragic death of her uncle, and her eventual exile from the home she once knew.

A single tear, mingled with blood, crept down Xia Chuyi’s cheek. She never reached the phone. The blood from her wound saturated the shards of ceramic in a deep, crimson hue.

She surrendered to death, her eyes frozen in a final, haunting gaze.