Kim_Li_0078

#DARK ROMANCE 
Lin Yueyao spent five years of her youth married to Shen Xiao, a man whose heart was as cold as steel. She believed that her gentleness would eventually melt his indifference, but the only thing that melted was her own dignity.

Every night, she endured his cruel touch, his words like blades, and his silent disgust. But no matter how much it hurt, Yueyao clung on – for the sake of their son, Xuanxuan, and for the sliver of hope that someday he might see her.

That hope shattered completely when his first love, Bai Zhi, returned from abroad. The very night Bai Zhi came back, Shen Xiao left Yueyao alone to dine with her. His gaze, once cold and dismissive, turned tender only for Bai Zhi.

Then, just as Yueyao discovered she was pregnant again, Shen Xiao handed her divorce papers. Abandoned while carrying his child, betrayed by her husband, and discarded like a stain on his life, Yueyao’s world collapsed.

Even their son, Xuanxuan – the little boy she’d nearly died giving birth to, the one she raised with unwavering devotion – rejected her, clinging instead to Bai Zhi with innocent adoration.

But fate was crueler still.

Kidnapped straight from her hospital bed by men demanding ransom, Yueyao realised no one was coming to save her. Her husband hadn’t even noticed she was missing. As she lay in that abandoned factory, trembling in pain, all illusions crumbled.

She was done waiting for love from a man who treated her like dirt.

This time, she would save herself. And when she returned, it wouldn’t be as the pitiful Mrs. Shen, but as a woman reborn from ashes – with a heart no longer beating for Shen Xiao.

But will he realise her worth only when it’s too late?

Love After Divorce: Her Second Chance

"You are Mrs. Shen?" she repeated with cruel amusement, wiping tears of laughter from her heavily painted lashes.

Her eyes gleamed with cold mockery as she leaned closer, her foul perfume choking Yueyao. "If you are Mrs. Shen, then I must be the empress herself. What do you think?" she sneered, her cracked lips curling with disgust.

She grabbed Yueyao's chin roughly, digging her sharp nails into her bruised jaw. "Listen, you little bitch. No one cares who you were out there. In here, you are just another whore with a price tag. Now get changed before I have them strip you naked and throw you to the dogs outside for free."

Yueyao's knees buckled, her entire body trembling violently as hot tears poured down her face.

Not even his name could save her now.

And in that suffocating neon room, surrounded by strangers who only saw her as a commodity, Lin Yueyao realised with a sickening clarity:

She no longer belonged to herself.

The heavy door slammed shut behind Meng Shurong, leaving Yueyao trembling in the harsh neon-lit room.

Her bruised knees buckled, unable to hold her weight any longer, and she collapsed onto the sticky, beer-stained floor.

The thin cloth she wore slipped off one shoulder, revealing deep purple bruises blooming down her collarbone like rotting flowers.

The bass of the club music thumped relentlessly through her bones, vibrating against her skull like a death drum, each beat reminding her where she was, what she was about to become.

Moments later, two girls walked in carrying a plastic tray with chipped edges.

On it sat a cracked makeup palette caked with old foundation, cheap perfume with peeling golden labels, and a tangled heap of thin lace lingerie in garish red.

The two girls looked no older than nineteen, their eyes dull and glassy, shadows smudged permanently beneath them.

Their movements were mechanical, empty of life, resigned to a fate they no longer fought.

One of them knelt beside Yueyao, dipping a rag into a chipped metal bowl filled with lukewarm, murky water.

She pressed it against Yueyao's swollen face and began scrubbing harshly.

The rag scraped over split skin and torn lips, reopening scabs as coppery blood pooled anew.

Yueyao flinched away with a pained whimper, tears leaking silently down her battered cheeks, mixing with the dirty water as it dripped onto her chest.

"Don't fight it," the girl muttered under her breath, her voice flat and detached, as if she were reciting a line she had memorised long ago, "If you continue fighting, Madam Meng will just beat you worse than this."

Yueyao's cracked lips trembled as she tried to push her hand away with trembling fingers, her voice breaking into desperate sobs.

"Please… please help me… call my husband… call the police… I will pay you anything you want, please… I will give you anything…"

The girl paused. For the first time, her hollow eyes flicked up to meet Yueyao's tear-streaked face. For a fleeting moment, pity flickered in their depths, but then her gaze went blank again and she shook her head with dead finality.

"No one here will help you," she whispered hoarsely. "We are all the same... Just different days… different men…"

The words sliced through Yueyao like a rusted blade, jagged and burning.

She let out a silent sob as the other girl, silent and expressionless, tugged her thin cloth off completely.

Cold air prickled her bruised, bloodied skin, making her tremble uncontrollably. Her arms flew to her chest to cover herself, but the girl slapped them away impatiently.

Chapter 24; You are Mrs Shen