Chapter 269: WE WERE INNOCENT PEOPLE
Guiying stood perfectly still for a long moment, staring down at the man chained before him, letting the silence stretch until Shen Zihao’s smirk faltered slightly, unnerved by it. Then Guiying’s hands curled into fists at his sides, every word he’d swallowed for years finally clawing its way up his throat.
"You want to know what bullshit you put me through?" His voice shook, though it didn’t waver. "I was twenty-three when I was forced to marry a bastard like you. And then you made my life a living hell. Used me as your punching bag, every single damn day. I used to wonder what made you so angry all the time, why you hated me so much, why you hated the staff who worked for you enough to assault them too."
Shen Zihao’s smile didn’t falter, though something in his eyes shifted, some flicker of confusion at the specificity in Guiying’s voice, at how deeply the words seemed to have been carved into him long before this exact moment, as though he’d rehearsed them in his sleep for years.
"We were all people just trying to get by." Guiying’s chest heaved, breath coming faster now with every passing second. "And your parents always sided with you. To them, you did no wrong, no matter who you hurt or killed. They used their influence to keep me trapped in that marriage for five years, and you only got worse every single one of those years. My body wasn’t safe from you. You forced yourself on me. You raped me, again and again, and why should I have children for a monster like you?"
His voice cracked, grief bleeding through the fury now, memories he hadn’t let himself fully revisit in this life surfacing all at once, sharp enough to steal his breath for a moment before he forced himself to keep going.
"I had miscarriages. So many I lost count. I lost my womb eventually, because of you. You wanted children, and yet you couldn’t spare your own pregnant spouse from your fists, not even once, not even when I begged you to stop. You despicable, heartless monster. That was my life. Those were my children too. You took all five of them from me, five souls who never got the chance to breathe, and you don’t deserve to be alive for it. There shouldn’t be a single universe where you get to keep existing."
Tears streaked hot down his face now, though his voice never lost its edge, every word landing like a blow he’d been storing up for years, finally allowed to fall exactly where it needed to land.
"I thought of killing myself after the fifth miscarriage. I couldn’t keep up anymore. Couldn’t bear one more beating. Because of you, I held a knife to my own throat and I ended it myself."
Shen Zihao’s brow furrowed slightly, something almost genuine flickering behind the madness in his eyes, the first crack in his composure since Guiying had walked through the door.
"You’re probably wondering what the hell I’m talking about." Guiying’s laugh came out broken, humorless. "You know you haven’t done any of that yet, in this life. But you can’t deny it’s exactly what you’re capable of, exactly what you would have become if I’d given you the chance. Do you know why you never got the chance? Because I was one step ahead of you this time. I was unlucky enough to meet a bastard like you in my past life, but in this one, I did everything in my power to make sure I never had to experience you again."
He drew in a shaking breath, steadying himself against the weight of everything he’d just laid bare in front of the one person who least deserved to hear a single word of it.
"It’s a pity that Ren Hao had to suffer in my place. But I’ll get justice for him. For Kong Siying. For every omega whose life you stole. And I’ll get the justice my past self never had the chance to get for himself."
In the control room, Liuxian sat frozen in front of the monitor, sobbing uncontrollably, one hand pressed hard against his mouth as though it could hold the sound in, the other braced flat against the desk as though he needed something solid to keep from collapsing entirely. He’d sent everyone else away the moment the door had clicked shut behind Guiying, unable to bear the thought of anyone else witnessing this raw and private moment, unwilling to leave Guiying alone even from a distance behind glass, even if that meant sitting through every second of it himself instead.
Guiying had never agreed, not once, not in any conversation between them, that this was truly his second life. He’d never used those exact words, never let Liuxian in fully on whatever certainty lived behind his eyes some nights when sleep wouldn’t come easily, no matter how many times Liuxian had gently tried to ask. But hearing it now, hearing the raw, specific weight of everything Guiying claimed to have survived, the physical and emotional torture someone he loved had apparently endured in some other version of this life, Liuxian couldn’t hold himself together any longer.
His shoulders shook violently, tears streaming down his face faster than he could wipe them away.
He thought of every quiet moment Guiying had flinched at something small, an offhand comment, a certain tone of voice, and never explained why.
He thought of every night Guiying had woken gasping from a dream he refused to describe in detail, curling into himself until his arms around him finally settled his breathing.
He thought of the way Guiying sometimes went still at the mention of children, a stillness he had never quite understood until this exact moment.
Pieces he’d never connected before suddenly slotted into place, forming a picture far darker than anything he’d allowed himself to imagine.
He didn’t care anymore whether every detail had happened exactly as Guiying described it, in exactly the order, in exactly this world or another. None of that mattered to him right now.
The pain in his voice had been real.
That was all he needed to understand.
Through the speaker connected to the room, Guiying’s voice carried clear and cold into the control room, steady now in a way it hadn’t been moments earlier at all, his eyes locked unblinking on Shen Zihao’s face the entire time.
"I hope you rot in hell for what you’ve done." His voice didn’t waver, even now. "You rotten piece of shit."