The Vanishing Lover

"Captain Qi, I've delivered Xu Ruyi home," the young female officer reported to her superior, holding the steering wheel as the car slowly approached the complex gate. "Her condition? Okay, she was focused on her daughter the whole way. Her discharge report? Yes, I have a copy, it's on your desk. Her demeanor? All normal, nothing seemed off."

She pressed the brake, glancing once more in the rearview mirror towards the building where Xu Ruyi lived.

"Captain He called her. Hearing the news, she showed the expected disappointment, maybe relief, and pain... naturally. After all, she's a woman, that was her daughter's father. Adultery and murder..." The officer's eyes held a woman's empathy as she looked at the beautiful greenery and flowers in the complex. "My opinion? I think she's deeply saddened, but isn't that normal? Both parents dead, a child so young, her husband cheating and killing, and she herself has suffered so much... Huh? That question? I didn't ask. Do you need me to go back up and ask her now?"

Upstairs, Xu Ruyi's body was like mud, collapsed by the door.

Boundless pain drowned her like a tidal wave.

Her heart hurt so much she couldn't breathe.

Gone. No matter what she did, Mom and Dad would never come back...

That was the deepest pain, the most irreparable wound.

Everyone knew she had been the apple of her parents' eyes since birth – but weren't they also the core of her being?

From the moment she could remember, she lived in a honey pot – not meaning wealth or gifts, but that they gave her what she most wanted and needed: love.

Who didn't praise the warmth and happiness of their little family of three – husband and wife respecting each other, parents loving her without spoiling her, she loving and relying on them in return.

They even passed this love on to others – her parents donated anonymously to help others study; she volunteered at nursing homes; since middle school, she'd donated her pocket money; in university, she even secretly went to support earthquake relief zones without telling her parents...

She had compassion, and she had drive – her academic performance was always good, she got into the school and program she loved, and had a career she enjoyed.

She loved her career, but she loved her family more – when she realized her parents needed her more, she resolutely chose to leave and return to their side.

She had even been lucky enough to meet a man she loved.

Lucky enough to marry the man she loved, to have a child...

How fortunate she had been!

Her hands began to tremble violently. Xu Ruyi was utterly defeated by the pain. Like a dying dog, she crawled on the floor, her dark hair spread out in despair, a carpet of sorrow.

"Ah—"

Her bag lay discarded in front of her. Xu Ruyi clamped her teeth on the leather strap of her purse, biting down with all her might – to keep the people upstairs and downstairs from hearing, she suppressed her scream, letting out only a beast-like, guttural roar.

She hadn't cried yet. Didn't dare to cry. But now, knowing he was arrested, she could no longer control it.

Pain. So much pain.

The deeper the pain in her heart, the greater the regret.

Why had she fallen for such a man? Why had she let this wolf into her home? Why had she allowed this wolf to devour her mother and then cause her father's death?

She had killed her beloved mother, her beloved father.

They were so young...

And she, she had never known.

Had continued to share a bed with this wolf for years after Mom died.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

She clenched her fists, mustering all her strength, pounding them desperately against the floor.

"Miss! Don't hurt yourself like this!" Auntie Feng rushed over. Tears already streamed down her face. Heartbroken, she grabbed Xu Ruyi's hands – the knuckles red and bruised from pounding.

She pried the purse strap from Xu Ruyi's teeth and pulled the emptied shell of her body into an embrace, sobbing quietly. "Miss, this isn't your fault! How could you have known!"

No, Xu Ruyi hadn't known. She had never imagined it.

When Mom died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, Xu Ruyi had been plunged into unbearable agony – she was seven months pregnant at the time.

She lay in the hospital, unaware of day or night, her body and mind enveloped in suffocating pain. She couldn't eat, couldn't sleep.

But she swallowed that knife-sharp pain with strength – partly because of the new life stirring inside her, and partly because she knew she couldn't collapse. Dad needed her more then.

She pulled through, gave birth to her child, and then, together with the baby, pulled her father back from the brink of despair over life itself.

She had never suspected her mother's death was anything other than a tragic accident.

She had never suspected anything about her father's accident.

That day, just before Dad's accident, Qin Guan had called her: "Ruyi, Dad left alone, absolutely refused to let me go with him. I don't know what issue he has with me. He seemed really angry. Talk to him properly when he gets back, okay..."

The morning sun had been beautiful, but the moment she hung up that call, standing by the stove, an inexplicable chill had run down her back.

She later learned, of course, that was the exact moment Dad had his accident.

But she had never suspected Qin Guan.

Never.

At Mom's funeral, Qin Guan had beaten his chest, crying until his voice was hoarse. Over Dad's death, he was full of remorse, regret, and guilt. He smashed his forehead against a wall in the hospital. At the funeral, he slapped his own face until it swelled, until blood trickled from the corner of his mouth: "Why didn't I go after Dad? Why did I let him go home alone, angry? It's all my fault! Heaven, why didn't you take me instead!"

On the day of the burial, he knelt before Dad's tombstone, kowtowing with such force that his forehead bled fresh blood again.

"Dad— Without you, there would be no Qin Guan today! Dad, you gave me a second life! But I couldn't save yours! I was right nearby! Dad, Qin Guan has failed you! Dad, how can I go on living with you gone?"

His remorse and pain had seemed utterly genuine.

Yes, he was the child her parents had raised. They had taken him in since elementary school, paid for his education, visited him during holidays, brought him quilts when it was cold, fans when it was hot. Supported him through university, helped him choose his major, introduced him to jobs after graduation...

Her parents had long treated him as their own son.

Who would have thought he was actually a wolf in human skin?

If it hadn't been for that day, she would never have seen this wolf's true face in her lifetime.

But only she knew the true depth of pain that came with knowing the truth.

Ding-dong. The doorbell rang.

"Miss, Miss, have some water," Auntie Feng hurriedly fetched water, cradling Xu Ruyi's limp body. Seeing sorrow twisting Xu Ruyi's face into a ghastly pallor, she patted her back, rubbed her chest, pleading. "Miss, have some water. You can't afford to collapse. You absolutely cannot let anyone see you like this."

Xu Ruyi tilted her head back. Yes. She couldn't. She had to appear perfectly composed. She still had to deal with that wolf. Completely.