After rebirth

The Fall Before the Rise

The rain fell like needles, sharp and merciless on the silk of her wedding gown. Lin Xiyu stood barefoot on the marble steps of the villa, her veil in tatters, her makeup streaked like war paint. Behind her, the grand doors of Lu's family estate clicked shut with a finality that vibrated her very bones.

"You were never worthy of him," Madam Lu's voice hissed from the shadows. "A bastard daughter pretending to be a phoenix? Disgusting."

Lin Xiyu's fingers curled into fists, nails digging crescents into her palms. The man she had loved for ten years, Lu Jingchen, stood silent and stoic, watching as his mother humiliated her. His eyes that once bore justice were ice shards now. "Sign the divorce papers," he had said. "You are a stain on the Lu name."

A stain. After she had sold her soul to save his company. After she had taken the fall for his crimes. After she had suffered the miscarriages of their child all alone in a hospital corridor while he danced with his mistress at a gala.

The world tilted. Her knees struck the wet stone, the impact jarring yet distant. Blood trickled from her mouth; she had bitten through it to hold back a scream. Somewhere far away, a car engine revved. The headlights pierced through the storm, blinding her. She made no effort to flinch. Let it end here. Let the rain wash the last flecks of her stupidity.

But death, it appeared, had other plans and thought himself amusing.

----

Lin Xiyu woke to the scent of disinfectant and the beep of a heart monitor. White ceiling. White walls. Tube in an arm. For a moment, she thought she had survived. Then came the crash of reality when she noticed the date of the wall calendar: March 3, 2023. Three years before her wedding. Three years before her downfall.

Breath hitched. The IV needle wobbled in her vein as she clutched the bedsheets. Impossible. She had died. She had felt the impact of the car, the splinters in her bones. And here she was, twenty-two again, in the very hospital where she had once waited forever for Lu Jingchen to visit after her appendectomy. Lu had never come.

In with a huff came a nurse, her eyes nearly falling out of her head. "Miss Lin! You are awake! Your family—they've been frantic—"

"My phone," Xiyu rasped, throat like sandpaper. "My phone."

The nurse stood in indecision before handing over a cracked iPhone. On the lock screen was a photo of her with Lu Jingchen at a college debate competition, his arm thrown possessively around her shoulders. Xiyu felt her stomach plunge. She had been so grateful for that arm. Grateful for slivers.

She opened WeChat. The chat on top read "Jingchen❤️." Her fingers hovered. Last message: "You are nothing without me. Remember that."

She remembered. Oh, she remembered.

----

By evening, she had pieced together the timeline. Today was the day she accepted his confession. Tomorrow she would say yes to an internship at Lu Corporation. Six months later, she would find out about his affair with her stepsister, Lin Wanrou. Two years later, she would be framed for embezzlement. Three years… the wedding. The car. The end.

The IV drip hummed. Xiyu stared at her reflection in the dark window—hollow cheeks, eyes too big. A ghost in her old face. Not this time.

She withdrew the IV at her own steady pace. Blood gathered, but she did not flinch. The nurse screamed upon seeing the empty bed, but Xiyu was long gone, barefoot in a hospital gown, phone clutched like a weapon.

----

The Lin family apartment was a gilded cage on the 18th floor. Her stepmother, Chen Meili, welcomed her with crocodile tears. "Xiyu! Thank God you are safe! When you fainted at the banquet—"

"Cut the act." Xiyu's voice was flat. "Where's Wanrou?"

Chen Meili's smile faltered. "In her room. She's... distraught. You know how she gets."

"Distraught." Because Wanrou had spiked her drink with laxatives at the charity gala to humiliate her. Instead, Xiyu had collapsed in embarrassment and dehydration. It was, perhaps, a small blessing; it gave her more time.

Step by step, she paced the staircase down slowly. Wanrou's door, slightly ajar, allowed her to peek through. She caught sight of her stepsister on the phone, syrupy, "Jingchen, she is awake. But don't worry, she is too stupid to connect the dots. Just like always."

Against the wall, Xiyu's heart was as steady as a drum. Let her think I am stupid. For now.

----

That night, she sat cross-legged on her childhood bed, surrounded by mementos of her naïve self. A photo booth strip of herself and Lu Jingchen at 19, his thumb brushing her dimple. A dried rose from their first Valentine’s together. One by one, she fed them to the candle flame.

The fire danced, shadows cast like claws. When the last petal curled to ash, she opened her laptop. A new folder: Revenge.docx. Page one: Timeline of Betrayals.

1. March 4, 2023: Accept Lu Jingchen’s confession. Pretend to be grateful.

2. March 5: Apply for internship at Lu Corp. Decline. Apply instead to rival company, Hengyu Group.

3. March 6: Confront Wanrou’s sabotage. Record everything.

4. March 7: Begin stockpiling evidence of Lu family’s crimes.

She paused at #5. Fingers hovered above the keyboard. Slowly, she typed:

5. Make them fall in love with me again, then ruin them.

The cursor blinked. Thunder growled outside. Xiyu smiled, and this time, for the first time in years, it reached her eyes.