\n
[ Event 1: Past Memories ]You stare blankly at a photo frame on your bedside table.
It holds an intimate photo of a couple, but the man's face has been scratched out, and the woman being held in his arms—is shockingly you.
Seventeen or eighteen, with a face full of innocent sweetness, not yet understanding the world's wickedness.
How to describe that person?
The man who made you feel your first flutter of the heart? The lover you once thought you'd marry? Or... the sinner who caused your family's ruin?
-
You will never forget that day, when he, along with the police he had ambushed, stormed into your engagement party, and you watched with cold indifference as your father and others were handcuffed.
A cold, unfamiliar expression that had never appeared on his face.
Don't people receive beautiful rings at engagement parties?
A ring, whether adorned with a dazzling diamond or not, that carries full of love and promises.
But what you received was a pair of cold handcuffs.
You can no longer tell where the chill is coming from; you only feel that at that moment, your world collapsed.
\n\n
[ Event 2: A Heart's Desire ]The phrase you most often uttered as a child was: \"When I grow up, I want to marry the most handsome prince in the world!\"
Spoiled by your father since childhood, you had very high standards and were extremely picky.
This one was too tall, requiring you to look up at him, not liked; that one's skin was too fair, making you look dark standing next to him, not liked.
One night when you were seventeen, the organization captured a new batch of 'donors' for organ harvesting and black market trade. While passing by with your father, for some reason, your eyes fell upon a man whose face was stained with dirt, yet you couldn't look away—Chang Le.
Curiously, you stopped, and like one would ask for a pet, you casually asked your father for him.
For years, you've replayed that scene, wondering why you wanted to keep him.
Then you realized—it was simply because among the fearful crowd, he appeared so calm and detached, as if he were not the one whose organs were about to be harvested.
\"Don't lie, you were just attracted to his looks.\"
Your best friend mercilessly exposed you.
\"How could I be so superficial!\"
\"Come on.\"
Alright, perhaps you were indeed blinded by that face, like a pearl hidden in dust.
\"...Seriously, do you regret it?\"
\"Regret what?\"
Regret stopping that day? Regret falling in love with him foolishly? Or regret... that even with your current relationship, you still can't forget him?
\"Miss, what do you think?\"
You remain silent, merely curving your lips.
The infatuation of youth was intense, impulsive, and unpredictable.
But if you could go back in time—you would never want to meet him again.
\n\n
[ Event 3: A Hazy Universe ]One evening, two men in police uniforms were leaning against a railing, chatting.
\"Hey, Chang Le, what does it feel like to have your revenge?\"
\"...\"
...What is it like?
Ecstatic? Relieved? Applauding?
—None of the above.
He turned his head to look at the sky, darkened by clouds.
\"It's like looking out at a sky full of gloom.\"
\n\n
[ Event 4: Old Memories Stained with Blood ]Chang Le once had a very warm family.
Father, mother, and a younger sister named Chang Huan.
His father was a police officer, making the whole family proud; his mother was a gentle and graceful housewife, always busy with household chores.
And he and his sister were the troublemakers of the family, mischievous children who often deliberately played pranks to anger their parents.
Chang Le's father graduated from the police academy but chose to work as a chef in a hotel. However, due to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, he regretfully lost his job.
Coincidentally, the reason Chang Le's father chose to become a police officer was simply a remark young Chang Le blurted out while flipping through a photo album.
\"Dad looks so handsome in his police uniform!\"
So, while looking for a new job after being laid off, he resolutely returned to the police force, starting as a basic officer.
Life was going smoothly until one day, Chang Le's father was transferred to the anti-drug unit.
\"It's okay, I'm just organizing documents and doing odd jobs, there's no danger,\" his father said at dinner.
So no one could have imagined that someone responsible for odd jobs would eventually be entrusted with important drug-related intelligence to escape.
But escaping the first day doesn't mean you can escape the fifteenth.
-
\"Ding dong!\"
It was a text message notification.
Chang Le was only seventeen that year, but his life changed drastically after that message.
\"Chang Le, Uncle Xu will pick you up after school, don't go home, and Mom...\"
The message cut off abruptly, as if sent in a moment of crisis, without even time for punctuation.
A sense of unease immediately enveloped Chang Le's heart. He frowned, yet he vaguely sensed something.
Chang Le decisively smashed his phone and threw it into the bushes outside the classroom.
After school, Chang Le indeed saw his father's colleague, Uncle Xu, Xu Yanhe, at the school gate.
After exchanging a glance, Chang Le quietly got into the back seat of the black car, the air filled with suffocating silence.
\"...Uncle Xu, where's my dad?\"
After a long silence, this sentence floated out of Chang Le's mouth, accompanied by the engine's roar.
\"We'll talk when we get to a safe place.\"
Chang Le hesitated, his lips parting and closing, but he finally sat obediently in the back seat without a word.
-
Chang Le's home had a pet camera, which Chang Le's parents had installed to check on their old dog when it was alive. They never removed it after the dog passed away.
Perhaps thinking Uncle Xu was joking, that it was all a prank by his parents and sister, and they were probably secretly laughing at home right now...
\"Uncle Xu, can I borrow your phone?\"
After getting the phone, Chang Le downloaded the backend video app for the pet camera and logged into his home account with a sliver of hope.
But what greeted him was a scene of scarlet.
Red blood, yellowish brain matter, and spilling internal organs.
It was a sight Chang Le would never want to see again in his life.
\n\n
[ Event 5: Intertwined Grudges ]Chang Le couldn't even collect the bodies of his family members.
Because those rats from the dark would surely hide in the shadows, acting immediately at the slightest disturbance.
The whereabouts of their organization's important intelligence were unknown, and they wouldn't rest until it was recovered.
-
At eighteen, Chang Le, under the alias Su Muhan, enrolled in the police academy, training as a prospective anti-drug officer.
Uncle Xu had looked after him like a father after the incident, making him feel less alone on the path of revenge.
The police finally identified a person with the most potential for a breakthrough among the current intelligence—the pampered daughter of the drug lord.
A pearl of great price, innocent and lively, she was an excellent entry point.
After two years of meticulous planning, the anti-drug unit dared to take action. Fortunately, everything went as smoothly as they had planned.
Chang Le successfully infiltrated the drug den as an undercover agent. He was twenty years old that year.
-
The young lady was more foolish than he had imagined; all his feigned affection was taken as truth by her.
After all, she was a flower raised in a greenhouse, having never suffered any hardship in her life.
He used lies to package himself as Su Muhan, who deeply loved the young lady, but he never forgot that he was Chang Le.
He was the once happy and carefree Chang Le.
\"Muhan, we'll always be together, right?\"
The young girl had asked shyly and expectantly during their first night together.
How did he answer then...?
Oh, he remembered.
He didn't answer, but instead used more intense actions to interrupt the young girl's thoughts, kissing away her unspoken words between their lips.
\n\n
[ Event 6: Fleeting Moments ]In fact, he wasn't as indestructible as he imagined.
The girl's bright smile, her petulant stubbornness when sulking, and her sincere, burning love had all made him waver.
But the small flame was soon extinguished by a torrential downpour.
Uncle Xu died. He died on an afternoon when Chang Le accompanied her to the amusement park, under the bright sun.
\"Hey, how did they catch that cop who died today?\"
Chang Le suppressed the turmoil in his heart and asked the people in the organization with a playful tone.
\"Him? Oh, you mean that undercover cop who caused the organization to lose intelligence a few years ago? Damn him, he was lucky to live this long.\"
\"Let me tell you, today was truly his day of reckoning. The boss came out today, and this cop just happened to run into him.\"
\"...Is that so? Then it really is a deserved end.\"
-
...Only he was left.
This path of revenge, with no end in sight, was now walked by Chang Le alone.
What was he thinking while dry-heaving in the restroom?
When Uncle Xu died, he was with the young lady on the Ferris wheel, eating cotton candy; he had even developed some inappropriate feelings.
At the peak of the Ferris wheel, the young girl shyly asked for a kiss, saying, \"They say if you kiss at the highest point of the Ferris wheel, lovers will be together forever.\"
At that moment, he even thought, she is innocent after all, perhaps...
The stomach acid burned Chang Le's throat. He cupped some water to rinse his bitter mouth.
He came to his senses.
There were so many innocent people in the world: Uncle Xu, his parents, and those who died because of her father.
He couldn't love her, he could love anyone else, and loving anyone else was more worthwhile than loving her.
From then on, every time he saw the young girl, the burning sensation in his throat would return.
He was waiting for the day the net would close.
Let's fall into Satan's abyss together, innocent young lady.
\n\n
[ Event 7: Sugar-Coated Arsenic ]Chang Le had been undercover in the drug den for three years, collecting all the organization's intelligence and evidence.
After more than a thousand days and nights of effort, everything was ready, waiting for the opportune moment.
The night he confirmed everything was in place, he held the young girl and whispered in her ear, \"Let's get married.\"
The girl's eyes were filled with surprise and anticipation, her eyebrows slightly curved.
Then she tightly hugged his neck and agreed without hesitation.
Originally, the drug lord planned to increase security on the engagement day, but the girl objected.
\"What kind of engagement party has people carrying weapons! Don't let them bring guns, and Dad's reputation is so great, who would dare cause trouble?\"
\"Besides, even if we encounter danger, Muhan will protect me!\"
That year, Chang Le was twenty-three, and the girl was twenty.
The girl was overjoyed to be engaged to her lover, envisioning countless future plans with him in her mind.
But she never imagined that it was all just a long-dormant nightmare.
-
The pampered young lady from a wealthy family was locked in an isolated cell, curled up in a cold corner.
When he went to visit, the girl didn't look up.
\"...Officer Chang, is it?\"
Her voice was hoarse from crying, a disheveled appearance he had never seen before.
\"Yes.\"
\"You even lied about your name.\"
\"...Yes.\"
Seeing the once spoiled and willful young lady reduced to such a state, he couldn't quite articulate how he felt.
A mix of emotions.
\n\n
[ Event 8: Rebirth ]The young lady was released without charges.
Fortunately, the young lady's father and others were not so lucky, and were eventually sentenced to death by law.
He witnessed the execution but felt no satisfaction.
Perhaps it was because the man, even on the brink of death, arrogantly demanded a fine Michelin meal for his last supper; or perhaps it was because the execution was 'humanely' carried out with anesthesia.
How nice. Unlike his family and Uncle Xu, who were brutally murdered while fully conscious, their eyes wide with injustice.
\"What the hell, criminals who killed so many people can be treated humanely?\"
A colleague, after hearing Chang Le's story, said indignantly.
\"Yes.\"
Even death row inmates can be treated humanely, while the innocent suffer undeserved calamities.
-
Revenge is complete, then what?
He suddenly felt lost.
His gaze fell on the family photo. He knew he couldn't give up his life.
His father, mother, sister, and Uncle Xu would be saddened in the afterlife.
After much thought, he finally applied to the higher-ups to be transferred out of the anti-drug unit, intending to be a regular police officer from then on.
He was awarded a first-class merit for his undercover operation. Coincidentally, there was a major personnel reshuffling at the A City Police Department, and he became the branch chief of A City.
But he didn't know what meaning his life held, yet he had to continue living.
With a茫茫 future ahead, he suddenly thought of her.
He remembered the foolish girl whose feelings he had deceived, who cried rivers in the prison cell, and finally became disheartened.
Yes, perhaps his life still had one last meaning—to have his life ended by her hands, to end their karmic entanglement.
He thought that if he lived long enough, he would surely wait for her to come for revenge.
When that day came, he would not resist.
When they reunited in the underworld, he would definitely tell them everything that happened afterward, and together they would drink the Meng Po soup and be reincarnated.
This life and the past are all severed; deep love and shallow fate are all cleared.
In the next life, he still wants to be his parents' son; to be a brother who loves to tease his sister, then recognize Uncle Xu as his godfather, and be the Chang Le who is truly Chang Le.
\"Let hatred nourish your growth.\"
—Just like I did back then.
\n\n
[ Event 9: Unspoken Words ]Unspoken words, unforgettable pain.
Years of suffering made it difficult for Chang Le to sleep, forcing him to rely on sleeping pills.
It was one night after reuniting with you. As usual, he worked overtime until late at night before leaving work.
After returning home and showering, he took a sleeping pill and fell into a deep sleep.
Then...
For the first time, Chang Le dreamed of his family.
Father, mother, sister, and Uncle Xu, all with warm smiles on their faces.
He couldn't suppress the pain in his heart and immediately threw himself into his parents' arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
At this moment, all his identities were cast aside.
—He was just the pure Chang Le, who missed his family.
\"Mom, that text message you were halfway through typing...\"
What was that unfinished text message?
This was a question that had lingered in Chang Le's heart for years.
Hearing Chang Le's question, Chang Le's mother smiled gently and stroked his cheek.
\"Mom loves you.\"
\"Don't hate, love, Chang Le.\"
Go and love, see the world for us, experience other things we couldn't.
With our hopes, love boldly.
\n\n
[ Event 10: Sweet Words ]Looking at the couples around and the festive decorations, Chang Le realized it was Valentine's Day again.
Memories of past Valentine's Days with you surfaced in his mind.
The gifts he had given you, the cards he had written by hand, and the carefully selected bouquets...
Actually, he couldn't tell if it was genuine or just for the mission.
Was it really just to complete the mission?
While carefully wrapping gifts, while writing every word on the card, while diligently researching flower meanings...
Those fleeting feelings, too quick to grasp.
Cold liquid dripped onto his cheek. He looked up at the sky and found a light drizzle had begun.
He suddenly selfishly wondered, where are you at this moment? Are you receiving gifts from someone else? Are you... thinking of him as he thinks of you?
But it seemed impossible to get any answers.
As Chang Le went to the convenience store to buy an umbrella, he heard \"Love This Way\" playing.
It's Valentine's Day, why would they play such a sad song?
He thought, then walked away with his umbrella.
-
Whose heart wanders alone?
Whose love quietly grows unintentionally?
Memories that have faded, can never be found again.
I can only fly forward, flying over mountains and rivers.
\n\nWhose heart grieves alone?
Whose love is touched only after it's lost?
You will only keep chasing forward.
Chasing the beauty you missed.
The displacement of time, who will remember whom?
\n\nYou loved this way.
It began after parting.
Who disappeared and left, who stayed in place?
Silently crying, it is you.
I wish I could be together forever.
Not just for a moment of companionship.
I will wait for you in the next life, to see the warm dawn.