Chapter 3

Lily had no idea I had fainted. She kept cursing me while tending to Julian.

It wasn't until my lawyer, Mark, rushed over that I was finally carried into an ambulance.

Lily and Julian had simply locked the door after I was taken away, not even bothering to accompany me to the hospital.

Mark told me all of this later.

Though my body was in severe pain, fortunately, it wasn't life-threatening. The doctor said I needed to stay in the hospital for observation.

But of course, physical pain could never compare to the agony of a shattered heart.

Mark said, "I wasn't planning on preparing the divorce papers. I wanted to convince you to work things out with Lily. But after seeing what happened today, you absolutely need to get a divorce."

I had always treated my team members well, and they respected me. I often took my wife along to team dinners.

In their eyes, we had always been a model couple, deeply in love.

Only I knew the truth—Lily had probably never loved me.

Lily and I were college classmates. I fell for her the moment I saw her.

But back in college, Julian and Lily were the golden couple everyone talked about.

Back then, her family's business wasn't as massive as it is now, but they were still well-off.

However, because of Julian's deliberate sabotage and Lily's sheer naivety as a fresh graduate, her family's company was pushed to the brink of ruin. Julian then fled with all of her family's money.

In her desperation, she came to me for a loan.

I loved her so much back then. Seeing her eyes filled with tears, I would have agreed to anything she asked.

I had just graduated myself, and my streaming career was starting to take off. I had planned to grow it slowly, but Lily begged me, and I had to deliver.

So, I decided to make a massive gamble. I spent all my savings on professional wilderness survival gear and underwent three months of intense survival training.

I launched a solo wilderness survival live stream on a deserted island—a wild, non-stop, extreme broadcast.

To generate traffic, I handed all the donation money to my marketing team. I constantly provoked wild animals and did crazy stunts in the jungle to grab attention.

I danced on the edge of death. The closest I ever came to dying was when I decided to do a viral TikTok dance challenge right next to a sleeping wild lynx.

But I accidentally stepped on its tail. The lynx went wild and attacked me. Its fangs were literally millimeters away from my jugular.

My reckless and thrilling streams attracted millions of viewers, and I earned an unimaginable fortune.

With that money and my massive fan base, Lily's family company was revived.

And after my relentless pursuit, Lily finally agreed to marry me.

To make Lily happy, I was willing to give up everything.

For a brief period, we were as happy and sweet as any newlyweds.

I naively thought we could live like that forever.

Until Julian showed up again.

From the moment he returned, I never received an ounce of affection from my wife.

Or perhaps she had never loved me in the first place.

Because of the nature of my streams, I was frequently hospitalized. But every time I returned to the hospital, Julian would conveniently have an emergency—either a cold or a sudden depressive episode with suicidal threats.

And without fail, Lily would abandon me to rush to his side.

I was always left alone, staring at the sterile hospital ceiling, fantasizing about what it would be like to have my wife by my side.

But she didn't care. She only cared about how much money my streams brought in and the business opportunities I secured for her company.

My body was battered and scarred, yet she never asked about it once.

Meanwhile, Julian only had to sneeze, and she would fuss over him endlessly.

I laughed bitterly at my own stupidity.

I thought that if I treated her well enough, I could eventually replace Julian in her heart.

But it turned out I had never even stepped foot inside her heart.

I was completely done.

Looking at the divorce papers Mark had placed on my bedside table, I called Lily.

"Come to the hospital tomorrow. I have something to tell you."