“Jiaming, your son is dying. He was hit by a truck. Brain hemorrhage. Only you can save him.
”
Sheng Jiaming lay in bed with his mistress, Chu Meng, and didn’t move. “You’d curse your own child just to stop our divorce? ”
“Jiaming, I’m begging you. There are only two hours—”
“Two hours.
” He hung up. Su Wan stood in the hospital hallway, the dead phone in her hand. The doctor came out, shaking his head. “Only Professor Sheng can perform this operation.
He’s the best neurosurgeon in the world. ”
She called again. Assistant Wang answered on the second ring. “Boss Sheng is busy.
There’s no record of Xiao An being admitted. Miss Su, don’t make a scene. ”
It was a lie. Chu Meng had paid him well to keep the truth buried.
But Su Wan couldn’t prove it, and her six-year-old son died on the operating table twenty minutes later. She held his small hand until the warmth left it. Then she signed the cremation papers herself, carried his ashes home in a jade urn, and made a single phone call. “Uncle Song.
It’s time. Bring my brother back. ”
The next morning, the Sheng mansion was decorated for Xiao An’s sixth birthday. Balloons, flowers, two hundred guests.
Su Wan arrived in black and set the jade urn in the middle of the table. The room went silent. “Your grandson is dead,” she told Jiaming’s mother. “These are his ashes.
Your son was at the animal hospital with Chu Meng’s dog while Xiao An bled into his brain. ”
“Liar! ” The old woman slapped her. “You would curse your own child for revenge?
”
“Hit me again. He won’t come back either way. ”
Chu Meng stepped forward, one hand on her stomach. “You’re a bitter woman who can’t accept being replaced.
I’m carrying Jiaming’s child. ”
“Replace me first. Then talk. ”
At the door, Su Wan stopped and looked back.
“I’ll be at my son’s grave. If Sheng Jiaming wants to see his child, let him come find me. ”
She left. Behind her, no one knew whether to believe her.
Jiaming came home that night furious. “That woman is insane. She’s faking an entire funeral. ”
Assistant Wang appeared, head low.
“Boss, I followed them. Su Feng has the boy. I saw Xiao An with my own eyes, alive, outside the Su mansion. ”
Chu Meng smiled.
“She’s holding your son hostage, Jiaming. She’ll do anything to stop the divorce. ”
Jiaming’s face hardened. The next day, he went to the grave.
It was a fresh mound of earth on a hillside, a headstone with his son’s photo. Su Wan stood before it in black. “Where is my son? ” Jiaming demanded.
“I buried my son. The son you killed. ”
“Dig it up. ”
“What?
”
“You heard me. ” He turned to the workers. “Dig. ”
“Don’t you dare touch this grave!
” Su Wan ran forward, but the men grabbed her arms. “He’s your son, Sheng Jiaming! ”
The shovel struck wood. Jiaming knelt, pulled out the urn, and opened it.
He tipped it upside down. A photograph fell out. Nothing else. “Empty.
” He stood slowly, holding the box. “You buried an empty box and expect me to believe he’s dead? ”
“I couldn’t bury him,” Su Wan whispered. “I couldn’t put my son in the cold ground.
His ashes are with me. They’ll stay with me. ”
“Enough of this theater. ” His mother descended, fists swinging at Su Wan.
“Where is my grandson? Give him back! ”
Before the blows landed, a car door slammed. Su Feng came up the hill with a dozen men, and within seconds the Sheng family was surrounded.
Su Feng looked at the empty urn, at his sister’s swollen cheek. “They touched you. ”
“I’m fine. ” Su Wan straightened and wiped her mouth.
“I have everything we need. ”
“You’ll pay for this,” Jiaming spat. “Both of you. He’s a fugitive, Su Wan.
You’re protecting a—”
“I’ll show you what protecting looks like, Sheng Jiaming. ”
The boardroom of Sheng Tian Group was silent as a video played on the screen. Assistant Wang, sweating, his confession recorded. “Boss Sheng asked me to lie about the hospital records.
Chu Meng paid me to keep the truth from him. On the day of the accident, Xiao An was in the operating room. He needed surgery. Only the professor could do it.
He never came. ”
The board erupted. Su Feng stood. “You all came from the Su family.
My father built this company. This man stole it, and then he murdered my nephew. ”
“Murder? ” Jiaming laughed, but sweat beaded on his forehead.
“The boy died in a car crash. I had nothing—”
“You were the only surgeon who could save him. You were with your mistress, holding her dog. ” Su Feng pointed at Chu Meng.
“This woman paid the driver to be drunk. She planned the accident. ”
“That’s impossible! ” Chu Meng cried.
“Shareholders voted an hour ago. ” Uncle Song stepped forward. “President Sheng, you’ve been removed. The group returns to Miss Su.
”
Jiaming’s knees buckled. Su Wan walked toward him, calm. “You wanted a divorce after Xiao An’s birthday. Happy birthday, Sheng Jiaming.
You’ve lost your son, your company, your wife, and soon, your freedom. ”
“I didn’t—the fraud case, it was all Chu Meng—”
“You want to blame her? ” Su Wan’s voice dropped. “You married me for the Su family’s fortune.
You framed my father. You drove my parents to suicide. You exiled my brother. And when my son lay bleeding, you were holding your mistress’s dog.
”
A file hit the table. “Your confession. Recorded in your own voice, explaining how you destroyed the Su family. You played the devoted husband for ten years, and I believed every word.
”
“Chu Meng! ” he shouted. “Tell them it was a lie! ”
“A liar still knows your truth, Jiaming.
” Su Wan turned. “She faked her pregnancy. You know it. I know it.
The hospital records confirm it. She’s sterile—she has been for years. ”
Chu Meng went pale. “You can’t prove that.
”
“The doctor who signed your exam was very helpful. ” Su Wan smiled. “He wanted to make sure his name was cleared after you bribed him. ”
Chu Meng grabbed Jiaming’s arm.
“I won’t go to prison for you. I won’t! Tell them the truth, tell them you planned everything—”
His hand closed around her wrist and threw her aside. “Get away from me.
”
“You’re throwing me away now? After everything I did for you? I got rid of the boy so you could have a fresh start, and this is how—”
The room went quiet. “I planned it, all right!
” Chu Meng’s voice rose to a shriek. “The truck, the driver, the timing—everything. I wanted the boy dead. I wanted you alone.
I wanted the company. And you,” she pointed at Jiaming, “you let him die because you preferred my dog to your son. ”
Jiaming’s face twisted. “You poisoned everything.
You’re a killer. ”
“I’m the one who did it for you. And you’ll take my hand in the gallows before I let you walk free. ”
Su Wan watched them tear each other apart.
Then she spoke, quietly. “Take them both. ”
On the final day, the court announced the judgment. Sheng Jiaming was convicted of commercial fraud and intentional homicide—his son’s death sitting on the same scale as the ruin of the Su family.
The sentence was death. He accepted it. He had nothing left to say. Su Wan didn’t attend the execution.
She had already said her goodbyes. She drove to the hillside and sat before the headstone, alone. The real ashes rested in her lap, heavier than they had ever been. She held the urn close and watched the sun sink.
“It’s done,” she whispered into the quiet. “Daddy is gone. The woman who planned it is gone. Everyone who hurt you is gone.
”
Wind moved through the grass. “You can rest now, my love. You can finally rest.
”
She stayed until the dark came, and then she stayed longer, the way she would stay for the rest of her life, keeping watch over the boy who had only ever needed his father to come home.
