When My Corpse Grew Cold

My fiancée tied me to an operating table because her sponsored student’s father had terminal brain cancer. "Aren't you supposed to be a surgical prodigy? Ethan only has his dad left in this world. You have to save him, no matter what!" I shook my head and tried to explain. "It's useless. The cancer has already metastasized..." Her eyes rimmed with red, my fiancée threw her arms around me, begging, "Just do it for me. Give it everything you have, please?" In the end, I couldn't perform a miracle. Watching the flatline on the heart monitor, Ethan slammed his fist into my face, shattering my nose. "I know you hate me! But how could you murder my father? That was a human life!" That night, Vivian dragged me down into the basement. She ordered her men to sever the tendons in my wrists. "Since these hands can't save anyone, you don't need them anymore." Coughing up blood, I smiled weakly. "You'll regret this." The night Ethan got poisoned, she walked in holding a scalpel. "You still dared to touch him?" She stomped her heel onto my wrist. With her own hands and that scalpel, she shattered every single bone in my ten fingers, one by one. I bit through my lip until it tore, but I didn't utter a sound. "A monster like you doesn't deserve to be my fiancé." "Stay down here and think about what you did." She tossed the bloodied scalpel at my feet. A month later, Vivian finally remembered I existed. "Go check if he's learned his lesson. Bring him out to kneel and apologize to Ethan." What she didn't know was that my body had already rotted away. The couch was a complete mess as two bodies writhed together. Flushed, Vivian gently pushed the man on top of her. "Ethan, let's go to the bedroom." Ethan didn't move. Instead, he pressed down harder. He chuckled into her ear. "Vivian, right here. I like it here." Vivian paused for a second, then slowly wrapped her arms around his neck, giving herself over entirely. Watching this unfold, my stomach churned with disgust. It pulled me right back to the night of our engagement party. Riding a buzz from the drinks, egged on by our friends, I had brought her to a hotel suite. Swept up in the passion of the moment, I reached down to unbutton her blouse. A sharp slap cracked across my face. The burning sting snapped me instantly sober. Tears streaming down her face, her voice trembled. "Is that what you think of me? Just some easy girl?" I thought I had crossed a line and disrespected her. I spent three months apologizing and groveling before she finally forgave me. Only now did I understand. She wasn't being modest or reserved. She just never loved me enough. On the couch, Ethan collapsed beside her, panting heavily. Vivian snuggled against him, tracing circles on his chest. Ethan took her chin, leaning in for a kiss, when the housekeeper's hesitant voice cut through the air. "Ms. Lin." Vivian frowned, annoyance flickering in her eyes at the interruption. "What is it?" "Mr. Luke hasn't made a sound in seven days." "He hasn't touched any of the food we brought down." The housekeeper's voice grew fainter and fainter. Vivian let out a cold sneer. "That bastard again. Does he really think a hunger strike will intimidate me?" I thought being dead meant I wouldn't feel pain anymore. Yet hearing those words still felt like a blade driving straight through my chest. Vivian walked barefoot across the hardwood, the red marks across her skin stinging my eyes. "Let's see what kind of game he's playing now." Watching her walk toward the basement step by step, a sick sense of dark satisfaction bloomed inside me. "Vivian, when you find out I'm dead, will you hurt? Will you cry?" Just as her hand grabbed the doorknob and pushed the heavy door open a crack, arms slid around her waist from behind. "Vivian, the office just called. There's an issue with the new contract." Vivian instantly pulled her hand back. Turning around, she gave the housekeeper a callous order. "Since he refuses to eat, stop bringing him food altogether." "If he wants to die, let him die." "Slam." The door shut tight. The basement plunged back into suffocating darkness. My corpse was in there, cold and stiff for seven whole days. Good. Vivian, you got your wish. I'm already dead.Vivian had just wrapped up a video conference when her assistant stepped into the office to ask about the family banquet this weekend. She didn't even look up. "Where's Luke? Doesn't he always handle these things?" The moment the words left her mouth, she remembered. Rubbing her temples in irritation, she added, "Tell him to prepare a gift for Grandfather." Standing beside her, Ethan’s eyelashes fluttered. Lowering his gaze, Ethan forced a bitter smile. "I don't mean anything by it... I just envy Luke. He has so many people who care about him." "Unlike me. I have nothing left. I didn't even get to see my dad one last time..." My spirit instantly tautened, pure fury and agony surging back from beyond the grave. I was the one who saved his father. End-stage heart failure. An eight-hour surgery. I snatched that man straight from the jaws of death. Yet the very next day after the operation, the man suddenly died. The night before, Ethan had spent thirty minutes alone in that ICU room. Before I could even confront him, Vivian’s hand cracked across my face. "I know you despise Ethan, but that was a living human being! Do you even have a soul?!" Clutching my burning cheek, I desperately grabbed her hand to explain. Vivian snatched her hand back in disgust, as if she had just touched biohazard waste. Her voice dripped with pure hatred. "Save it. Your excuses make me sick." She called in her bodyguards and had me dragged down into the basement. The air down there choked with dust. They tied me brutally to a metal chair. Vivian stood right before me, holding a heavy hammer. "Since these hands are useless, I'll destroy them." The moment that hammer crashed down, my wrist collapsed inward at a grotesque angle. Cold sweat instantly drenched my body. I clamped my teeth shut, a muffled, guttural howl tearing from my throat. Vivian watched with absolute coldness. She turned to the guards. "Cut his tendons. I never want to see him hold a scalpel again." The blade pierced my skin, digging deep. One by one, the tendons were severed. Until finally, I couldn't feel my hands at all. Blood pooled across the concrete floor, but the agony in my chest far outweighed the mutilation of my flesh. On the weekend, the banquet hall glittered with crystal chandeliers. Ethan arrived with his arm looped through Vivian’s, dressed in a sharp tailored suit, wearing a modest smile. When it came time for gifts, he carried a rolled-up calligraphy scroll and approached Vivian's grandfather. "Mr. Lin, I wrote this with my own hands. I hope you like it." The room fell dead silent. Vivian's cousin, who had always hated her, burst out laughing. "Cousin, did our family go bankrupt or something?" "You dare present Grandpa with flea-market trash that nobody would buy for five bucks?" Ethan's face drained completely of color. He gripped Vivian's sleeve tightly. I almost laughed out loud. All those years, to protect her pride, I memorized every single preference of the Lin family patriarch. Every gift was painstakingly chosen, every banquet an absolute triumph for her reputation. How could she have secured her footing in the Lin family and claimed executive power without my tireless groundwork? Yet she never gave a damn. Just like tonight—she hadn't even bothered to ask what gift Ethan had prepared. Because she trusted him blindly. She never expected him to humiliate her like this. Suddenly, Vivian stepped forward, shielding Ethan behind her. "Grandpa, it's my fault. I've been too busy with work and didn't have time to prepare properly." She raised her chin, her gaze sweeping across the stunned crowd, her voice crystal clear. "But Ethan's sincerity is worth more than anything money can buy."Her blatant favoritism left the entire hall breathless. Everyone knew Vivian cared about family decorum and reputation above all else. The first year I attended this banquet as her fiancé, the gift I picked failed to fully impress her grandfather. She made me kneel in the reception hall the entire night. Now, she was shouldering the blame entirely for Ethan. I should have laughed. Instead, the phantom taste of copper rose in my throat. Vivian stepped forward again. "Grandpa, the deed to the Hayes estate is finalized." I stared at her, completely frozen. My parents had died young; my grandfather was the one who raised me. That old estate was the only physical memory I had left of him. When the Hayes family collapsed financially, I was terrified of making her feel shortchanged. I transferred the deed to her name. The old man flipped through the paperwork and laughed boisterously. "The manor is finally ours! Excellent work, Vivian!" My dead heart twisted with violent pain once more. From the very beginning, this was an orchestrated scam targeting the last asset my family possessed. Vivian instantly became the star of the gala once again, and people flocked to flatter Ethan right alongside her. Amid the clinking glasses, Ethan somehow tumbled into the deep end of the swimming pool. Vivian’s face drained of color. Without a second’s hesitation, she dove straight in. My eyes widened in horror. Vivian didn't even know how to swim. When the staff hauled them out, Vivian was drenched from head to toe, coughing violently. Yet the moment she caught her breath, she lunged to Ethan's side. Ethan gripped her trembling hands in sheer terror. "Vivian, I was so scared..." "It's over, I'm here." Her voice shook as she held him tightly. Ethan shrank back, pointing a trembling finger toward a dim corner. "She pushed me! It was her!" Everyone turned to look. I looked too, and my heart plummeted. It was Chloe—the girl I had sponsored through college. Vivian marched over to her. "What the hell are you doing here?" Chloe clutched the fabric of her skirt, her face paper-white. "Ms. Lin, I couldn't reach Luke for days. I was worried sick, so I asked around and found out about this event..." Ethan chimed in weakly, "You're the student Luke sponsors... Why would you track him down at a private Lin family banquet?" It was like a lightbulb went off in Vivian's head. "Luke sent you, didn't he?" "Murdering Ethan's father wasn't enough? Now he wants Ethan dead too?!" "No! That's not true!" Chloe waved her hands, trying desperately to explain. Vivian sneered and seized Chloe's wrist. "Still playing innocent?" "I'm taking you to Luke right now so you can confront him face-to-face!" "Vivian!" Ethan suddenly turned ghostly pale, clutching his chest as his knees buckled. "Ethan!" Vivian lunged back to catch him. The hall erupted into chaos. Only I saw the subtle smirk curling at the corner of Ethan's lips as he sank into her arms. A jagged shard of memory violently tore through my mind. In the basement, the smell of blood was thick enough to choke on. With my tendons severed and every bone in my fingers crushed, I was sprawled on the concrete like a discarded rag, waiting for death. The door had opened. Ethan walked down alone, gripping the leashes of two massive, vicious mastiffs. He walked up to me and ground his heel into my ruined wrist. I didn't even have the strength left to scream, only able to gasp shallowly for air. "Pretty lonely down here by yourself, isn't it, Dr. Hayes?" "I brought you some company. They've been riled up, and they need to vent." He unclipped the leashes. Heavy bodies slammed into me, but I had no way to fight back. The sickening stench of beastly breath. Fangs tearing through skin and muscle. Humiliation and agony cutting deeper than bone. My broken body was dragged across the floor, slammed against the concrete, bones snapping. I couldn't form a single word. I just glared at Ethan with blood-filled eyes. Finally, the carnage stopped. I lay in a puddle of blood and filth, my vision fading, clinging to my very last breath. Ethan crouched down, tapping the flat of his knife against my cheek before pressing the tip right against my chest. He leaned in, his voice a whisper meant only for me. "Let me tell you a secret. I'm the one who pulled my dad's oxygen tube. The old bastard was standing in my way." My pupils dilated violently. He chuckled softly. "Too bad no one will ever know." "Game over, Doctor." Without a shred of hesitation, he plunged the blade straight into my heart.Vivian sped through red lights, rushing Ethan straight into the ER. When the doctor finally emerged from the room, he let out a heavy sigh. "It's acute food poisoning. High dosage. Luckily, you brought him in just in time." Ethan walked out, leaning weakly against the frame, offering Vivian a fragile, pale smile. "This morning, Luke said he knew he was wrong. He made a bowl of soup dumplings to apologize to me... That was the only thing I ate all day." "He's your fiancé. It's only natural he hates me." Vivian clenched her fists so hard her knuckles turned white. "Luke... How dare he!" A bitter sneer crossed my ghostly face. The exact same trick. After my tendons were cut, Ethan claimed I poisoned him. Vivian personally smashed my finger bones to dust. I had tried to explain through my despair, but Vivian refused to believe a single word I said. She was a ruthless corporate powerhouse. How could she not see through such an obvious setup? It was simply that in her eyes, Ethan was pure, innocent, and incapable of deceit. The doctor pushed the door open again, holding another file, an awkward expression on his face. "Ms. Lin, your lab results came back as well. You're pregnant. About four weeks along." The air in the hallway froze instantly. A second later, she whipped around, grabbing Ethan's hands, her voice trembling with sheer joy. "Ethan, did you hear that? It's our baby!" "Baby." The word twisted like a dull blade inside my long-dead chest. Three years into our engagement, she had gotten pregnant with my child too. Back then, she was in the middle of a major career promotion. Without telling me, she went to the clinic and had an abortion. When I found out, my eyes burning red, I asked her why. Vivian's tone had been completely indifferent. "We're still young. It's not the right time." Now, Ethan pulled Vivian into a tight embrace, practically vibrating with excitement. "Vivian... A baby! I'm going to be a father!" While they were celebrating, the clinic door was shoved open from the outside. Chloe stood at the entrance, her hair disheveled. "Where is Luke?! What did you do to him?!" Vivian sneered coldly. "I was just looking for you, and here you are walking right into my hands." "Fine. I'll take you to Luke right now. We're settling everything today." She grabbed Chloe by the arm and dragged her out. Ethan leaned back against the headboard, his lips parting as if to say something, but he never made a move to stop them. The car tore through the streets back to the house. Vivian hauled Chloe inside, practically kicking the front door open. The housekeeper rushed over in a panic. "Ms. Lin, you're back! Mr. Luke, he..." "Drag Luke out here right now!" The housekeeper turned stark white, trembling violently on the spot. Vivian didn't wait. She stormed straight toward the basement stairs. "Luke, get your ass out here!" Seeing me lying motionless in the far corner, she walked over and kicked my body hard. "Get up! Stop playing dead!" The body rolled over under her kick. My face had already decomposed into a hollow, rotting nightmare of exposed bone.