Before her consciousness fully faded, Tao Ran vaguely heard the words “Deal.”
A moment later, she felt her hands and feet being untied. Her ring and bag were taken, and even her pockets were emptied.
Good.
That’s good enough.
She soon lost all awareness.
Black clinics had their own advantages — as long as you paid, anything could be negotiated.
Thank heavens! When Tao Ran finally opened her eyes again, her mind was filled with a new flood of memories — the delayed upload of the original host’s experiences had finally arrived.
The story took place sometime in the early 2000s.
The original host’s name was Tang Ran, a small-town girl whose name coincidentally resembled Tao Ran’s.
Tang Ran was diligent and ambitious, eventually earning admission to a decent university.
During college, she fell in love with her classmate Fang Ming.
They had a lot in common — both from small towns, both from ordinary families, neither particularly outstanding in looks or charm.
Their biggest difference was that Fang Ming had better grades and majored in a field that promised better career prospects.
Because of that, Fang Ming often joked that Tang Ran was the one who had lucked out in their relationship.
Despite his arrogance, their relationship was stable. But when it came to their future, they had a disagreement — Fang Ming wanted to study abroad, while Tang Ran planned to pursue a master’s degree at home.
To stay together, one of them had to compromise.
That was when Fang Ming brought Tang Ran to a new apartment — a place his parents had bought for him. He told her that he envisioned spending the rest of his life with her there.
Tang Ran was moved by his words and easily swayed by his sweet promises. She not only accepted his proposal but also gave up her dream of graduate school.
Fang Ming’s luck turned out to be ridiculously good — he was soon accepted by a prestigious foreign university. His family encouraged Tang Ran to go with him, saying it would strengthen their bond and allow her to “gain some international polish.”
The Tang family also agreed. It wasn’t every day one got the chance to go abroad; at the very least, it was a chance to see the world.
So the two got married quickly, and Tang Ran applied for a dependent visa.
The Fang family paid the down payment for the new house, but all the renovation costs were borne by Tang Ran’s family.
Not wanting their daughter to be looked down on, her parents emptied their savings, bought appliances, even borrowed money to help with Fang Ming’s tuition — on the condition that Tang Ran’s name be added to the property deed.
The Fang family readily agreed, but time was tight, and the young couple was in a hurry to go abroad. The deed was never amended, and they didn’t even have time for a proper wedding banquet.
Once overseas, Tang Ran realized that Fang Ming’s family hadn’t actually given him a cent.
After paying his tuition with the money she’d brought, she had barely anything left.
Unwilling to ask her family for more, Tang Ran put her dream of further study on hold and started working instead.
That job turned into two exhausting years.
Tang Ran supported all their expenses — rent, food, Fang Ming’s tuition, even the mortgage back home. She worked full-time at a small company by day and waited tables at night. She never told her parents about the hardship, not wanting to worry them.
To save money, they didn’t go home for two whole years.
But her sacrifices seemed worth it when, before returning home, Fang Ming received an offer from the well-known Lu Group.
Tang Ran thought their hard days were finally over.
Instead, the moment they returned to China, she was slapped with a divorce agreement.
The reason? “Irreconcilable differences.”
Fang Ming coldly told her, “You’re not worthy of me anymore.”
He insisted on the divorce, and when Tang Ran’s family demanded compensation, the Fang family showed their true colors — shameless and conniving.
They claimed that the renovation had been a gift, that the loan repayments had come from Fang Ming’s own part-time income, and that Tang Ran had contributed nothing.
They even denied that Tang Ran had ever undergone surgery for him.
That surgery — and its lingering aftereffects — had permanently damaged her health. She couldn’t even work overtime anymore.
In the end, she lost everything: love, marriage, health, money, and dignity.
The Tang family took the matter to court.
But Fang Ming hired one of the best lawyers and brought in fabricated witnesses and evidence. They painted Tang Ran as immoral, claiming she’d squandered Fang Ming’s money abroad. They even produced a rental contract “proving” the house she lived in overseas had been paid for by Fang Ming.
Xiao Ai and Liu Jie testified that Tang Ran had been romantically involved with another man — that she’d spent her family’s money on a drunken pretty boy. They claimed to have caught her cheating during a dinner party at Fang Ming’s rental.
Against their synchronized lies, Tang Ran had no concrete evidence to defend herself — not even proof of the forced abortion.
She was devastated.
Did they really have to be this cruel?
She began to suspect that the black clinic ordeal hadn’t been about saving a few hundred dollars — Fang Ming had planned it, to erase all evidence of her pregnancy.
In the end, the court awarded Tang Ran’s family a mere fifty thousand yuan — barely a fraction of what she had spent over the years.
In other words, she had served as Fang Ming’s unpaid maid, cook, and cash cow — only to be discarded when he climbed high enough.
Tang Ran fell into depression.
Three months after the divorce, she saw the news — Fang Ming had remarried.
The bride was Lu Sitong, the eldest daughter of the Lu Group — the same company that had hired him. She, too, was a returnee from abroad, from a nearby city.
A socialite heiress marrying him just three months post-divorce? It didn’t take much to connect the dots.
So that was why he’d rushed the divorce.
Furious, Tang Ran went to confront him. By then, Fang Ming had entered Lu Group’s management and openly admitted everything.
“Why? Because I came from nothing,” he sneered. “My family couldn’t buy me a house or send me overseas. I had to find my own way up. You were just a stepping stone. I clawed my way out of that small town — why would I go back to live a mediocre life with you?”
He called in his bodyguards and ordered them to “teach her a lesson.”
Tang Ran went home battered and ill. Her father, enraged, stormed to Lu Group and managed to intercept Lu Sitong in person.
At first, Lu Sitong put on a polite face and led him to a private room — but then she dropped the act, mocked and insulted him viciously.
Unable to stand it, Tang Ran’s father raised a hand to slap her — but before he could, he was restrained by her bodyguards.
Lu Sitong coldly ordered them to break his leg.
“There’s still law in this country!” Tang Ran’s father roared as he was beaten to the ground.
“There is,” Lu Sitong replied coolly. “And the cameras show you struck first. You can call the police, but I’ll make sure you’re the one who ends up in jail first.”
She tossed a few thousand yuan at him. “This is the first and last warning. If I see any of your family again, it won’t just be one leg next time.”
Her father was sent home crippled. The doctor said he needed surgery.
Her mother was so distraught that her blood pressure spiked, nearly giving her a stroke.
Tang Ran was crushed.
What had they done to deserve this?
They weren’t after money — they just wanted justice!
Watching her bedridden parents, Tang Ran swore she wouldn’t let those monsters get away with it.
She began investigating the Lu Group and soon discovered a brewing internal war — the old chairman’s two sons were fighting for control, splitting the company into rival factions.
Lu Sitong and Fang Ming had just entered the fray, making things even more volatile. The chairman was set to retire next month — the decisive moment.
Tang Ran decided to act.
She tried to hack into Fang Ming’s email. In those days, smartphones weren’t widespread, and emails were the main communication tool. She figured there must be something there.
Security systems were primitive back then — no IP tracking or account lockouts. Fang Ming’s security answers? She knew them all.
Even though he’d changed the password, she managed to reset it using his phone number, ID digits, and birthday.
Unfortunately, the inbox was empty.
She didn’t give up and noticed that Fang Ming had a second linked email. She started guessing again — and finally cracked it.
The password was Lu Sitong’s initials plus Fang Ming’s birthday.
Inside were countless love emails between the two — evidence that they’d been together for eight months before his divorce.
An heiress being an accomplice in an affair? This scandal could destroy them both.
Tang Ran planned to expose it before the Lu Group’s board meeting — file a lawsuit, contact the press, reclaim her lost dignity.
But just when she was ready, she received a strange call: her mother had collapsed.
She rushed to the location, only to be ambushed in a deserted alley.
When she woke, it was dark. She was tied up in a van. The driver was the same bodyguard who had beaten her before.
In the passenger seat lay her evidence files — the ones she’d given her lawyer. They’d been watching her all along.
Partway through the trip, the bodyguard got out, and someone else climbed in — dressed in black, cap pulled low, gloves on.
Tang Ran recognized him immediately.
Fang Ming.
The realization hit her like ice — he was there to silence her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Everything I did before was to win Lu Sitong’s trust. I even held back when I told them to ‘teach’ you. But you wouldn’t let go.”
“You’re too restless, Tang Ran. I clawed my way up from nothing. I can’t let anyone drag me down — not now. I must become someone. Anyone in my way… has to go.”
He injected something into her arm.The van drove farther into the mountains, stopping atop a remote peak after an hour. Tang Ran’s body went numb from the drug.
“You’ve been depressed,” Fang Ming murmured, placing her limp body in the driver’s seat. “If you die in an accident, no one will question it.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered weakly. “Please… spare my parents…”
“If they stay out of my way, they’ll be fine.”
But she knew they wouldn’t be.
If she disappeared, her parents would never stop seeking justice — and he would kill them too.
One minute later, the van plunged off the cliff.
A deafening crash echoed through the night, startling a flock of birds into flight.
In that instant, Tang Ran’s anguish and unwillingness burned to their peak.
She was innocent. Her parents were innocent.
What crime had they committed, other than demanding justice?