A Ten-Year Dream, All in Vain

I was a mortuary reconstruction specialist.

On the eve of my wedding, I restored the remains of an unidentified woman, only to discover, shockingly, that she was Mike’s longmissing mother.

Before I had a chance to tell him the news, I was kidnapped and dragged into an underground fighting arena.

They disfigured my face, poisoned my voice into silence, drugged me and tied me up onstage to be auctioned off as a human stress toy.

With my eyes swollen to a narrow slit, I saw Mike holding his lover, passionately kissing her amid the rowdy crowd. "Mike, do you think your fiancée’s off fondling corpses again? No wonder you came here to throw your bachelor party with your sweetheart!"

After the kiss, Mike reluctantly let go of the woman in his arms and said nonchalantly,

"Karen likes fondling corpses and I like fondling Jane. We each have our own preferences! I'm getting married tomorrow, so of course I need to make Jane happy tonight!"

As the arena announced the stressrelief method and price, I struggled to wink at Mike, trying to signal him.

But he thought I was flirting with him.

Disgusted, he paid thirty thousand dollars to win the bid for slapping me a hundred times.

Mike was invited up on stage, yet he didn’t even glance at me.

He put on the special gloves handed to him by the host and raised his hand, slapping my face back and forth.

By the twentieth slap, my eardrums were already ringing.

Warm liquid trickled down the corner of my mouth that I couldn't tell if it was saliva or blood.

Mike shook out his wrist, then turned to the audience and gave Jane a doting smile. "Jane, want to come try it? It’s really stressrelieving! These people are just deadbeats who owe gambling debts anyway. It feels damn good to hit them!"

Jane covered her mouth and shook her head, but her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Mike, you go ahead. Watching you hit her is enough for me!"

The thrill and provocation in her eyes made me start to wonder. Did she know who I was?

I tried to widen my swollen eyes, letting out muffled cries through the tape over my mouth.

Jane, however, pointed at me and said, "Mike, she looks like she’s enjoying it. Go on, keep going!"

Jane was a psychologist, so naturally, her words carried weight with Mike. But I didn’t want to be hit anymore—much less die in this hellhole.

As Mike’s next slap came flying, I summoned all my strength and dodged.

The slap missed.

To please Mike, the host grabbed my hair with a mocking grin, forcing my head up. "Looks like our stressrelief toy has a bit of an attitude!"

"Mr. Genevan, as tonight’s top bidder, you get two special bonus rounds on the house."

The host publicly recited all kinds of shameful deeds I had supposedly committed while skirting the edge of legality.

After that, Mike no longer held back.

He tossed aside his bloodstained gloves and his slender fingers slid down the list of "special programs"—each one more brutal than the last, sending chills through me.

Sensing my fear, he deliberately paused at each item, commenting on them one by one.

Just last night, these very hands had tenderly prepared soup for me.

Now, they were soaked in my blood.

His gaze lingered on the line labeled "Rebellion Correction."

He chuckled softly, "This one. Karen loves studying human bones, so do I. Let’s try them while they’re still alive."

The moment electricity surged through my body, Mike raised a hammer and smashed it down, shattering my wrist.

In the throes of agony, I heard myself let out a scream so raw it barely sounded human.

‘Mike, do you even realize that the wrist you just crushed belongs to your fiancée of ten years, the woman who’s been by your side all this time?’

But then again, maybe it no longer mattered. After all, even before the wedding, you’d already cheated and taken on a mistress.

The socalled love felt like nothing more than a cruel joke.

My agonized screams drew thunderous cheers from the audience.

Those few degenerate friends praised Mike for being swift, accurate and ruthless.

"Mike, that thirty thousand dollars was really worth it! Look at how badly you’ve beaten her, yet there’s still a sparkle in her eyes when she looks at you! Honestly, her voice does sound a bit like your fiancée’s. Even that red mole on the back of her hand is in the same spot. Maybe she came here for you?"

Mike stared intently at my red mole, momentarily stunned.

I was filled with hope, thinking he had finally recognized me.

But the next second, his face twisted with disgust and without a moment's hesitation, he shattered all the joints in my fingers.

"A heartless gambling addict like you dares to resemble my Karen? I’ll break your hands and see if you can still gamble then!"

The pain nearly made me pass out and not a single word could escape my throat.

It was my fault. I never should have gambled on human nature.

I had stood by Mike from his days as a downandout boxer to now, a rising star in the business world.

I thought tomorrow's wedding would be the start of our happiness. But I didn’t realize that it had all been my delusion.

To better capture my suffering, Jane ran up with her phone to record me.

"Mike, the way she's clawing at the floor is just like that ragdoll cat your fiancée used to have."

"Too bad I accidentally killed it today. You think she’ll blame me?"

"It's dead, so what. Karen and I are already trying for a baby. Cat fur isn’t good for pregnant women."

A violent tremor ran through me.

Snowball was the cat Mike and I raised together. Just this morning before I went to work, he said he and Snowball would be waiting for me to come home.

But Snowball was dead now and I couldn’t go home either.

Mike didn’t want to meet my gaze and directly pressed the electric shock button. The current suddenly intensified, making me convulse and curl up.

The stabbing pain in my abdomen reminded me of the two lines on the pregnancy test I saw yesterday.

I had planned to surprise Mike with the news at our wedding tomorrow. It was a double blessing.

But I never got the chance. What was meant to be joyful had now become a thorn in my heart.

For a fleeting moment, amidst the chaos in my mind, I wondered. If I had told him yesterday that I was pregnant, would I have been spared this torment today?

He once said that even if I turned to ashes, he would still recognize me. But now, I stood right before him and he didn’t know me at all.

Worse yet, at the host’s suggestion, he chose another torture method. "Add another seventy thousand dollars. I want to see the water punishment."

Mike's voice was laced with ice, sending a chill through my entire body.

The host, thrilled that I had fetched such a high price, kept praising Mike and Jane as a golden couple.

My vision blurred with blood, but it didn’t stop me from clearly seeing Jane leaning smugly in his arms.

Her fingers, adorned with a diamond identical to mine, drew slow circles on his chest.

“Mike, you’re always so thoughtful… You know I faint at the sight of blood...”

Suddenly, two tubes were shoved into my nostrils and icecold water mixed with chili powder was poured in.

I convulsed violently like a fish out of water, the pain in my abdomen growing more unbearable by the second.

Warm liquid streamed down the inside of my thigh, pooling into a small puddle of blood on the iron chair.

"She seems to be bleeding heavily!" Someone suddenly shouted.

Jane turned sharply at the sound and when she saw the bloodstains, an immense hatred flashed in her eyes.

But in the next moment, she staggered twice before collapsing with precision onto the floor beside me.

Amidst the frantic footsteps of the crowd, her cold fingers suddenly gripped my ankle.

"Karen, good luck! Hope you can live to see tomorrow's sun."

Anger surged within me and I lifted my foot, kicking her hand away with all my strength.

She let out a painful cry, closed her eyes and fainted.

Mike rushed over and picked her up, turning to shout at me in anger.

"You bitch dare to kick my Jane? Are you looking for death!"

"I'll offer another 700 thousand dollars! Anyone here can come up and have a go, just don't kill her!"

My vision began to darken and the host hurriedly gave the order, "Quick, untie her! If she really dies, how are we going to deal with Mr. Genevan afterward?"

At the moment the ropes were loosened, I used my last bit of strength to lunge at Mike.

My deformed fingers, twisted in the blood, shakily wrote the first stroke of the character “Karen" in the pool of blood. The pain from having all ten fingers broken made me tremble all over.

Someone asked in confusion.

"What is this crazy woman doing?"

Mike stopped in his tracks and looked down at the ground.

When the incomplete character “Karen" entered his sight, his pupils suddenly contracted.

"Karen?"

I desperately nodded, tears of blood mixing as they dripped onto the name.

Looking at my miserable state, Mike felt a sharp pain in his chest and even his throat felt like it was clogged with damp cotton, unbearably uncomfortable.

But as Jane in her arms cried out in discomfort, his shiny leather shoe viciously crushed my fingers.

"How dare you write my fiancee's name? You knew Jane fainted from blood, how dare you bleed this much?"

Even though my consciousness was already fading, Mike’s anger was still unquenched.

He lifted his foot and kicked my abdomen with all his strength.

"They really guessed it right, you thought you could seduce me to save you? Dream on! You’re not even worth a single strand of my fiance’s hair!"

If he hadn’t been holding Jane in his arms when he said this, it might have been more convincing.

A large amount of warm liquid spilled out from below and Mike’s shoe sole was stained with blood.

But what he didn’t know was that this bloodsoaked ground was from the child he cherished so much.

"Mike, this blood loss is abnormal!"

"You're getting married tomorrow, it’s unlucky to get blood on you, should we just stop?"

"Shut your mouth, you damn crow!"

Mike snapped sharply, then ordered the arena staff to hurry and call a doctor to stabilize my life.

"If she really dies, it’s only because her life is too weak!"

The pain crashed over me in waves like the tide and even fainting seemed like a luxury.

Mike’s friends took turns standing guard, ensuring that if I died, they could handle it in time.

They treated me like a living corpse, casually discussing my fate, their voices intermittently drifting into my ears.

"Mike is amazing. He even made Jane willingly be his mistress for life!"

"Yeah, and Jane became his lover even before she graduated, right? I remember that he had just proposed to Karen not long before that."

So, Mike had been cheating two years ago.

I didn’t know how his heart could be torn in two, yet he could still act so deeply affectionate in front of me.

I lay in the pool of blood, feeling my life slowly draining from me.

After emergency treatment, the bleeding finally stopped.

The child in my womb was gone.

In a daze, I heard Mike’s footsteps as he returned.

"Mike, she lost the child, it’s so pitiful. How about we just let her go? The money can be considered as charity..."

Jane pleaded for me with a sob, but Mike sneered coldly. "Jane, you're too kind! The law can’t educate people like her, the scum of society. Someone has to discipline her parents."

A new round of torment was about to begin.

After all, the rules of the underground fighting arena were clear—if you owed a debt you couldn’t pay, your body was the collateral.

As long as I didn't die, I could continue to be their tool for stress relief.

My consciousness fluctuated between excruciating pain and unconsciousness.

The sounds around me were a blur, as if they were muffled through a thick fog of blood.

Someone roughly grabbed my hair, dragging me into a damp and dark basement, throwing me onto the cold cement floor.

"Mr. Genevan said not to let her die, we need her for tomorrow."

The iron door slammed shut with a bang and the darkness swallowed everything.

I curled up in the corner, trembling from the pain all over my body. My tears had long since dried up, leaving only numbness.

I didn’t know how much time passed, but Mike’s impatient voice echoed in the brightened surveillance screen.

"Why can’t I get through to Karen’s phone?"

"Mike, don’t worry, she is probably just busy with work."

"Bullshit! No matter how busy she is, she will never ignore my calls!"

Mike's voice carried a distinct hint of panic.

My heart skipped a beat, as if an invisible hand had clenched it tight and I dared not even breathe too deeply.

He’s looking for me.

The next moment, Mike received another call.

The voice of my close friend, Kyle, came through clearly.

"Mike, is Karen with you? Her phone has been unreachable!"

Mike suppressed his unease, pausing for a moment before speaking in a casual tone, "She’s probably working late again. You know how she is, always a workaholic."

Kyle firmly disagreed. "Impossible! Tomorrow’s the wedding, she wouldn’t still be working at this hour!"

Mike fell silent for a few seconds, then quickly pulled out his phone and began checking the surveillance footage to track my whereabouts.

My heartbeat quickened and a faint spark of hope flickered within me.

Could he realize something was wrong?

Would he recognize that the person who was nearly tortured to death today was me?

"There's no one at home, just as I guessed. Kyle, don’t worry, Karen is either still working late or dragging her feet on the way home."

He hung up the phone and turned to the people around him, giving instructions.

"Prepare the car, I'll take Jane home."

My hope was instantly extinguished.

He would rather believe I was just lingering on the road than face the truth that the person he had tortured to the point of death was his fiancée.

"Mike, aren’t we going to play a little longer? You’re heading home so early?"

His friends, disappointed by my sudden miscarriage, hadn’t had their fill of fun.

Mike’s face instantly turned cold. "Tomorrow is my wedding with Karen. If I’m not going back to be with her, do you expect me to stay with you guys?"

The crowd fell silent, too afraid to speak.

But Jane boldly wrapped her arms around his neck and acted coquettishly. "Mike, can you stay with me tonight? Starting tomorrow, you won’t belong to me anymore. I’m so sad..."

"Jane! You need to know your place. I promised you I would throw a fortune at you tonight to help you unwind and you should be content. I don’t like greedy women!"

But his cold, harsh words were easily shattered by Jane.

"Mike, I bought your favorite maid outfit. Tonight, you can tear it up to your heart’s content…"

The air froze for a moment.

I heard Mike’s breathing suddenly become heavier, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

He pulled out his phone and sent me a voice message, his tone unbelievably gentle.

[Karen, I drank too much at the bachelor party tonight, so I’m staying at a friend’s place. You sleep well and tomorrow I’ll marry you.]

After he sent the message, he lifted Jane by the waist.

I watched as he hurriedly left, unable to suppress the tears that silently slid down my face again. But the pain from the wounds on my face made it so I couldn’t even cry properly.

It turned out, his tenderness was so fake.

It turned out, his love was so cheap.

I closed my eyes and memories surged in like a tidal wave.

Two years ago, Mike knelt down on one knee, placing a ring on my finger, his eyes filled with starlight.

"Karen, marry me. In this lifetime, I will only love you."

Six months ago, after I stayed up late preparing a birthday surprise for him, he hugged me tenderly. "Silly girl, you are a thousand times more important than any gift."

Yesterday, he kissed my forehead, swearing with all his might.

"Karen, starting tomorrow, please guide me through the rest of our lives! I promise, I will never let you suffer even a little."

The Mike in my memories was a completely different person from the cruel and violent adulterer he was today.

I curled up in the darkness, my body cold, as my consciousness slowly sank into the abyss.

If this was love, then I would rather have never met him.

The squeaking sound of rats suddenly jolted me awake, my body drenched in cold sweat.

As soon as I moved, the rats cautiously backed away a few steps, but they didn't run away, as though they knew I was so weak that I didn't even have the strength to drive them away.

The iron door creaked open and a man with a brutish face threw a bowl of spoiled food into the room.

"Eat it. Don't starve to death. Mike said, you still have debts to repay."

A hoarse, desperate sound escaped from my throat as I shook my head with all my might.

I didn't gamble.

And I certainly didn't owe any debts.

The man frowned impatiently.

"What other tricks do you want to play?"

I tremblingly extended my deformed fingers, dipping them in the water on the ground. With all the strength I had left, I managed to scrawl in crooked letters on the cement floor. "I am Mike's fiancee."

The man stared at the words on the ground, then suddenly burst into laughter, as if hearing the biggest joke of his life.

"You? Mike's fiancee?"

He took out his phone and started a livestream, holding it in front of me.

"Open your eyes wide and take a good look. Mike's wedding is about to begin and I don't know how many lives you have to pretend to be Mike's fiancee!"

On the screen, Mike stood at the entrance of the hotel, dressed in a welltailored black suit, a fresh flower pinned to his chest, anxiously looking around.

"Mike, the lucky hour is almost here, why hasn’t the bride arrived?"

The host's puzzled voice came from the phone.

The man retracted his phone, stomping on the knuckles where I'd written with a brutal force.

"Been watching long enough?" he sneered. "I could tell yesterday that you, this toad, were trying to get a taste of something beyond your reach. But you're still not giving up, huh? You probably don't even know, Mike's fiancee is a renowned mortician, even the police take her seriously! She's nothing like the likes of you, some scamming gambler!"

The sharp pain from the brutal kick made me curl into a ball, but despite the agony, a sliver of hope surged within me.

As long as Mike realized I was missing, he would definitely come looking for me.

The auspicious time had arrived at the hotel.

The guests were whispering among themselves and the emcee had already rearranged the program for the third time.

Mike stood in the lounge, calling my phone over and over again, but no one ever answered.

“Mike, why can’t we get in touch with Karen? Could something have happened to her?”

Kyle, the bridesmaid, was so anxious she was on the verge of tears.

Mike’s face grew darker and darker. He grabbed his coat and dashed out. “I’m going to find her!”

He sped all the way home and when he pushed open the door, the living room was silent.

My slippers were neatly placed by the entryway and the wedding dress was still hanging on the rack in the center of the room, the dust cover not even removed.

“Karen?” he called out.

He searched every room one by one, even opening the wardrobe to check, but there was still no sign of me.

He checked the bathroom and confirmed that I hadn’t come home the night before.

He couldn’t help but smile wryly, then picked up the wedding dress and headed straight to the police station.

He knew that the only reason I would neglect everything, including the wedding, was if I had been called in to help with a body reconstruction.

After all, every time I reconstructed a body, it helped confirm the deceased’s identity and bring justice to the wronged.

“Mr. Genevan, you’re just in time! We were about to contact you. Your mother’s whereabouts have been discovered. Regretfully, she has been found murdered.”

His mother had been missing for half a month. He thought it was the reason why I hadn’t come home and even missed the wedding. I must’ve been with his mother, waiting for him.

Mike forced himself to suppress the grief of losing his mother and asked the officers to take him to find me. “Karen and my mom were close. She… she’s okay, right?”

But the officer looked at him in surprise. “Miss Spears finished her reconstruction work yesterday and left. She even said she was getting married today and would bring you good news!”

The unease in Mike’s heart grew like a wild vine, tightening around his chest. With trembling hands, he pulled out his phone and dialed my number again.

Still, no answer.

He completely panicked and immediately requested the police’s help to find my whereabouts.

With the police conducting a rapid investigation, they tracked my phone to an underground fight club.

Could that be the reason I ran away from the wedding? Had I found out I had cheated and was hiding from him out of guilt?

Mike’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.

Once again, I was hauled into the underground fighting ring.

"Per the sponsor’s special request, we’re changing the game tonight."

“Anyone here can tattoo any part of her body!”

The host emphasized the words “any part,” and the crowd erupted in wild cheers.

A sharp blade etched cut after cut into my skin, marking me with pain and humiliation.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. Surrounded by the stench of blood, I finally closed my eyes in despair.

Suddenly, the main door slammed open with a thunderous kick.

“Everyone, stop!”

The familiar voice made my whole body shudder. I struggled to lift my head and saw Mike storm in with a group behind him.