From Broken Family to Life Winner: A Reborn Mother's Journey

Su Dan was livid at Su Li’s indifferent expression. ”What’s with this attitude, Su Li? How can you be so nonchalant? I’m your own brother! If you keep this up, Mom will come here herself.”

Seeing Su Li stop in her tracks, Su Dan held out his hand. ”Give me money. I’m broke.”

Su Li let out a breath, steadying her emotions.

”Su Dan, listen to me carefully. I’m not giving you any money. Not now, not ever. Don’t come looking for me again. Your business with Qin Shanshan is your own—I can’t interfere, and I don’t want to.”

”If you come looking for me again, I won’t see you. And don’t even think about threatening me. It won’t work.”

Su Li turned to leave, but Su Dan, infuriated, grabbed her arm. ”You’ll give it to me whether you want to or not! She’s not your real mother, but you owe her! You have to give it to me for her!”

”Let go. If you don’t, I’ll call the security guard. He’ll take you to the police station.”

”All you ever do is threaten me with the police! The police don’t handle family matters!” Su Dan tried to pump himself up.

”Don’t you know perfectly well whether they handle it or not?” Su Li pried his hand off and walked away without looking back.

Su Dan was seething, but without Miao Fenghua or Qin Shanshan to back him up, he lacked the guts to press the issue. He walked off, muttering curses under his breath.

When he and Qin Shanshan had first rented their place, they had paid six months’ rent up front. Now, with nowhere else to go in the Imperial City, Su Dan headed back there.

As soon as he arrived, the landlord handed him a letter. It was from Qin Shanshan.

In the letter, Qin Shanshan asked Su Dan to come visit her.

Knowing Su Dan’s personality—that he would never do anything without something in it for him—Qin Shanshan wrote that if he visited, she would tell him where she had hidden some money.

The temptation was too much for Su Dan to resist. He went to see Qin Shanshan the very next day.

When he saw Qin Shanshan again, Su Dan could barely recognize her.

When Su Dan had first met Qin Shanshan, she was still in high school. At sixteen, in the bloom of her youth, she had been so stunningly beautiful and full of life it was unreal.

He had fallen for her after a single glance.

It was truly love at first sight.

Su Dan never forgot her after that. In fact, his affection grew, and when they later ended up together by a twist of fate, he was genuinely overjoyed.

Even after various troubles had taken their toll on her looks, making her less beautiful than before—especially after her miscarriage, when she lost a lot of weight and seemed to age several years overnight.

It was as if a flower bud had suddenly withered, taking on a gloomy cast.

The woman Qin Shanshan had become was so different from the girl he first met. If he were meeting her for the first time now, he definitely wouldn’t have fallen in love at first sight.

However, because the image of the girl he’d first met was seared into his memory, he would always subconsciously see that version of her when he looked at her, and he could still find her beautiful.

This time, however, Su Dan couldn’t bring himself to even think the word ”beautiful.”

Though it had only been a short while since he’d last seen her, Qin Shanshan looked as if she had aged ten years. She was only in her early twenties, but she could have passed for thirty.

She was so terribly thin she could only be described as skin and bones. Her beautiful face from just three or four years ago now seemed like a distant dream.

Qin Shanshan was so emaciated that her eyes seemed to be all that was left of her face. Her gaze was murky and her hair was dry and yellowed. When she saw Su Dan, she couldn’t stop a vicious glint from flashing in her eyes, and her face contorted.

Su Dan stared, dumbfounded, barely recognizing the woman before him. He looked at Qin Shanshan and suddenly shuddered.

In that single instant, seeing her appearance, Su Dan made a decision in his heart: ’Divorce.’

Su Dan had been hesitant before, not because he had any lingering affection for her, but because he was still holding out hope for what he could get from her.

But in that one glance, all that hope died.

’With her looking like this, I have no desire to touch her at all.’

The decision was made in Su Dan’s heart, and it showed plainly on his face.

Qin Shanshan saw it all with perfect clarity. She had known for a long time that Su Dan was a real piece of work. Their years of marriage hadn’t been for nothing; she knew exactly what was going through his mind.

The corner of Qin Shanshan’s mouth twitched violently, and her pupils constricted.

”Su Dan,” she said his name slowly. ”Don’t even think about a divorce, Su Dan.”

She bit out the last words through clenched teeth.

Even now, everything that was happening felt unreal to Qin Shanshan. Or rather, she still couldn’t bring herself to believe any of it was true.

It wasn’t just the reality of her being in prison, but everything that had happened before. Ever since the miscarriage, Qin Shanshan had been living in a state of disbelief.

From her mad desire to destroy Su Li and Tang Mo, to her frenzied actions, to getting arrested, sentenced, and imprisoned—throughout this entire period, Qin Shanshan hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep.

She was trapped in a state of refusing to accept reality.

The torment she had endured since entering prison was unspeakable. Qin Shanshan stewed in her agony, her pain, her curses.

She knew exactly what kind of person Su Dan was, but as she waited and waited, the reality that he had completely vanished after her arrest was still enough to drive her mad.

’This was her husband. This was the man she was supposed to rely on for the rest of her life!’

Qin Shanshan cursed him, yet she couldn’t stop herself from scheming for a way to get him to visit her.

Other inmates, no matter how despicable, always had family come to visit—unless they were truly alone in the world. But she never had anyone.

Her parents weren’t in the Imperial City, and neither were her aunt and uncle. She had always been alone.

In the end, after racking her brain, she realized Su Dan was the only one she could possibly get to come.

And the result? The moment he saw her, his expression gave away his intentions.

”Su Dan, I will not divorce you! Don’t even think about it! In life, I am a member of the Su Family, and in death, I will be a ghost of the Su Family!”

Qin Shanshan said viciously, her hands clenched into tight fists.

”...The money... where did you hide the money?”

Su Dan nearly trembled under her gaze. The vicious glint in her eyes made him want to turn and run, but he forced himself to stay. For the sake of finding out where the money was, he held back his fear and asked his question.

”Did you only come here to ask where the money is?” Qin Shanshan asked, furious, even though she already knew the answer.

”Just tell me,” Su Dan pressed. ”I’m broke. I’m about to starve.”

Right now, the most valuable thing he owned was that camera. In the past, Su Dan would have sold it without a second thought, but now he was holding back.

’If things get really bad,’ he thought, ’I can always try to make money taking pictures. It’s a source of income.’

”You haven’t come to see me once. This is your first visit, so I can’t tell you just yet. Come see me again next month, and I’ll tell you then.”

Qin Shanshan didn’t actually have any money; it was just a lie to trick Su Dan. She planned to use it to keep him on the hook.

”No way. You have to tell me now.” Su Dan was so exasperated he could have spit blood. He had no desire to ever see Qin Shanshan again.

His plan was simple: get the location of the money, take it, and then immediately figure out how to file for divorce.

Miao Fenghua had also insisted that he get a divorce and come home.

”I’ll tell you next time. And when you come, bring some things for me.”

Qin Shanshan seized the chance to make her demands.

Su Dan’s patience snapped. ”How can I buy you things when you won’t tell me where the money is? Shanshan, you have to tell me where it is, or we’ll have to get a divorce. Mom is insisting on it... unless you still have money.”

A vicious look flashed across Qin Shanshan’s face. ”Divorce? Su Dan, I suggest you drop that idea right now. I will not agree to it!”