Chapter One: The Man She Could Not Hear

His gaze rested on her engagement ring. It was not the look of a stranger, but of someone confirming that a lost object now belonged to somebody else. “Not anymore,” he said. “My name is Gu Chenzhou.” Every page was blank. Only a faded blue hydrangea lay pressed against the final sheet. When Lin Wan touched a petal, pain tightened her chest. Grief poured out of the paper—frightening because it felt like her own. “What is this?” “The next twelve years of your marriage. It used to be full. Then someone erased it page by page.” “Who?” “You.” Lightning illuminated his face. Lin Wan heard no promise from him, only the flutter of many pages turning without hands. The book stopped at its first page. Wet ink slowly surfaced through the fibers: