The cell was cold.
Su Jinxi sat with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, thin fingers trembling as the winter wind snuck through the cracked windowpane. The lights buzzed overhead, casting a dull yellow glow on the concrete walls. Time was meaningless in this place a purgatory of silence and betrayal.
Her once glorious name was nothing more than a stained name
She had been China's national goddess celebrated for her poise, her performances, her beauty that seemed to transcend the screen. But now, the world remembered only her downfall.
Embezzlement. Drug possession. Attempted murder.
All lies. All performed by the two people she had trusted most.
"Qiao Liyuan…" she whispered the name like a curse, her lips dry and cracked. "Lin Muxue…"
Her fiancé and half-sister.
Together, they had taken everything , her career, her freedom, her life.
She closed her eyes, remembering the moment of betrayal in court. The gleam in Lin Muxue's tearful eyes, the false innocence in Qiao Liyuan's trembling hands as he clutched forged evidence. The jury had believed them.
Even the public had turned its back on her.
And now… she was dying.
The prison doctor had confirmed it — late-stage leukemia, advanced and untreated. There would be no mercy. No hospital transfer. Only death in a nameless, forgotten corner.
Su Jinxi laughed bitterly. The sound was hollow.
"So this is how it ends…"
She lay down on the iron bunk, no strength left to resist the darkness creeping through her bones.
But just as her breath faded, just as the final beat of her heart echoed in the void ,a voice whispered through the silence.
>"You deserve a second chance. But not in this world."
The darkness swallowed her whole.
---
When Su Jinxi opened her eyes again, she was drowning.
Her lungs burned, her limbs flailed instinctively. Water surged around her in every direction, cold and choking. Panic clawed at her throat until her fingers found the edge of a pool, and she surfaced with a gasp.
She coughed violently, blinking against the blur of light.
Where… was she?
The sky above was dark but clear, filled with unfamiliar constellations. A full moon hung heavy, casting silver ripples across the surface of a private pool. Surrounding her were walls of stone and bamboo fencing.
And in the distance , a massive villa standing.
She dragged herself out of the pool, her thin body trembling.
She was dressed in a silk nightgown, clinging wet to a frame that was not her own.
Su Jinxi stumbled to the patio doors, opened them — and froze as she passed a mirror.
A stranger stared back.
No — not a stranger. Someone softer. Younger. The woman in the reflection had wide almond-shaped eyes, a delicate jawline, and a faint scar above her lip. The features were unfamiliar, but Su Jinxi saw herself behind the eyes.
A new body.
A new face.
Her memories surged with frightening clarity — and new ones crashed into her mind like a storm.
Shen Jia.
That was this body's name.
A woman who grew up in a poor county, orphaned at twelve. Adopted by a distant relative. Quiet. Invisible. Until an absurd twist of fate married her to a man she'd never met — a man with too much power and too little affection.
Li Zhenyu.
Her husband.
Su Jinxi felt the name burn in her mind. Her hands trembled.
She had transmigrated — into the role of Shen Jia, the hidden wife of the city's most feared CEO.
---
The house was enormous, minimalistic, and eerily silent. Su Jinxi — now Shen Jia — walked barefoot through its marble halls, drying her hair with a towel. Servants avoided her gaze as she passed, bowing stiffly or pretending not to see her at all.
So this was how Shen Jia lived.
Hidden. Powerless. Disregarded.
And yet — legally, she was the wife of Li Zhenyu. Bound not by love, but by an old agreement signed by his dying grandfather and Shen Jia's guardian.
She had access to a fortune. But no one respected her.
She was a ghost in her own home.
Su Jinxi smiled coldly to herself. "How pitiful…"
But not for long.
She had once ruled the red carpets, outmaneuvered gossip columnists and boardroom snakes alike. If fate had handed her a second life — one married to the city's most powerful man — she would not waste it hiding in the shadows.
She would rise. And she would make them all regret ever underestimating her.
---
At breakfast the next morning, she sat at the long table alone, elegantly slicing through fruit. The maids watched her with curious eyes — there was something… different about her.
Shen Jia never wore silk like that. Never sat so straight. Never asked for warm milk with cinnamon.
"Where is the Master?" she asked, her voice soft but clear.
"Mr. Li left early for the office," one maid replied. "He doesn't usually return until late."
Su Jinxi nodded, sipping her milk.
She remembered the reports about him — Li Zhenyu, thirty-one years old, heir to the Li Consortium, ruthless in business, emotionally distant, and rarely seen with women. The media speculated about secret affairs and engagement scandals, but none ever stuck.
No one suspected he was already married.
And he intended to keep it that way.
Su Jinxi's eyes darkened.
Not for long.
---
Later that day, she stood in front of her massive walk-in wardrobe — untouched and filled with dull, outdated clothing. Shen Jia had never bothered with appearances, never drawn attention.
That would change now.
She selected a white dress — crisp, modern, flattering — and paired it with minimalist earrings. Her hair she styled into soft waves. Natural makeup completed the transformation.
When the housekeeper walked past and did a double-take, Su Jinxi's smirk widened.
It had begun.
---
At 10 PM, Li Zhenyu returned.
Tall, broad-shouldered, with sharp features and cold eyes, he looked like a man carved from marble. He wore a black suit without a wrinkle, his cufflinks engraved with the Li crest.
He entered the living room and froze.
There she was — sitting on the sofa with a book, legs crossed elegantly, the soft glow of the lamp lighting up her features.
Not meek. Not invisible.
He narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing up?"
She looked up, smile calm. "Waiting for my husband."
He walked past her, shrugging off his jacket. "Don't play games. We had an agreement."
"Oh?" She tilted her head. "Did that agreement include pretending I don't exist?"
He stopped.
That wasn't how she used to talk.
He turned to face her fully. "What do you want?"
She stood and approached him slowly. Her eyes, warm and determined, locked onto his.
"I want to discuss the terms of our marriage."
Li Zhenyu blinked. For a moment, something flickered in his usually impassive face.
"And why now?"
"Because I've decided I don't like being forgotten."
She was close now — too close — and he could smell faint jasmine on her skin. He stared down at her, trying to place this strange change in the woman he'd long dismissed as unworthy of attention.
Su Jinxi smiled.
She had his attention now.
---