Forced into a loveless marriage with the ruthless CEO Li Yichen after a one-night mistake, Su Lian endured three years of humiliation-shunned by her husband, mocked by his siblings, and trampled by his returning first love. When that woman came back pregnant, Su Lian chose to walk away, only to fall into the hands of five mysterious and terrifying men in a night of chaos. Betrayed, used, and discarded-she barely survived. But fate was not done with her. Reborn at sixteen with forbidden magic, in a world where no one else possessed power, Su Lian vowed to rise from an abandoned wife to an untouchable enchantress. Now, every man who once ignored her would burn in obsession, and every person who humiliated her would kneel in regret. The husband who cast her aside? He would beg. The in-laws who mocked her? They would crumble. And the five men who unknowingly changed her fate? They would either worship her or be destroyed. This time, she would be the one to control everything.
Chapter 1 Shattered Illusions
Su Lian sat in the grand yet suffocating Li family mansion, staring at the untouched dinner spread before her. The glittering chandelier above cast a warm glow over the dining table, but it did little to thaw the ice in the air.
Three years of marriage.
Three years of cold shoulders, silent dinners, and suffocating loneliness.
She was the legal Mrs. Li, but she was nothing more than a shadow in this house.
Tonight was no different. Her husband, Li Yichen, had promised to be home for dinner, but the empty seat across from her told a familiar tale.
A soft chuckle drifted from the other side of the table.
"Still waiting, dear sister-in-law?" Li Yue, Li Yichen's younger sister, smirked as she cut into her steak with deliberate slowness. "You should know by now that my brother has more important matters to attend to than coming home to a useless wife."
Su Lian's fingers tightened around her chopsticks, but she said nothing. The humiliation was routine by now.
At the head of the table, her mother-in-law, Madam Li, took a sip of her wine and sighed. "Lian, it's been three years. You still don't understand your place? Yichen never wanted this marriage, yet you insist on clinging to him like a pathetic woman with no pride."
Su Lian swallowed the bitterness rising in her throat. Clinging?
She had never once begged Li Yichen to love her.
The only reason she was here was because of that one night. A mistake. A trap. A drunken encounter that led to her carrying his child. A child that never even got the chance to live.
The miscarriage had taken more than just her baby-it had stolen the last trace of hope she had that this marriage could ever be something real.
"Excuse me," she said softly, rising from the table.
"Running away again?" Li Yue snickered. "You might as well. My brother is too busy with more... entertaining company to care about a boring wife like you."
Su Lian clenched her fists and walked out of the dining room without another word.
Her heart pounded as she climbed the stairs to her room. More entertaining company?
She had long suspected that Li Yichen had someone else, but there had never been proof.
Tonight, she would find out the truth.
Su Lian entered the master bedroom-a room that never truly felt like hers. It was elegant, spacious, and cold. Just like her marriage.
She picked up her phone and hesitated for a moment before unlocking it.
It was time.
A few days ago, a friend had given her a contact-a private investigator. She had been hesitant, afraid of confirming what she already knew in her heart, but now, after Li Yue's words, she couldn't ignore it anymore.
She sent a simple message:
"Find out who my husband is spending his nights with."
The reply came within seconds.
"Already done. Sending you the address now."
Su Lian's breath hitched when the message arrived.
A hotel. A five-star suite.
He didn't even try to hide it.
A cold numbness settled over her as she grabbed her coat and left the mansion.
Half an hour later, Su Lian stood outside the luxurious hotel, her hands trembling at her sides.
She wasn't sure what she expected to see.
Perhaps Li Yichen sitting in the lobby, discussing business. Perhaps a misunderstanding.
But what she saw crushed her last illusion.
Through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the hotel bar, she spotted him.
Li Yichen sat with a woman-a woman she recognized all too well.
Tang Yuwei. His first love. The woman he never stopped loving.
They were sitting close, their hands almost touching, their smiles intimate. But what truly shattered her was the look in his eyes.
It was a look she had never once received from him in their three years of marriage.
A look filled with warmth.
Love.
Possession.
Her stomach twisted painfully, and her nails dug into her palms.
She should have turned away. Should have walked out and pretended she never saw this.
But she couldn't.
Because what happened next killed the last shred of hope she had been foolish enough to hold on to.
Song Ruoyu leaned forward, whispering something in Li Yichen's ear. He chuckled, then reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Then, without hesitation, he cupped her face and kissed her.
Right there. In public.
He wasn't hiding it.
Because he never cared if Su Lian found out.
She felt her breath hitch, but no tears came.
Instead, a chilling calmness washed over her.
So this was it.
This was the man she had wasted three years of her life loving.
The man she had sacrificed for.
The man who had left her cold in their marital bed while warming another woman's body.
The humiliation burned deep, but for the first time in three years, she felt something else rise inside her.
Not sadness.
Not heartbreak.
But rage.
The kind of rage that didn't just want to walk away-but wanted to destroy.
Slowly, she turned on her heel and walked away.
Her marriage was over.