The year I loved Shen Yan most, I took a fatal blow meant for him. As I lay dying, I pressed my mother’s blood-jade bangle into his hand. “Shen Yan, if I die, keep it as a memento.” He wept inconsolably and had the city’s top doctors dragged in overnight to keep me alive. Once I recovered, I helped him weather bloodshed and storm until he became the widely respected Mr. Shen. But at my father’s funeral, the canary he kept showed up flaunting the very same blood-jade bangle. Watching her in a red dress, subtly showing off the bangle, I grabbed her hand and slammed it into the incense burner. The sound of jade shattering, bones cracking, and Xia Weiwei screaming rang out all at once. Shen Yan rushed over and clamped his hand around my wrist so hard he nearly crushed my bones. His eyes were pained and wild. “Lin Jin, do you have to destroy everything I care about?” I looked at him protecting his canary and smiled. “The thing you care about? The bangle… or her?”
