"That's great to hear, Ivy!" chirped Mary, happy. "We'll start the paperwork, then. Once it's finalized, there's no going back."

Ivy held her phone tightly. Her fingers trembled a little, but she replied firmly, "I won't regret this."

Mary was just about to hang up when she hesitated. "Oh, by the way... What about your boyfriend? Didn't you pursue him for years? You liked him so much."

'Boyfriend' The word felt like a knife stab right to Ivy's heart. The memory of the raucous laughter in the hospital ward flashed across her mind: Jason leaning back lazily against the bed, playing with his phone, the group of people openly mocking her.

The cruelty of his wasting three years of her life, all to avenge Felicity.

Her chest tightened as if someone was squeezing her heart. It hurt her so much she could barely catch her breath.

"I don't like him anymore," Ivy replied, hoarsely yet calmly. "I'm not hung up on him."

After hanging up, Ivy stood by the side of the road, letting the cold breeze tangle her hair.

She looked up at the grey skies and took a deep breath. Then, she headed back to her so-called home.

When she pushed the door open, a familiar scent rushed toward her. She stood by the door, staring at the living room she knew so well. Her thoughts drifted.

This was Jason's place. He gave her a set of keys after he accepted her confession and agreed to be with her.

That day, he leaned against the door and said casually, "Move in with me."

Back then, she was shy yet elated. She thought that it would be the start of their everlasting love. She even secretly fantasized about the day that they would get married, have a family, and spend the rest of their lives there.

At that moment, it only felt ironic.

Living together?

It probably made it easier for him to exact revenge. She wondered how much Jason must have liked Felicity that he would spend three years using her, living with her.

He even slept with her so many times, just to make her believe that he liked her.

For the next three days, Ivy did not visit Jason once at the hospital. She shut herself inside the apartment and began packing away everything that had to do with Jason.

She found the diary she had written when she had a secret crush on him. It was thick, every page filled with her private thoughts.

[I met him in the library again today, dressed in a white shirt. How dashing.]

[He spoke to me today. Even though he was just politely asking me to pass him something, it made my day.]

[He agreed to be with me. Is this a dream?]

Ivy flipped through the pages as tears fell silently. She threw the diary into the trash can as if trying to throw away the love she once held for him.

Next, it was the gifts she gave him: a necklace, a watch, then a coat… Every item carried her joy, her hope, her anticipation.

Finally, the photos she had secretly taken of him, including Jason giving a speech on stage or playing basketball. Every photo had once brought her immense joy and hope.

She threw everything into the trash bin as if bidding goodbye to her past self.

By the third evening, Ivy finally cleared the final item. She stood in the middle of the living room, looking around at the empty place. She felt some relief unexpectedly.

At that moment, Jason entered. He looked around at the empty place and furrowed his brows. "What did you throw away?"

Ivy looked up at him calmly and replied, "Nothing much. Just things I don't need anymore."

Jason went in closer and asked with a hint of displeasure, "I was seriously injured. Why didn't you come and see me?"

Ivy curled her lips faintly. She replied with an icy tone, "Well, you're discharged now, right? How could you return home so quickly if you're seriously injured?"

Jason was a little stunned. Then, he explained, "I heard you donated a lot of blood for me. I was worried, so I came home to check up on you."

He looked at her arm and softened his voice, which rarely happened. "Did it hurt?"

Ivy retracted her arm and said indifferently, "No, it doesn't."

Jason could sense her aloofness. He furrowed his brows tightly. "Did something happen? I was in the hospital for a few days, and you've suddenly changed."

Ivy smiled faintly. "Changed? In what way?"

Jason did not reply, but they both knew well. In the past, Ivy always had love for him in her eyes whenever she looked at him.

If he even caught a cold, she would panic and hover by his side every minute.

He had been hospitalized for three days, and she had not even called once.

His gaze lingered on her face, as if trying to read something from her expression. Then, he spoke, his voice low and gentle.

"Have you been tired lately? They're throwing me a welcome-back party. Why don't you come with me?"

Before Ivy even had the chance to refuse, Jason grabbed her by the hand and pulled her into the car.

They stopped in front of a luxury private club. Jason got out of the car and went over to her side to help her open the car door.

Ivy looked at him but said nothing, quietly getting out of the car.

The moment they entered the club, Ivy instantly spotted a familiar figure.

Felicity Shaw.

She was in a long white dress, her hair cascading down to her shoulders. A gentle smile curved her lips as she stood at the center of a small crowd, laughing lightly with friends.

Felicity was Jason's childhood sweetheart. Although they grew up together, they had not been much in contact for the past few years. This was why Ivy had never suspected that Jason liked Felicity.

When Felicity saw Jason and Ivy entering hand in hand, her eyes curled, almost amused. It seemed she also knew about the 99 rounds of revenge.

Ivy suddenly found it hard to breathe.

Jason also seemed to have noticed Felicity's presence. His hands stiffened a little, then he immediately let go of Ivy's hand.

He turned to Ivy and said softly, "I have to make a call. Go have fun. I'll be back."

Ivy stood in the same spot as she saw Jason leaving her. Her heart turned cold.

Before she could say anything, Felicity elegantly walked over, following Jason. They vanished into a different part of the club.

Ivy did not have the time to follow them to check up on what they were up to, because she was soon surrounded by a few of Jason's friends.

"Ivy, come and drink with us!" They grinned while shoving a glass toward her.

Ivy shook her head. "I can't drink."

"Oh, come on, don't be such a party-pooper! It's just one glass! Nothing will happen!" They pushed the drink into her hand and nudged her forward.

Ivy wanted to break free from the group when one of them shoved her harshly.

"Ah!" Ivy yelped. She lost her balance and fell straight into the pool next to her.

The icy water swallowed her instantly. She could not swim, so she thrashed around frantically, only for her to sink deeper.

Water rushed into her nose and mouth, choking and suffocating her. Her vision blurred as she slowly started to see black.

She fell into unconsciousness.

…

When she came around, she noticed she was in her room. Her head was heavy, and her entire body was burning as if it were on fire.

She groggily opened her eyes and saw Jason sitting by the side of the bed with a glass of water and a few pills.

"You're having a fever. Take some medicine," Jason said with concern.

Ivy groggily accepted the pills and gulped them down with water. She thought nothing much of it. Her throat was extremely parched. She seemed to have been sucked of all her energy.

She closed her eyes, trying to go back to sleep, but her body got even hotter, as if something was burning inside her.

A while later, she opened her eyes with difficulty only to see that Jason was no longer in the room.

She forced herself to sit up and touched her forehead. It was burning badly. She knew she could no longer drag it out. She had to head to the hospital.

Dragging her heavy body, she finally arrived at the hospital. The doctor put her on drips only then did her fever begin to subside.

After doing a thorough checkup, the doctor said to Ivy with furrowed brows, "You're lucky you came here in time. If you were to delay coming here any longer, this could have turned into pneumonia."

Ivy leaned against the head of the bed weakly. She hoarsely asked, "Doctor, I did take some medicine, but why did it get worse?"

The doctor was stunned. He asked, "What medicine did you take?"

Ivy took a small pill bottle from her pocket and handed it to him. "Some anti-inflammatory. My boyfriend gave it to me."

The doctor accepted the bottle, popped it open to have a look. He suddenly said sternly, "This isn't anti-inflammatory at all. The bottle might be labeled that way, but inside is just sugar tablets. They have no medicinal effect at all. In fact, they could've delayed your treatment."

Ivy's heart dropped. Her fingers trembled a little.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated violently. With difficulty, she lifted her phone up to have a look at the flood of messages.

It was sent by Jason's friends in a chat group.

[Hahaha! The 97th round of revenge is a success!]

[Whoever came up with this plan is a genius! We first 'accidentally' shove her into the pool, then Jason would swap her medicine. I'm guessing she must be suffering like hell right now.]

Someone soon anxiously replied, [Damn it! You sent it to the wrong group! Ivy is in this group!]

The messages were soon deleted, as if nothing had ever happened.

Ivy held her phone tightly, her hand trembling slightly. Her heart completely sank. She found it hard to breathe once more.

All of this–pushing her into water, fever, the swapping of medicine–was all part of their revenge plan.

Jason fed her that so-called medicine was just so that she could suffer even more.

Not long after, Jason called her.

"Where are you? Why are you not at home?" Jason said in a low voice, with a faint hint of panic.

Ivy took a deep breath to try to sound calm. "My fever got too high. I'm at the hospital."

There was a brief pause before Jason said, "I'll come right over."

"There's no need," Ivy interjected right away. "I just need to be on drips for one more day, and I can be discharged. I realized you've been really busy recently. You don't have to worry."

There was a silence on the other end of the phone, then Jason asked, "Did you look at your phone?"

So that was why he was calling her. He was worried she had seen those messages.

Ivy lied, "No. The doctor said that my fever was so high that I was almost dead. I didn't have the time to look at my phone."

Silence came once more.

Jason then said, sounding ambiguous at that, "I'm here with you. Everything will be fine."

Ivy tightened her grip on her phone. Her heart turned ice cold.

He said that he was with her, yet he was the sole cause of her misery!

Ivy got discharged from the hospital. She had just exited the hospital, about to call a taxi, when a group of men rushed up from behind her and covered her mouth.

Before she could resist, she lost consciousness.

When he came around once more, Ivy realized that she was lying in a dimly lit hotel room. Her limbs were tied.

A few thugs were around her, smiling at her lewdly.

"You're up. Don't worry. We'll properly spoil you." One of the thugs reached out to try to take her clothes off.

"Who are you? Let go! Let me go!" Ivy resisted with all her might, but she was weak from her recovery. She was not their match.

She tried throwing things, kicking them, and yelling loudly, but it was all in vain.

The men had almost stripped her completely. She was in despair, and tears kept falling uncontrollably.

Right at that moment, the door was kicked open.

"Get back, you thugs!" Jason snarled with fury.

The thugs were frightened by Jason's air of authority, and they quickly fled the scene.

Ivy curled up in bed, shivering with trauma. She looked up at Jason. For the first time, she saw panic and concern in his eyes.

"Ivy…" Jason quickly walked over to her. He reached out, rather shakily, to hold her, yet. However, Ivy, like a traumatized little animal, retreated and cowered frantically. Her eyes filled with fear.

Jason's hand froze mid-air. His eyes gleamed with pain.

Before Ivy could say something, she saw black and passed out once more.

Some time later, Ivy came around, feeling groggy. She heard people talking in the hospital room. Their voices were in whispers, but she could hear the anger in them.

"Why didn't you tell me about this revenge plan?" said Jason.

"I thought you wanted to quickly finish the ninety-nine rounds of revenge so you could finally be with Felicity? We noticed that you were busy, so we didn't want to trouble you. We decided to help you do it," said one of his friends nonchalantly.

"I didn't ask you to find people to assault her!" Jason raised his voice, his anger nearly overflowing.

His friends jumped. They said in disbelief, "Hold up. So, what if she was? I thought we had decided from the beginning that the plan would be ruthless? Why are you getting so worked up?"

Jason said nothing. Instead, he kicked the coffee table over with a violent crash.

Why was he so worked up? Even he himself did not know the answer to that.

All these years, Ivy had been pursuing him like a beam of sunlight–bright and relentless.

He remembered the day he agreed to be with her. She had stood there in disbelief before breaking into tears of joy. He had never seen anyone look that happy.

It was a sharp contrast to how she lay there like a withered rose at this moment, drained of all life.

He did not understand why it bothered him so much. He did not want to see her like that. When she looked at him so helplessly, his heart ached a little.

Seeing him remain silent, the group slowly pieced something together.

One of them spoke cautiously, disbelief creeping into his voice, "Jason, don't tell me that after all these years, you've fallen for her?"