Dawn broke, painting the sky in soft hues of orange and pink. I woke up, my cheeks still wet with tears.

My phone vibrated beside me. It was a text from Wang Yuheng. His tone was casual, like nothing had happened the night before:

“Your sister-in-law has a hospital checkup today. She doesn’t like being around strangers. Can you take her?”

I should’ve been angry. I should’ve told him to go to hell. But for some reason—maybe because of the memories from my dreams, or maybe because the sun was shining so brightly after the rain—I found myself thinking… *forget it*.

He didn’t love me, not really. He was always taking me for granted. But we were husband and wife, after all. And he’d *asked* me for a favor—that had to count for something, right?

That’s how love worked, didn’t it? The one who fell first always ended up getting hurt a little more.

I rolled my eyes at my own foolishness, then typed back a quick “Okay” and hit send.

I got up, showered, and got dressed. Since I worked in social media, I had a flexible schedule. I ate breakfast while clearing out the pile of work emails I’d ignored for days.

Once I was done, I drove to the old mansion to pick up his sister-in-law.

She was around my age, and her voice even sounded a little like mine. I’d always liked her—she was gentle and kind, despite everything she’d been through.

We chatted about trivial things—gossip, TV shows, nothing important—on the way to the hospital. Then I noticed something: the ring she always wore on her finger was gone.

I asked her about it casually: “You’re not wearing your ring today?”

Her face paled instantly. She started patting her hands frantically, panic creeping into her voice: “I swear I had it on! Where did it go?!”

I pulled the car over to the side of the road and tried to calm her down: “Don’t panic. Think carefully—when was the last time you took it off? Did you leave it on the bathroom counter when you showered?”

I knew that ring meant the world to her. It was her wedding band—the last thing she had left of her late husband.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to remember. Then she gasped: “I remember now! I went to Puti Temple a few days ago! They said we couldn’t wear jewelry inside, so I took it off! It must have fallen off somewhere there!”

She didn’t care about her checkup anymore. She begged me to take her to the temple to look for it. I couldn’t say no to her when she was so upset, so I agreed.

But as we drove, a thought nagged at me: she was blind. And she hated being around strangers. How had she gotten to Puti Temple alone a few days ago?