Chapter 2
I hid in the study, gasping for a few breaths to recover, then looked at our wedding photo hanging on the wall and felt a sudden pang of ridiculousness.
Memories flooded back, and I seemed to see Derek back then, holding me, his gaze fixed on my face, beaming with pure happiness.
As if nothing else in the world mattered to him but me.
Even the photographer had been amused by his intense devotion, teasing him,
“I’ve been a wedding photographer for years and never seen a groom like this. Relax, your wife isn’t going anywhere. Don’t be like this when you take her out, or you’ll lose your money and not even notice.”
Derek, utterly unashamed, boasted,
“What could possibly be more precious than my wife? Forget a little money; I wouldn’t trade her for my life. I have to watch her. If she ran off, where would I cry?”
Everyone laughed, calling him a soft-hearted wife-slave.
Watching Derek come home every day with handfuls of cupcakes, never forgetting to lift his shirt to warm my feet, I also felt it was a bit much. I gently advised him,
“You’re acting like a big CEO, you know. You won’t have any credibility. Be careful, all your subordinates might leave.”
But he didn’t care. He rubbed against my neck, complaining playfully,
“I’m so wronged! I don’t treat anyone else like this, only you. This lifetime, only you.”
Derek’s solemn promises back then gave me such a sense of security,
filling me with an indescribable satisfaction, the joy of a gamble won.
Years ago, I came down from the mountain for training and happened to save Derek when his house caught fire.
He escaped the blaze, his parents gone, and followed me every day.
Calling me “Immortal Sister,” he launched an intense pursuit.
I only saw him as a child, lacking love.
Until later, during an accident, I was severely injured, nearly on the verge of fading away completely.
It was Derek who, without hesitation, offered half his heart to me.
Initially, after becoming linked with Derek,
to avoid my own discomfort, I stopped resisting his pursuit.
But a young man’s love is sincere and fervent,
each tremor unforgettable, slowly swaying my resolve.
My Master, learning of my injury, had forged an Ethereal Heart for me,
which could restore my divine body, free me from desires, and return my powers.
Yet, the thought of forgetting him, of a separation like death, was unbearable.
Derek had already quietly drifted into my heart amidst the gentle winds and rain.
Master, seeing my thoughts, earnestly advised me,
“All things in the world change in an instant. The deep blue sea can turn into mulberry fields; what then of the ethereal human heart?”
“If you truly insist on not retrieving your Ethereal Heart, you will only become a mortal.”
“The Ethereal Heart can only be preserved for ten years. I can keep it for you. If you change your mind, come find me anytime.”
Although Derek gradually lost his memories of that time due to his heaven-defying act of sacrificing his heart,
and my powers were stripped away, making my body increasingly frail from the impact,
what did it matter?
I couldn’t use inner energy to dry my hair; Derek dried it for me.
My cold feet, unable to maintain warmth with magic; Derek warmed them for me.
I worked alongside him, building from nothing to becoming a rising star in the business world.
We survived the seven-year itch.
But I never expected that a month before our tenth anniversary, I’d find women’s underwear in the back seat of his car.