Chapter 1
After the bomb exploded, the entire room became an inferno, with towering flames instantly engulfing my body. The last image before my eyes was of my wife, Rachel, using the blast shield that originally belonged to me to protect her first love, Jack. When I regained consciousness, I found myself in a spirit form, following Rachel. At that moment, she was tenderly blowing on Jack’s hand, which had been slightly singed by the flames, her face full of concern. “Jack, your hand is all red. Let’s go to the hospital quickly to get it bandaged.” Hearing this, my heart felt as if it had been soaked in vinegar, unbearably sour. Anyone who saw this scene would comment on the deep affection between the two. But this woman was my wife of three years. She had never shown such a concerned expression for me. The redness on Jack’s palm was barely visible unless you looked closely, yet Rachel was so worried. When I was engulfed in flames, she didn’t even spare me a glance. Jack looked scared. “Rachel, it’s just a small injury, nothing serious. It’s a good thing you were there, or I would have been seriously hurt for sure.” Rachel still looked tense: “Who says it’s a small injury? What if there’s some internal damage? I won’t be at ease until a doctor checks it out.” With that, she immediately took Jack’s hand and walked towards the exit, her usually calm face full of anxiety. Before getting into the car, Emily, a colleague from the same team, stopped her with a frown: “Luke is still at the scene and hasn’t come out. The bomb just exploded, could something have happened to him?” Hearing my name, Rachel’s expression instantly turned to disgust, her face full of impatience. “What could happen? That selfish bastard values his life too much, he’s probably hiding somewhere.” “Get out of the way quickly, Jack needs to go to the hospital, we can’t delay.” From leaving the explosion site until now, Rachel hadn’t mentioned me once, hadn’t shown any concern for my safety. Even when someone else worried that something might have happened to me, she had to belittle me. I must be quite a failure as a husband in her heart. Rachel pushed Emily aside and got into the car with Jack, heading straight to the hospital, ignoring Emily’s calls behind them. At the hospital, after the examination, Jack hadn’t suffered any injuries, just a small red mark on his hand where the flame had singed it. Rachel, however, acted as if it was a major crisis, insisting that the doctor must bandage it well. Jack looked at her with emotion: “Rachel, you’re still so good to me.” Then he hesitated before speaking again: “Without a blast shield, will Luke be alright? After all, he came to save me. I’ll feel guilty if something happens to him.” Rachel waved her hand, her words showing no concern at all. “Luke has a system, he won’t die. Your body is already not good, you can’t take any injury.” “He even tried to keep the blast shield earlier, saying he would die this time. He’s so selfish. He clearly has a system that can save him, yet he tried to trick me. I think he just can’t stand seeing me being good to you. When he comes back, I’m going to have a big fight with him for sure.” By the end, Rachel was full of anger, as if I had committed some terrible crime. But I just wanted to live. I hadn’t lied to her either. The system had only given me two chances to revive, and I had already used them up.