The sun was setting as the car came to a slow, heavy stop in front of the villa in Shanghai. The sky, streaked with soft shades of orange and pink, seemed indifferent to the heartbreak that was about to unfold inside the walls of the house. Li Xinjie, the first to step out, gritted his teeth as the physical pain from his injuries pulsed through his body. But even that pain was nothing compared to the agony tearing at his soul.

His steps were slow, each one heavier than the last as he approached the entrance. The front door was ajar, and as he entered the villa, the soft murmur of voices reached his ears. His frown deepened when he saw Cen Yehuan, his wife, standing near Zhang Mei, who looked up the moment he stepped inside.

"Xinjie," Cen Yehuan gasped, her eyes wide with concern. "You’re hurt."

Li Xinjie’s jaw tightened. "I’m fine," he said, his voice raw and strained. "I’ll live."

But the moment Zhang Mei saw him, her heart clenched. The look on Li Xinjie’s face, the tightness in his expression, the way he carried himself—it was wrong. Something was wrong. She stepped forward, her voice trembling. "Where is my husband?"

Li Xinjie’s face fell, and for a moment, he couldn’t find the words. The grief that weighed down on him was too heavy, suffocating him as he struggled to speak. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Zhang Mei’s heart started to race. Her breath quickened as a knot of dread formed in her chest. "Xinjie," she pressed, her voice rising with panic, "where is Li Chen?"

Before Li Xinjie could answer, the sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway. Li Xiaojun appeared, cradling Li Chen’s lifeless body in his arms, the weight of his son’s stillness pulling him down. Behind him, Sun Lixia’s eyes were red and swollen from hours of crying, her face pale and drained of life. The two of them looked like ghosts, walking in the shadow of death, carrying with them the heartbreak that would soon shatter the family.

Mu Lingling, Zhang Mei’s mother, rushed into the room with Li Yanyan and Zhu Fengrui. Li Yanyan’s voice was thick with worry as she hurried forward. "Xinjie, what happened? Where are your parents?"

But before Li Xinjie could respond, Li Xiaojun stepped into the living room, his arms still wrapped around Li Chen’s body, as if he could somehow protect him from the inevitable truth. The sight of him, so still, so pale, was too much for anyone to bear.

Zhang Mei’s breath caught in her throat as her gaze locked on the body in her father-in-law’s arms. "No," she whispered, her voice shaking with disbelief. She shook her head, refusing to accept what her eyes were seeing. "No, that’s not... that’s not him. That’s not Li Chen."

Mu Lingling rushed to her daughter’s side, her face etched with a mother’s fear. She looked from Zhang Mei to Sun Lixia, searching for answers. But Sun Lixia’s eyes told her everything. She simply shook her head, her tears flowing silently down her cheeks.

Zhang Mei’s knees buckled, and a scream tore from her throat—a scream so raw, so filled with unimaginable pain, that it seemed to crack the very air around them. It was the sound of a soul being torn apart, of a mother-to-be who had just lost everything. The villa echoed with her anguish, and the walls seemed to close in, suffocating everyone with the weight of her grief.

"No, no, no!" Zhang Mei cried, rushing toward Li Xiaojun, her hands shaking as she reached for Li Chen. "No, this isn’t real. This can’t be real!" Her voice was frantic, desperate, as if her sheer will alone could bring him back.

Li Xiaojun’s hands trembled as he gently lowered Li Chen’s body onto the sofa. Sun Lixia’s sobs filled the room as she sank to her knees beside her son, her hands covering her face as her body shook with grief.

Zhang Mei collapsed beside Li Chen, her hands shaking as they hovered over his still form. "Wake up," she pleaded, her voice a broken whisper. "Please, wake up. Li Chen, please... please don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me."

But there was no response. His chest didn’t rise, his eyes didn’t flicker. His skin was cold beneath her fingers, the warmth that had once filled him now gone forever.

"Li Chen, please," she sobbed, cradling his face in her hands. "Please wake up. You promised me. You promised you would come back to us. You can’t leave me, not now, not when our babies are almost here." Her words broke as she collapsed against his chest, pressing her face into his shirt, her tears soaking the fabric. "You promised me... you promised me we would raise them together."

Zhang Meixiu, Zhang Mei’s cousin, knelt beside her, her own heart breaking at the sight. She reached out to comfort her, but Zhang Mei pushed her away, her body trembling with rage and grief. "No!" she cried. "No, don’t touch me! He’s not gone. He can’t be gone. He’s supposed to be here... he’s supposed to see our children!"

Mu Lingling’s hands shook as she knelt beside her daughter, tears streaming down her face. "Zhang Mei... please, my darling, please calm down."

But Zhang Mei shook her head violently, her hands clutching at Li Chen’s lifeless body as if she could somehow keep him tethered to this world. "No, no, no! He can’t be gone! He wanted to be a father so badly. He was so excited... he would never leave us. He wouldn’t!"

Her sobs filled the room, raw and unfiltered, tearing at the hearts of everyone present. Li Xinjie stood off to the side, his own tears streaming down his face, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles had turned white. The pain of losing his twin brother—the person he had shared every moment of his life with—was too much to bear. He leaned against the wall, gasping for air as the grief suffocated him, crushing his chest like a vice.

Zhang Mei pressed her hands to Li Chen’s chest, feeling the coldness of his skin beneath her palms. "Please," she whispered again, her voice cracking. "Please wake up... please."

But there was only silence. The room was filled with her sobs, with Sun Lixia’s quiet weeping, with Li Xinjie’s barely contained rage, but there was no sound from Li Chen. His body remained still, his eyes closed, his chest unmoving.

Zhang Mei’s heart shattered all over again.

"How could you leave me?" she whispered, her voice barely audible. "How could you leave us? Our babies... they need you. I need you. You promised..."

Zhang Meixiu reached out again, this time more gently. "Zhang Mei... please. You need to take care of yourself. For the twins. For Li Chen’s children."

But Zhang Mei shook her head, her tears blinding her. "No... no, I can’t. I can’t do this without him. I can’t do this alone." She buried her face in Li Chen’s chest again, her body shaking with the force of her sobs. "He was supposed to be here. He was supposed to be here for them..."

Mu Lingling placed a hand on her daughter’s back, her own tears falling silently. "We’re here for you, my love. We will all help you through this. But right now, you need to take care of yourself and the babies. Li Chen would want that."

Zhang Mei’s body trembled, her breath coming in gasps as she tried to pull herself together. But the pain was too much, the loss too great. "He was supposed to be here," she whispered again, her voice breaking. "He was supposed to be here to meet them... to hold them."

Li Yanyan, who had been standing to the side, wept silently, watching the scene unfold with her heart breaking for her family. She took a step forward, but her legs felt weak beneath her, and she stumbled, catching herself on the arm of a nearby chair. The weight of Li Chen’s death hung in the air, suffocating them all, leaving them gasping for breath in a world that suddenly felt far too heavy.

Sun Lixia, still kneeling beside her son’s body, wiped her tear-streaked face with trembling hands. Her heart was shattered, her soul crushed beneath the weight of losing her child. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe—there was only the unbearable pain of knowing she would never see her son’s smile again, never hear his voice, never watch him become the father he had so desperately wanted to be.

Li Xiaojun, who had been standing off to the side, his face carved with grief, stepped forward and placed a hand on Sun Lixia’s shoulder. He didn’t speak, because there were no words that could fill the void left by Li Chen’s death. There was nothing that could heal the wounds they all carried now.

The room was heavy with sorrow, the walls seeming to close in around them. Every breath felt like a struggle, every tear like a drop

of the ocean of grief that had swallowed them whole.

And yet, despite the unbearable weight of their loss, they remained together. Bound by their shared grief, their love for the man they had lost, and the family they still had left.

But Zhang Mei’s sobs never stopped, her heartache filling every corner of the villa, as she clung to Li Chen, refusing to let him go.

Because how could she? How could she say goodbye to the man she had loved so deeply, the father of the children she would now have to raise alone?

And as the night crept in, the world outside continued to turn, unaware of the broken hearts left behind in the wake of Li Chen’s death.

The world had lost a warrior. But they had lost so much more.