After Being Widowed For Ten Years

Pei Chongxi’s beloved wife died in a car accident ten years ago. During a torrential rainstorm, the car rolled down a cliff. The only proof left of her wife’s existence was a pearl necklace that Pei Chongxi kept wrapped three times around her wrist.

Then, on an identical rainy night, she encountered a drenched girl on the side of the road.

Eighteen-year-old An Rong, dressed in a white dress, was cornered in an alley by a group of thugs, backing away in sheer terror. Suddenly, blinding headlights illuminated the path. An Rong was pulled up and yanked straight into the car.

In the driver’s seat sat Pei Chongxi. Her gaze was deep, her aura elegant and dignified, yet laced with an almost imperceptible sense of brokenness, as if she were drowning in extreme grief.

An Rong wiped the rainwater from her face and flashed a bright smile. “Thank you so much! Wow, you look just like Pei Chongxi. Are you her relative? You look so young.”

What a beautiful person, An Rong thought. She was a completely different style from her secret crush.

The person in the driver’s seat didn’t respond. Her silent, dark eyes trembled for a split second. She picked up a handkerchief and gently wiped the water droplets off An Rong’s cheeks. The pearl necklace tightly wrapped around her wrist swayed with the movement, veins pulsing on the back of her hand. Every ounce of her flesh and heart cried out with yearning for her lost love.

Suddenly, the car doors locked. An Rong felt a delayed wave of panic. “You… you aren’t with those thugs, are you?! I’m calling the police!” The handkerchief dropped. Huddled against the car door, the girl was on the verge of tears.

At the absolute peak of my longing, I reunited with you. Pei Chongxi thought. I am truly, deeply sick.

Pei Chongxi’s oil paintings fetch astronomical prices at auctions. Her artwork is incredibly hard to come by, countless wealthy tycoons pursue her, and rising business elites try to sound cultured just to scratch and claw their way into her social circle.

Yet, she remains extremely low-key. Only a few people close to her know that she suffers from severe psychological illness, where alcoholism and insomnia have become her daily reality.

But now, the artist doesn’t touch a drop of alcohol.

The girl, bright as the sun, confiscated all her liquor bottles, threw her expensive cigars into a fire, and dragged the artist, who had been trying to drown herself in the bathtub, to see a psychiatrist.

From then on, Pei Chongxi, who had long lived in darkness, stopped wearing only black, white, and gray. The white chrysanthemums in her house that never used to change were replaced with red roses.

Pei Chongxi became a completely different person. She kept a bright, beautiful girl by her side, letting her play carelessly with the pearl necklace she used to treasure like life itself. People in her social circle began to gossip, speculating that the artist was in a relationship and keeping a young “sugar baby.”

When the rumors reached An Rong’s ears, she spun the pearl necklace around her finger and scoffed. “Her? Keeping me? I used to support her, okay? If I hadn’t worked part time to earn money back then, she wouldn’t be where she is today.”

Pei Chongxi’s oil paintings no longer feature only depressing, rainy nights and lightning tearing through the sky. She began to paint people. Her previously sharp and decisive colors turned infinitely gentle and cherished.

During an interview, a reporter asked, “Who is the girl in your paintings?” Pei Chongxi pulled a long faded photograph from her wallet. It was a picture of two girls in school uniforms squeezed together in a rented room. “My first love, and my current spouse.”

One-Line Summary: My wife came back to life!

Message: Knowledge changes destiny.