Chapter 1

I listened to the video game kill sounds coming through my phone, followed by the cold, relentless tone of a disconnected call. My whole body trembled with panic.

I was a chemical restoration specialist.

To make it easier to work on certain restoration projects, I had converted a room in my house into a private workshop. It contained hazardous chemical reagents that I had properly registered and stored in compliance with safety regulations.

I did not have my mother-in-law's or my sister-in-law, Jeannie Lloyd's, contact information, so my only option was to keep calling my husband, Chester Lloyd.

I called him more than a dozen times in a row. Every single time, he hung up on me. With no other choice, I immediately hailed a cab from my parents' house and urged the driver to turn around and head back.

Throughout the ride, I kept refreshing Jeannie's livestream.

They were already live. The moment I saw what was happening, my hands began to shake uncontrollably.

On the screen, the workshop door that I had securely locked was bent out of shape. The lock hung uselessly from the damaged door, and a hammer covered in wood shavings lay on the floor.

The number of viewers was climbing rapidly.

Jeannie greeted her audience excitedly. "If you just joined us, don't forget to follow my channel! If you like what you see, hit that like button. Let me see how many people are watching!"

When I saw that they had already broken into my workshop, my legs nearly gave out.

All I could do was frantically type warnings into the live chat.

[Don't touch anything in there! Those are hazardous chemicals!]

However, the livestream already had well over a hundred thousand viewers. Thousands of comments flew across the screen, and mine disappeared into the flood almost as soon as I sent them.

Jeannie was too busy interacting with her followers to notice my warnings. There was nothing I could do but watch helplessly as my mother-in-law rummaged through my workbench.

On the screen, she ripped the warning labels off my cabinets. Then she reached into the back and pulled out a specially designed, light-resistant glass bottle.

"Everyone, take a look at this expensive skincare essence my good-for-nothing daughter-in-law bought!

"This tiny little bottle costs over a thousand dollars!

"She has nothing better to do than waste her time and money on all this beauty nonsense!

"If she spent half as much time taking care of my son, she might actually be useful!

"Today, I'm going to teach her who really runs this household!"

Jeannie followed close behind with her phone, watching the viewer count soar as donation alerts kept popping up. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"Everyone, you get to decide what happens to this ridiculously expensive essence!

"If you want to see my mom dump it, send us some gifts! The bigger the donations, the harsher the punishment!"

Watching from the other side of the screen, I could barely hold back my tears as their cruel words rang in my ears.

Back when Chester and I were dating, he had warned me that his mother was domineering and controlling. However, he had repeatedly assured me that after we married, we would live our own lives and rarely have to deal with each other.

I believed him.

At first, my mother-in-law had been reasonably polite to me. However, everything changed when she learned how much money I spent on expensive restoration materials for my work. From that moment on, she strongly opposed me buying any more.

In her eyes, a married woman should learn to live frugally and spend her money on her family and husband instead of wasting it on herself.

She was always saying that since I had married into their family, I should put my husband and household first and fulfill my duties as a wife.

To her, all those little bottles and jars were nothing but useless luxuries. Spending money on them made me vain, wasteful and utterly irresponsible.

At first, I dismissed her attitude as nothing more than outdated thinking from an older generation. I patiently explained to her, time and time again, that those materials were essential to my work.

However, as far as my mother-in-law was concerned, I was simply being disrespectful and talking back.

Time and again, she sent messages through Chester, ordering me to throw away every last bottle and jar in my workshop. Not a single one was to remain.

I stood my ground and refused to give in.

I thought she would eventually drop the matter. What I never expected was that she would take advantage of my visit to my parents' house to pull a stunt like that with Jeannie on a livestream.

"Send me an expensive gift, and you get to decide what happens to this bottle of essence!" Her words immediately sent the audience into a frenzy.

Virtual gift animations flashed across the screen as comments flooded the chat.

[Streamer, dump that thousand-dollar bottle straight into the toilet! Let's see if you're actually crazy enough to do it!]

Similar comments quickly flooded the chat, and more and more viewers joined in the taunting.

Seeing the donation alerts pop up one after another, Jeannie agreed without a second thought.