Chapter 3

When I was 20 years old, the system bound me to this parallel world.

The system told me that Eden was Rose's childhood sweetheart. According to the original storyline, the two would get married. Eden was polite on the surface but actually a violent maniac. After they got married, Rose would be tortured by Eden until she went insane and eventually died from the violence.

My mission was to prevent Rose and Eden from getting married and change her fate of being tortured by violence.

I did everything possible to pursue Rose.

I remembered Rose casually mentioning that she wanted the soy latte from the East District. At 5:00 am, I rode through half of the city just to get her warm soy latte when she woke up.

She had a fever of 102 degrees, and I gave up my promotion, even taking seven days off and staying by her side. I scoured the entire city for fever-reducing medicine in the middle of the night, and then scalded my hand while cooking soup at dawn.

Later, I finally married Rose. Rose cried at the wedding, saying I was her true love and promising never to separate from me.

I thought I was the happiest man in the world, so I refused the system's request to leave.

However, I forgot that people's hearts change easily.

Just one year after marriage, Rose's heart became completely devoted to Eden. Eden became the dream man that Rose could not have, while I became nothing more than an eyesore.

However, I refused to give up. Whenever Rose went to see Eden, I would try to stop her, like a madman.

This only made her loathe me more; compared to the refined Eden, I was nothing but an annoying burden.

Eventually, she could not even be bothered to speak to me.

Then came the day she suddenly announced she wanted to have Eden's child.

I thought I had misheard her. My wife wanted to have a baby with another man?

"You can't have kids anyway, so what right do you have to stop me?"

She spoke of this absurd idea with such self-righteousness that I laughed in sheer disbelief.

It was not that I could not have children; it was that I did not want to put her through the ordeal of childbirth. During our pre-marital checkup, the doctor warned that she was not suited for pregnancy. Not wanting her to suffer the pain of giving birth, I decided right then that we would remain child-free.

Touched, she hugged me and said, "Thank you for looking out for me like this, honey."

Now, my thoughtfulness had been twisted into the claim that I 'could not' have children.

From that day on, we were locked in a long, icy standoff.

Now, I could finally be free.

As expected, Rose did not come home all night. I slept soundly in our big bed.

While I was making breakfast, Rose came swaying home in her high heels, a suggestive red mark visible on her neck. I pretended not to notice and placed the finished sandwiches on the table.

Rose reached out to grab one, but I smacked her hand away with my cutlery. "If you want food, make it yourself."

She retorted nonchalantly, "Didn't you make this for me?"

Hearing that, I crossed my arms and sneered. "So I'm supposed to make you breakfast after you go out and fool around with another man all night?"

She frowned, her voice raspy from a hangover. "Fool around? Don't put it so harshly."

Since I was leaving soon, I was not in the mood to argue with her. I just waved my hand, telling her to order takeout herself if she was hungry.

After breakfast, I was in the kitchen washing the dishes.

Recalling that I was one day closer to going home, I could not help but hum a tune.

Rose seemed to see I was in a good mood, so she seized the moment to tell me she had taken all our savings to help Eden open a tattoo parlor.

I looked up at this small two-bedroom apartment. The paint was peeling, and the wooden floors creaked underfoot.

Fearing I might scold her, she quickly added, "Eden is laidback. He dislikes the constraints of a regular job. Plus, he's always wanted to open a shop of his own..."

I efficiently cleared away the dishes and wiped my hands. "Sure. You can decide on these things yourself; no need to tell me in the future."

Rose looked completely stunned, as if she did not recognize me. "Jasper Grey, what did you say?"

When I first arrived in this world, I was just an ordinary college student with no family background; I had to start from scratch. Rose came from a modest family too; we could not even afford a decent home when we got married.

The apartment we lived in now was one I bought after working hard and scrimping. I worked myself to the bone over the years; every penny of our savings came from my overtime and sleepless nights.

What about Rose? Ironically, she never contributed a single thing to our household while her career flourished thanks to my help. Her entire salary went to Eden—either to pay off his car loan or to buy him luxury goods.

Now, she was even handing over my life savings, accumulated over so many years, to Eden to open a tattoo shop.

"Aren't you angry, Jasper?" Rose’s voice suddenly softened. "After all, you saved up most of that money."

I stopped and turned to look at her. "What if I said no?"

She immediately became agitated. "That’s out of the question! Eden needs that money!"

"So you’ve already made up your mind, haven't you?" I gazed at her calmly.

"I..."

I interjected, "Take it all. It won't have anything to do with me anymore anyway."

She suddenly panicked. "What do you mean by that?"

"You heard me." I walked away without looking back, shutting her questions out the door.