CHAPTER 125: CHAPTER 125; SCANDALS (B)

She closed the video and opened a browser, scrolling through the trending topics with undisguised glee.

# LuZeyanAffair — 8.9 billion views

# PoorShuyin — 6.2 billion views

"Poor Shuyin," she read aloud, laughing. "If only they knew. Poor, wronged, heartbroken Shuyin who’s currently sitting in a luxury car with a billion yuan in her account and a villa in her name, feeling absolutely nothing except satisfaction that the job is done."

Because that was the truth of it.

She felt nothing for Lu Zeyan. No lingering affection, no complicated emotions, no part of her that still cared about him or wanted him or mourned what they’d supposedly had.

How could she? She wasn’t human. Wasn’t capable of the kind of love that made humans do stupid things like forgive betrayal, stay in toxic relationships, or waste their best years on people who didn’t deserve them.

She was a mermaid. A creature of the ocean who’d taken a dead woman’s body and played a dead woman’s role to get what that dead woman had deserved, revenge and compensation, and the satisfaction of watching her destroyer fall.

"Freedom," she whispered to herself, the word tasting sweet on her tongue. "That’s what matters. Not love. Not attachment. Not giving years of your life to someone who’ll just throw you away when it’s convenient."

She thought about the real Lin Shuyin, the woman whose body she inhabited, whose memories she’d absorbed when taking over her corpse.

That woman had loved Lu Zeyan. Had believed in him. Had structured her entire life around being his partner, his support, his future wife.

And where had it gotten her? Prison. Betrayal. Death.

"Humans are idiots," Shuyin said again, shaking her head with a smile. "They call it love when someone makes them miserable. They call it commitment when someone traps them. They call it loyalty when they’re being used."

She looked out the window at the city passing by, all those humans rushing around, living their complicated emotional lives, tying themselves in knots over relationships and feelings and attachments that would probably end in pain anyway.

"Not me," she said softly. "I’m free. Completely, utterly free. Free to go where I want, do what I want, be who I want. No man to answer to. No relationship to maintain. No performance to keep up."

Well, except for a little while longer. She’d need to play the wronged fiancé for a few more weeks, milk the public sympathy, and make sure the money and property stayed secure and couldn’t be challenged.

But after that?

The ocean was waiting. Her true home. Her real life.

All because a human man had thought he could control a narrative. Thought he could frame an innocent woman and then "redeem" himself with a guilt marriage. Thought he was clever enough to manage both a wife and a mistress without consequences.

"Thank you, Lu Zeyan," she said to the city outside, her voice full of genuine gratitude now. "Thank you for being exactly as stupid and arrogant as humans always are. Thank you for making this so easy."

Her phone buzzed, a message from an unknown number.

She opened it, curious.

"You’re welcome."

Shuyin’s grin widened.

So her mysterious helper was making contact. How interesting.

She typed back quickly:

"I don’t know who you are, but whoever you are, impeccable timing. The revenge is halfway complete, and I walk away clean. I couldn’t have orchestrated it better myself."

The response came almost immediately:

"Justice for you. You deserved better than what he gave you."

Shuyin’s smile turned softer, almost sad.

"Yes," she whispered. "I did."

The original Shuyin, the human woman who’d loved and trusted and believed, had deserved so much better than what she’d gotten.

And now, at least, her death has been slightly avenged. Her name had been cleared. Her destroyer had been destroyed in turn.

It wasn’t the same as giving her back her life, but it was something.

It was justice.

Shuyin typed one more message:

"Thank you for helping make that possible."

Then she turned off her phone, cutting off the notifications and messages and the endless noise of human drama.

The car continued through the parking, carrying her toward another destination and then next to that villa that was now legally hers, a property she’d probably sell in a few months for even more money, because what did a mermaid need with a permanent human residence?

But for now, she just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

She enjoyed the weight of victory.

She enjoyed the satisfaction of a job perfectly executed.

She enjoyed her freedom.

"Humans and their love," she murmured one last time, watching the city lights blur past. "They can keep it. I’ll take the money instead."

And she laughed again, bright, genuine, utterly without remorse, as the car carried her away from Lu Zeyan, away from the disaster she’d left behind, away from the human complications she’d never truly been part of.

Toward a future that was entirely, beautifully, devastatingly hers.

ZEYAN TRIES TO REACH HER

Backstage, Lu Zeyan shoved past two security guards with enough force that one of them stumbled backward into a lighting rig.

"WHERE IS SHE?!"

"Sir, please...."

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!"

His voice was raw, cracking on the edges, nothing like the controlled baritone that had commanded boardrooms and charmed investors and convinced Shuyin to marry him in the first place.

The security guard tried to grab his arm. "Mr. Lu, you need to calm down...."

Lu Zeyan wrenched free, nearly tripping over a cable as he sprinted toward the back exit. The press conference had descended into complete chaos behind him, reporters shouting questions that had no good answers, cameras catching every angle of his humiliation, Wang Jing’s voice rising above the din as she tried to regain control of a situation that was already miles beyond salvaging.

He didn’t care.

None of it mattered.

The only thing that mattered was finding Shuyin, explaining, making her understand that this wasn’t what he had meant, that everything could still be fixed if she would just listen to him.