CHAPTER 108 — Spiral Into Madness
The psychiatric ward smelled faintly of disinfectant and cold metal—a sterile quiet that pressed heavily against the walls. Rain pattered softly against the reinforced windows, but inside, everything felt too still. Too lifeless.
Too broken.
Roulan sat on the narrow bed, back hunched, hair hanging in tangled strands around her face. She no longer resembled the glamorous heiress who once strutted through luxury boutiques and red-carpet events. Her eyes—once bright and calculating—were dull now, unfocused, as if staring at things only she could see.
Her hands trembled uncontrollably.
Every few seconds, she whispered something under her breath. Sometimes it was a number. Sometimes a name. Sometimes a scream muffled at the last second by her own trembling fingers.
Shi Zhenai stood behind the observation glass, his expression twisted with something between rage and disbelief. His expensive suit hung awkwardly on his frame, as if even the fabric refused to acknowledge him as a man of power anymore.
He clenched his jaw so hard the muscles in his neck bulged.
"She's faking it," he muttered.
The attending psychiatrist, standing beside him with a clipboard, sighed softly. "Mr. Shi, she's not. Her psychological state has completely fractured."
"She's always been dramatic," Shi Zhenai growled. "Always crying, always whining—this is just another one of her tricks!"
The doctor shook his head.
"This isn't hysteria. This is a mental break triggered by prolonged pressure, guilt, and extreme stress. She's not acting."
Shi Zhenai slammed his fist against the glass.
"She ruined us! Do you hear me?! She ruined everything!"
His voice cracked—not just in anger, but in desperation.
The Shi family's empire no longer existed.
After Roulan's arrest and confession, the government investigations came swift and brutal. Decades of financial fraud, stolen charity funds, illegal surveillance, tax evasion, and hush-money trails emerged like maggots crawling out of a corpse.
Every person Shi Zhenai had bribed turned their back on him.
Every partner severed ties.
Every hidden document Yunxi leaked to authorities became another nail in the coffin of the Shi family name.
Now—
The Shi Corporation was dissolved.
The assets were frozen.
The private villa was seized.
The family was banned from holding any corporate positions for life.
And Roulan—
Roulan had collapsed under the weight of it all, her mind buckling like thin metal under a hammer.
Inside the room, Roulan suddenly began to laugh.
Soft at first.
Then louder.
Then louder—until it turned manic and piercing, echoing off the walls like something out of a nightmare.
Her hands clawed at her own hair.
"They took everything…" she whispered, giggling as if sharing a secret. "They took everything from me… Yunxi took everything… even Daddy… even love… even my face…"
Shi Zhenai's breath hitched.
He couldn't bear to look at her.
Yet he couldn't look away.
Because this was his last child.
His last legacy.
His last tie to the empire he once controlled with an iron fist.
And she was losing her mind right before him.
Roulan suddenly jerked her head toward the window. Her wild, unfocused eyes locked onto Shi Zhenai's reflection in the glass.
A slow smile crept across her lips.
"Daddy…?" she whispered.
Then her expression warped into something venomous.
"You should've protected me."
Shi Zhenai stiffened.
Roulan crawled off the bed and pressed her hands flat against the padded wall, whispering in a voice thick with madness:
"You let them destroy us…"
A shiver raced down Zhenai's spine.
Roulan's smile widened until it was grotesque.
"And you'll burn too."
Shi Zhenai stormed away from the glass, fury and fear twisting inside him until he felt sick.
"Lock her door," he snapped. "She needs discipline, not sympathy."
The doctor gave him a cold look.
"With all due respect, Mr. Shi, you should worry about yourself. The authorities are requesting another interview. And—your trial date has been set."
Zhenai's face drained of color.
The humiliation.
The downfall.
The inevitability of imprisonment.
He tightened his fists.
"None of this would've happened…" he muttered bitterly, voice cracking as he walked down the hallway, "if that damn girl never returned."
He didn't say Yunxi's name.
He wouldn't give her that satisfaction.
But it didn't matter.
Because Yunxi had already severed the final thread connecting her to the Shi family.
⸻
THREE HOURS EARLIER — YUNXI'S FINAL VISIT
Shi Yunxi stood beneath the towering gates of the old Shi residence—gates that once symbolized grandeur and wealth, now creaking with rust and abandonment.
The rain had softened to a drizzle, but the sky remained dark, as if mourning something long dead.
Yunxi held an envelope in her hand.
Legal documents.
Severance papers.
Proof that she had officially relinquished her family name, her inheritance, and every last trace of connection to the Shi bloodline.
Mu Lingchen stood slightly behind her, silent but steady as a mountain.
"Are you sure?" he asked quietly.
Yunxi didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
He exhaled in relief, though his eyes remained soft with concern. "You never have to step foot here again."
"I know," she whispered.
But she needed closure.
She needed to bury the past before she could embrace her future.
She stepped forward—and as she did, the memories surged:
Her mother begging in secret.
Her childhood full of loneliness.
Her teenage years suffocated by expectation.
Roulan's cruelty.
Shi Zhenai's coldness.
The years she spent trying to earn scraps of affection.
Yunxi swallowed hard.
No more.
She placed the envelope at the foot of the gate.
Then she took off the small gold necklace around her neck—the one heirloom her mother had given her, the last sign of attachment to the family—and let it fall atop the envelope.
Lingchen's breath caught.
"Yunxi…"
She turned to him, eyes clear and resolute.
"They don't deserve to hold even a memory of me."
The rain washed her cheeks clean.
Not tears.
Just water.
Just release.
Yunxi stepped back from the gate and whispered to the empty estate:
"Shi Yunxi died here. Xiolan was born. And Xiolan does not belong to the Shi family."
Lingchen's chest tightened with emotion.
He took her hand gently.
"Let's go home."
Yunxi nodded.
"Home."
They turned away together—
As behind them, thunder rumbled softly, and the old Shi mansion seemed to crumble further into silence.
The past was dead.
And Yunxi didn't look back.