Chris Samuel had an accident and had only just woken up a few days ago.

In the evening, I walked to Chris's ward carrying a packed lunch.

The door was slightly ajar, and the assistant, Nic, was inside talking to Chris.

"Go check if Lucy had any connection with that driver."

"No way. Lucy has loved you for so many years. Even if she wanted to hit Ms. Xiaver, she wouldn't have hit you too."

"The car was supposed to take Layla."

I tightened my grip on the bag I was holding.

The cut on my fingertip throbbed.

Chris actually suspected that I caused the accident?

What a joke.

I had no idea the car was supposed to take Layla.

I didn't even know Layla was going to the party with him.

No wonder Chris asked me earlier.

"Lucy, the accident wasn't your fault, right?"

My hand, which was peeling an apple, trembled. The sharp knife cut through skin instantly, and blood gushed out.

"Sorry, I was just trying to joke around."

Chris quickly changed his tone.

His expression immediately returned to its usual understanding demeanor.

"Winsley, call a nurse over to fix this wound."

He reached out as if to check my injured hand with concern.

His eyes were filled with deep emotion and guilt.

I had no doubts.

I truly thought he was just joking.

Looking back now, it wasn't a joke at all, but a deliberate test.

He suspected I had intentionally caused the accident to harm his beloved white moonlight.

At this moment, Chris's voice rang out again in the room.

"Nic, help me up. I want to see Layla."

"Mr. Samuel, Ms. Xiaver is still in the ICU. You won't be able to see her now."

"Stop talking and help me up."

I smiled bitterly.

I think, "Chris, do you know why you woke up?

You were in much worse condition than Layla when you were brought to the hospital.

You had multiple fractures, three broken ribs, damage to your spleen, and severe head contusions. It was a miracle you woke up at all.

But you woke up the next day.

And by the third day, you were moved to a regular ward.

Do you really think it was just a miracle of modern medicine?

There aren't that many miracles in this world.

Your life was bought with mine.

There's a resurrection tailor shop in this world.

It can bring the dead back to life, but the price is one's own life."

Chris's accident was severe.

To protect Layla Xiaver in the passenger seat, he defied normal instinct and swerved the car to shield her.

But when he was sent to the hospital, he almost lost his heartbeat.

The doctors said, "He definitely won't make it through the night."

So, I went to that tailor shop and exchanged my life for Chris's.

The people at the shop told me, "You have three months left. Go finish up your remaining business."

Chris and I have been neighbors since we were young.

Everyone in the neighborhood said we were a good match, and I thought so too.

In middle school, I secretly had a crush on Chris.

But Chris liked Layla.

He was openly in love with her.

Even after I moved to the same high school as Chris, I heard sweet stories about him and Layla.

The school beauty and the school hunk...

It seemed only natural.

But what everyone didn't know was that, after the college entrance exams that year, Layla left Chris to study abroad.

That summer, Chris's mother, who was his only family, passed away.

That period marked Chris's second major life crisis.

He started smoking and drinking.

Often getting drunk and calling out Layla's name.

I lost count of how many times I dragged him home when he was drunk.

Chris's first crisis was when he was twelve.

His family went bankrupt, his father committed suicide, and they moved to my old, rundown neighborhood.

After we met, I always invited him over to my place to play.

My parents already liked him, and after his mother passed away, they treated him like their own son.

Everything I had was also for Chris.

Later, someone funded Chris to study abroad.

My parents also worried about him all the time.

But even after all these years.

Even though I treated Chris so well, it couldn't compete with Layla's return.

A few days ago, the news of Layla coming back to the country arrived.

Chris rushed to see her.

And that was when the accident happened.

Layla was critically ill.

When I arrived at the hospital, Chris was kneeling by Layla's bed.

His eyes had lost all their light.

"Get out!"

When he saw me, it was as if he saw his enemy, glaring at me with reddened eyes and shouting.

Nic, noticing something was wrong, immediately stepped forward.

"Mr. Samuel, you've just recovered a bit; you can't handle this kind of strain."

Chris saw me as the enemy who had killed Layla.

Ridiculous.

I had exchanged my life for his, yet he hated me for his dream girl.

On the day he was discharged, he confronted me with a storm of anger.

He threw a stack of papers onto the table and questioned me from a high position.

"Lucy, if I hadn't been in the car, would you have succeeded?"

I didn't immediately understand what he meant.

It wasn't until I saw a transfer record of three million dollars with my name on it that I realized.

This was evidence of me orchestrating the car accident.

The recipient was the wife of the crash driver.

I had paid his wife to have him drive and kill Layla.

I sneered. "Chris, can't you see this is clearly a setup against me?"

Still such a clumsy method.

"Who would set you up? Killing Layla would benefit you the most!"

So, Chris believed it.

Before leaving, Chris looked at me with a complex expression, having completely condemned me in his heart.

A few days later, I received a call.

I was asked to pick up Chris from the bar.

By the time I got to the bar, Chris was completely out of it from drinking.

He was collapsed on the table, unable to move.

Nic and I struggled to get Chris into the car.

He rested his head on my shoulder.

I heard him say, "Layla... wait for me... I'll exchange my life for yours..."

I stared at him, frozen in shock.

Exchange life!

What did he know?

"What did you just say?" I asked, dazed.

Nic replied, "Mr. Samuel has been obsessed lately, and recently he heard somewhere that there's a place where you can exchange lives."

"Does he want to bring Layla back?"

"Oh, don't overthink it. I've seen how long you and Mr. Samuel have been together.

"Besides, there's no such place that can exchange lives."

Chris surprisingly came back to celebrate my birthday.

He turned on the lights.

While removing the extinguished candles, he asked me, "Lucy, where is that place where you can exchange lives?"

"What?"

"Don't play dumb." He looked at me with deep eyes. "You know what I'm talking about."

"How old are you to still believe in such things?"

Chris smiled sinisterly.

"Oh... Lucy, did you know?

"You have a little habit of secretly touching your clothes whenever you're nervous."

I immediately pulled my hands behind me and took two steps back.

"Lucy, take me there. Do as I say."

"I don't know."

He stepped forward, his hand gently caressing my neck.

Suddenly, my neck was tightly gripped by Chris.

"Tell me!"

"I won't tell you!"

My blood flow was restricted, and the sensation of suffocating death came over me.

"Chris, if you kill me, you'll never find out where that place is!"

Chris left.

In the mirror, the bruised marks on my neck were horrifyingly vivid.

"Chris, I'll give you this life in this lifetime, and we'll owe each other nothing in the future."

The next day, I was knocked unconscious on the road.

When I woke up, I saw Chris casually lying on the sofa, his white shirt rumpled and looking somewhat irritable.

"Lucy, take me to that place where you can exchange lives."

"Impossible."

The tailor shop has a rule.

Within seven days, a life can be exchanged.

Today is the seventh day.

Since I have given him this life, I cannot take it back.

At Chris's command, several burly men held me down on the ground, rendering me immobile.

"Lucy, you caused Layla's death. I'll overlook it if you take me to that place."

"I won't take you. You can blame me as much as you want."

"Don't be stubborn."

Chris's cold laughter came from above.

The next moment, Chris stepped on my left hand.

"Lucy, you should take good care of this hand."

He pretended to be concerned while crushing and twisting my hand.

My finger bones were being broken.

Tears uncontrollably streamed from my eyes.

Chris knew better than anyone how important my hands were.

Half of my life was spent playing the violin.

Sweat dripped down my forehead.

"Lucy, did you never think about that it's a human life when you had someone crash into Layla?!"

"Chris, Layla loved money. She never truly loved you!"

Chris's eyes were bloodshot.

In the next moment...

Bones cracked and shattered.

The pain of flesh and bone tearing spread from my fingertips to my heart.

"Mr. Samuel, don't be impulsive!"

Nic rushed over, trying to pull Chris away, but was knocked to the ground by Chris.

Then Chris slowly crouched down.

I was already in so much pain that I had no strength left, just weakly lying on the ground, drenched in cold sweat.

At that moment, Chris whispered in my ear like a devil.

"I heard your mom's heart isn't doing well lately..."

"Chris, you bastard!

"Don't you know how they've treated you all these years?!"

He smirked.

"So, Lucy, take me there quickly."

"I'll take you, but only if you take me to the hospital right now."

Chris smoothed down my sweat-drenched hair.

"Good girl."

"Chris, you'd better not regret what you did today."

"I won't regret it."

On the way to the hospital.

I suddenly thought about the past between Chris and me.

Chris wasn't always so ruthless.

On the contrary, he was very kind.

Back then, he was a skinny boy.

He would save money to buy me my favorite strawberry candy.

After school, he would help me with my difficult math homework.

At my request, he sometimes secretly forged my dad's signature for me.

When I was seven, I encountered a strange uncle in an alley.

He knocked me out, intending to take me away.

"Put her down!"

Before I lost consciousness, I heard Chris's voice.

When I woke up, Chris and I were locked in a dark compartment.

Chris told me, "We've been kidnapped by human traffickers; we need to escape."

But our hands were tightly bound.

We couldn't move.

There were several other kids like us in the compartment.

Chris kept rubbing the rope on his hands.

The other kids advised him.

"Don't waste your effort. If they find out, you'll be dead!"

But Chris succeeded.

When the kidnapper brought food, Chris used himself as bait.

He got us all out.

I reported to the police immediately, but Chris had already been moved by the kidnappers.

Three days later...

Chris, dragging a broken leg, found a police officer at a service area.

Based on the clues Chris provided about the traffickers, the police successfully uncovered a major trafficking ring.

The incident was very sensational at the time.

It even made the news.

Later...

Layla appeared.

Chris and she seemed like a match made in heaven.

He held Layla's hand and smiled at me.

"Lucy, this is my girlfriend."

I was a witness to their love and its ups and downs.

Three years later, just after Layla and Chris broke up.

I secretly met with Layla once.

I found out that Layla didn't love Chris at all.

Layla was hugging a chubby, big-eared guy from behind.

They were affectionately kissing.

The guy had arrived in a Bentley.

Later, Layla went abroad.

I heard she married a rich businessman abroad.

Layla actually liked not Chris himself but the shining aura he had in the crowd.

This so-called aura was nothing compared to money.

After bandaging my hand, the doctor sighed regretfully.

"You won't be able to play the piano with this hand anymore."

I gave a self-deprecating smile.

It's okay.

After all, I only have three months left to live.

"Sorry." Nic apologized to me.

"It's not your fault."

After leaving the hospital, we headed to Usuna overnight.

After tonight, my life will be entirely given to Chris.

The journey would take five hours.

By the time we reached the tailor's shop, it would be at least early morning.

By then, he could do whatever he wanted with his own life.

But Chris failed to switch lives.

"Why? Why can't it be switched?"

Chris came out of the tailor's shop in a daze.

He muttered to himself.

I was also puzzled.

The resurrection at the tailor's shop had never failed before.

The shop had only one rule. Life swaps are irreversible after seven days.

Any living person in the shop can swap lives with a dead one.

Could it be...

Layla wasn't dead?

On the way back, I couldn't help but ask.

"Chris, are you sure Layla is really dead?"

He looked up at me, his expression like a bloodthirsty beast in the forest.

"Lucy, why can't you just let her go now?"

"She's a liar."

"What do you know? Back then, Layla funded my going abroad, and also the first capital for my business..."

"You mean Layla funded you to go abroad and your business?"

"Yes."

"Did she tell you herself?"

Chris was impatient. "Lucy, why do you have so much hostility towards her?"

I thought, "It's not hostility. It's thinking you're foolish. I'm the one who funded you. How could Layla possibly fund you? She was already involved with someone else before going abroad. That's why they didn't want you because you were broke. Chris, what are you being so confident about?"

"Chris, you've been mistaken. Layla absolutely couldn't have funded you."

But Chris grabbed my neck from behind.

I tried to pry his hands off, but I couldn't stop him at all.

"Let go..."

His hand felt like it was going to snap my neck; I had a feeling I was about to suffocate.

"Lucy, do you think I don't know what you've been doing behind my back?"

"The pianist in the orchestra..."

"It was you who did it!"

Six months ago, a new boy joined our orchestra, gentle and likable; everyone liked him.

He had confessed to me, and I rejected him.

One day, he suddenly left the orchestra, not even having a chance to resign.

It turned out Chris had driven him away.

"I had nothing with him!"

"Do you expect me to believe that?"

"Where were you when I just woke up from the accident?

"Hanging out with some lover?"

"I wasn't!"

"If you weren't, why are you so guilty? Do you dare to say what you were doing?"

I answered in my mind, "At that time, I was in Usuna. To switch lives for you."

Before I could breathe, Chris threw me onto the sofa.

Then he pressed his whole body down on me.