Just then, the sound of sirens wailed outside the factory, and several police officers kicked the doors open.

"Police! Don't move!"

Seeing this, the thugs panicked and tried to run, but were quickly subdued.

Sylvia was taken into the police car along with them.

Only after confirming Claire was safe did Julian finally collapse into a pool of blood, his consciousness fading rapidly.

"Julian, Julian!"

Claire knelt on the ground, trembling as she covered his bleeding wounds with her hands, tears blurring her vision instantly.

In the ambulance heading to the hospital, Julian clung to his last shred of consciousness, gripping Claire’s hand tightly.

"Claire, I'm sorry, in the end, I still couldn't..."

Change their ending.

Claire gripped his hand back, trembling, her face soaked in tears. "Stop talking, just stop talking for now..."

"I'm afraid... if I don't say it now... it will be too late..." His voice was intermittent, and with every word, blood spilled from the corners of his mouth. "It's, it's my fault... all the pain I caused you... in the end, it was, it was my mistake..."

In a daze, he remembered the last thing Meng Po had said to him.

"Young man, the rules of fate were set long ago. You thought that by making changes, you could reverse the ending, but you did not know that those changes were still within the rules."

Back then, he didn't understand the meaning of those words.

Now, he finally understood.

No matter how they turned and twisted, they could not escape their fated ending.

And the changes he once thought he made had unwittingly fallen into the calculations of fate itself.

If he hadn't chosen to push her away with betrayal and deceit in their second life, perhaps they might have had a chance to be together.

Unfortunately, there were no such "what ifs."

But fortunately, she was still alive.

That was enough.

Julian greedily mapped her features with his eyes, using his final strength to murmur, "Claire, you must be well... live a good life..."

Claire stood frozen, watching his pupils gradually dilate; her heart felt as though it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand.

Her mind was a blank slate, as if something was about to emerge, yet it seemed shrouded in a thick fog, unable to be recalled.

She felt she had forgotten something very important.

But what could it be?

Why couldn't she remember?

Why did her heart ache so much?

In the end, Julian slowly closed his eyes in her arms.

The scene before her overlapped with the bloody alleyway from years ago; back then, he had also protected her, covered in blood, just like this.

That time, he had been in a coma for a month, and she had been so terrified of losing him, but fortunately, he had returned to her side in the end.

But this time, Julian never woke up again.

...

Not long after Julian passed away, the lawyer found Claire and handed over the divorce agreement.

Looking at his familiar signature on the document and the clause naming her as the sole heir, Claire felt a complex, indescribable emotion.

The lawyer told her Julian’s final words.

In the end, she did not sign the divorce agreement.

Nor did she accept the inheritance he left her.

She instructed the lawyer to use all of Julian’s assets to establish a charitable foundation in his name and donated it all.

"Consider it," she said, "as accumulating merit for him."

She looked out the window; the sky was a deep blue, the sun was bright—it was another new day.

Everything seemed no different from before, yet, in the end, it was different.

A corner of her heart seemed to have a hollow space.

One that could never be filled again.

(End of Full Story)