The message floated in front of my eyes.

【Attention. Li Mei’s biological son does not belong to Zhao Gang.】

【Within three days, the factory will suffer an accident that will destroy the career of the man who expelled you.】

I stared at those words.

For a long time, I couldn’t move.

Zhao Gang.

The man who said I was useless.

The man who threw me out after nine years of marriage because I couldn’t give him a son.

The man who proudly held Li Mei’s pregnant belly and told everyone that she was the future of the Zhao family.

He thought he had won.

But he didn’t know that the woman he abandoned was no longer the same woman who begged him to stay.

I lowered my head and looked at Chen Xing sleeping peacefully in my arms.

His tiny fingers grabbed my clothes.

A child abandoned by his own parents.

Just like me.

“Don’t worry.”

I gently touched his forehead.

“Mom won’t let anyone hurt you.”

The next morning, I went to the factory.

Not to find Zhao Gang.

I had no reason to see him anymore.

I went because of the special steel hidden in the warehouse.

The comments had told me the exact batch number.

At first, the workers laughed when they saw me.

“Isn’t that Zhao Gang’s ex-wife?”

“She left the factory with nothing and now she’s back to collect garbage?”

I ignored them.

I walked directly to the warehouse manager.

“I want to buy the discarded steel.”

The manager looked surprised.

“That pile?”

“Yes.”

He laughed.

“That stuff is defective. Even the factory doesn’t want it.”

I nodded.

“Then sell it to me.”

The price was ridiculously low.

Only a few hundred yuan.

Nobody believed those black metal sheets would become valuable.

Except me.

Because I had already seen the future.

That afternoon, I rented a small truck and moved everything away.

Nobody stopped me.

Nobody cared.

Everyone thought I was collecting trash.

But three days later…

The entire factory changed.

A government inspection team arrived suddenly.

The special steel batch that Zhao Gang had rejected was identified as a rare high-quality material.

The factory had accidentally labeled it defective because of a testing error.

The value increased more than ten times overnight.

The same steel Zhao Gang threw away became the biggest opportunity of my life.

Meanwhile, Zhao Gang was facing trouble.

The factory manager position he had just received was questioned.

The executives discovered that he had approved the wrong evaluation report.

The promotion he celebrated became the reason he was investigated.

When I heard the news, I was cooking noodles for Chen Xing.

I didn’t feel happy.

I just felt calm.

Because revenge was never my goal.

My goal was to survive.

A week later, my small food stall became famous.

People came from other streets just to taste my braised meat.

Some customers even waited for hours.

The money slowly accumulated.

I rented a better place.

Bought a proper stove.

Bought new clothes for Chen Xing.

For the first time in years, I didn’t have to count every coin before buying food.

But just as my life began improving, Zhao Gang appeared again.

He stood outside my stall.

No expensive shirt.

No proud expression.

Only exhaustion.

I continued serving customers without looking at him.

“Chen Yue.”

I stopped.

It was the first time in months he had called my name instead of insulting me.

“What do you want?”

His eyes moved toward Chen Xing.

The little boy was sitting behind the counter, happily eating.

“He looks healthy.”

I didn’t answer.

Zhao Gang lowered his voice.

“Li Mei and I…”

I interrupted.

“Don’t tell me your problems.”

His face stiffened.

“I made a mistake.”

I looked at him.

“A mistake?”

“Yes.”

He swallowed.

“I thought you were useless.”

I smiled.

“You were right about one thing.”

His eyes brightened slightly.

But my next words froze him.

“I was useless only when I stayed beside you.”

The surrounding customers became quiet.

Zhao Gang lowered his head.

For the first time, the man who once looked down on me couldn’t meet my eyes.

Then Chen Xing suddenly ran toward me.

“Mom!”

He hugged my leg.

Zhao Gang froze.

Mom.

A simple word.

But it was something he had spent years using to hurt me.

He wanted a son.

A blood-related son.

A son to carry the Zhao name.

But the child who called me mother was the one who would one day stand above everyone.

A few days later, another message appeared before my eyes.

【Warning. Someone has discovered Chen Xing’s identity.】

【The Chen family from Beijing has begun searching for their lost heir.】

【They will come soon.】

I looked at the sleeping child beside me.

My heart tightened.

I knew one day his biological family would find him.

I knew one day the world would learn who he really was.

But I was not prepared for the next message.

Because it appeared in red.

【Important: Chen Xing’s biological father is not dead.】

【He has been searching for his son for five years.】

I froze.

Five years.

The same amount of time since Zhao Gang abandoned me.

Then another sentence appeared.

【Warning: The man who arrives tomorrow will not only take back his son.】

【He will also destroy everyone who ever hurt the woman who saved him.】