Chapter 1: Is this Lexi? Lexi the sycophant?

"Enough! I can't take it anymore, Lexi. Do you have any idea how disgusting you look, groveling like this?"

A series of loud crashes erupted—the one hundred and first time Song Qi had flipped the table.

Lexi calmly left the dining table, knelt down, and began cleaning up the mess, her voice tranquil.

"If it doesn't suit your taste, I'll make something else."

Song Qi seized Lexi by the collar, yanking her to her feet and pinning her against the wall. The fresh bruises layered over old wounds sent sharp pain shooting through Lexi's back, but she uttered not a sound, her expression unchanged. She was used to it by now.

Song Qi's face burned crimson, his large, bulging eyes glared even wider, making him look like a maddened bull.

"Typical actress—your skin is thicker than the calluses on an old woman's heel. How did you ever land a role? Must have been by fawning over the directors, right?"

Lexi blinked.

"That's right."

"You—"

Song Qi, furious, kicked the table repeatedly. When he finished, he spat out,

"Fine. You can endure my insults, even my blows, to show how magnanimous you are. But my woman outside, Yuexin, is carrying my child. You have only two options left: one, you wait until the child is born and come serve her during her confinement, or two, we divorce. You—"

"Divorce."

Thank heavens, thank earth—Song Qi had finally uttered those two words.

Three years ago, Lexi was a minor actress on the set, bullied relentlessly. To improve her status and treatment, she bound herself to a fortune-borrowing system. The day after binding, Lexi received the script for the second female lead in a blockbuster adaptation.

That year, Lexi was riding high. If only she hadn’t been blinded by love, the backlash wouldn't have come so soon.

But Lexi, hopelessly besotted, ignored the system's warnings and insisted on marrying Song Qi. The system, exasperated by her lovesickness, punished her ahead of schedule—she would be forced to endure mistreatment from anyone she interacted with. Lexi had no choice but to submit, or else she would die an untimely death. Yet, the system wasn't entirely merciless; it told her the only way to break the curse was for Song Qi to propose divorce.

Back then, Lexi, madly in love, thought the whole world was against her for the sake of Song Qi and even found it romantic, infuriating the system to no end.

Song Qi had only married Lexi because his childhood sweetheart, Tang Yuexin, had left him. He needed a tool to heal his wounds, and with the family's fortune to be divided, as long as Song Qi married and had a child, even Song Jiaolan, who was pregnant out of wedlock, could get a larger share.

Now that Tang Yuexin had returned and the inheritance split, Lexi was a tool with no further value, easily discarded. However, Song Jiaolan, the obedient daughter-in-law who could cook, serve attentively, and was as gentle as a cat, was not someone Song Qi's mother wanted to lose.

She warned Song Qi that if he dared divorce, she would sever their relationship, and he could forget about inheriting any of her assets.

After all, her spoiled son survived on pocket money.

Song Qi, torn between his first love and his fortune, began to abuse Lexi, hoping she would be the one to ask for a divorce.

But Lexi, ever accommodating—offering him water when he coughed, putting his shoes on when he left, taking them off when he returned, enduring his beatings and insults without a shred of dignity—never uttered a word about divorce.

Song Qi sneered with disdain,

"You think playing hard to get will make me value you? It only makes me despise you more."

But the system had been clear: as soon as those two words were spoken, the curse would lift. Lexi valued her life too much to care about anything else. Once, she had loved Song Qi to the point of self-destruction, giving up her rising career and adoration from thousands just to hide away at home, a battered servant.

But that love had long since withered—disappearing completely after Tang Yuexin returned a year ago, and Song Qi’s only interactions with her were beatings and curses.

Lexi pointed at Song Qi.

"You bastard, I find you even more repulsive. Every second with you makes me want to vomit. Hurry up—divorce me, you dog."

Song Qi stared in disbelief. Was this Lexi—the groveling Lexi?

"You dare talk to me like that?"

"Not only do I dare talk to you this way, I dare hit you too."

Lexi had endured enough. Grabbing a nearby chair, she remembered how she used to train in martial arts with the stunt coordinators on set for the higher pay.

Song Qi was no match. In no time, Lexi was tired, and Song Qi was bruised and battered.

"No! I won’t allow a divorce!"

Song Jiaolan, in the middle of a company meeting, rushed home the moment she got Song Qi’s call.

"Mom, she’s gone mad—she hit me!"

At the sight of his mother, Song Qi immediately began to complain.

"And how many times have you hit her?"

Song Qi shot Lexi a resentful look, as if accusing her of being a despicable tattletale.

Lexi rolled her eyes—she hadn’t complained, and even if she had, so what? Was it not just as despicable for him to complain in front of her? At the same time, she stared in shock at Song Jiaolan—so she had known all along.

Seeing her son looking like a beaten pig, Song Jiaolan was furious inside. Song Qi had gotten involved with that old witch’s daughter again. But no matter how angry she was, she wouldn’t tolerate anyone else disciplining her son.

"Lexi, when did you learn to fight like that? This time, you’ve truly gone too far."

Lexi found it laughable. She had always regarded Song Jiaolan as her own mother, believing she was different from others. For the past two years, under the system’s curse, even Lexi’s birth mother, who never dared raise her voice, had made her suffer, but not Song Jiaolan.

Lexi had always been grateful to her.

But she was wrong. Song Jiaolan was no different, perhaps even worse. Others at least made their contempt plain, while Song Jiaolan, fully aware of the domestic abuse, feigned ignorance, voiced affection, and perhaps even secretly encouraged Song Qi to hit harder.

"You married into our family, and I treated you as my own daughter. He’s my only son, and you nearly beat him to death—is this how you repay me?"

"As you said, has he ever spared me a beating? If I take off my clothes, who knows who’s been beaten worse?"

"And every morning at four, I get up to stew bird’s nest for you; at six, I bring it to you and greet you; at six-thirty, I support you to your car for work. At noon, I deliver your lunch to the office, hurry home, and at three-fifteen, bring you cake and coconut milk for afternoon tea. At seven, I urge you to exercise; at ten, I serve your late-night snack; at eleven, I coax you to sleep. Have I not treated you like my own mother?"

Even livestock were better off than Lexi.

"I’m done wasting words with you. Divorce."

Song Qi pointed at Lexi.

"Divorce!"

He glanced at Song Jiaolan.

"Mom, you see? She only serves you out of obligation—so petty. Mom, tell me to divorce her."

Song Jiaolan was shocked but understanding as she looked at the entirely changed Lexi. She was a woman too; if her own man had a child with another, going mad was normal.

Song Jiaolan softened her tone.

"Lexi, it’s normal for couples to quarrel and for daughters-in-law to be dissatisfied, but you must remember, you’re no longer in your prime. Have you forgotten what your own family is like? These years, we’ve supported them. Without us, they’d starve."

"And a thirty-year-old divorcée—no one will want you."

"I’ll sort out Song Qi’s foolishness. I’ll make sure he treats you well. As for divorce, I’ll pretend I never heard it."

"No need. There’s no difference between a divorcée and an unwed mother. You seem to be doing just fine, Ms. Song, not shunned by anyone."

Lexi’s family might be lazy, but back when she was a background actress earning a hundred a day, she still managed to keep the six of them fed. They wouldn’t starve now.

And as for Song Qi treating her well—no one bothered to ask if Lexi herself found him repulsive.

Daring to mock Song Jiaolan, her face changed instantly.

Song Qi roared,

"Mom, she’s gone too far! Can you really tolerate this?"