After the divorce, he went on a motorcycle trip, and his ex-wife and daughter were filled with regre

Half a month later, Jiang Ye drove his BMW GS into the northernmost grassland of China.

The scenery here is breathtaking.

In the depths of autumn, the entire northern land seemed as if God had spilled his palette. The boundless grasslands had shed their summer green, donning a golden hue. A gentle breeze rustled the waist-high grasses like golden waves. In the distance, groves of birch trees shimmered in vibrant colors, their golden leaves sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight. Above, the sky was a pure, unblemished azure.

Jiang Ye was completely captivated by this breathtaking scenery.

In this vast expanse of land, he felt as if he were isolated from the rest of the world. There were no endless international video conferences, no mountains of financial statements, and no cutthroat competition in the business world.

In his world, all that remained was the whistling wind in his ears and the rhythmic roar of the motorcycle engine beneath him.

Jiang Ye thoroughly enjoyed this extreme sense of solitude.

By day, he was like a tireless lone ranger, speeding through the golden landscape on his motorcycle. He felt the vibrations of the tires crushing the gravel road and the chill of the cold air seeping in through the gaps in his helmet.

At night, he would never stay in crowded tourist attractions or hotels in the county town. He would park his motorcycle in a sheltered mountain valley or deep in a vast grassland.

He skillfully took out the tent from his bag and set it up, then gathered some dry branches and cow dung nearby and lit a campfire.

The leaping flames dispelled the chill of the late autumn night. Jiang Ye sat cross-legged by the campfire, holding a can of ice-cold beer he had bought from a roadside shop, tilting his head back and taking large gulps.

He looked up at the dazzling starry sky above. The stars were so big and bright, it seemed he could reach out and pluck them from the sky, and the Milky Way stretched across the entire night sky like a luminous ribbon.

In this extreme environment, far removed from human civilization, Jiang Ye felt his soul undergo an unprecedented cleansing. The worries about capital operations and business expansion that plagued his mind were completely swept away by the night wind on the grassland. He felt as if he had returned to his early twenties, that penniless young man who possessed the entire world.

A few days later, Jiang Ye's journey entered the edge of the Greater Khingan Mountains.

The terrain here is more complex, with dense primeval forests blocking out the sun, and the temperature has plummeted to around zero degrees Celsius.

That afternoon, the previously clear sky suddenly became overcast, followed by a sudden downpour. As the temperature dropped, the rain quickly turned into sleet, mixed with cold snowflakes.

A fierce wind, carrying shards of ice, pounded against Jiang Ye's helmet visor, severely blurring his vision. The road surface had become muddy, and the motorcycle's tires kept slipping.

For safety reasons, Jiang Ye dared not continue on his way. He slowed down and rode with difficulty for more than ten kilometers in the wind and snow. Finally, before dark, he saw a remote town ahead.

The town was very dilapidated, with most of the houses on both sides of the street being old wooden houses, and there wasn't even a decent street lamp.

Jiang Ye drove around the town for a while, and finally parked his motorcycle at the end of the town, in front of the only dilapidated tavern that looked to still be open.

A rickety wooden sign hung above the tavern's entrance, bearing the large, peeling characters "Old Forest Tavern." A dim red lantern hung at the door, swaying violently in the wind and snow.

Jiang Ye parked the car, took off his helmet which was covered in mud and ice, shook the water droplets off his hair, and stepped onto the creaking wooden steps in front of the tavern.

He reached out and forcefully pushed open the dilapidated wooden door covered with a heavy cotton curtain.

"Squeak—"

As the wooden door opened, a wave of warm air, a mixture of cheap alcohol, pungent tobacco, and a strong smell of sweat, instantly rushed out.

The tavern was dimly lit, with only a few low-wattage incandescent bulbs casting a yellowish glow. A tin stove burned in the center of the room, the firewood crackling and baking the entire space, making it warm and cozy.

Several eight-immortal tables with peeling paint were set up in the hall. Several local lumberjacks wearing tattered military overcoats and with stubble on their faces were sitting around a table in the corner, drinking loudly and playing drinking games. The atmosphere was very noisy.

Jiang Ye shook off the rain, picked up his helmet, and walked towards the bar.

His body was stiff from the cold, and all he wanted to do was order a glass of the strongest local liquor to warm himself up.

However, when Jiang Ye walked to the bar and casually glanced inside, he suddenly froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.

Behind the bar, there was a woman standing.

The woman was wearing a bulky, outdated military green padded coat, with black cloth arm protectors stained with oil on her arms. Her hair was casually tied back with a rubber band, appearing somewhat disheveled.

At that moment, she was looking down, holding a rag of indeterminate color, and laboriously wiping the thick layer of grease off the bar counter.

What shocked Jiang Ye the most was the woman's hands.

Those hands were frozen red, and several purplish-red chilblains had even appeared on the back of their hands, some of which had cracked open, making them look shocking.

Seemingly sensing someone approaching, the woman stopped what she was doing.

She looked up, ready to ask the guests what they would like to drink, as she always did, in the local accent.

The moment she raised her head.

Their eyes met unexpectedly in the dim light.

The boisterous sounds of the lumberjacks playing drinking games in the tavern seemed to vanish completely at that moment. The surrounding air seemed to freeze instantly.

It was Shen Qinghan!

Jiang Ye stared wide-eyed at the woman behind the bar, his heart churning with a tsunami-like surge of emotions.

He couldn't believe his eyes.

Is the woman in front of me, with a weathered face, rough skin from long-term exposure to the cold, and fine wrinkles around her eyes, really the once powerful and influential eldest daughter of the Shen family in Hanzhou's business world?

That once aloof female CEO who only wore haute couture gowns, only ate at Michelin three-star restaurants, and always had bodyguards and assistants by her side, was now wearing a tattered cotton-padded coat and doing the lowest-level manual labor in this run-down little bar in the northernmost part of China!

The arrogant demeanor of the past was no longer visible on her; instead, there was a sense of humility and numbness that had been brutally trampled by life.

Jiang Ye was filled with doubt and shock.

Later, Jiang Ye finally understood that although Shen Qinghan's flower shop in the old city of Hanzhou had gradually stabilized, whenever she was alone at night, she would recall the things she had done to Jiang Ye in the past, and her arrogance and selfishness. Her heart was filled with deep pain and regret.

She felt that what she had done in the past was so outrageous and unforgivable.

In order to punish himself thoroughly and to find a sliver of redemption in this endless regret, Shen Qinghan made a crazy decision.

She put up a sign that the flower shop was temporarily closed, took two days off, and chose to exile herself.

She carried no extra luggage and told no one, bought the cheapest hard-seat ticket on a green-skinned train, and wandered all the way to this remote town at the northernmost tip of China.

There was a distant cousin of hers here, who was also the owner of this Old Forest Tavern. Shen Qinghan planned to stay here for two days, helping out at her relative's tavern, doing the dirtiest and most tiring work, using this physical pain to alleviate the guilt in her soul.

She lived in the backyard of this drafty tavern.

But fate loves to play tricks on people. She never imagined that in this remote, snow-covered land thousands of kilometers away from Hanzhou, she would unexpectedly encounter Jiang Ye!