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Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: A devil's deal

[12/8, 4:58 PM] ChatGPT: Got it. Based on your chosen title *"A Devil's Deal"*, and your feedback, here's a *new Chapter 1* scene — darker, sharper, more in line with a revenge plot, and fitting for a novel where the heroine is forced into a life she didn't choose but intends to take control of.

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*Title: A Devil's Deal*

*Chapter 1: The Price of Innocence*

The gates of Huaiyin Women's Prison opened with a hiss, as though even the building itself was reluctant to let her go.

Bai Zhiqi stepped out, five years later, into a world she no longer recognized—and one that no longer wanted her.

The sunlight hit her face, sharp and blinding, but she didn't flinch. She'd learned not to.

Behind her, the guards didn't say goodbye. In front of her, no one waited. Not her adoptive mother. Not her father. Not the brothers who used to spoil her. Not the best friend who swore to wait. And definitely not the fiancé who married her sister.

The silence was louder than any insult.

She wore the same clothes she was arrested in—now faded and loose. Her hair was shorter, uneven from cheap prison scissors. Her wrists still bore faint scars from the handcuffs that changed her life.

[12/8, 4:58 PM] ChatGPT: She had no suitcase, no car, no home to return to. Only a thin envelope handed to her by the prison office—containing some cash, a photo of her performing at age 16, and a sealed legal document reminding her that she was still bound to an agreement signed the night of her arrest.

The contract.

The deal.

The devil's deal.

She hadn't touched it in five years, but she knew every word.

*To avoid the death penalty for the crime of Bai Lanyue, Bai Zhiqi shall take the fall. In exchange, her family's reputation and business shall be protected. Upon release, she will marry into the Ji family, as per the debt agreement, regardless of circumstances.*

They traded her freedom for silence. Her life for theirs.

She had signed it with blood on her lip and fury in her chest.

Back then, she was desperate. Naïve. She thought five years would pass and someone—anyone—would come clean.

No one did.

Instead, they celebrated Bai Lanyue like a phoenix who rose from tragedy. The same girl who pushed a woman down a flight of stairs, letting Zhiqi take the blame for the miscarriage of a political heiress.

She became the disgrace. Lanyue became the crown jewel.

But now Bai Zhiqi was back.

And nothing would be the same.

[12/8, 4:58 PM] ChatGPT: She walked down the narrow road away from the prison, head held high, every step echoing with purpose. Not fear. Not shame.

Revenge.

She didn't need a welcome party. She didn't need their love anymore.

She needed power.

Her phone had been reactivated the moment she stepped out. She scrolled through social media feeds, flooded with posts about Bai Lanyue's latest magazine cover, charity concert, and rumored pregnancy with her wealthy husband—Zhiqi's ex.

She opened her contact list.

All grayed out.

Blocked. Deleted. Gone.

Perfect.

They wanted to forget her.

But the world never forgets a scandal—and she would use that.

She took a deep breath and headed to the one place she knew no one would dare follow her—the ruins of her mother's old music studio, now abandoned.

There, hidden beneath a loose tile under the piano bench, was a small metal box. Untouched.

Inside were photos, letters, bank slips—evidence that could crack everything wide open. Secrets her adoptive sister never knew she kept.

Zhiqi stared at the documents.

Her ticket back into the world wasn't music.

It was vengeance.

*And the marriage?*

That devil's deal?

She hadn't forgotten.

She would walk into the Ji family estate not as a sacrifice—

—but as their reckoning.

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