C6 The Engagement Was Fake

Their eyes met.

Xue Ning felt her breath catch, her heart pounding like a drum. A wave of panic, fear, and the urge to flee surged through her.

Lu Bai!

The man she feared most in her past life. He was the architect of her once tragic existence. Now, given a second chance, he was the last person she wanted to see, yet the one she couldn't avoid—her husband.

Xue Ning swallowed hard, quickly averting her gaze, silently cursing him: Jerk!

Lu Bai: "..."

No one spoke, and the air seemed to freeze.

Xue Ning forced herself to break the silence. "You're back."

After a few seconds of silence, the sound of a wheelchair rolling suddenly filled the room, and Xue Ning's body tensed.

Was he coming toward her?

She waited, listening for the sound of the home elevator, and only then did she realize he was going upstairs.

She let out a quiet sigh of relief and turned to Mrs. Zhao, who was watching with a puzzled expression. "Come on, help me bring out the dishes."

"Oh, right." Mrs. Zhao busied herself between the kitchen and the dining room.

Xue Ning remained where she was, her mind still on the man from moments ago.

She and Lu Bai had been married for just three months.

As for why they were married, it all traced back to the Xue family. The late patriarch of the Xue family had been friends with the elder of the Lu family, and thus, this marriage was arranged.

"Oh, it must have been arranged for Lu Bai and Xue Ya," she thought. After all, she was just a stand-in. Even though the Lu family was the most prestigious in the country, if not the world, Xue Ya had no desire to marry into it, and her parents were even more reluctant to see their daughter in such a situation. The reason? Lu Bai was confined to a wheelchair, and it was said he would never walk again. There were also doubts about his ability to have children, and Xue Ya's parents didn't want their daughter trapped in a difficult marriage.

Regardless of how it happened, Xue Ning ended up being the one to marry him. She pondered this for a long time, and when she finally snapped out of her thoughts, Mrs. Zhao had already set the table with food. Xue Ning sat down and started eating, ignoring Mrs. Zhao's hesitant expression, which clearly suggested she wanted Xue Ning to wait for Lu Bai to join her. But Xue Ning knew that Lu Bai wouldn't even spare her a glance, let alone share a meal, and she didn't want to face the awkwardness.

Seeing Lu Bai stirred up a storm of emotions in Xue Ning, making even the most delicious food taste bland.

...

On the third floor, in the study, Lu Bai was on the phone with someone. He listened in silence, his expression growing darker by the minute. His long fingers clenched into a fist, clearly struggling to keep his emotions in check. After a while, he ended the call. The phone was slammed onto the desk, its screen shattering like a spider web. His eyes, usually as calm as the night sky, now burned with intense anger.

"Xue! Ning!"

"Your good days are over!"

"I want you to suffer!"

The words were sharp enough to cut, spat out with venom. Anger made his chest heave and his body tremble uncontrollably. Blood seeped through the seams of his pants from his battered legs, but Lu Bai only glanced at them briefly, not even wincing.

In that explosion, he lost his legs, but the other man lost his life.

That man was Ark.

For ten years, Ark had been both a mentor and a friend. In an instant, he was reduced to ashes, no longer the vibrant person he once was.

Lu Bai vividly remembered how, when the explosion roared through with flames, Ark had thrown himself in front of him without hesitation.

He survived; Ark did not.

The weight of this reality felt like a mountain pressing down on his heart, making it hard to breathe.

What left him most despairing was—

He had no idea how to face Ark's family.

His friend's elderly, frail parents, and his young, innocent children... they had lost their beloved family member forever.