Chapter 57: Reunion

"Awake?"

Shao Ye’s eyes fluttered open, only to be immediately assaulted by a blinding, searing light overhead. Instinctively, he squinted, trying to shield his vision from the unbearable glare.

His hands and legs instinctively reached out to block the light, but he quickly realized with growing panic that he was completely bound to the operating table, restrained by thick ropes that left him utterly immobile.

A surge of intense unease flooded his chest.

“Who the hell are you? What do you want?” Shao Ye’s voice cracked with desperation, his mind racing to grasp his bearings in this unfamiliar and terrifying environment. As his vision slowly adjusted, he saw the face of the person who had spoken.

“Lu Xinglan?!” Shao Ye’s eyes widened in disbelief, confusion and fear evident in his voice. “Where am I? What the hell do you want from me?”

Shao Ye struggled fiercely, but the ropes were unyielding, cutting off his every attempt to break free. No matter how hard he twisted, it was all in vain. His heart pounded as he could do nothing but stare helplessly at the grim scene unfolding around him, the dread deepening with every passing second.

Then, several figures in white lab coats entered the room. They were carrying gleaming surgical knives, their faces impassive as they stood in a cold, organized line in front of him. The sharp, metallic blades glinted ominously in the harsh light, sending a chill of terror crawling up Shao Ye’s spine.

“You... what the hell are you doing?! Let me go!” Shao Ye’s voice quivered, his body trembling uncontrollably as his skin broke out in goosebumps. A suffocating, creeping fear wrapped around his heart, squeezing the air out of his lungs.

Lu Xinglan slowly approached him, an air of exhaustion and bitterness in his tone as he spoke.

“You may have come from the slums, just some nobody, but because you’re an old classmate of Lin Na, I wasn’t going to hold anything against you. But then... Lu Zhanxing killed the girl I loved, and I had to watch, helpless... unable to do a damn thing about it.”

"Lin Na?" Shao Ye tried to recall, a desperate attempt to warn Lu Xinglan that Lin Na had already betrayed the Alliance, a deep cover for the rebels. But as the thought crossed his mind, it was quickly clear that this man—blinded by love and grief—was beyond reason. He wouldn’t listen.

Lu Xinglan kept going, his words spilling out like poison. “Do you know what it was like, seeing Lin Na finally reunite with her mother after all those years, only for Lu Zhanxing’s bullet to tear through her forehead? The despair, the terror in her eyes? How do you think that made me feel?”

Shao Ye closed his eyes, the weight of the moment sinking in. He couldn’t entirely empathize, no matter how much pity he felt. He was guilty for Lin Na’s fate, but there was nothing he could do.

“I’m sorry... I didn’t want her to die,” Shao Ye muttered, the words heavy with regret.

Lu Xinglan scoffed, his voice dripping with scorn and resentment. “Yeah, right. Deep down, you probably felt a damn sense of relief when Lu Zhanxing pulled the trigger, didn’t you?”

Shao Ye was left speechless. His mind couldn't even formulate a response.

The weight of helplessness and resentment drowned him.

Why the hell should he feel happy that Lin Na’s dead?

What the hell was Lu Xinglan talking about?

Just slapping some accusation on him wasn’t enough—he couldn’t just make shit up out of thin air, could he?

But then Lu Xinglan dropped the bomb: "I know, Lin Na always liked Lu Zhanxing."

At those words, Shao Ye’s eyes widened in shock. His mind screamed in disbelief: What the hell? That’s news to me.

No wonder Lin Na had fed him fake info about Lu Zhanxing at O'DELL Academy. No wonder she’d tricked him into that goddamn dungeon at the Lu family mansion.

All the things that had been puzzling Shao Ye suddenly clicked into place in his mind.

But the one thing still gnawing at him was how the hell this came out of Lu Xinglan’s mouth.

Had he always known that Lin Na was in love with his older brother and yet played the pathetic, lowly sidekick like some kind of whipped dog?

Damn, the guy was a hopeless, ultimate case of love-struck stupidity.

"So what?" Shao Ye snapped, his face a mask of confusion. "What does it matter that she liked Lu Zhanxing? I'm not some petty, small-minded idiot. Should I start celebrating every time someone who likes Lu Zhanxing drops dead? I didn't even know she felt that way."

At those words, Lu Xinglan's anger flared even hotter. His eyes screamed a mix of disgust and something darker—maybe a deep, bitter frustration at how pathetic he had let himself become.

Then, without warning, Lu Xinglan leaned in, his cold breath brushing Shao Ye's ear. Every muscle in Shao Ye’s body tensed as a chill ran down his spine.

"You don’t get it, do you?" Lu Xinglan whispered, his voice a venomous hiss. "People like you... people who step over others' corpses to pave the way for your so-called 'love'—you’re never ashamed of it."

Shao Ye froze, staring at him, shocked. Was that aimed at him and Lu Zhanxing?

Crazy. Lu Xinglan had totally lost it. He was out of his mind.

"Lu Xinglan, get the hell off me!" Shao Ye felt the panic bubble up in his chest, his body shaking uncontrollably. He was terrified, sure this psycho was about to do something unforgivable. His entire being felt as fragile as a leaf in a storm, shaking and about to snap.

But Lu Xinglan just lifted one finger, pressing it gently to Shao Ye’s lips, making a "shush" gesture as he spoke softly:

"Don’t get too worked up, sister-in-law. You wouldn’t want to scare the baby in your belly, would you?"

Shao Ye’s pupils constricted, his heart dropping into his stomach, icy cold dread seizing him. His mind raced—everything went dark.

A sterile operating table. A scalpel-wielding doctor. And Lu Xinglan, driven mad by his hatred, unable to stand anyone else’s happiness—this was all spiraling into one nightmare too real to escape.

Sweat soaked Shao Ye’s body, a cold sweat that made him feel like he was plunging into a bottomless abyss. Fear swallowed him whole. The air around him turned ice-cold, suffocating him, each breath a struggle.

"Lu Xinglan, what the hell do you think you’re doing?! " Shao Ye’s voice trembled with fury and panic, his eyes wide and filled with terror.

Lü Xinglan was lazily toying with a scalpel, letting the sharp blade graze Shao Ye’s cheek with a chilling precision. Shao Ye could feel every cold inch of the steel, like an icy whisper against his skin, sending a shiver through him. Every pore on his body was vibrating with a mix of dread and tension, as if the next moment that blade would slice into his flesh without mercy.

Lü Xinglan broke the silence, his voice dripping with a sinister amusement. "Shao Ye, I hear Lu Zhanxing’s been going mad searching for you these past few days. He spent three whole days digging through the wreckage of that crashed warship, his fingers torn and bloodied, nearly to the bone. Want to see what he found?"

Shao Ye’s face twisted with terror. The thought of Lu Zhanxing, lost in that wreckage, tearing through it piece by piece in a maddened search for him, was unbearable. He knew exactly what kind of monster Lü Xinglan was—hell-bent on tormenting him, and this time, he’d even gone as far as throwing Shao Ye’s wedding ring into the ruins. With Lu Zhanxing’s stubborn nature, there was no way he’d ever give up the search. He’d crawl through that mess of rubble and corpses if he had to, just to find it.

The thought of Lu Zhanxing finding that graveyard of bodies without a single whole corpse, crushed beneath the weight of the destruction, was enough to drive anyone insane.

His heart was still recovering from wounds it hadn’t fully healed from, and yet here he was, back on the front lines, pushed to the brink of collapse. His body was screaming for rest, yet his mind was flooded with guilt over what Lu Zhanxing would face. If that man saw the wreckage, if he saw the horror of it all, how could he handle it? Shao Ye didn’t want to think about it. His own heart ached just imagining it.

But the worst part? Lü Xinglan’s taunts. That twisted smirk, never leaving his face, as he leaned in with another round of sick pleasure. "Shao Ye, do you miss Lu Zhanxing? I’m sure your little baby misses him, don’t you think?"

Every time that bastard mentioned the baby, it was like a hammer crashing down on Shao Ye’s chest. Fear gripped him—what if Lü Xinglan did something to harm the unborn child? That child, the very proof of the love between him and Lu Zhanxing, was his everything. He’d sacrificed so much to bring this little life into the world. If anything happened to it... he might as well be torn apart himself.

Without hesitation, Lü Xinglan dialed Lu Zhanxing’s number. The holographic screen lit up, showing Lu Zhanxing’s face—tired, angry, broken.

"Shao Ye!" The desperation in Lu Zhanxing’s voice tore through him, making his heart skip. Shao Ye wanted to scream, to run to him, but he knew it was impossible. It was a dream. The only thing he could do was choke down the tears threatening to spill, not wanting to make Lu Zhanxing suffer any more than he already was.

"Ah Ye!" Lu Zhanxing’s voice was thick with emotion.

"Lu-ge—" Shao Ye barely choked out his words, his voice raw with longing and terror.

On the screen, both Lu Zhanxing and Shao Lan’s faces mirrored each other—fear and desperation etched on them. Lü Xinglan smirked at the scene, his cruel laughter echoing in the room. "Shao Lan, I never thought I’d see the day when you two would meet again without trying to kill each other."

Lu Zhanxing took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm as he addressed Lü Xinglan. "Xinglan, I’ll give you anything you want. The Lu family’s head position, the power of the alliance... it’s all yours. Just don’t hurt Shao Ye."

Lü Xinglan chuckled darkly, eyes narrowing. "Anything, huh? Well, here’s the real question, my dear brother—can you give me Lin Na’s life back? Can you return her to me?"

Lu Zhanxing stayed silent, not even a flicker of emotion crossing his face. But Shao Lan, on the other hand, was ready to explode. She shoved her way to the front, her eyes practically spitting fire. With venomous fury, she screamed, "Lu Xinglan, if you lay so much as a finger on my brother, I swear to God, I will hunt you down, no matter where the hell you are, and tear you apart piece by piece, just so you can join that little bitch of yours in the afterlife. I’ll make sure of it."

But Lu Xinglan wasn’t fazed. His face remained cold, his voice only growing darker, more chilling as he spoke, "Before that happens, I think it’s time for your family to be reunited. You’re going to be so overwhelmed with emotion, you won’t know what to do with yourselves."

"YOU!" Shao Lan's eyes burned with such rage it felt like they could set the world on fire. If looks could kill, Lu Xinglan would've been ashes by now. Her hands balled into fists, and she wanted nothing more than to rip his throat out. "Don’t you fucking touch my brother!"

But Lu Xinglan wasn’t listening. He took slow, deliberate steps toward Shao Ye, a gleaming scalpel in hand. The few doctors in the room pressed down on Shao Ye’s limbs, holding him down as he could only watch, helpless, powerless to do a damn thing.

"Sis-in-law," Lu Xinglan cooed, his voice smooth, like the kind of whisper that crawls under your skin and never leaves. "Tell me, is the baby fully formed yet?"

The way he spoke made every syllable feel like it came from the depths of hell itself. Each word bit through Shao Ye’s heart like icy blades, freezing him in fear.

"No, no! Don’t hurt my baby! Please... please, I beg you... don’t harm my child!"

Tears flooded Shao Ye’s face, unstoppable like a tidal wave crashing through the dam. The terror in his chest gnawed at him, devouring him like a black hole. He could feel the darkness pulling him under, a never-ending abyss of hopelessness that held him prisoner, struggling and gasping for air but unable to escape.