Chapter 2 Only Pale Remains

The carousel is the cruelest game in the world; forever chasing one another, yet always separated by a pitiful distance.

Her cold, indifferent tone was like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the burning hope and longing in the man’s eyes. Lu Huaining felt the gentle form in his embrace slowly withdraw from his rigid hold. His questioning gaze locked onto her fearless eyes. “What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” Xue Zuining’s lips curled into a bitter, victorious smile. “President Lu, you can’t possibly be naive enough to expect the woman you schemed so hard to take revenge on to bear your child, can you? What a tragic irony that would be!”

The color drained from his face, leaving only a ghostly pallor. Half-kneeling on the carpet, Lu Huaining lifted his eyes to meet her mocking gaze. In that moment, his voice was hoarse, unrecognizable even to himself. “What exactly do you know?”

“All that I should know, and more,” Xue Zuining replied, rising slowly and moving to sit on the sofa. She lowered her head, her tone gentle as she addressed him: “Would you like me to refresh your memory?”

It was only now that Lu Huaining realized just how terrifying her composure could be—one look from her could freeze the warm blood in your veins.

“So you admit it?” Xue Zuining’s icy glare fell on the man who seemed lost for words. So, his usual indifference could be shattered after all. She let out a cool laugh. “How does it feel to be toyed with in the palm of someone’s hand?”

His throat felt as though it had been stuffed full of straw, unable to utter a single word, only burning with anguish. He watched as she turned away and retrieved something from a small drawer nearby. With an expressionless, pallid face, she placed it on the coffee table.

With just a glance, Lu Huaining recognized it—a palm-sized black-and-white ultrasound image. He frowned, trying to make sense of the dark mass in the picture, but it was impossible to decipher. He turned to the paper beneath it—a long title: “Record of Mifepristone Combined with Prostaglandin for Early Pregnancy Termination (Medical Abortion).” What nonsense was this? A fire flared in his chest. He cursed under his breath and flipped to the back—another string of medical terminology. But this time, the striking, glaring title was clear: “Informed Consent for Mifepristone Combined with Prostaglandin for Early Pregnancy Termination (Medical Abortion).” His fingers trembled as he gripped the paper, his eyes skimming the tangled lines of characters until they stopped at the lower right corner, where a name was handwritten: Xue Zuining. It was the first time he had seen her handwriting—elegant and beautiful.

Then, it felt as if a bomb had been planted inside him, someone had just lit the fuse, and with a resounding bang, he was shaken to his core. The world spun around him—her indifferent face, the dim yellow light—all swirling together. He understood now; he was no fool, no simpleton—how could he not grasp it? This verdict ripped open a bloody wound in his heart. He had only been gone for half a month—how had everything changed so drastically?

“You really got rid of the child?” At that moment, Lu Huaining desperately wished she would shake her head, deny it. But such hope was doomed to disappointment.

His expression appeared calm, but agony, resentment, confusion, and grief tangled together, impossible to distinguish, spilling from his tightly pressed lips, his furrowed brows, from the fathomless darkness in his eyes.

Xue Zuining looked at the photograph, now nearly crumpled in the man’s hand. That was her child, too, but fate had cruelly denied it a chance to enter the world—all because of the man before her. If he had never appeared in her life, she would never have had to endure the agony of tearing her own child from her body.

“Yes.” As she uttered this single word, Xue Zuining quietly placed her hand on her lower abdomen—a silent farewell to the child she would never meet.

Lu Huaining’s breath caught at her reply, unwilling to accept it, he pressed further: “Do you think by doing this, you can sever everything between us cleanly?” Leaving only hatred behind?

“Yes!”

“Like hell you can!” He could no longer suppress his fury, his voice rising. From the moment she learned those so-called truths, this woman had gone utterly mad, even at the cost of an innocent life, just to use it as a tool for revenge. “Xue Zuining, did it ever occur to you that it was your child, too? No matter how much you hate me, how could you direct that hatred towards the baby?”

His wrathful gaze landed on the fruit knife resting in the bowl on the table. He swore, at that instant, he truly wanted to cut open this cold-hearted woman, just to see if she really had no heart at all.

“It was nothing but a mistake—destined never to exist!”

Lu Huaining nearly ground his teeth to dust, his uncontrollable emotions raging within. “So you chose the cruelest way to decide its fate? Did you ever consider, when you killed it, that it was a living being?”