An Xia panicked and quickly waved her hands, “I didn’t! It was Jingyang who—”
“You’re going to say Jingyang orchestrated it himself again?”
Lu Beichuan interrupted An Xia’s attempt to explain with sarcasm.
“Would he lie in his condition?”
An Xia opened her mouth, her lips pale. The nightmare of being misunderstood three years ago surged back like a tide.
“You really haven’t changed!” Lu Beichuan stared at An Xia with red eyes.
“About today’s matter—”
Just as An Xia was about to explain, she suddenly caught sight of the figure following Lu Beichuan into the room.
“Beichuan…”
She took Lu Beichuan’s arm and followed his gaze upstairs.
The moment their eyes met, An Xia froze.
It was Ming Xiyu!
Lu Beichuan’s childhood sweetheart and also his ex-girlfriend.
If it hadn’t been for the accident three years ago, Ming Xiyu would be the one sitting in the position of Mrs. Lu today.
More dazzling than her face was the crown on her head and the pink dress she wore.
Ming Xiyu was the one Lu Beichuan was secretly meeting at the dessert shop late at night instead of going home.
The three-hundred-million-dollar crown he kept saying he was giving to a friend’s elder was also for Ming Xiyu…
Clearly realizing these facts, An Xia’s eyes suddenly felt a little sore.
“Hello, Uncle and Aunt!”
Ming Xiyu greeted them generously, her eyes sweeping around before landing on An Xia.
“An Xia, long time no see.”
Ming Xiyu looked at her with a faint smile, then suddenly seemed to realize something and waved her hand coyly.
“Don’t get me wrong, I just returned to the country, and Beichuan was just worried that I wouldn’t adapt, so he came to pick me up. He also heard Beichuan say that Jingyang wasn’t doing well again, so I thought I’d come and see him, after all, I watched Jingyang grow up.”
Lu’s mother, Song Lanzhi, quickly came downstairs and took Ming Xiyu’s hand intimately.
“Ah, Xiyu is still the best! Even after so many years, your aunt still only favors you as her daughter-in-law. An Xia is like a wooden fish, not as good as you in any way!”
Song Lanzhi mocked her bluntly and harshly, not caring that An Xia was right there.
An Xia bit her lower lip tightly, but didn’t dare to retort a single word.
She was adopted by the Fu family when she was ten years old, and they generously raised her until she got into college. Song Lanzhi was her mother-in-law and also her adoptive mother.
The grace of nurturing was greater than anything, so even if Song Lanzhi’s words were harsh, she could only endure them.
Ming Xiyu covered her mouth and smiled, “Aunt is still so humorous, but if you say that, An Xia she…”
Ming Xiyu looked upstairs, “An Xia, Aunt is just joking, you shouldn’t be angry, right?”
An Xia didn’t say anything, only looked at Lu Beichuan, wanting to see his reaction.
But Lu Beichuan just coldly looked up and met her eyes, then said to Ming Xiyu, “Alright, it’s late, I’ll take you back first.”
“Okay.” Ming Xiyu took Lu Beichuan’s arm again, “Then Uncle and Aunt, we’ll go back first, you should rest early too.”
Her posture was as natural as if she were Lu Beichuan’s real wife.
Go back…
An Xia’s heart trembled fiercely.
She had just returned to the country, and she already had a love nest with Lu Beichuan?
Or had Lu Beichuan been unwilling to come back all these years and had been living outside, and those so-called business trips were actually spent in the love nest he had prepared with Ming Xiyu?
Deliberately avoiding pregnancy and rarely touching her was also to avoid trouble when he reunited with Ming Xiyu in the future.
Watching the well-matched figures of the two leaving, An Xia’s heart ached so much that she could hardly breathe.
If Ming Xiyu hadn’t gone abroad back then, even with that accident, she probably wouldn’t be sitting in the position of Mrs. Lu.
Song Lanzhi walked upstairs, looked at her head down and silent, and snorted coldly, “Look at Xiyu, how generous, and look at you, a wild girl from the backwoods! You’re just a pheasant! No matter how long you live in our Lu family’s golden house, you can’t change that petty air about you!”
Although Lu’s father had always been dissatisfied with An Xia as his daughter-in-law, he still pulled her when he heard Song Lanzhi’s harsh words.
“Alright, Jingyang is fine now, go back to sleep.”
Everyone dispersed, and only An Xia and Lu Jingyang were left in the corridor on the second floor.
The boy looked terrified.
“Brother, brother is angry.”
Looking at the instigator of all this, An Xia couldn’t get angry, only felt helpless and heartache.
He and grandma were the only ones in the entire Lu family who had always been genuinely good to her.
“No, he’s not angry. He’s just busy with work and under too much pressure, so his voice was a little loud.”
After comforting Lu Jingyang, An Xia left the old house with peace of mind.
As the car passed through the business district, An Xia caught a glimpse of the billboards hanging in the mall, and then, as if possessed, she told the driver to stop the car and quietly stared at the billboards in a daze.
Once, her paintings were published on such huge billboards, and people all over the city could see the colors she wielded with her brush.
She was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts at the age of sixteen, won countless awards in art competitions, and began to prepare for her solo exhibition at the age of eighteen. Back then, she was known as a genius girl, and even her casual sketches could be sold for sky-high prices.
But now, she was just a full-time housewife revolving around a husband who didn’t love her and an empty family.
Song Lanzhi’s words that Beichuan needed someone to take care of him carefully made An Xia resolutely give up all her glory and return home to be a good full-time housewife.
From the decoration of the wedding room to the matching tie for Lu Beichuan’s suit fabric, An Xia had been doing all of this personally for the past three years.
She was only twenty-one years old, but she could see the future of her life at a glance.
Things that seemed beautiful before now seemed so boring and dull.
No matter how much she sacrificed, she would never be as good as the white moonlight who just beckoned.
Lu Beichuan and Ming Xiyu were probably desperately releasing their years of endurance in bed.
An Xia suddenly felt so bored.
Looking down at the wedding ring on her ring finger, An Xia thought of Lu Beichuan’s empty ring finger for the past three years.
A married man enjoying the title of a golden bachelor outside.
An Xia chuckled, then vigorously took off the wedding ring that had already left a layered mark on her finger.
It turned out that the things she once cared about the most could be removed so easily once they felt meaningless.
Arriving home, the lights in the living room were unexpectedly on.
An Xia suspiciously slowed down and went inside, seeing Lu Beichuan holding a basin with anger, and a large area of the fireplace wall was black.
The photo of the two of them that An Xia had painted herself, hanging above the fireplace, was burned, leaving only the surrounding background.
An Xia’s eyes darkened.
In the dark, it seemed that someone had already made a decision for her.
When decorating this villa, An Xia was full of joy, planning with the beautiful vision of a family of three living here in the future.
Fearing that unreasonable designs in the house would harm the children in the future, the fireplace was fake, and there were no flammable items placed around it.
She had been guarding this house for 1095 days in a row for three years.
Only the painting on the fireplace.
It probably burned because she had just lit the candlesticks and placed them here to create an atmosphere, and opened the window to wait for Lu Beichuan to come back, but suddenly received a call from the old house and left in a hurry, not having time to do anything, which caused the wind to blow the flame and accidentally set the painting on fire.
The person who used to be so happy to see her was calm and indifferent today without any reaction. Lu Beichuan frowned, sensing something was wrong.
Then he heard An Xia say faintly.
“Let’s get a divorce.”