Lu Xuhan

The air inside the car seemed frozen. On the way to Lu's Group headquarters, Xu Yan kept tilting his head to look out the window. The bustling city scene rapidly receded before his eyes, leaving no trace. His fingers curled unconsciously, their fingertips cold.

Lu Ziyi sat beside him and could clearly feel the tension in his body. He reached out and silently took Xu Yan's hand in his palm, squeezing it hard, trying to dispel the chill and impart a bit of strength.

Xu Yan didn't look back, but moved his fingers slightly and shook his hand back.

Arriving at the towering corporate building, the gleaming elevator silently ascended, the numbers ticking away, each beat a knock on Xu Yan's heart. The moment the elevator door opened, the spacious and solemn top-floor CEO office came into view. Staff in business attire hurried by, and the air was filled with a cold, efficient air.

Lu Ziyi walked out first. His back looked particularly tall and straight, like a wall that could block the wind. He turned his head and whispered to Xu Yan, "Follow me."

Xu Yan took a deep breath and followed him. He could feel the curious and inquisitive gazes coming from all directions, those gazes like fine needles piercing him.

At this moment, a middle-aged man in a dark gray suit and with a capable demeanor (Lu Yu's chief assistant) came over. He first looked at Lu Ziyi respectfully and called him "Young Master", then his gaze turned to Xu Yan beside him.

There was no contempt or scrutiny in that look, but instead an extreme, professional calmness. In fact… the moment his eyes met with his assistant’s, the other person nodded to him very slightly, almost imperceptibly.

This subtle movement, like a stone dropped into a deep lake, sent a complex ripple through Xu Yan's heart. He didn't have time to ponder its meaning before Lu Zi led him, pushing open the heavy door to the chairman's office, a symbol of supreme power and unknown judgment.

The door slowly closed behind him.

The office was as cold and luxurious as ever. Beyond the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows lay the dizzying skyline of a foreign metropolis. Lu Yu sat at his large desk, reviewing documents. His expression betrayed the dignity of someone who had held a high position for many years, along with a subtle hint of fatigue.

Lu Ziyi brought Xu Yan in. Xu Yan was a little reserved. Everything here reminded him of that humiliating afternoon many years ago when he was expelled.

"Dad." Lu Ziyi's voice calmly broke the silence.

Lu Yu raised his head, his gaze sweeping across his son before landing on Xu Yan. His face was expressionless, and he simply nodded formally, with a touch of the distant politeness of an elder to his junior. "Xu Yan, right? Zi Yi often mentions you, saying you're quite talented at mixing drinks."

His tone was calm, as if he were merely evaluating a slightly unusual friend of his son's, with the impassive scrutiny of a superior. He clearly didn't recognize Xu Yan as the boy he'd sent away with a check. Perhaps in his mind, that "trouble" had long since been completely erased.

Xu Yan pursed his lips and whispered, "Hello, Uncle Lu."

At this moment, Lu Ziyi stepped forward and stood beside Xu Yan. His hand gently rested on Xu Yan's lower back, a silent yet firm gesture of support. He looked at his father, his eyes calm, yet filled with an unquestionable solemnity.

"Dad," Lu Ziyi's voice echoed clearly in the empty office, each word like a stone dropped into an icy lake, "I brought him here today, not just for a casual visit."

He paused, feeling Xu Yan's body tense up instantly, and saw a hint of doubt in his father's eyes.

Lu Ziyi's gaze was fixed on Lu Yu, and every word he spoke was like a final judgment:

"I would like to formally introduce to you the person next to me, Xu Yan, or perhaps Cheng Xiaorui."

"He is the son of Uncle Lu Xubai and Aunt Cheng Zhixu, and my future partner."

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

The calm and scrutiny on Lu Yu's face shattered and peeled away like fragile glass struck by a heavy hammer. His hand holding the pen shook violently, and the tip of the pen left a sharp mark on the expensive document.

He seemed not to have heard clearly, nor to be able to understand. His pupils suddenly contracted, and his gaze shifted abruptly from his son's face to Xu Yan's young and handsome face, which at this moment seemed to overlap with a vague and guilty figure in his memory.

Shock, disbelief, immense panic, and the guilt that had been buried for years and had never truly dissipated, like a flood bursting through a dam, completely destroyed all his psychological defenses. His face turned pale in an instant, and his lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.

He stared at Xu Yan intently, as if he wanted to see through this face to the past that he tried to forget, to see the old friend who jumped down despite him crying and apologizing.

The office was dead silent, you could hear a pin drop. Only the distant city noise outside the window seemed to come from another world.

Lu Ziyi calmly watched all of his father's misbehavior. He chose the most direct and cruel way to expose the buried past and the most important choice of his life to the sun.

After his initial shock and bewilderment, Xu Yan seemed to have vaguely grasped the edge of a huge and heavy secret about his own life from Lu Yu's violent reaction. He subconsciously grasped Lu Ziyi's hand.

The color drained from Lu Yu's face. He braced himself on the table, his knuckles white from the exertion, as if he would collapse if he didn't. He stared at Xu Yan, his eyes filled with overwhelming horror and unacceptable panic.

"No... Impossible..." He finally found his voice, which was dry and hoarse, and trembling violently. "You... You are Cheng Zhixu's son? Lu Xubai's... son?"

He almost stammered the last few words, with a kind of despair of being teased by fate.

Xu Yan was so startled by his violent reaction that he took a half step back. Lu Ziyi immediately embraced him, shielding him behind him. Xu Yan raised his head, staring blankly at Lu Ziyi's cold, hard profile, then at Lu Yu, who seemed to have aged ten years in that instant. A vague and terrifying suspicion grew wildly in his mind.

"Lu...Uncle Lu?" Xu Yan's voice was filled with uncertainty and temptation.

The words "Uncle Lu" were like the final straw, breaking Lu Yu's back. He suddenly closed his eyes, his body swaying, almost unable to stand. Memories he had deliberately buried for years, masked by power and indifference, flooded him with overwhelming guilt and pain.

He seemed to be back to that time again, with the howling wind and Lu Xubai standing on the edge, looking back at him, his eyes filled with collapsed accusations and utter despair. He himself stretched out his hands in vain, crying, "I'm sorry, Xubai! I'm sorry for you! Come back——!"

"Bang--"

Lu Yu finally slumped back into the large leather chair, feeling as if all his strength had been drained away. He covered his face with his hands, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably. No longer the once-powerful business tycoon, he was just an old man, judged by his past and ashamed.

The suppressed, painful sobs echoed softly in the office where you could hear a pin drop.

Xu Yan watched this scene, his heart gripped by an icy hand. He seemed to understand something. The vague rumors about his father's death, the broken family, the pain his mother had refused to discuss until her death... seemed to have found a cruel outlet at this moment.

He suddenly turned to Lu Ziyi, his voice sharp, even though he himself didn't realize it: "Lu Ziyi, he... why... my father..."

Lu Ziyi held his cold hand tightly, meeting his shocked, answer-seeking gaze, his eyes filled with a complex mixture of heartache and the pain of someone who had already seen through everything. He took a deep breath and decided not to hide it anymore.

"Yes." Lu Ziyi's voice was low and clear, like a scalpel, precisely cutting through the last trace of disguise. "Many years ago, the person who introduced your father to that circle and ultimately led him...down the path of no return was my father, Lu Yu."

He paused, then cruelly, yet inevitably, delivered the final blow:

"And two years ago, the person who forced you to leave with a check, causing you to lose your last 'home'... was also him."

Xu Yan was completely frozen, his mind going blank.

I have hated the unfairness of fate for so many years, blamed my father for being stupid for so many years, suffered alone for so many years... It turns out that all the sources clearly point to the collapsed man in front of me.

What made him even colder was that he had known about Lu Ziyi for a long time. He knew everything.

Lu Ziyi looked at the immense pain, anger at being deceived, and complete bewilderment that suddenly welled up in Xu Yan's eyes. He held him tightly in his arms, ignoring his stiffness. In his ear, he spoke with an extremely firm and pleading voice:

"Xu Yan, look at me."

"The sins of the fathers are theirs."

"My love, it's mine."

"I brought you here not to ask for your forgiveness, but to tell you, in front of the source of all this—"

"No matter whose fault it is, anything in the past has the right to stop me from loving you, nor does it have the right to stop me from keeping you by my side forever."

In the office, Lu Yu's suppressed sobs continued, which was a total outburst of guilt and pain that had been accumulated for more than ten years.

Xu Yan's body, initially stiff, slowly relaxed in Lu Ziyi's arms. Lu Ziyi's resolute words were like a solid fortress, supporting him from the sweeping tide of history.

As he listened to Lu Yu's cries, his mind flashed back to the blurry face of his father, Lu Xubai, the exhausted figure of his mother, Cheng Zhixu, secretly wiping away tears in the middle of the night, the fear of the ferocious creditors banging on the door, and the panic of his mother leading him away from their homeland as if fleeing...

His father, the one who Lu Yu described as "led astray," hadn't he also pushed him and his mother into the abyss? That heavy gambling debt, that shattered family, were tragedies that Lu Xubai had personally helped to create.

Do you hate Lu Yu?

Maybe a little.

But more of a feeling, is a huge exhaustion and alienation.

He slowly but firmly stepped away from Lu Ziyi's embrace and raised his head. The violent emotional fluctuations on his face had subsided, replaced by a calm indifference. He looked at Lu Yu, who sat slumped in the chair, as if his soul had been drained away. There was no forgiveness in his eyes, no further accusation. It was as if he was looking at a stranger, unrelated to him, immersed in his own pain.

"Uncle Lu," Xu Yan's voice was soft, but it clearly interrupted the other person's sobbing. "My mother didn't want to talk about the past when she was alive, and I don't want to get involved now."

His words were like a clear dividing line, completely separating the complicated grudges of their fathers, which no one could fully explain as right or wrong, from one side to the other.

Lu Yu looked up in disbelief, his tear-stained face filled with astonishment. He had anticipated angry accusations and fierce retaliation, but he had never expected such a calm... letting go.

Xu Yan didn't look at Lu Yu again, but turned to Lu Ziyi, his eyes fixed on his worried and nervous expression. He reached out and gently shook Lu Ziyi's hand, which had been tightly grasping his, as if it were his only reliable support amidst the turbulent sea.

"Those are adult matters. It's been too long and too tiring." He spoke to Lu Ziyi, and also to himself, his tone carrying the clarity of someone who had survived a disaster. "I just want to live my own life, the life with you."

What he cared about from the beginning to the end was only Lu Yi, who knew all the truth but still chose to love him wholeheartedly and even did not hesitate to confront the shadow of his parents.

The sins of their fathers were their cross, and his and Lu Zi's paths were under their own feet.

At this moment, Xu Yan chose not to forgive, but to transcend. He refused to be bound by the ghosts of the past and wanted to define his and Lu Ziyi's future in his own way.

Lu Ziyi looked at Xu Yan's calm yet determined eyes, and the huge rock that had been hanging in his heart suddenly fell to the ground.