The moment the wedding march began, Cheng Xubai looked at Xie Qinghuan in her swaying wedding dress, and in a daze, he saw the crystal chandelier hanging from the cathedral dome shatter into countless points of light. Cold sweat beaded on the hand clutching the bouquet. His phone vibrated in his suit's inner pocket; it was the last message from Lin Ruoning: "I'm going to Canada. I wish you happiness."
This wedding had been in preparation for a full three months, and Xie Qinghuan's father was the largest shareholder of Cheng Corporation. When her father slammed the medical report onto his desk, the words "stage four stomach cancer" made his vision go dark: "A marriage alliance with the Xie family is the only way to save the company." The image of Lin Ruoning turning around at the airport security checkpoint overlapped with Xie Qinghuan's gaze, filled with hopeful expectation as she looked at him now. Cheng Xubai heard a sigh escape his throat as he slipped the ring onto that slender hand.
On their wedding night, Xie Qinghuan curled up on the opposite side of the bed, listening to the rushing sound of water from the bathroom. The reflection in the mirror showed her red, swollen eyes, and the pearls on the hem of her wedding dress pressed into her painfully. Cheng Xubai emerged wrapped in a bath towel, water droplets dripping from the tips of his hair to strike his collarbone, and walked straight toward the sofa: "I'll sleep here." Moonlight crept across his profile through th…
Chapter 98