Don’t Ignite It chapter 37

He won’t come

Lu Zhao put his phone aside.

He finished smoking a whole cigarette on the balcony, the moonlight casting his slender, solitary shadow on the ground.

Smoking with a fever was not advisable. Nicotine tasted particularly bitter in his mouth, like sharp blades cutting at his throat.

He thought about Xia Yu’s cold tone earlier and imagined that Xia Yu must be sleeping next to Xu Zhan right now, their hearts and souls intertwined.

He couldn’t help but torment himself, wondering if, after ending the call with him, Xia Yu would return to Xu Zhan’s side, sleep beside him, and smile tenderly at Xu Zhan, just like he used to smile at him.

The cigarette ash fell onto the railing, and the pale ashes were slowly scattered by the wind.

Lu Zhao stared blankly at his own shadow on the ground.

He remembered three years ago when Xia Yu had looked at him with eyes filled with despair.

Indeed, what goes around comes around.

Now he was finally experiencing the pain Xia Yu had felt back then.

…………………………

In reality, Xia Yu didn’t plan to stay at Xu Zhan’s family home for several days. Early the next morning, he and Xu Zhan left.

Xu Zhan’s sister, Xu Ping, accompanied them. They were in Xu Zhan’s car, and he was taking her to her workplace at the municipal government.

During the ride, Xu Ping and Xu Zhan chatted, while Xia Yu, who hadn’t slept well the previous night, tried to catch up on some sleep.

But he couldn’t fall asleep.

However, Xu Ping and Xu Zhan thought he was asleep.

He overheard Xu Ping mentioning the idea of adopting a child again to Xu Zhan. Although Xu Ping doted on her younger brother, she also had a strong-willed side.

She said to Xu Zhan, “There’s a distant relative in the Xu family whose parents passed away. The child is only two years old, and according to our family tradition, we should raise them. I’ve seen the child, and they somewhat resemble you when you were young. How about you and Xia Yu take care of them?”

It seemed like Xu Ping was fixated on her brother’s family life. Even though she had no intentions of getting married herself and wasn’t considering having children anytime soon, she still believed that her brother should have a warm and happy family—a loving partner and children of their own.

She wanted intimacy and happiness for her brother’s family.

Xu Zhan sighed and said, “Sis, can you not rush this? I’m not ready to raise a child now. And Xia Yu doesn’t want to either. Adopting a child is a significant responsibility, and both Xia Yu and I need to be fully committed to it.”

Xu Ping fell silent for a moment.

But she asked again, “Is it that you both don’t want to raise a child, or is it that you don’t want to spend your lives together?”

Xia Yu almost opened his eyes.

Xu Zhan nearly swerved the car.

He glanced at Xia Yu through the rearview mirror, then turned to his sister. “What are you talking about, Sis?”

In the sunlight, Xu Ping’s face was frosty.

She had always been the most perceptive person in the family.

When Xu Zhan and Xia Yu got married, she sensed that their love for each other wasn’t genuine.

But what did it matter?

Few couples truly lived happily ever after.

Xia Yu was her choice back then, someone she had introduced to her brother. It was advantageous for the family, and her brother was a gentle soul who should be paired with an equally mild partner.

She saw Xia Yu and Xu Zhan as vulnerable creatures, naive and good-natured, easily bullied by others.

However, with her presence, who could dare to bully them?

Recently, though, she had noticed something amiss, something happening right under her nose. Her usually obedient younger brother seemed less docile than before.

While it wasn’t confirmed yet and could be a misunderstanding, she couldn’t help but feel that Xia Yu had been wronged.

She gave her brother a stern look, holding back her temper all day because of Xia Yu’s presence. “What do I mean? You know what I mean,” she said coldly. “You’re always away on business. Have you left your heart elsewhere?”

She exercised parental authority and couldn’t be bothered with her brother’s excuses. “I don’t want to hear your reasons. This weekend, bring Xia Yu to see the child I mentioned. If Xia Yu agrees, you won’t have the final say. It depends on Xia Yu’s decision.”

After saying all this, she didn’t care about her brother’s complicated expression, got out of the car with her bag, and walked away in high heels.

The car door closed with a bang.

Xia Yu opened his eyes.

He and Xu Zhan locked eyes.

“What did your sister mean…?” Xia Yu mumbled. “Did she find out about your affair?”

He wasn’t even sleepy anymore.

Xu Zhan being accused of going on too many business trips and leaving his heart elsewhere, he thought his sister was rather harsh. However, when he saw Xu Ping’s stern expression, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

He was rarely on the receiving end of her strictness, but today, seeing her reprimand her brother like this, he couldn’t help but find it amusing.

He lay on the front passenger seat, propped up on the headrest, asking, “What does she mean, though? If she’s really found out, what are you going to do? Should I help explain? We could say that our relationship has been falling apart for a long time.”

That was also a solution.

Regarding their relationship, Xia Yu didn’t care, and Xu Ping couldn’t really intervene if they didn’t want her to. However, Xu Zhan had other plans.

While this reason was genuine, saying it out loud could lead to chaos, and Xia Yu might be dragged into it.

“Let’s play it by ear,” Xu Zhan said, frowning. “Anyway, she hasn’t confronted us directly. We should go see the child she mentioned this weekend.”

Xia Yu had no objections.

“Alright,” he agreed. “I’m fine with it as long as you can handle your sister.”

Xu Zhan dropped Xia Yu off at his workplace.

His car had some issues yesterday, so it was sent for repairs by the family’s driver.

He asked Xia Yu, “Should I pick you up later?”

Xia Yu said there was no need. “I’ll head up first, and we’ll get in touch later.”

Xia Yu wasn’t working at the gallery today. He had been busy with his team, setting up an exhibition that was now in its final stages.

However, there were still many loose ends to tie up—double-checking the exhibition pieces, coordinating with the media, and making on-site adjustments.

By the time he left the exhibition hall, it was already evening. He called Lu Zhao, thinking about whether Lu Zhao would really come out.

Yesterday evening, he had been distant and even cold on the phone with Lu Zhao while staying at Xu Zhan’s place. But now, as he walked in the cold breeze, looking at his own slender shadow under the streetlight, he found himself missing the warmth of Lu Zhao’s presence.

However, when he called and suggested meeting up, Lu Zhao unusually refused him.

“I’m too held up these days,” Lu Zhao’s voice sounded somewhat hoarse. “I have work at my company, and I don’t have time to meet up.”

Xia Yu stopped in his tracks on the street.

This was quite rare.

Even when Lu Zhao was busy with work before, he would always ask if Xia Yu wanted to visit his office. Even if it was only for twenty minutes, Lu Zhao would make time to have dinner with him.

Frowning, Xia Yu recalled their distant conversation yesterday, and he felt like Lu Zhao was throwing a fit.

“What about tomorrow?” he asked.

“Probably not this week,” Lu Zhao replied. “Let’s talk about it on the weekend.”

A flicker of anger rose in Xia Yu’s heart.

He had a strong intuition that Lu Zhao was upset about the call Xu Zhan had mistakenly answered last night.

But he didn’t understand why Lu Zhao was being so dramatic. Regardless of whether Lu Zhao was willing or not, they had already agreed that he wouldn’t divorce Xu Zhan. Lu Zhao had willingly become his secret lover, so why was he behaving this way now?

At the beginning, it was Lu Zhao who had taught him that once an agreement was made, it couldn’t be reversed.

“Well, okay,” Xia Yu didn’t say much more. “I don’t know about this weekend. I might be busy; I have something to do with Xu Zhan.”

Lu Zhao’s nerves twitched, and he instinctively asked, “What are you going to do?”

Xia Yu gazed at a silk fan in a shop window, reminiscing about the mother-of-pearl fan that Lu Zhao had given him before. It was a gift from Lu Zhao after winning a debate competition, and it was more beautiful than the one he was looking at now.

Casually, he said, “My brother and Xu Zhan’s sister have been urging us to adopt a child. Originally, we were thinking of adopting from an orphanage, but there’s a child in the Xu family’s distant branch who lost his parents. He’s only two years old. Xu Zhan’s sister wants us to meet him and see if we’re willing to adopt him.”

After saying this, Xia Yu didn’t hear a response for quite some time from Lu Zhao on the other end.

“What are you talking about?” Lu Zhao sounded like he didn’t understand what Xia Yu was saying. “Why would you and Xu Zhan want to adopt a child?”

Xia Yu stood on the street, still looking at the shop’s dazzling window display, as if he didn’t care about the person on the other end of the phone.

He said, “When Xu Zhan and I got married, our families mentioned that they wanted us to adopt or have children of our own. We both like children, so we don’t object.”

Lu Zhao fell silent.

Xia Yu’s voice was calm, and there was no hint of him using words to torture someone’s heart.

However, Lu Zhao, lying on the hospital bed, had a moment when he felt like all the air in the room had been sucked out. The white hospital room, the needle in his hand, the medicine just swallowed, all made him uncomfortable. The bitterness of the medication rushed up his throat a hundred times stronger than before.

He had thought that hearing Xu Zhan’s voice yesterday was already piercing enough, but he had underestimated Xia Yu and the sharpness of this marriage.

He couldn’t speak.

In the midst of endless bitterness, his throat even oozed a bit of a sweet taste, as if a single word would make blood gush out of his heart.

He bent over in pain, trying to relieve the suffocation in his heart, but he couldn’t plead with Xia Yu.

“Is this how you want to treat me?” he asked softly, “Yu Yu.”

“What did I do?” Xia Yu’s voice remained calm. “I’m just telling the truth.”

He had genuinely considered it.

When he danced in the rain together and walked down the aisle with Xu Zhan, he had actually thought about living with him for a long time. They could build a family, raise a child together, and grow old together. But now, he felt that Xu Zhan might leave this marriage first.

However, Xia Yu had no intention of bringing it up. He simply said, “Lu Zhao, I’m not that bored. I won’t adopt a child just for the sake of getting back at you. Don’t overthink it.”

He opened the door of the antique shop in front of him, and the wind chime’s sound, gentle in the evening, tinkled.

He said, “If you don’t want to come out and meet me, forget it.. I’ll hang up for now.”

The sound on the phone disappeared.

The hospital room was quiet, almost eerily.

Lu Zhao still clutched the phone tightly. He squeezed it so hard that the veins on his hand were visible. There was no one in the hospital room now, but if someone were there and saw his expression, they would find it terrifying.

A few minutes later, Lu Yuan entered the room and was startled when he saw Lu Zhao’s condition. He was in a panic.

He had left for only half an hour, and Lu Zhao somehow injured himself. His palms were covered in cuts, and fresh red blood stained the bed sheets, which was shocking to see.

However, Lu Zhao seemed unaware of the situation. He sat there motionless.

The entire scene had a kind of eerily quiet atmosphere.

“Brother, what have you done?” Lu Yuan urgently pressed the call button on the bedside table, frantically helping Lu Zhao stop the bleeding. He noticed the broken glass beside him and realized that Lu Zhao had smashed a glass. “You’re injured; you should have called the doctor!”

Lu Zhao still didn’t say anything.

He sat there with bandages wrapped around his hands, the despair and coldness from moments ago now gone, replaced by an icy silence.

The nurses and doctors soon arrived, and they were not thrilled to deal with such an uncooperative patient. However, since this was the Lu family’s private hospital, they didn’t dare to voice their complaints.

Lu Yuan watched as the doctor disinfected and bandaged his brother’s injuries. The wound was deep enough to require stitches.

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but suggest, “Brother, maybe you should call Xia Yu. Ask if he can come and spend a few days with you. I know you’re worried he might be concerned if he sees you’re sick, but in your condition, he might become more attentive…”

As he spoke, Lu Yuan realized that he might be overstepping. He made it sound like his brother was seeking affection by getting sick.

But Lu Zhao didn’t speak.

With bandages on his hands, his gaze still remained motionless as if he hadn’t heard Lu Yuan’s words. After a while, he finally answered Lu Yuan’s question.

“He won’t come.”