Lu Ruoxi Side Story: Thorned Rose - Conspiracy

Autumn, 1998.

Jingzhou First People's Hospital.

The air was thick with the distinctive scent of disinfectant.

Liu Mei wore a somewhat worn logistics uniform.

She pushed a metal cart loaded with medical records.

The cart wheels rolled over the terrazzo floor, producing a monotonous “clatter clatter” sound.

The noise was faint but enough to drown out her light footsteps.

She was an archive clerk in the logistics department.

An unremarkable position.

An existence almost completely ignored by everyone.

Her daily task was to organize, file, and transport these papers that recorded life and death.

No one spared her a second glance.

No one cared about what she heard or saw.

And that was exactly what she needed.

As was Li Xiujian.

A commotion echoed from the end of the corridor.

A group of men in black suits surrounded an elegant and dignified woman.

Lou Mengling.

The wife of Lu Mingye, the head of Lu Corporation, the matron of the Lu family.

And last night, Lu Mingye had been in Liu Mei’s bed.

Today, as his wife was giving birth, Lu Mingye hadn’t shown up at the hospital yet.

How ironic.

Lou Mengling was carefully helped into a wheelchair.

Her face bore the gentle glow of motherhood.

Yet beneath it lay an undeniable exhaustion.

The hospital director and several chief physicians followed closely, their expressions polite, their tones gentle.

The entire floor seemed to tense up with her arrival.

Liu Mei stopped pushing the cart.

She leaned against the wall, head lowered, like a lifeless statue.

Using the corner of her eye, she watched the group pass by.

Lou Mengling was wheeled into the delivery room.

That very delivery room—Liu Mei had just delivered files there yesterday.

The facilities inside were more luxurious than a five-star hotel.

Outside the window, Jingzhou’s bustling cityscape stretched out.

Before her eyes, the Lu family’s fiery prosperity.

And the downfall of the Li family felt like it had happened just yesterday.

She lowered her gaze, hiding all her hatred.

She pushed the cart forward.

Turning a corner, she entered a quieter corridor.

This was the general ward area, where the air was heavier and more mixed.

The smell of greasy food mingled with the sweat of visiting relatives.

At the end of the hall, in a double room,

She saw another person.

Yang Honglian.

She lay alone in bed, her complexion pale.

The other bed was empty.

No family to keep her company.

No flowers or fruit.

Only a worn enamel cup sat on the bedside table.

A nurse had just finished examining her and was now wearily jotting down notes.

“It won’t be long now. Take care of yourself,”

The nurse said, then left without looking back.

Yang Honglian’s eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.

Her hand gently rested on her prominently swollen belly.

Liu Mei didn’t stay.

She pushed the cart into a storage room at the end of the corridor.

The room was piled high with medical equipment and supplies.

The air carried a musty, dusty smell.

She closed the door behind her.

After a while, the door opened again.

It was Yang Honglian.

She quietly slipped inside.

“Is everything arranged?” Yang Honglian’s voice was hoarse and urgent.

“Yes.”

Liu Mei nodded.

“The caregiver has already been paid. She’s on duty tonight.”

“Will he come?”

Yang Honglian asked.

“No.”

Liu Mei’s voice was cold.

“He’s on the rooftop of the hotel across the street, watching here through a telescope. He said he wants to witness the ‘calamity’ that’s about to befall the Lu family with his own eyes.”

Yang Honglian let out a bitter laugh.

Her laughter was filled with despair and scorn.

“Calamity… does he even realize that his own ‘calamity’ is about to be delivered to him as well?”

Her hand once again gently caressed her belly.

“This is his seed. He said it himself — he wanted me to get rid of it.”

“He said his grand plan for revenge doesn’t need a burden, much less a useless woman.”

“But he has no idea that I never terminated the pregnancy. Now, I’m going to send this ‘burden’ to the family he hates the most.”

“I’m going to let her enjoy everything a princess in the Lu family deserves. I want him to one day personally face his own daughter. I want him to live forever in the pain of betrayal!”

A wild, unhinged light flared in Yang Honglian’s eyes.

Liu Mei looked at her.

There was no sympathy in her gaze.

Only a cold, tacit understanding shared between kindred spirits.

Li Xiujian.

My dear brother.

You think everyone must be your pawn?

You think you can control everyone’s fate?

You ruined my life and forced me to get close to Lu Mingye — a man I never loved.

Now, I’m going to use your own daughter to destroy the revenge you think is foolproof.

“Is that caregiver reliable?” Yang Honglian asked, still uneasy.

“Her son owes gambling debts. This money will clear all her debts and even allow her to build a new house back home. She has even more reason than us to want this to succeed.”

Liu Mei’s tone was cold and emotionless.

Footsteps of a nurse echoed outside the door.

Yang Honglian swayed slightly and slipped behind a pile of clutter.

Liu Mei opened the door and pushed the cart out as if nothing had happened.

…

Evening.

Lou Mengling was wheeled into the delivery room.

The men of the Lu family waited anxiously outside.

Lu Mingye finally arrived at the hospital, pacing nervously in the corridor.

Almost at the same time,

Yang Honglian was also taken into the delivery room.

Beside her were only a hurried doctor and a few trainee nurses.

Two new lives entered the world in Jingzhou on the same night.

Both were girls.

One cried out for the first time amid the gaze of thousands.

The other arrived silently, in solitude.

At the top floor suite of a luxury hotel opposite the hospital,

Li Xiujian stood before the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

In front of him was a high-powered telescope.

The lens was focused on the brightly lit hospital building.

He saw the Lu family waiting outside the VIP delivery room.

He saw the anxiety and joy on their faces.

He smiled—a cold, twisted smile.

Lu Chengsi.

You destroyed my Li family.

Tonight, I will use the bloodline of your Lu family as the offering for my revenge.

The girl I arranged will become a princess of the Lu family.

She will be spoiled, arrogant, and the root of chaos within the Lu household.

Meanwhile, your true granddaughter will struggle in the lowest mud.

Until one day, I will let her return.

Filled with hatred, she will tear everything you have apart with her own hands.

This is the feast I have prepared for you—twenty years from now.

His phone vibrated.

A message.

From Liu Mei.

“A has been born.”

Li Xiujian put down the telescope, picked up the bottle of red wine on the table, and drained it in one gulp.

Very good.

……

Half past midnight, 3 a.m.

At the hospital, in the nursery.

Wang Cuifen, the duty nurse, pretended to yawn.

Her eyes kept glancing at the clock on the wall.

Then, she stole a look at Zhang Lin, a less experienced nurse and her fellow townswoman.

The time was almost here.

Her palms were sweaty.

In her pocket were two new wristbands.

In the nursery, a row of cribs stood neatly aligned.

Most of the babies were sound asleep.

Only a few were making soft, whimpering noises.

Two baby girls, brought in just last night, lay among these cribs.

One wristband read: Lu (Mother: Lou Mengling).

The other read: Yang (Mother: Yang Honglian).