The man’s scent was crisp and clean—a scent Jiang Shi had once been utterly infatuated with.
She instinctively softened her breathing, her fingers clutching tightly at the blanket.
After the honeymoon, Cheng Jili had never wanted her twice in one night again, let alone stayed after the act.
What was wrong with him today?
“What are you doing?” Jiang Shi had no strength in her body, and she painstakingly scooted toward the edge of the bed. “Did lightning strike your study?”
Cheng Jili reached out his long arm and scooped her right back.
His low voice carried a hoarse rasp. “I didn’t finish just now.”
Jiang Shi’s eyelashes slowly lowered, and that faint, barely perceptible glimmer in her eyes extinguished in an instant.
So… it was only for the sake of having a child.
Just moments ago, a flicker of expectation had actually crossed her mind.
How laughable.
Not anger, not disappointment—only a chill spreading outward from the pit of her chest.
Cheng Jili had already rolled on top of her.
Jiang Shi’s head grew hazier and heavier. She pressed both hands against his chest and forced a few words out of her throat. “It won’t happen.”
A baby wouldn’t be willing to come to a family without love.
As if catching the smell of alcohol on her breath, the man above her paused. “You drank?”
Jiang Shi had no strength left to speak. Even keeping her eyes open was a struggle, and her consciousness sank bit by bit.
In a daze, the person beside her suddenly sat up and frantically began dressing her.
She felt herself grow weightless, lifted up in someone’s arms.
Jostling, hurried footsteps, the sound of an engine.
These fragments swayed in her mind for a moment, then she plummeted into complete darkness…
When she opened her eyes again, she was greeted by a stark white ceiling. The smell of disinfectant hung in the air, and an IV had already been inserted into the back of her hand.
The man’s lazy voice drifted over. “Drinking when you’re allergic to alcohol—tired of living?”
Jiang Shi’s voice was weak. “I only had a little. What happened?”
She knew she was allergic to alcohol, but the last time she’d drunk was on her eighteenth birthday.
The alcohol had been brought by Cheng Jili, and the hospital had been courtesy of Cheng Jili too.
So many years had passed, and she’d harbored a hopeful wish that nothing would happen.
Cheng Jili let out a cold snort. “Nothing much. Just spent the middle of the night running you to the ER. Real fun.”
“I didn’t beg you to,” Jiang Shi said expressionlessly. “You could’ve just thrown me on the bed and let me fend for myself. I have no family, no one to back me up—if I died, no one would come after you for it.”
Cheng Jili lowered his eyes and tugged at his lips. His expression was unreadable.
“Isn’t it just that you don’t want to have a kid?” he said. “You could’ve just said so directly. No need to make such a big scene.”
Jiang Shi could only smile bitterly.
He’d cold-shouldered her not long after the wedding—for two whole years—and now he was turning it around on her?
Her body was unwell, and her heart felt even worse. Under this double torment, her taut emotions instead swung to the opposite extreme.
Her voice was ice-cold. “Yeah, that’s right. I just don’t want to bear your child. There are plenty of people willing to do it for you—Cheng Xiaoxiao, for instance. She’d definitely be dying to have your baby. Go find her.”
Cheng Jili’s brows knitted tightly. “What did you say?”
Jiang Shi: “I said, you people can be self-sufficient, circulate internally, keep the good water within your own field! Everyone’s happy!”
The nighttime emergency room wasn’t exactly empty, but it wasn’t noisy either.
In this oppressive yet chaotic atmosphere, she watched the man’s expression darken bit by bit, until it was frightening.
But she didn’t retreat in the slightest, craning her neck in defiance.
She almost wished Cheng Jili would slap her right now.
Just enough to shatter the lingering hope in her heart.
Shatter her eight years of affection and obsession.
And the deepest reluctance buried at the very bottom of her heart.
Wasn’t this, in a way, a release?
Cheng Jili watched her, jaw muscles clenched, Adam’s apple bobbing as if swallowing back words.
The cruelty in his eyes slowly receded. He let out a sneering laugh.
This time, Jiang Shi understood. It was mockery.
A profound mockery of her sharpness and hysteria.
“Auntie Xiao will be here soon.”
Cheng Jili turned to leave after speaking.
Jiang Shi called after him, “I still have something to say.”
“Don’t bother. Not a single word that comes out of your mouth is worth hearing.”
He walked away without looking back, his silhouette exuding cold detachment, quickly vanishing from sight.
That night, Jiang Shi slept in the observation room.
She was a light sleeper and fussy about beds, tossing and turning until dawn before she managed to fall asleep.
She hadn’t been asleep long before thirst woke her.
“Auntie Xiao, give me some water.”
No response.
She pulled back the curtain and didn’t see Auntie Xiao, so she got out of bed herself.
Outside the door, Auntie Xiao was chatting with a patient’s family member.
“No worries, our master just sent me to go through the motions. I’ll bring her home in a bit; no need to take it too seriously.”
The other person urged, “You should still put in some effort. They’re husband and wife after all—fight in bed, make up at the foot of it. Wouldn’t firing you be as easy as a word from him?”
Auntie Xiao said with disdain, “How could that be? Our master doesn’t care about her at all—they don’t even sleep in the same bed! He talks more to me than he does to her. What does she matter? Her family’s gone, she can’t win over her own husband, and she’s less important than me in that house!”
Jiang Shi heard every word.
This Auntie Xiao was usually only attentive to Cheng Jili, and had often slacked off when it came to Jiang Shi’s affairs. Jiang Shi knew Auntie Xiao was supporting her daughter through school, so she never bothered to hold it against her.
She never expected her kindness to be repaid with a stab in the back.
Jiang Shi walked over quietly. The patient’s family member quickly signaled Auntie Xiao with a look.
Auntie Xiao turned around, smiling with a forced pleasantness. “Madam, you’re alright now, are you? Then let’s get home quickly. I still need to press the master’s clothes.”
“Not needed,” Jiang Shi said coldly. “The home is mine, and the master is mine too. You can get out.”
Auntie Xiao was taken aback. “Madam, what do you mean?”
“Can’t you understand?” Jiang Shi said slowly, syllable by syllable. “I said, get lost.”
She was usually good-tempered, soft-spoken, so this sudden change left Auntie Xiao momentarily stunned.
“Wha—on what grounds? The master hired me. What right do you have to send me away?”
“On the grounds that I’m the legitimate Mrs. Cheng, the mistress of this house. If I don’t want to see you, you can’t stay a single moment longer.”
With that, Jiang Shi turned and left.
Her back was straight as a rod, but inside, her heart was a hollow void.
Even anger felt exhausting.
She found a breakfast shop outside the hospital and ate her fill. Once she’d recovered some energy, she called her studio to take leave, then took a cab home for a nap.
It was afternoon by the time she was roused awake by the phone ringing again.
It was Cheng Jili’s mother, Yu Xianzhi, calling to invite her over for dinner.
The Cheng family villa sat on the mountainside in the west of the city, its courtyard spacious and stately, exuding the air of generations of a distinguished household.
In the past two years, unless it was an obligatory holiday or family gathering, Jiang Shi rarely went there anymore.
Yu Xianzhi didn’t call her often either—if a new chef came to the house, she would only summon Cheng Jili.
Her taking the initiative to call today meant nothing good.
No sooner had Jiang Shi taken her seat than Yu Xianzhi asked outright, “I heard you had an allergic reaction to alcohol last night, and Jili took you to the hospital?”
Jiang Shi nodded. “Yes.”
Yu Xianzhi frowned. “Don’t you know your own body? Jili’s new project is at a critical stage right now. As his wife, it’s one thing if you can’t help, but why are you causing trouble on top of that?”
Jiang Shi found it somewhat amusing.
So now she was his wife. But in the past two years, had she enjoyed even a single day of the treatment a wife deserved?
“Forget it,” Yu Xianzhi waved her hand irritably. “The matter I mentioned to you last time—how have you thought about it? Whatever conditions you have, just tell Jili directly. He’ll agree.”