After dinner, Xu Chengyi couldn’t wait to go upstairs. She hastily removed her makeup, slipped out of her dress, took a quick, comfortable shower, and flopped onto the bed.
When Song Wenzhou returned to the room, she was lying on her stomach in her nightgown, swinging her calves while playing on her phone.
Xu Chengyi glanced up at him briefly, then continued playing on her phone.
After socializing all day, her current mindset was like that of a thirty-year-old man with no energy left for his marital duties—she just wanted to be alone in peace for a while.
“What did you do today?” she asked casually.
Song Wenzhou sat down on the soft chair at the vanity. “I helped the gardener trim the flowers and plants at the estate.”
Xu Chengyi gave another absent-minded “Mm.”
The room fell quiet for a moment, then Song Wenzhou got up and went into the bathroom.
At ten o’clock at night, the lights in the room were turned off.
Xu Chengyi put down her phone, stretched, and reached over to pat Song Wenzhou. “Are you asleep?”
The man responded: “Mm.”
Xu Chengyi turned onto her side. “Song Wenzhou, can I not go to Peach Blossom Springs?”
“Why?”
“I’m exhausted. We don’t have any energy left to study the mysteries of human reproduction.”
“…This was arranged by the family.”
Xu Chengyi quietly inched closer. “Then just tell your mom about it. I even got harassed today.”
In the darkness, Song Wenzhou’s brow furrowed slightly. “Mm?”
Xu Chengyi saw an opening and steeled herself to act cute and whiny. “Honey, that person said my diamond ring was too small and told me to go with him—he’d get me a bigger one. Of course I couldn’t cheat on you, so I resolutely refused. But then he threatened me and told me to wait and see.”
She hugged his arm and rested her head on his shoulder, speaking in a pitiful tone: “Honey, I’ve never experienced anything like that. I was so scared at the time, and now just thinking about it, I’ll probably have nightmares for a whole month…”
Song Wenzhou narrowed his eyes slightly. Rarely, and almost involuntarily, he raised his hand and patted her head. “Don’t be afraid.”
The man’s large hand landed on the top of her head, and Xu Chengyi inexplicably felt a strange sensation, as if someone had tickled the very tip of her heart. She looked up blankly, her face full of hope. “So… can I skip class then?”
“No.”
She was instantly deflated. She slapped his hand away and rolled back to her own side of the bed.
“Song Wenzhou, you’re such a mama’s boy.”
“Mama’s boy… what’s that?”
“You.”
She left him with an angry view of her back, but Song Wenzhou smiled silently to himself.
The next day, at seven in the morning.
Xu Chengyi was woken up as usual.
She grabbed Song Wenzhou’s pillow and angrily threw it off the bed.
Song Wenzhou, who had just gotten up, was hit square on.
He caught the pillow steadily and, with a helpless look, placed it on the bench at the foot of the bed.
Xu Chengyi sat up furiously, her hair in disarray, and cursed: “You’re insane.”
Song Wenzhou put the pillow back. “Get up.”
Xu Chengyi picked up the pillow again and hurled it at him.
Song Wenzhou caught it with a calm demeanor and said, “In the future, just go to bed earlier.”
Xu Chengyi didn’t respond and flopped back onto the bed.
Song Wenzhou didn’t provoke her further and walked out of the room.
Xu Chengyi lazed in bed for a while before finally getting up.
When she went to class today, she noticed that the two men who had harassed her weren’t there.
Two days later, a very arrogant girl joined Fang Kena’s little group. While playing golf, she deliberately swung her club.
“Whack—” The club struck hard against Xu Chengyi’s calf.
Caught completely off guard, Xu Chengyi fell to the ground in a clumsy heap. Pain shot through her calf immediately, tugging at her nerves in waves, and tears welled up in her eyes from the physical reflex.
The girl immediately dropped her club and rushed over to help her up. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to. Are you okay?”
Xu Chengyi looked up at the girl, forcing the tears back and gritting her teeth against the pain.
Anyone with eyes could tell that she had done it on purpose.
Lin Rui yanked the girl away. “Wang Ling, who are you trying to fool? You did that on purpose.”
The girl named Wang Ling got flustered. “Lin Rui, which eye of yours saw that?!”
Lin Rui took a deep breath and said calmly, “I just saw it.”
She spotted Xu Chengyi’s sixth sister in the crowd and pointed at Xu Xinhe. “You tell us—did she do it on purpose or not?”
Suddenly, everyone’s gaze fell on Xu Xinhe.
Xu Xinhe looked deeply troubled, because Wang Ling was close with Fang Kena, and offending Wang Ling meant offending Fang Kena.
But Xu Chengyi was her fifth sister, no matter what.
After a long pause, she said very neutrally, “I wasn’t here just now…”
Wang Ling smiled.
Lin Rui let out a light snort. “I know—you’re here to get revenge for your brother.”
Wang Ling, feeling exposed, grew a bit guilty and laughed lightly. “Stop spouting nonsense. I just did it by accident. Who told her to stand next to me? Everyone knows I always swing like that to find my rhythm.”
Xu Chengyi lowered her eyes to look at her calf, which was already bruising purple from the impact, then looked at Wang Ling, and then at the people around her watching coldly like spectators. She felt a bitter knot in her chest.
Though she was deeply wronged, she stubbornly refused to cry.
She had already let the other woman have her way, and she didn’t want to shed any more tears and give her further satisfaction.
Her gaze swept over the other woman deeply before she tugged at Lin Rui and said, “Forget it.”
Lin Rui, seeing how arrogant and overbearing Wang Ling was, was practically grinding her teeth in anger, but there was nothing she could do about her.
She helped Xu Chengyi to the lounge, fetched an ice pack, and applied it to her face as a cold compress.
“Maybe we should go get an X-ray. It felt like the blow hit bone.”
“No need.”