Chen Nian was unusually patient today.
He was currently holding Li Yixun from behind, his arms lingering like a small animal around her ears, neck, and collarbone. He sniffed here and there, as if confirming that she was covered in his scent.
Chen Nian gently licked her rounded earlobe. “Why didn’t you take those earrings that day? They… matched your outfit perfectly.”
Li Yixun then retrieved the jewelry box from her memory, which had been sitting on the shoe cabinet. Chen Nian had been away on a business trip for a week after that day, and she hadn’t touched the box, leaving it there.
If she remembered correctly, when they came in that afternoon, they had accidentally knocked over all the odds and ends on the shoe cabinet, including the box.
When the box hit the ground, Chen Nian noticed it too. His grip on Li Yixun tightened, the veins on his hands bulging, like a strange and mysterious map.
Li Yixun was in a relatively good mood and was willing to answer his question properly. “You didn’t say it was for me. I was afraid it was a gift for someone else. You know I’m a very principled person, I don’t look at what I shouldn’t see.”
“If it were for someone else, I wouldn’t have brought it home and left it in such a conspicuous place for my silly wife to find,” Chen Nian chuckled softly, unlike others who would readily agree and deny having someone else.
“Hungry? Go take a shower, I’ll cook for you.”
They had been married for over two years, and aside from saying some flirtatious things to her in bed, Chen Nian was usually aloof and indifferent when sober, completely unlike the way Li Yixun had seen him flirting and joking with other girls.
Li Yixun glanced at him and deliberately gave a heavy snort, “Do you expect me to cook for you?”
When Li Yixun came out of the bathroom, Chen Nian was already sitting at the dining table in his pajamas, waiting for her.
“I was worried you’d be too hungry, so I just made some simple curry chicken rice.” Chen Nian had clearly just showered recently; her hair was only lightly dried, still noticeably damp.
Li Yixun wasn’t very good at housework and obviously had no idea how Chen Nian managed to do three things in such a short time: shower, cook, and tidy up the house they’d messed up.
If Chen Nian could hear her inner thoughts, he’d definitely complain that she’d taken too long in her shower; the time it took was probably enough for him to boil water over a wood fire.
It wasn’t until after dinner, when Xue Qingkai bombarded Chen Nian with phone calls, that she remembered the invitation she’d made earlier.
He rubbed his still slightly red eyes, looking innocent like a puppy eagerly waiting to be taken out by its owner. “Mrs. Chen, would you like to go out with me for New Year’s Eve?”
Li Yixun was indeed bored and didn’t want to spend New Year’s Eve alone at home, so he readily accepted Chen Nian’s invitation.
But Chen Nian quickly regretted his decision, because Li Yixun refused to wear her usual work clothes. In the dead of winter, she opted for a “no-pants” look, her long, beautiful legs peeking out from under a red turtleneck sweater dress. Her deliberately elongated, upturned eyeliner and deep red lipstick accentuated her curves, completely obscuring her usual aloof beauty.
Even from three meters away, Chen Nian could see the shimmering pearlescent eyeshadow on her eyelids, its twinkling reminding him of countless tiny stars in the night sky.
Li Yixun was undeniably beautiful tonight, but Chen Nian’s possessive nature made him uncomfortable, though he would never interfere with her freedom of choice in clothing.
A clever man like Chen Nian would subtly help his wife put on the earrings he had bought her, and diligently wrap her in a thick coat, making himself feel comfortable while trying to prevent her from catching a cold.
Xue Qingkai hadn’t seen Li Yixun in a long time. As soon as they sat down, he poured her a drink and earnestly complimented her, saying she looked even more beautiful than before.
Although Xue Qingkai was never one to tell the truth, Li Yixun was clearly pleased with her appearance that day and thus accepted his compliment with a smile.
Tonight was a gathering of acquaintances, all friends she’d known for many years. Although Li Yixun rarely attended their gatherings, she had become quite familiar with them over the years, able to match their names to their faces.
These spoiled rich kids almost all brought female companions, each one stunningly beautiful; at first glance, it looked like she’d stumbled into a beauty pageant.
Li Yixun enjoyed looking at beautiful women, especially those not with her husband. She was quite happy to admire them, and soon she was chatting with them in a seemingly professional manner.
Although girls in their twenties and thirties generally don’t show much age difference, Li Yixun could clearly sense that one girl named Yuanyuan was probably quite young, likely a recent college student. As expected, someone asked the question. Yuanyuan smiled shyly, but her movements while shaking the dice were anything but clumsy; she was clearly an expert. “Um… I just turned 18 last month.”
These guys are really something… Li Yixun cursed inwardly.
No one stays 18 forever, but some people’s girlfriends stay 18 forever.
Yuanyuan, on the other hand, was quite frank. The insight in her words and the innocence in her eyes were a perfect contrast. “Making money isn’t shameful.”
“He’s only in his early thirties; it’s better than those balding, balding men in their fifties.”
“He can help me with tuition and living expenses, and he’s not bad-looking either. It’s already very good…”
Li Yixun couldn’t comment on Yuanyuan’s choice. She had also been so desperate that she didn’t know where her next meal would come from. Perhaps the only thing she was luckier than Yuanyuan was that she managed to survive through many part-time jobs, without taking shortcuts.
But she knew in truth that during her darkest moments, when she was on the verge of collapse, she hadn’t completely ruled out the possibility of going into prostitution.
Li Yixun’s family was very ordinary; her parents worked hard, but they could only manage to make ends meet.
Their family wasn’t so impoverished that they couldn’t afford to send her to university.
But the key was that she didn’t have a younger brother—not one two years her junior, a good-for-nothing who had been forced to marry her girlfriend during her senior year of high school because she was pregnant.
The girl’s parents threatened to ruin their family’s reputation in the city if she didn’t take responsibility and marry them.
Li’s parents were traditional people and had no intention of being irresponsible. However, their family was indeed struggling financially and had to borrow money from relatives and friends to cover the bride price and wedding banquet.
The day before the wedding, Li Yixun took a break from her heavy studies and went home to help.
Her mother held Li Yixun’s hand. “Xunxun, you know, the family borrowed over 100,000 yuan for your brother’s wedding… and it will cost a lot more after the baby is born… and you’ll be graduating soon…”
Perhaps out of guilt, her mother didn’t finish her sentence.
But Li Yixun fully understood what her mother hadn’t said. She wanted her to be sensible, to give up the possibility of going to university after graduation, and ideally, to earn money to help pay off the family’s debts.
Li Yixun thought that if love could be quantified, her parents’ love would probably be 91%, with only 1% belonging to her.
The year she was born, the “one-child policy” was still strictly enforced. To save their birth quota for their son, her parents deliberately delayed registering her household registration until after her brother’s birth, registering it under her grandmother’s name to avoid paying fines.
Li Yixun remembered that as a child, in front of strangers, she could only call her mother “Auntie.” She had to leave home to avoid the census every time, and every time she had to submit documents, the parents’ signature was always her grandparents’. If love were a multiple-choice question, then in this family, Li Yixun would undoubtedly be the one abandoned without hesitation.
Simply because of gender, a person could be rejected. This was the first lesson the cruel world taught her.
Li Yixun didn’t know if her mother would be saddened by the favoritism, but as the unloved child, she was truly heartbroken.
And this time, she was abandoned again.
She was, after all, a rootless duckweed.