He Begins to Sense Something Is Off About Her
“The soft furnishings were changed because I knew you were moving in, so I specifically asked Aunt Yuan to decorate in a warmer style. As for Shen Lian, she is my junior from the same school. When she travels for work, she occasionally sends local specialties to our teachers and me. Last time she must have written the wrong address.”
After listening to her description, Liang Huaixu spoke in a gentle tone. His explanation was thorough, and the look in his eyes when he looked at her seemed to ask if she still had any doubts.
Zhuang Fuyao felt the awkwardness of having scolded someone without knowing the full story. Right after that, she also felt a bit delighted.
He was still single, and he did not have an ambiguous partner either.
Zhuang Fuyao suppressed the upward curve of her lips and deliberately said, “Actually, even if there really were something going on, it wouldn’t be a big deal. We’ve been divorced for five years. I’m not the kind of person who makes a fuss and refuses to let you find someone new after divorce. So if you ever have that kind of thought, you must tell me.”
“I know.” Liang Huaixu lowered his eyes and brushed the rim of the cup lid. In an unreadable tone, he said, “If there is, I will tell you.”
After those words, the two of them fell silent.
Then a sudden gust of wind rose, rustling the leaves and breaking the stillness around them.
Liang Huaixu brushed away a leaf that had fallen onto the table and asked her, “About moving out, when are you planning to move? Do you have enough help at home? Do you need me to find extra people to help?”
Zhuang Fuyao’s gaze flickered. “No need. It’s not urgent for now.”
She thought to herself that since it was just a misunderstanding, there was no need to move anymore.
“Alright.”
Liang Huaixu’s gaze rested on her face. He seemed to want to ask something, but in the end, he did not. He simply sat there quietly drinking tea.
That night, Liang Huaixu, as expected, could not sleep.
Zhuang Fuyao, however, had a very sweet dream.
She and the teenage Liang Huaixu were strolling back along the road. They climbed over the wall to get back into school before curfew, but were caught by the security team and sent to the dean.
In the spacious office, a man in a white shirt and black trousers stood with his back to her by the window, scolding her for not following the rules.
She was about to argue back when the teacher suddenly said in a strange tone, “Who was the man who climbed over the wall with you just now?”
As he spoke, the man turned around.
It was actually the thirty-eight-year-old Liang Huaixu.
Suddenly, the scene shifted.
She was pressed against a pillow. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a piece of white shirt, and her nose was filled with the scent of tea and woody incense. She moved restlessly and was then restrained by something that felt like a necktie.
Under the dim streetlight, tree shadows swayed, and light and shadow overlapped. A blurred figure moved against chiffon fabric, and the air was filled with an ambiguous atmosphere.
…
Zhuang Fuyao woke from the dream, parched and flushed. She covered her hot cheeks, got up to drink some water, and then washed that damp light-purple bowknot underwear.
The night was very quiet, and even the smallest sound would be magnified.
“Still not asleep?” A slightly tired voice came from behind her.
Zhuang Fuyao looked up and saw Liang Huaixu standing behind her through the mirror.
Her hands paused slightly as she washed the underwear. She nodded a little unnaturally. “Yeah.”
Seeing what she was doing, Liang Huaixu calculated the dates. “Are you on your period?”
“…”
Zhuang Fuyao decided to just go along with it and nodded again.
“I’ll make you a bowl of brown sugar water.”
“No need.” She stopped him and said calmly, “The effect of brown sugar water is basically just the effect of hot water. I’ll just drink some hot water in my room later.”
That might be true, but remembering how uncomfortable she used to be during menstrual cramps, Liang Huaixu was still worried. “Then I’ll heat up a hot water bottle for you.”
“No need!”
“Hot water bottles are actually effective…”
He was still nagging when Zhuang Fuyao suddenly said in embarrassed irritation, “Ah, it’s not my period!”
Liang Huaixu froze.
Seeing him standing there awkwardly, unsure whether to leave or stay, Zhuang Fuyao felt her mood improve a little from his fussing. She said lightly, “Just normal physiological needs.”
“….”
The older man’s face turned red.
After thinking about it, Zhuang Fuyao felt there was nothing to be embarrassed about admitting. She was only thirty-eight, not eighty-three. Even if she were eighty-three, so what…
On the contrary, it was Liang Huaixu.
He had never been able to handle teasing well. Just a bit of blunt talk from her would make his whole face turn red.
And now sixteen years have passed.
A thirty-eight-year-old man, yet his skin was still that thin.
After washing her underwear, Zhuang Fuyao went back to sleep again.
Maybe dreaming took too much mental energy. This sleep lasted until noon.
When she woke up, the group chat showed 99+ messages.
She skimmed the messages and immediately felt something was off. She quickly made a call to ask where Beiguo was.
By the time Zhuang Fuyao arrived, Beiguo was lying disheveled on the sofa, hair a mess, eyes red, looking as if she had suffered a great grievance.
“What happened?” Zhuang Fuyao tidied up the empty wine bottles on the floor and comforted her gently.
When Shu Run saw her arrive, her emotions surged and she cried again. “Yesterday was Qixi. We had planned to go camping on the mountaintop at night to watch the stars. But he got a phone call and was called away. Later, I found out it was because his childhood friend had returned to the country, and his family called him to go pick her up. I didn’t want to keep bothering you all with these things, but when I woke up this morning, I really couldn’t hold it in anymore.”
She was already this upset, yet she was still worrying about whether it was troublesome.
Zhuang Fuyao asked irritably, “Is that childhood friend a man or a woman?”
“A woman. And his family even intends to match him with his childhood friend.”
“Damn it.” After hearing this, Zhuang Fuyao felt that Beiguo’s boyfriend was truly despicable. “Then what happened after that? After he picked her up, did he still come to find you?”
“He did. He left at seven in the evening and didn’t come back until after midnight. The moment he stepped into the house, I kicked him out.”
What kind of scum was this?
Zhuang Fuyao was furious. Shu Run continued, “He told me there had been a small car accident and it delayed things after he dealt with it. He had an injury on his forehead, so that part probably wasn’t a lie. I just feel really sad, and I’m very confused about our future…”
Shu Run felt that the gap between her family background and Liang Chaoluo’s family was simply too large.
Liang Chaoluo said he would do everything he could to resist his family’s arrangements. She asked him, what if he couldn’t resist.
He thought for a long time, then said rationally that he had responsibilities he had to shoulder and could not stake everything on love alone.
After hearing this, Zhuang Fuyao felt a sense of helplessness, as if punching cotton.
If it were before, she would definitely have advised breaking up.
But after experiencing this soul transmigration, she felt she should not rashly interfere in other people’s relationships without knowing the full picture.
This world was not simply black and white, and things could not be judged by appearances alone.
Without conclusive evidence, Zhuang Fuyao found it hard to scold him outright.
Just like her and Liang Huaixu. In the original storyline, the two people who had once been deeply in love eventually became like two repelling magnets.
Was there an influence from the plot itself?
After all, people with happy and harmonious families rarely turned into vicious mothers-in-law who tore umbrellas from younger people.
She stayed with Beiguo for a long time, then went to the refrigerator to find some ingredients and made some food for Beiguo, urging her to take a hot shower afterward.
“Eat something good, take a shower, and then get a good night’s sleep. Any painful hurdle will become much easier to get through.”
Only after Beiguo fell asleep did Zhuang Fuyao leave.
On the way back, dark clouds suddenly gathered, and heavy rain poured down, soaking the parched road. Flowers and plants regained their vitality.
She had checked the weather forecast yesterday, and it had not shown rain for the next few days.
She opened her phone, and a piece of news popped up: “Jiang City arranges artificial rainfall operations to combat drought…”
So it was artificial rain.
Human intervention had changed a predetermined outcome.
Zhuang Fuyao thought of herself. She was dissatisfied with her ending in the original storyline, and she also did not want Liang Huaixu to die so early.
Then could her soul transmigration become the butterfly effect that altered the fate of the original plot?
After all, she had her own family, friends, and career. There was really no need for her to be so idle as to interfere with the male and female leads’ relationship and become that vicious mother-in-law.
…
At dinner, she subtly asked Liang Huaixu about Liang Chaoluo’s recent situation.
After listening, Zhuang Fuyao suddenly understood.
No wonder she had not seen Liang Chaoluo since transmigrating. It turned out he had been sent to a neighboring city.
Zhuang Fuyao asked again, “Has he been dating someone recently?”
Liang Huaixu looked at her strangely.
The messages he and Zhuang Fuyao had exchanged this year had almost all revolved around their son’s girlfriend. She had repeatedly emphasized that she did not agree with their son being with that girl.
At the very beginning, he had not thought there was anything wrong with the girl. Although her background was ordinary, the Liang family had not reached the point of needing a business marriage. In this regard, he actually supported the younger generation pursuing free love.
Later on, perhaps influenced by her, he also began to feel that the girl’s personality was too soft. A few times, he happened to see his son talking to the girl on the phone. His son wanted the girl to greet them, but the girl was timid and hesitant, coming across as overly small-minded.
Liang Chaoluo was the heir he had designated. As Liang Chaoluo’s wife, she would also represent the Liang family’s face in public. Being too timid and small-minded would not do.
Meeting his gaze, Zhuang Fuyao blinked curiously.
For a moment, Liang Huaixu could not tell whether she was hinting, in a roundabout way, that he should play the role of the good cop.
He pondered for a few seconds. “I’m not very optimistic about this girl. I still hope Chaoluo can end up with Yi Han. Yi Han is someone we’ve watched grow up. We know her background well, and they’re well matched.”
Zhuang Fuyao had not even met the female lead yet, but in order to break free from the plot, she was definitely going to stand on the female lead’s side.
Thinking of this, she shot Liang Huaixu a sideways glance. “What era is this already, and you’re still insisting on ‘well-matched families’?”