Almost the very second she hung up the phone, Xu Mian’s tears began to fall.
Su Can rubbed her forehead in frustration. Without even asking, she knew it had to be Jiang Yuanchuan acting crazy again.
In Su Can’s eyes, Xu Mian was a super gentle, wonderful girl: emotionally stable, easygoing, and never one to fight. As someone with an explosive temper who had been friends with Xu Mian for so many years, Su Can had never once lost her cool with her.
How was it that after being with Jiang Yuanchuan, Xu Mian was constantly being upset?
Was it that Jiang Yuanchuan didn’t love Xu Mian?
No, he loved her very much.
Back when Xu Mian’s father was framed and sent to prison, Jiang Yuanchuan had deliberately created an opportunity to present himself to Xu Mian, making it clear that he could help free her father. Only after going through all that painstaking calculation did he finally win the beauty’s heart.
There was no way he didn’t love Xu Mian.
Moreover, in the five years they had been married, Jiang Yuanchuan hadn’t been involved in a single scandal. Word had it that during one of his business trips, a woman tried to throw herself at him; in the dead of winter, he threw the scantily clad woman out into the freezing night.
He was deep-feeling and devoted.
So how had their life after marriage turned into such a complete mess?
Sure enough, once love settled into the mundane routine of daily life, even a big boss could end up completely overwhelmed.
Su Can sighed, reaching out to wrap an arm around Xu Mian’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go eat!”
Xu Mian wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and suddenly suggested, “Senior, let’s get a drink tonight.”
Su Can froze.
One had to know that Xu Mian was a good girl who didn’t touch a drop of alcohol and had no bad habits whatsoever. Su Can had never seen her drink before, which meant that for Xu Mian to suddenly suggest drinking, she must be hurting terribly inside.
How could she possibly say no?
On the other side, Jiang Yuanchuan, having been hung up on, yanked off his apron with a dark face and strode out of the kitchen.
He had deliberately left work early today, wanting to cook dinner himself to ease the tension between him and Xu Mian. He had even asked his mother to pick up their daughter, all so he could have an undisturbed evening just for the two of them.
Yet Xu Mian told him she was eating dinner with Su Can tonight.
She was clearly doing it on purpose!
Intentionally avoiding him!
She was always like this!
Whenever they got into a conflict, she ignored him and brushed him off!
He simply didn’t exist in her heart!
On ordinary days, if he didn’t reach out to her, she wouldn’t contact him all day. And whenever they had a spat, she would never be the one to lower her voice and coax him!
Having seen Ji Yuanhang at her job interview today, she undoubtedly knew why he had been so sarcastic and passive-aggressive this morning. Yet she still deliberately told him the interview went smoothly, intentionally trying to anger him!
Completely losing any appetite to cook or eat, Jiang Yuanchuan paced around the huge house before heading upstairs to his study to work.
Around nine o’clock, he took the initiative to call Xu Mian, wanting to pick her up and bring her home as another peace offering.
But she didn’t answer.
He called several times in a row, but every call went unanswered.
Instantly, he couldn’t sit still anymore. First, he was worried about her safety; second, he couldn’t stand her giving him the cold shoulder like this. So, he grabbed his car keys and left.
Once inside the car, he switched to calling Su Can instead. This time, the call was answered almost immediately.
Su Can said coolly over the phone, “I was just about to call you. Hurry up and come pick her up; Xu Mian is drunk.”
Drunk?
His thin lips pressed into a tight line. He immediately asked, “Address.”
Su Can gave him the restaurant’s address. After hanging up, he sped off in his car.
Arriving near the restaurant, before he even parked, he saw his wife from afar, her cheeks flushed red, leaning limply in Su Can’s arms. Su Can was tightly holding onto her slender waist, the two of them pressed close together in seamless intimacy.
Jiang Yuanchuan narrowed his dark eyes, his gaze filled with displeasure. He could not stand Xu Mian having such close physical contact with anyone other than himself, even if that person was a woman like Su Can.
After parking, he strode over while taking off his suit jacket. Wrapping it around Xu Mian and pulling her into his arms, he then looked up at Su Can. “It’s so cold outside tonight. Couldn’t you two have waited inside for me to arrive?”
If she had been sitting and waiting inside, his wife wouldn’t have been standing unsteadily and leaning against Su Can.
“Xu Mian said she wanted to come outside to get some fresh air,” Su Can began to explain out of goodwill, but mid-sentence she suddenly realized something. She couldn’t help but glare at Jiang Yuanchuan and ask, “Jiang Yuanchuan, you’re not seriously getting jealous of me, are you?”
Looking at his annoyed expression, was he actually bothered that she had just held and hugged Xu Mian?
“You’re at that age without a boyfriend. Who knows what you’re thinking in that head of yours?”
The implication was clear: maybe she didn’t like men and liked his wife instead. After all, the two of them were genuinely close; otherwise, he wouldn’t be this jealous.
After dropping that sarcastic remark, Jiang Yuanchuan scooped Xu Mian up in his arms and walked away.
Su Can was furious, shouting behind him, “Jiang Yuanchuan, keep making trouble like this! You deserve to be ignored by Xu Mian!”
She was “at that age”?
She was only two years older than Xu Mian!
Besides, just because she didn’t have a boyfriend didn’t mean she didn’t have a man she liked in her heart.
To put it bluntly, if she really were into Xu Mian, where would there be any room for a guy like Jiang Yuanchuan!
The more Su Can thought about it, the angrier she became. Xu Mian had gotten drunk tonight and sadly said she wanted a divorce. Everyone always says to advise reconciliation rather than separation, so she had spent the whole night trying to persuade Xu Mian out of it.
If she had known this would happen, she wouldn’t have bothered!
Jiang Yuanchuan, naturally, had no interest in paying attention to Su Can’s accusations against him. His eyes were entirely focused on his wife, especially now, as she curled quietly and drunkenly in his arms like a warm, soft cat.
Su Can had never seen her drunk, but he had, and every time he recalled it, he found himself savoring the memory endlessly.
Because their very first time together had happened when she was tipsy.
Back then, after he helped her settle her father’s affair, she said she wanted to thank him. He had assumed it would be a meal together, but who could have expected that a tipsy Xu Mian would knock on his front door?
He had already lost his heart to her in the first place, so there was no reason for him not to pluck this flower.
Because she had been drinking, though she was nervous, she was extraordinarily proactive and compliant, so much so that he developed a craving that afternoon, turning her over again and again to tease and possess her, discovering for the first time just how strong his physical desires could be.
He thought that giving herself to him meant they had implicitly established a romantic relationship. Having never been in a relationship before, he specifically consulted a friend on how to date a girl and cultivate feelings.
Yet when they met again, she actually acted as if she didn’t know him. That polite, distant phrase, “Mr. Jiang,” nearly made him grind his back teeth to dust.
He had dragged her into the dim stairwell, stroking her slender neck so intently he wished he could bite right through it. “Mr. Jiang?”
Leaning against the wall, she calmly drew the line between them: “You helped me, and I repaid your favor. From now on, let’s just pretend we don’t know each other.”
“Pretend we don’t know each other?”
He had been so angered that he burst into a laugh.
“Fine!”
He lowered his head, biting down on her lovely red lips to ravage them fiercely before turning on his heel and walking away.
That very evening, he showed up at her house. Right in front of her parents, he exposed the fact that they had slept together and declared that he intended to marry her, presenting a lavish bride price along with his proposal.
He still clearly remembered the shocked expressions on her and her parents’ faces back then.
Her parents had been so startled they leaped straight out of their seats. As for her, she had knocked over a teacup in her fluster, and in the end, it was he who slowly and methodically helped her clean it up.
Her parents were conservative people; knowing the two had shared a bed, they naturally agreed to the marriage. Coupled with his own parents being fully supportive and arriving in person the very next day with sincere intentions to offer another lavish engagement gift, she had no choice but to marry him.
And so, by that very afternoon, he had dragged her straight to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get their marriage certificate.
He had originally intended to follow the proper steps by cultivating feelings with her first before stepping into marriage. But since she insisted on drawing a line to anger him, he had no choice but to strike first and claim his prize.