Chapter 13: Standing Me Up [3]

After seeing off Mrs. Jing, Jing Nuo closed the bedroom door. Then, he took the nourishing soup Mrs. Jing had brought and walked into the bathroom to pour it out. Wen Xiaorou watched this series of actions, standing there awkwardly, unsure whether to leave or stay. Was this argument really going to continue?

“Why are you staring at me like that? Do you actually think I’d have a child with you? Grandma only said she wants a grandson—she never said it had to be yours,” Jing Nuo said, seeing Wen Xiaorou looking at him blankly. He thought she was lamenting the wasted soup.

“Jing Nuo, let’s separate!” Wen Xiaorou almost spat blood hearing his words. Could this man be any more shameless? Even if he had such thoughts, couldn’t he hide them a little? Why did he have to lay everything out so blatantly in front of his wife? Wen Xiaorou felt this was even more humiliating than a pregnant woman barging in.

“Feeling bolder now?” Jing Nuo was surprised at Wen Xiaorou’s calmness when she spoke of separating, as if she didn’t care about him at all. But hadn’t she liked him a lot? Liked him so much that even knowing he held no affection for her, she still stayed with him. Jing Nuo found Wen Xiaorou increasingly unfathomable. Could she be playing some bigger game?

“Is there any meaning in staying together like enemies?” Wen Xiaorou had thought about separation for a long time and imagined it many times. So she was calm, even though she regretted her impulsiveness the moment the words left her mouth.

“Do you think I’d fall for that? Besides, you don’t even have the right to choose,” Jing Nuo believed Wen Xiaorou was scheming to divide the Jing family’s wealth by separating. That was always his assumption.

“Think whatever you want,” Wen Xiaorou never expected to reason with Jing Nuo or make him believe her. She could only watch helplessly as he treated her like an imagined enemy.

Wen Xiaorou felt she only had herself to blame. She shouldn’t have married Jing Nuo in the first place. Had she not married him, Jing Nuo would have trusted she wasn’t after the Jing family’s money. At least then, she could have retained a shred of dignity. Yet she had chosen to play along with Jing Nuo’s narrative, becoming the villain, marrying a man who clearly didn’t love her, transforming herself from a guest of the Jing family into one of its members.

Jing Nuo rolled his eyes at Wen Xiaorou. He hated seeing her innocent expression, as if she had suffered great grievances in the Jing household. Though she lived under their roof, she acted aloof and proud. In truth, Wen Xiaorou was humble, but to Jing Nuo, her silence came off as arrogance. Perhaps because she didn’t flatter or please him like other women, he felt unbalanced inside.

Their quarrel ended with Jing Nuo’s words, and Wen Xiaorou’s intention to leave the room was abandoned. She obediently lay back in her own space, quietly recalling every moment of the argument and secretly nursing her sorrow.

The next day, in Master Jing’s study.

“Rou Rou, did you and Jing Nuo argue again last night?” Master Jing removed his old glasses from the bridge of his nose and looked up at Wen Xiaorou sitting upright opposite him.

“No,” Wen Xiaorou never complained about Jing Nuo in front of Master Jing.

“If you and Jing Nuo could have a child soon, Jing Nuo might settle down a bit,” knowing what Mrs. Jing had witnessed in the two bedrooms the night before, Master Jing and Madam Jing were naturally aware of the situation.

“Dad, this can only be left to fate,” Wen Xiaorou replied. She too longed for a child; having one would at least break the monotony of her lonely days spent brooding alone.