Jiang Xiaobai froze in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“In the past, I earned money to save it up. Now, I earn money for you to spend. If you leave, then what’s the point of making any money?”
She did not expect such words from Xiao Su. Therefore, she was stunned for a moment and didn’t know how to respond for a while. After a while, she coldly snorted, “Don’t think that I will forgive you just because you said that. Xiao Su, self-harm tactics won’t work on me. If you don’t want to work anymore, then don’t.” Then, she rolled over and went to sleep, ignoring him after that.
Xiao Su said nothing, but he lowered his head and looked at her back. Then, he sighed gloomily. When night fell, she hugged her baby as she slept while he stayed by her side. He was probably afraid that she would leave, so he stayed in the same room as her. However, she refused to allow him to sleep on the bed, so he could only stay beside the bed.
When she woke up from her sleep to go to the bathroom, she saw him sleeping with his head against the bed. Over the past few days, he had slept in this posture. Thus, he could not get a good night’s sleep. The area around his eyes was dark and looked bruised; his stubble was apparent and his hair was a mess. He had always had a scar on his face, and the scar was more savage-looking, now that he was in such an unkempt state. When she saw the scar, she unwittingly reached out. Just before she touched him, her hand froze mid-air. Then, she withdrew her hand.
At that moment, his hand snaked out suddenly and grabbed her slim wrist. Then, he opened his eyes to look at her. His reaction frightened her so much that her heart seemed to skip a beat. She tried to pull her hand back, but he put a little force into it and sat up while he was at it. “Do you hate me this much?” he asked sadly. “You can’t even bring yourself to touch my face anymore? Or, do you regret marrying me because you think the scar on my face is hideous?”
What? How did he link it to the scar on his face? “What the hell are you talking about? When I first came to know you, your face has always been like this. If I was disgusted by your scar, then why would I get into a relationship with you?”
“Then why are you leaving me?” He held onto her hand tightly and said in a low voice, “Even I couldn’t accept my ugly self, but you accepted me. But now, you’re going to leave me over a small misunderstanding?”
“A small misunderstanding?” She glanced sideways at him in amusement. “Even now, do you still think that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to this incident? You abandoning me isn’t such a big deal after all, right? It’s just a small misunderstanding; so small that it’s insignificant. Is that it?”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“What did you mean then?” Jiang Xiaobai asked sharply. “Tell me; what did you mean?” At the end of her sentence, her eyes reddened, her nose itched, and her tears nearly fell out of her eyes. Right before her tears fell, she turned her head away abruptly, refusing to cry in front of Xiao Su. Even so, he saw the tears rolling down her face uncontrollably and falling onto the back of her hand.
Looking at her like that, he felt unusually upset—as if a knife was twisting in his heart. Thus, he did not say anything else. He reached forward and hugged her by her shoulders, placing his chin on the top of her head as he softly murmured, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry; it’s all my fault. Don’t cry. My words just now weren’t intentional. It’s all my fault. I’m so useless. I can’t even persuade you to stay, yet I keep making you mad at me.”
He kept apologizing to her repeatedly. In the beginning, she was only crying slightly. Unfortunately, the more she rubbed at her tears, the harder they fell. In the end, she was an inconsolable sobbing mess. It wasn’t as if she had never been hurt after being in a relationship with him for so long. However, she used to tell herself that it was nothing whenever she felt upset. She would console herself. Then, when she had managed to console herself, she would magnanimously express that it was all in the past. As this had gone on for such a long time, she could no longer get past this hurdle that had been building up.
That night, she sobbed her heart out. As she sobbed, she hammered at his shoulders. “I should never have gotten into a relationship with you in the first place! I should have aborted my pregnancy! Why was I so short-sighted as to get into a relationship with you? Don’t tell me it’s all because I slept with you? I’m a modern girl! Why would I do something as stupid as that? Couldn’t I have found a man who loved me and who I loved? Wouldn’t that have been great? Why did I have to get into a relationship with you?”
While she cried, she vented out all the emotions in her heart as well as the words she would never have said under normal circumstances. He shuddered in apprehension when he heard her words, but he was afraid of provoking her. Thus, he could only hold her tightly.
Alas, Jiang Xiaobai cried herself to exhaustion and fell asleep while lying in his arms. Thus, he carried her back to the bed and covered her with a blanket. After tucking her into bed, he saw the baby lying next to her as soon as he lifted his eyes. The baby was watching everything in front of him with his big, deep, and bright eyes—as if he could understand what was going on.
Xiao Su did not know since when the baby had been awake. However, he reached out and picked up his son, hoping to prevent the baby from crying suddenly and waking Jiang Xiaobai up. Under normal circumstances, the baby would have started crying the moment he held him. Yet, the baby was as docile as could be right now while he held him in his arms; the baby remained quiet as he carried him out of the room.
Upon closing the door behind him, he released a deep breath. Then, he looked at the little guy in his arms. He reached out his hand to poke at the baby’s face. “Little fellow, if you are such a well-behaved child, then help your father out a little. Don’t let your mommy leave, alright?”
I really have no idea how else I’m supposed to persuade Xiaobai anymore. The little fellow tilted his head and stared up at him curiously. Then, he laughed bitterly. “Forget it; what does a child like you know?”
After missing work consecutively for several days, Ye Moxuan gave a call to Xiao Su to inquire about it. Xiao Su felt very apologetic. At the same time, he explained his circumstances clearly. He indicated that he wouldn’t be able to attend to the company for the time being as he had family matters to deal with. On the other side, Ye Moxuan fell silent for a long while, then he suddenly asked, “Are you quarreling with your wife?”
Xiao Su paused for a moment, then he helplessly admitted to it.
“Heh.” Ye Moxuan heartlessly laughed at him, then he asked again, “What about the time needed to settle this? How long do you need?”
Xiao Su thought back to how Jiang Xiaobai had cried so heartbrokenly last night, then he sighed. “I’m not sure. Young Master Ye, I’m very sorry. If this arrangement doesn’t work, then you—”
“Xiao Su, are you a man?” Ye Moxuan ridiculed him suddenly.
“Huh?”
“Don’t you know how to comfort a woman?”
Xiao Su said nothing in response.
“Have you ever read the Thirty-Six Stratagems? If you can’t coax her, can’t you persuade her through self-harm? Don’t you know about the trick of injuring oneself to gain the enemy’s trust?”
His eyebrows jumped as if he had heard a terrible suggestion from Ye Moxuan. “Young Master Ye, this is…”
“What’s wrong? I’m teaching you what I’ve personally experienced. Aren’t you going to learn from it?”
Xiao Su did not expect Ye Moxuan to be that kind of person. It can’t be that he constantly studied the Thirty-Six Stratagems every time he made the Young Lady Ye angry, right? Besides, the trick of injuring oneself to gain the enemy’s trust; how am I supposed to utilize that?
