Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“I already bought the movie tickets.”

“I’m sorry, but this client is really important. I can’t afford to offend them. Please try to understand. Tomorrow. I’ll definitely come home early tomorrow.”

“Today is the last day. It’ll be out of theaters tomorrow.”

“Then we’ll buy a VIP membership later. Watching it at home is the same thing.”

How could it be the same?

But I didn’t want to say anything more.

I put away my phone and went to the bathroom to take off my makeup.

The cotton pad smeared my lipstick, leaving a red blur across half my chin.

Jiu Jiu came over and blinked her big eyes at me. “Mom, you’re not going to the movie anymore?”

“No. Daddy has to work overtime and can’t make it back.”

“Yay! Then you can help me with my homework.”

I removed my makeup and changed my clothes. The white light from the living room ceiling lamp fell over my deathly pale face.

I looked like a ghost.

Jiu Jiu was never well-behaved when doing homework. One minute, she was gossiping about her classmates with me. The next, she wanted water. Then she needed the bathroom. Then her back hurt, her butt hurt.

When I tried to teach her basic addition and subtraction, I could repeat it ten times and she still couldn’t apply it to a similar problem.

By the time I noticed, it was past nine. She should have been in bed.

My temper gradually rose, and so did my voice.

“How many times have I told you? You can use the make-ten method…”

The door opened right then.

A draft swept across my ankles, raising goose bumps along my calves.

Sheng Jing leaned against the doorframe, rubbed his temples, and drew in a long breath before finally stepping inside.

As if this wasn’t his home.

As if it were a battlefield he was exhausted from dealing with.

Jiu Jiu threw herself at him. “Daddy, you’re finally back.”

“Help me with this problem.”

Sheng Jing sat at the study desk for ten minutes, and the smile on his face gradually disappeared.

Then he stood up. “Daddy smells like alcohol. I need to take a shower.”

He sat on the toilet for a very long time, then spent another half hour showering. By the time he came out of the bathroom, Jiu Jiu had already fallen asleep.

A brown bathrobe wrapped around the small belly that had begun to protrude. The warm yellow hallway light fell over the top of his head.

At some point, his thick black hair had started to thin.

His brows were tightly furrowed. “How do you usually teach Jiu Jiu? How can she not know how to do such simple problems?”

“We still need to pay attention to our methods. Don’t always be so harsh with her.”

I was so angry I laughed. “You want me not to be harsh with her, but you couldn’t even last ten minutes. Have you ever thought about how I spend several hours, even more than ten hours, like this every single day?”

“If you think I’m not doing a good job, then teach her yourself!”

Sheng Jing tightened his bathrobe. “When would I have the time? I’m so busy with work.”

My voice shot up. “Sheng Jing, I have a job too.”

“Back when you coaxed me into having a child, you said we’d raise her together.”

“When you asked me to become a full-time mom, you also promised you’d take on your responsibility as a father. So why is everything on my shoulders now?”

“Is this child mine alone?”

Sheng Jing glanced toward the second bedroom. “All right, stop arguing. You’ll wake Jiu Jiu up.”

“Once the project gets on track next month, things will be easier for me. Then I’ll definitely take on more.”

“I’m tired. I’m going to sleep first.”

The living room was still a mess.

The kitchen floor hadn’t been mopped either.

I didn’t want to deal with it, so I went into the bathroom to shower.

But Sheng Jing had left the shower door open again. Water was splashed everywhere, and I slipped. My knee slammed into the threshold stone of the shower stall.

In that instant, pain nearly tore me apart.

I let out an instinctive “Ah…”

Sitting on the floor, it took me a long while before the pain finally passed.

I forced myself to rinse off quickly, then returned to the bedroom. Sheng Jing had his earbuds in and his back to me as he played a game.

“Remember to close the door next time you shower. I slipped just now.”

His eyes never left the screen. He answered perfunctorily, “Got it, got it. Are you okay?”

I didn’t answer.

He didn’t ask again.

I picked up the phone charging on the nightstand and saw a WeChat message from the younger guy downstairs.

“Sis, I was in the bathroom just now and heard a thud, and then you shouting. Did you fall? Are you okay?”

Last year, when Shanghai was under lockdown, the young renters downstairs hadn’t prepared anything.

I had always had the habit of stocking up, so I shared some rice, flour, and oil with them.

Because of that, we added each other on WeChat and shared group-buying information.

After that, we gradually became familiar.

Sheng Jing’s snores sounded beside me. I replied, “I’m fine.”

The next morning, when I got up, my knee still ached faintly.

It made me limp when I walked.

Sheng Jing noticed.

“What happened to your leg?”