Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“I slipped in the shower yesterday.”

“If it’s serious, you should go to the hospital and have it checked.” He glanced at the wall clock. “How about I take Jiu Jiu today? If she leaves within the next ten minutes, I can still make my morning meeting.”

I cracked an egg into the pan. “Elementary school doesn’t open until seven-thirty. If you take her now, do you expect her to stand outside the gate and wait?”

Sheng Jing picked up his car keys. “Then I’m in a hurry, so I’ll head out first. Call me anytime if you need anything.”

The door slammed shut with a bang.

My temples throbbed.

I had told him countless times to be gentler when opening and closing doors, but he always forgot.

After rinsing her mouth, Jiu Jiu came out and bent down, gently wrapping her arms around my leg.

“Mommy, where does it hurt? I’ll cast a spell and transfer the pain to me. Then Mommy will get better.”

Her little eyes were filled with worry.

It reminded me of the year I first came to Shanghai.

Back then, Sheng Jing and I were renting a resettlement apartment in Hesha Hangcheng.

The place was some distance from the subway station, and the buses were unreliable.

I wanted to learn how to ride an electric scooter, so I could save a lot of time getting to and from the subway for work.

At the time, very few people had moved into that area. At night, the roads were wide and empty, with no cars and no pedestrians, making it perfect for practice.

Sheng Jing’s electric scooter was big and heavy, and the seat was high off the ground.

I was too nervous and crashed into the roadside railing, scraping a large patch of skin off the top of my foot.

After I showered that night, the top of my foot swelled up like a steamed bun.

Sheng Jing urged me to go to the hospital.

I refused.

I hated and resisted the smell of disinfectant in hospitals.

That night, the moonlight was very bright.

He hugged me from behind, his voice trembling slightly. “Let’s go to the hospital, okay? What if you get tetanus? It could kill you.”

“If something happened to you, I… I wouldn’t even know what to do.”

Where had that man gone-the one who had once cared about me so much and held me so dearly in his heart?

Sheng Jing broke his promise again.

At five o’clock, he told me his department had a dinner gathering that night and said I didn’t need to wait for him to eat.

By then, I had already put the rice in the cooker.

He clearly hadn’t taken a single word from yesterday to heart.

We had fought and argued about this before.

He would rein himself in for ten days or half a month, then go right back to the way he was.

After the same cycle repeated over and over, I was already tired.

So tired I couldn’t even be bothered to reply.

He didn’t care, either. As far as he was concerned, he had informed me, and that was enough.

Whether I had seen it or not wasn’t important.

A little after eight, I was helping our child with her homework when my phone rang.

It was Sheng Jing calling, but when I picked up, I heard his assistant Lin Ling’s voice.

“Sister-in-law, Manager Sheng is so drunk he can’t walk. He keeps calling your name. Hurry over and pick him up.”