Chapter 6

The moment I opened the door, I found him standing there with his head bowed and his eyes bloodshot.

“Wen Ni, Xiangxiang is missing.”

I was about to tell him Xiangxiang was not missing when his tall body toppled toward me.

My reflexes were quick enough to catch him, which left me with my arms completely full.

The reek of alcohol hit me. I frowned in disgust and slapped his back.

“Get off me.”

But he held me tightly and refused to let go.

Hearing the commotion, Xiangxiang hurried out in his fluffy slippers.

He Jinnan was six foot two. Though he looked lean, he had exercised for years and was unbelievably heavy.

It took every ounce of strength the two of us possessed to help him onto the sofa.

“Mommy is going to make your daddy some hangover soup. Keep an eye on him, okay?”

Xiangxiang nodded and sat obediently beside He Jinnan.

Watching him sleep like a pig, Xiangxiang poked He Jinnan’s stomach in annoyance.

“You made Mommy’s nice-smelling home stink.”

Unable to resist, He Jinnan opened his eyes to slits and glared at Xiangxiang, gritting his teeth.

Xiangxiang’s eyes lit up. He glanced back toward the kitchen,

then carefully leaned close to He Jinnan’s ear.

In a whisper, he said, “Daddy, I know you’re pretending to be drunk.”

He Jinnan turned his head away, frowning as he ignored him.

Xiangxiang sprawled over him and forcibly turned his head back.

“If you buy me the aircraft-carrier Lego set, I won’t tell Mommy.”

He Jinnan turned away again and squeezed a grunt of agreement from his throat.

That entire evening, Xiangxiang was almost absurdly attentive.

He fed He Jinnan water and even washed his face.

While giving him water, however, he accidentally soaked He Jinnan’s clothes.

While washing his face, he smacked his father’s nose.

He Jinnan frowned and groaned in pain.

After Xiangxiang went to bed, I looked at He Jinnan lying faceup on the sofa and shook my head helplessly.

I kicked his foot. “All right. Stop pretending.”

He did not move, clearly determined to see his drunken act through to the end.

I sat beside him and said quietly, “He Jinnan, the twenty-year-old Wen Ni might have fallen for this, but I’m not that young girl anymore.”

“So if you keep pretending, I’ll throw you outside.”

He Jinnan raised a hand and massaged his temple.

He gave a soft laugh. “You’re right. We can never go back.”

I slowly leaned against the back of the sofa and sighed.

“I… was brave once, wasn’t I?”

I had given He Jinnan a chance back then. I had believed in him too.

But I had lost that gamble.

He laughed bitterly at himself. “Yes. In the end, I was the greatest coward. Even Shen Nianci dared to run from the wedding, defy her elders, and go abroad in pursuit of her freedom.”

“And you once dared to defy the He family’s threats, give up everything, and gamble that I would choose you.”

“But back then, I was too afraid to choose you.”

“Looking back, I was a goddamn bastard.”

I smiled. “You were. A complete bastard.”

“But I’m grateful to you. Without you, I might not even have had the courage to keep living back then.”

“And I could never have achieved what I have today.”

“But He Jinnan, running headfirst into a wall hurts. I don’t have many virtues, but I do learn from pain. You’re the one who taught me that.”

When I first became involved with He Jinnan, almost no one in the industry knew me.

The only impression anyone had of me was that college student who had some talent for acting and was rather pretty.

I remembered my first audition after breaking my contract. I encountered a lecherous old man who said he wanted to assess me in private and handed me a hotel key card.

I was young, with anger pent up inside me, and I kept thinking I might still succeed on my own. So I went there in high spirits.

But I never expected my drink to be drugged. If not for He Jinnan, I did not know what they might have done to me.

He took me to the hospital, pinched my cheek in fury, and demanded with a dark expression, “Have you learned your lesson?”

“Better to mistake someone for a villain than assume they’re good. Once pain teaches you a lesson, remember it. Otherwise, you suffered for nothing. Understand?”

At the memory,

he lowered his head, his voice rough and painfully dry. “It’s good that you remember the pain… That’s good.”