Chapter 102
Chapter 102
Wen Tianxue gave He Yuchuan fifty thousand yuan a month in spending money and rented him a large flat in the city center.
He Yuchuan became a print model at her company – at long last, he had a job of his own.
Even luckier, his striking looks and refined presence made him stand out among the crowd of minor models, and Wen Tianxue did everything she could to funnel the best resources and opportunities his way.
Wen Tianxue had practically become He Yuchuan’s god. In his WeChat contacts, he saved her name as “Bodhisattva Lady.”
But Wen Tianxue’s mental state was not always good. Sometimes she would suddenly sink into an inexplicable silence or anxiety, and when she had nothing to do, she liked to have a little drink.
Occasionally, she smoked too. But the moment she finished, she would rush into the bathroom, brush her teeth meticulously with an electric toothbrush, then rinse twice with mouthwash.
He Yuchuan asked why she had to go through all that fuss over one cigarette. As she wiped the water from her chin with a face towel, she said, “Smoking makes your teeth yellow. If my teeth get yellow, Zhao Kai will scold me, and then I won’t be allowed to smoke anymore.”
He Yuchuan was baffled. “Why does he care about that? Whose teeth are perfectly white and spotless anyway…”
Wen Tianxue shook her head. “Don’t. That’s just how he is.”
Zhao Kai had a somewhat violent temper, especially after drinking. If she did not provoke him, things were fine. But if she accidentally set him off, Wen Tianxue would have to go to work the next day wearing a mask or a silk scarf.
Once, He Yuchuan pulled down her mask and saw the faint imprint of a slap beneath it.
Another time, Wen Tianxue did not dare eat anything spicy for an entire week. She said the inside of her mouth was injured.
At first, He Yuchuan thought it was just a simple mouth ulcer. He bought vitamin C tablets, ground them into powder, and told her it would heal if she endured the pain and applied some.
The moment Wen Tianxue saw that packet of vitamin powder, she frowned in fright. Only then did she tell He Yuchuan that what she had in her mouth was not an ulcer, but wounds.
The night before, Zhao Kai had slapped her hard across the face. Her lower teeth had scraped the inside of her mouth, leaving an entire row of small, broken cuts.
He Yuchuan felt his scalp go numb just listening to it.
Around six o’clock every evening was when Wen Tianxue’s mood sank to its lowest.
She said she had been like this since she was little. No matter how happy she was that day, no matter how full of energy, once evening came, her whole being would turn melancholy and lost… as if the entire sky had gone gray, pressing down on her until she could not breathe.
He Yuchuan vaguely felt that it might be depression, but at the same time, an illness that flared up at a fixed time every day for about an hour did not seem quite like depression either.
On the surface, Wen Tianxue was glamorous and dazzling, which awakened He Yuchuan’s instinct to admire strength. Yet deep inside, she also had a shattered, fragile side, and that stirred up his desire to protect her and his pity for her.
Under the constant seep of this extreme contrast, He Yuchuan fell deeply in love with her.
He asked her, “Since you’re so unhappy in this marriage, why don’t you get divorced?”
Wen Tianxue said, “If I were the kind of person who cared only about being happy, I never would have gotten married in the first place.”
He Yuchuan asked, “Isn’t happiness important?”
Wen Tianxue studied him for a few seconds, then smiled faintly. “Are you happy with your life right now?”
He Yuchuan answered without thinking, “Extremely happy.”
Wen Tianxue nodded. “You’re happy because I give you money. I have money because he gives me money. The two of us are grasshoppers tied to the same string. Without Zhao Kai, would you still be sitting here, chatting and laughing with me?”
He Yuchuan said, “You’re awful. It’s not like you can’t live without him. You’re very capable too.”
Wen Tianxue said, “That’s right. With my current abilities, I can support myself and keep supporting you too. But with him, I can get more. Who doesn’t want more?”
He Yuchuan said, “But you’re not happy now.”
Wen Tianxue said impatiently, “Different people want different things. Others laugh at me for living spinelessly, but I don’t laugh at them for being poor.”
He Yuchuan asked, “Then under what circumstances would you want to leave him? To leave this life?”
Wen Tianxue asked him in return, “Under what circumstances would you throw away an apple with a worm in it?”
He Yuchuan said, “When I get a new apple that’s perfectly intact.”
Wen Tianxue said, “Exactly. Unless I meet someone as rich as him but not as crazy as him, I feel like I can still hang in there a little longer.”
He Yuchuan said nothing. Like a child, he lowered his head and idly scratched at the surface with his fingers.
Wen Tianxue suddenly said, “I’ll buy you a car. You can’t keep taking taxis everywhere. What kind do you like? Porsche? Mercedes-Benz G-Class? Maserati?”
He Yuchuan’s eyes lit up like stars.
A month later, He Yuchuan drove a brand-new dark green BMW leisurely down the middle of the road.
Having a car felt amazing, He Yuchuan thought.
A car was like a second home, carving out a private space that belonged only to him in the crowded city.
Once he reached a wide road, He Yuchuan drove faster and faster. He rolled down all the windows, letting the crisp wind pour in.
Before long, another car appeared beside him, keeping pace. He tilted his head and glanced over. It was a Mustang.
The car was loud as hell, and He Yuchuan frowned in disgust.
Once a man’s competitive streak flared up, it was hard to put out. He Yuchuan and that Mustang tore down the road, racing each other the whole way.
In the end, as the Mustang overtook him, a sign extended out of its window. On it were two words:
Trash.
He Yuchuan nearly died of rage.
When he got back to his place, he begged Wen Tianxue to lend him that red Ferrari for a couple of days.
At the time, he still had no idea just how much trouble that Ferrari would bring him.