Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The night my husband, Qin Huai, held a banquet to celebrate the patent award won by the male college student he sponsored…

I slept with that student.

Right now, he was crying.

He was naked, his broad chest marked with scratches from my nails and bite marks from my teeth.

He was crying hard, but not making a sound.

His head was lowered as he typed, his hands trembling.

Why was he typing on his phone?

Because he was deaf and mute.

At the banquet, I, a married woman, had fallen for a clean, innocent-looking boy at first sight.

He was fair and delicate, very good-looking, shy and reserved. Exactly my type.

I did have wicked thoughts about him.

But I never expected things to turn this dramatic.

We drank too much and slept together.

I remembered his name was Jiang Songye. He was one of the many people Qin Huai sponsored.

He was also the hardest-working, and the one who had achieved the most.

He typed several times on his phone before he finally finished.

Then, the electronic male voice from the text-to-speech function loudly repeated, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The sudden noise startled me into freezing.

Earlier, he had actually been signing to me, but I didn’t understand, so he had typed on his phone instead.

Jiang Songye’s face was very red, and his tears kept falling.

The way he sobbed was inexplicably pitiful.

I laughed despite myself. “Was that your first time?”

He lowered his head again, which counted as an admission.

I was even more satisfied.

I comforted him gently, “Don’t be scared. It was just an accident. As long as you don’t say anything, no third person will ever know.”

I didn’t take the matter to heart.

Nor was I afraid of Qin Huai finding out.

Lately, Qin Huai had been coming home later and later.

Every time, he would call me. “I’m sorry, honey. I’m afraid I have to work overtime again tonight. Don’t wait up for me. Go to bed early.”

He played the good husband, so I played the good wife.

If our relationship looked loving, the most anxious person would have to be Qin Huai’s secretary, the woman he was cheating with.

On another night when Qin Huai came home late from a business dinner, Ye Liu supported him as she knocked on my door.

Qin Huai, drunk senseless, was leaning against Ye Liu’s body.

She smiled at me with a bashful expression. “President Qin gets so clingy when he’s drunk. He wouldn’t come home unless I coaxed him.”

The young woman’s ambition and provocation were written all over her face. She was openly trying to anger me.

I glanced at Qin Huai and smiled brightly. “That’s true. When a disobedient dog gets tangled up in whatever filth is outside, who knows what smell it brings back.”

Ye Liu’s expression turned hideous.

A pretty, young secretary. A top graduate who had only left school not long ago. She was only twenty-four this year.

Almost everyone around Qin Huai knew that he and this secretary were not exactly innocent.

Yet they deliberately helped him hide it from me.

After all, in business circles, it was perfectly normal for a man to have a few little lovers.

It didn’t matter. Some things couldn’t stay hidden.

I had known for a long time.

And I had Ye Liu to thank for that.

The young woman was burning with impatience and couldn’t keep it to herself. She couldn’t wait to declare her claim in front of me.

So she deliberately posted a photo on Moments of Qin Huai carrying her home on his back.

The caption read: “With you here, I’m not afraid no matter how dark the night is.”

How romantic. So romantic I couldn’t help giving it a like.

Within a few minutes, the photo was deleted. Ye Liu messaged me privately to apologize: “Miss Chen, please don’t misunderstand. I only twisted my ankle, and President Qin was just taking me home.”

If she twisted her ankle, she couldn’t call a cab? Couldn’t go to the hospital? He just had to carry her?

I should have been angry.

But it seemed I wasn’t that angry after all.

We had clearly loved each other for so many years, going from having nothing to the happy, perfect life we had now.

I should have been screaming myself hoarse as I cursed out this mistress.

But that would be too ugly. I didn’t like it.

Six years of dating, six years of marriage. It seemed I had grown tired of it too.

So I replied to her: “If it’s serious, remember to go to the hospital.”

Ye Liu didn’t reply again.

To this day, Qin Huai still didn’t know that I had known about his affair for a long time.

He played dumb, and so did I.

Adults valued interests more.

When I saw the hickey on his neck, the one Ye Liu had deliberately left there, I only felt disgusted.

So I simply threw Qin Huai, reeking of alcohol, into the bathroom.

He wanted me to serve him?

He could dream on.

After throwing Qin Huai into the bathroom, I went straight back to the bedroom to sleep.

Sure enough, the next day, Qin Huai caught a cold.

The moment he came up to me, he questioned me. “How could you throw me into the bathroom and leave me there? Are you even my wife?”

I looked at him with an innocent expression.

“I’m sorry, honey. You know I don’t know how to take care of people.

“But I think that secretary of yours is pretty good. Her name is Ye Liu, right? Why don’t you pay her an extra salary and have her take care of your daily needs?”

At the mention of Ye Liu, guilt clearly flashed across Qin Huai’s face.

Then, just as quickly, he went back to normal.

“Are you jealous? Nothing happened between me and her. I had a business dinner last night, and those men kept forcing Ye Liu to drink. She’s just a young woman. I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

“I only drank too much. She was just kind enough to take me home. Stop being so paranoid. Don’t you trust me?”

Who even asked him?

I had only said one sentence, and he had already confessed without being prompted.

I blinked at him in bewilderment. “I wasn’t suspecting anything between you two, honey. I didn’t say anything. Why are you getting so worked up?”

“If that’s what you want to think, then I can’t do anything about it.”

Qin Huai’s expression shifted again and again before he finally stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

How ridiculous.

After taking his anger out here, he was probably off to let Ye Liu’s tender embrace heal him.

I had checked Qin Huai’s recent spending records.

Chanel, Balenciaga, Hermès.

The clothes, shoes, bags, and makeup Ye Liu wore were all bought for her by Qin Huai.

If I didn’t spend his money, his mistress would.

With that thought, I immediately called up my best friend and went shopping. The more expensive, the better.

After we finished shopping, I took my best friend to a restaurant for dinner.

I never expected to run into Jiang Songye there too.

Half a month had passed since that night.

To be honest, I still found myself thinking about it.

I had even wondered whether I should keep him as my lover.

But judging by that chaste, virtuous look of his, he probably wouldn’t agree.

Jiang Songye was bowing nonstop to a customer and apologizing.

He had accidentally spilled water on the person, though it was actually the customer who had bumped into Jiang Songye first and caused the spill.

But the customer was relentless.

“Do you know how expensive this outfit is? A waiter like you couldn’t afford it even if you worked your whole life!

“Say something! Are you mute?”

When the customer noticed Jiang Songye’s hearing aid, he paused, then sneered in mockery. “So you’re deaf and mute. Get your manager over here. I’d like to ask him why this place hires just anybody!”

Jiang Songye was working here part-time to support himself through school.

He also had a seriously ill mother. The hundred thousand yuan bonus Qin Huai had given him had probably all gone into hospital bills.

If he lost this job, he might not even be able to afford food.

Thinking of that, I stepped forward and shielded Jiang Songye behind me.

Countless eyes turned toward us. I couldn’t have cared less.

The tears on Jiang Songye’s face shimmered helplessly.

Unable to speak, he couldn’t even apologize or explain properly.

“How much is it? I’ll pay for him.”

The customer still refused to let it go. “Who the hell are you? What does this have to do with you?”

I took a stack of cash I had just withdrawn from my bag and slapped it against his face, stunning him.

“Is this enough?”

I slapped another stack across his face.

“If it isn’t, I have more.

“What exactly makes you feel so superior, bullying someone vulnerable?”

After throwing the money at him, I grabbed Jiang Songye and walked out.

My best friend stared blankly at me, then at Jiang Songye, whom I had brought back with me.

“Isn’t he the college student Qin Huai sponsored?”

My best friend had been at the banquet that day too.

I didn’t have time to explain much to her. I paid the bill and took Jiang Songye away.

Once we reached a place with no one around, Jiang Songye typed on his phone and played the text-to-speech audio for me.

“Thank you. I’ll write you an IOU and pay you back every penny.”

Because deaf-mute people couldn’t speak, the way they communicated was different from ordinary people.

But somehow, that only made the earnest look on his face seem even cuter to me.

He probably still remembered what had happened that night vividly, because he didn’t dare meet my eyes.

The more he refused to look at me, the more I wanted to look at him.

How could someone be this good-looking?

I finally understood why men liked pure, innocent women.

I liked pure, innocent men too.

In the end, I couldn’t hold back. I took his hand.

I asked him, “Would you be willing to be with me? I can give you money. Then you won’t have to work so hard doing part-time jobs anymore.”

I never expected him to react so intensely and fling my hand away.

The male voice from his phone blared loudly. “You are Mr. Qin’s wife. We can’t do this!”

The people passing by looked at us strangely.

His blunt honesty made me laugh despite myself.

“It’s fine. We both do our own thing.”

It was just that Qin Huai didn’t know I had someone outside yet.

As if he had never imagined that the Mr. Qin he respected and felt grateful toward could be that kind of man, Jiang Songye looked so shocked he seemed like he was about to shatter.

But Jiang Songye was someone with a strong moral compass.

Without even thinking, he rejected me again and fled in a panic.

Fine. If he didn’t agree, then forget it.

He wasn’t the only man in the world.

Hmph. He wasn’t even that good-looking. I didn’t care at all.