On this night of torrential rain, Huo Xu rushed overnight from City B to City C. His father Huo Ran’s health was poor, and now Huo Xu managed the company.

He wearily rubbed the bridge of his nose. After arriving in City C, Huo Xu first went to the hotel.

Huo Xu had just sat down to rest when a call came from an unfamiliar number. With his status, he normally wouldn’t answer calls from unknown numbers, but Shao Yue was cautious and always called him from public phones or other people’s mobile phones. To accommodate her, Huo Xu could only answer.

“A’Xu, it’s me.” Shao Yue said, “Last time you told me you could settle things in May. Tomorrow is May already. How’s the situation now?”

Huo Xu frowned. Although he was born illegitimate, Huo Ran loved his mother more, so he had lived well from birth.

He had been busy at the company all day and then took a late-night flight to get here. Now exhausted, hearing Shao Yue’s urging tone, he instinctively felt somewhat impatient.

However, she was ultimately someone he had cherished since his youth. Huo Xu said: “Whether they agree or not, they must agree. I’ve already made arrangements in City C.”

Shao Yue breathed a sigh of relief, then said: “A’Xu, thank you for your hard work during this time. Thank you for everything you’re doing for our future.”

Huo Xu responded wearily.

Thinking about how he was about to marry that woman, Shao Yue’s heart felt very sour. How to put it? The person glimpsed in the heavy rain in her youth wasn’t just Huo Xu—it was herself too. Later, lying on the operating table having her face repaired and cosmetically altered, what Shao Yue envied was Bei Yao’s nearly flawless appearance. She feared arousing Huo Xu’s disgust, so in the end she didn’t dare resemble Bei Yao even slightly.

Shao Yue feared Jiang Huaqiong, that crazy woman, and wanted to survive, but on the other hand was unwilling to let the Young Master Huo she had guarded for so many years marry someone else.

Not to mention that woman was younger and more beautiful than herself. Shao Yue instinctively panicked.

When she spoke again, her tone had softened, even carrying a sob: “A’Xu, when I think about the sacrifice you’re making for me, I feel terrible. I really want to accompany you, to be with you. Not to watch helplessly as you marry that woman. I regret it—I shouldn’t have let you do this.”

Men were naturally susceptible to softness rather than hardness. Hearing Shao Yue’s sobbing, Huo Xu’s mood improved somewhat. He coaxed: “I proposed this idea myself. What does it have to do with you?”

Shao Yue choked up: “But I’m afraid. I’ll be jealous too. What if you act for real and fall for her, then don’t want me anymore?”

Huo Xu was stunned. What came to his mind was a fair little face. In the March spring light, Bei Yao’s eyes were like colored glass—warm and moving.

Shao Yue said: “A’Xu?”

Huo Xu didn’t know why he instinctively felt somewhat flustered. He denied: “Of course I won’t like her. I love you. You’ve done so much for me—don’t let your imagination run wild.”

Shao Yue broke into a smile through her tears, acting coquettishly: “Then you’re not allowed to touch her! If you want to… you can come find me.”

Huo Xu said: “Of course.”

When this call ended, Huo Xu lost his sleepiness and instead became more irritated.

He knew Bei Yao was innocent, but what about Shao Yue? Shao Yue was innocent too. She had nearly been raped by Huo Nanshan for his sake! And her face was ruined.

Shao Yue had accompanied him for eight years—she was the goddess he had kept in his heart since his youth.

Moreover, Jiang Huaqiong wasn’t certain about the cause of Huo Nanshan’s death. All these years of investigation had been fruitless. If he got together with Shao Yue, she could almost immediately go crazy and kill them both. Only by being with Bei Yao could he explain his reason for being in City C back then.

If he had to make a choice, he could only drag Bei Yao into this. Besides… Huo Xu thought about it—Bei Yao might not necessarily be in danger, right? He would do his best to protect her. Perhaps Jiang Huaqiong wouldn’t think he had caused Huo Nanshan’s death.

He irritably lit a cigarette. Thinking that tomorrow he could probably settle things with Bei Yao, besides boundless worry, there was also faintly a very subtle sense of anticipation.

Lightning flashed across the sky, followed by muffled thunder.

*

Lightning flickered for an instant, blocked outside the red curtains.

When Bei Yao came out after bathing, she saw Pei Chuan making a floor bed. The man silently spread out bedding he’d found from the wardrobe, arranging the edges of the blanket.

Hearing Bei Yao come out, he paused. His fingers gripping the edges tightened, not only failing to smooth the wrinkles but making them even messier.

She asked: “Pei Chuan, what are you doing?”

Pei Chuan lowered his eyes: “I promised you before that even after we got married, I would still respect your freedom and interact with you as before. You can go to school. I won’t do anything to you.”

Bei Yao’s heart full of shyness instantly vanished, replaced by annoyance and anger.

Before marriage, his insecurity and distrust of her was one thing, but after marriage he still thought this way!

Did he think she would later divorce him and marry someone else? What did he take himself for? A stepping stone to help her through danger? Something she could discard after using?

She wasn’t without temper either. If he wouldn’t touch her, she certainly couldn’t throw herself at him!

Bei Yao said huffily: “Then why are you making a floor bed beside the bed? There’s a sofa outside.”

His lips paled: “If you…” His voice was slightly hoarse, as if with great difficulty, “don’t want me here, I’ll go sleep outside.”

She was so angry she wanted to beat him to death. Sleeping separately on their wedding night—what a brilliant idea.

With her personality, she didn’t get angry easily, but when she did, she wasn’t easy to placate. She said: “Whatever you want.”

Bei Yao hadn’t brought pajamas, but she had brought several bright red handkerchiefs. She walked around the big bed to get a handkerchief. As she passed the man, Pei Chuan looked up.

A pair of slender, fair legs. She hadn’t put on those summer pants.

His gaze felt scalded, yet thinking of her question about why he wouldn’t sleep on the sofa—wasn’t he even allowed to be near her? He pressed his lips together with some bitterness and sadness. Ultimately unwilling to go against her wishes, he slowly walked toward the door.

Before Pei Chuan left the room, he couldn’t help but turn back. She sat on the small sofa drying her hair. Her long hair had dampened the shirt, and the contours of her chest were faintly visible. She didn’t look at him, turning her face away. He perceived that Bei Yao was angry.

From childhood to now, she had always been obedient and well-behaved, rarely angry and never holding grudges. Yet now she wouldn’t even look at him. Pei Chuan clenched his fists. Afraid that staying would make her angrier, he could only walk out.

Bei Yao was amused by her anger. Fine, fine. If they weren’t sleeping together, then they weren’t sleeping together. When the time came, even if he begged, she wouldn’t allow it!

The living room wasn’t like the warm bedroom—he could almost immediately feel the cold of the spring night.

He sat on the sofa. Outside, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. Clearly he hadn’t minded being alone before, but in just this moment, the warmth inside that room became something to long for.

He didn’t know how long he sat outside. Finally the light inside went out. In the darkness, his heart ached painfully.

He remembered she hadn’t dried her hair.

Pei Chuan stood up. The bedroom door wasn’t closed. Pei Chuan said: “Yao Yao, you can’t sleep with wet hair.”

Bei Yao said: “Didn’t you want to respect my freedom? I’m going to sleep now.”

He knew she was speaking out of anger, yet his heart was still stabbed, contracting like a spasm.

He walked over. In the faint light of night, the blanket bulged in a small mound. He touched her hair—slightly damp, ice cold. As expected, it wasn’t dry.

She was angry and pulled her hair back, not letting him touch it.

He had never experienced such resistance from her before.

His palm felt empty. Pei Chuan had long known that while he could strategize and calculate everything when facing others, before her, his emotions were held in her hands.

He asked in a low voice: “Did I make you angry?”

Bei Yao clenched her teeth and said nothing.

She didn’t get angry easily. It was just that from the beginning until now, she had worked hard to move closer to him, but he either retreated or didn’t trust her.

A girl would feel wronged after a long time. It was just that the wedding night was too special, making her feel particularly aggrieved.

She made no sound. He heard her irregular breathing.

Pei Chuan quickly turned on the light. She instinctively pulled the blanket to block, but didn’t have time. He still saw the tears at the corners of her eyes.

His heart ached with suffocation.

He pulled the blanket and held her hand that was outside. Her snow-white hand was soft and cool. He brought it to his own cheek, almost helplessly coaxing: “It’s my fault. I made Yao Yao sad. Don’t cry. If you’re angry, hit me, okay?”

He held that small hand and guided it to slap his own face once.

Pei Chuan didn’t understand that women were fine when not coaxed, but once coaxed, their grievances simply burst like a dam.

She pulled back her hand and sat up from the blanket: “Not okay, not okay at all. If you don’t like me, there’s no need to marry me to protect me! If you don’t believe I’m genuinely marrying you, tomorrow we can go get a divo—”

He covered her lips. Pei Chuan’s hand trembled: “Don’t say it.”

She blinked. Tears rolled from her eyes, falling on the back of his hand, burning a hole in his heart.

“Please don’t say it. You can say anything else. You can hit me, you can scold me. But those two words—don’t say them. Even if you’re angry, even if it’s a joke, don’t say them.” This was his bottom line. He couldn’t bear it.

She sobbed softly and nodded.

Pei Chuan released her and bit by bit wiped the tears from her little face clean. The man stood up, found a hairdryer in the bathroom, and came back to dry her hair.

The hairdryer whirred. Outside, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.

Sometimes the sky would suddenly brighten. His hand brushed through her soft hair. The warm air from the dryer blew out warmly.

His free hand gently wiped away the teardrops on her cheek.

Pei Chuan spoke, his voice low in the night, opening his heart to tell her: “Yao Yao, it’s not that I don’t believe you. There’s no one else in this world who would willingly wait for me for eight years. The year I decided to turn myself in, I knew it would be very difficult to be with you in this lifetime. A cripple, a criminal—what could I use to protect you for a lifetime?”

He said: “When young and impetuous, we always feel we can give everything. But what if we wait two years, wait until you’re older, and you regret it? At that time, when you remember me, this cripple, and that my defective body has tainted you—those memories can never be erased for a lifetime. What could I use to compensate you? Even suicide would be insufficient atonement.”

She bit her lip: “I won’t regret it.”

He said: “You’re twenty-one this year. Girls your age are still in school. They have their own circles, their own lives. Marriage is very distant to them. They go to concerts, want to travel around the world. They also, like you, when angry, impulsively say whatever they want without any restraint.”

She opened her mouth.

He gently touched her cheek: “Don’t rush to deny it. Yao Yao, a person experiences many things growing up. I’m grateful you can say what you want to say. This proves the world’s suffering is very far from you.”

While he had experienced too much suffering and despair—having his leg severed by kidnappers, his parents’ divorce, no one adopting him, imprisonment…

Too many dark things. Even when his heart was stabbed with a knife, his words had to pass through his mind several times to judge whether they could be said.

Their lives were simply not on the same growth trajectory.

She was like a little sun, working hard to shine and radiate heat, yet persistent.

Pei Chuan said: “Yao Yao, my parents divorced because of my defective body. That woman who gave birth to me couldn’t accept the incomplete me. I’m truly afraid that one day you’ll also leave me for this reason.”

She gripped the bright red blanket tightly and said softly: “I won’t. I’m sorry.”

He said: “No need to apologize. I can’t give you many things. If possible, I would also prefer to have a complete body myself. Marrying me has already wronged you. I hope you can be free and happy. A good man makes a woman live more and more innocently. A bad man makes a woman become more and more vulgar. I hope that even decades from now, you can speak freely, because I’m here.”

Pei Chuan said: “I like you very much, very very much. I like you so much that I tell myself over and over that actually you don’t like me that much—otherwise I’m afraid that the day you leave me, I’ll already be dead.”

She hugged the man’s waist, her voice nasal: “I won’t leave. A lifetime with you.”

He smiled: “Okay.”

Bei Yao said: “I’m not angry now. My heart feels stuffy, a bit sad. Pei Chuan, they didn’t want you, they all abandoned you because they don’t know how good you are. Look, I know how good you are. I’m unwilling to leave.”

Her hair was already dry, yet this was the first time in all these years she had heard Pei Chuan speak such bitter words from his heart.

Bei Yao also learned for the first time the reason for his mother and father’s divorce.

Because of his defective body…

For Pei Chuan, this was pain that could never be erased in a lifetime.

She said: “It’s raining outside. It’s cold, isn’t it?”

He said: “Mm.”

She buried her head against his waist and also told him what was in her heart, her voice soft: “I… it’s warm by my side.”

He said nothing, put down the hairdryer, his slender fingers threading into her hair.

She wanted to say, no need to check anymore. The hair was already dry. The dryer had been blowing for so long—how could it still be wet? No need to confirm again.

However, in the next moment, his fingers in her hair pressed harder. The force made her tilt her head back slightly. The man bent down, and his kiss descended.

He was telling her—it wasn’t that he didn’t want to. He wanted it so much.

His slender fingers in her hair—every bit of force he used made her moan helplessly.

He was almost sighing yet surging, turned off the light, and went to her side.

It was indeed very warm.

He pressed her down to kiss. Outside it was raining. The thunder couldn’t penetrate into the room.

She was very soft—her skin soft, her voice also soft.

He trembled slightly. Two buttons on her chest had come undone. His fingers trembled as he buttoned them for her. He buttoned for a long time.

She had also lost her strength, her voice like it could drip water: “Pei Chuan, you can’t wear the prosthetic leg to sleep.”

He gently stroked her hair, with some tenderness and heartache.

“Mm.”

“Take it off.”

The night was quiet. He fumbled and unfastened the prosthetic leg, supporting his body as he placed it at the foot of the bed.

He lay back down. A delicate girl rolled into his arms.

For the first time before her, Pei Chuan directly faced his defect. His body was stiff beyond measure. He knew Bei Yao could feel the difference in his body.

Pei Chuan was also grateful that in the night, nothing could be seen clearly.

She said softly: “Let me touch it? I’m not afraid.”

They both knew what she was talking about, yet he held her tighter and shook his head.

He said: “It’s not nice to look at. It’s injured.”

She softly said “Oh,” being incredibly obedient.

For the first time, Pei Chuan understood what “delicate wife” meant.

He unbuttoned his own shirt and placed her small hand on his chest. His heartbeat was very fast. The man’s chest was solid, hard.

He kissed her fragrant, soft hair, falling into tender embrace, his tone becoming incredibly gentle: “Touch my heart.”