My Darling Wife

In the eyes of outsiders, Liu Shu was a cold-hearted, shameless scoundrel. If anyone crossed one of his taboos, he'd narrow his phoenix eyes, curl his lips, and say three words: “Drag them away.” Everyone who heard him knew what he meant by that. As for his heartlessness, as Jin Can put it, a man who looked like a fox spirit and always carried a fox's musky scent around with him ought to have countless women at his beck and call. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that whenever he appeared, every woman in the room went wild, regardless of age. Yet if any woman got close to him or so much as touched his clothes, his solution was still those three words: “Drag her away.” No one knew that a man as unpredictable and heartless as he was could secretly fawn over a girl eight years younger than him, bowing and scraping to her. If his queen was happy, he'd even bark like a dog for her. And yet, the girl he treasured like the apple of his eye, the very flesh of his heart, had no demands of him at all. The more that was the case, the more he felt he wasn't doing enough, nowhere near enough. Otherwise, why would she have no demands of him? If she had none, he'd have to create a reason for her to ask. So even if she just wanted to use the restroom, he'd immediately open the bathroom door for her, lift the toilet seat, and wipe the rim clean with a disinfected towel. To Jin Can, a man like him had to be either a pervert or a scoundrel. She'd wanted to ignore him and keep her distance, but the fellow was always popping up right under her nose. Her plans for the future were simple: study hard and keep improving. To make up for her grandmother's regret before she died, she was determined to get into medical school and become a doctor specializing in both Chinese and Western medicine. The country's most famous medical school was in Ning City, in southern China. Yun City was quite a distance from Ning City. When the scoundrel found out that his girl wanted to go so far away to study, he didn't hesitate for a second. He went straight back, issued orders, and convened a meeting to thoroughly discuss and arrange the relocation of headquarters to Ning City. They focused on just two things. First, find a house near the school, one exactly like the one she lived in now. If they couldn't find one, build another to match the old model, then make it look aged. She had once said that secondhand houses had the potential to increase in value. Second, plant a osmanthus tree in the courtyard, about the same size as the one here, and make a home beneath it for that dead dog. Ideally, it should look like the house, so the thing wouldn't get any ideas and swagger around her bedroom pretending to be a person. She had always believed that it took longer to understand someone than to forget them, because that was simply an inequality. It took her five years to get to know a man. But when she decided to forget him, that took five years too, turning the inequality into an equation. What she didn't know was that after spending five years trying to forget him, all he needed was one sentence to bring her to her knees. If Jin Can was a brilliant ray of sunshine, Liu Shu was the rope that bound that ray of sunshine. Liu Shu said, “Girl, even if you're a sun shining with all your might, I'll gather every ray of your light into my heart.” Scene One: When they first met, he fixed his foxlike eyes on her, as if sizing her up or pondering something. After a long moment, he said, “Little girl, want to become a phoenix perched on a branch?” Jin Can shot him a look and kept walking. The fox's brow furrowed in fury. “You're doing it whether you want to or not.” And so she was forced to do it. Scene Two: One night, the lecher climbed into Jin Can's bed. Jin Can was furious. “You old lecher, let go of me!” The lecher half opened his eyes and vigorously ruffled the little head in his arms. “Let go? What kind of dream are you having in the middle of the night? If you're the sun, then I'll keep you bound to me for the rest of my life.” Five years later, they met again. “Oh, hello. I'm Bai Yi, Jin Can's fiancé.” “You say you're her fiancé?” “It's not just me saying it. Everyone thinks so.” Bai Yi's voice was lazy, but he sounded utterly confident. “Oh? If you're her fiancé, then what am I?” Liu Shu chuckled a few times, then turned to look at Jin Can across from him. “Girl, you wouldn't...”