Chapter 40

Her work could all be handled online, and for anything she couldn’t manage, her mother was there. Staying a few extra days in Beijing wouldn’t be a problem.

The only thing Wei Lai felt uneasy about was, “Didn’t I completely mess up your plans?”

Zhou Sujin replied, “We’ll just rearrange them, no big deal.”

He took his phone and instructed Yang Ze to adjust his work schedule. While editing the message, he asked her, “How many days are you staying here? When are you going back to Jiangcheng?”

Wei Lai opened her phone calendar, seeming hesitant, but eventually decided, “I’ll go back on the 28th of the lunar month.”

Counting today, she would stay here for five days. This would probably be the longest time they had spent together.

“I’ll leave early on the 28th and should arrive in Jiangcheng by evening.”

Zhou Sujin insisted that she shouldn’t drive back. “Leave the car here. After the New Year, I’ll have someone drive it over for you.” He adjusted his work schedule to coincide with her departure date.

He wouldn’t have much time to spend with her, but he would try to come back early in the evenings and cancel a few dinner appointments.

Wei Lai was about to tell her mother that she would stay a few more days before going back, but before she could even open WeChat, her mother’s message came first.

[ Just forgot to mention on the phone, are you spending the New Year in Beijing? I’ll be busy until late on New Year’s Eve, and I’m heading to Haicheng for vacation early on the first day of the new year. When you come back, I won’t have time to accompany you.]

She would have to spend New Year’s Eve dinner with her mother. Her mother’s so-called vacation to Haicheng was just an excuse. 

Wei Lai replied, [I’ll be back on the 28th. You go on vacation as planned. It won’t affect me. I’m not a child who needs you to accompany me every day.]

Her daughter didn’t believe what she said, which was within Cheng Minzhi’s expectations. [ If Mom’s going on vacation, why lie to you? He Dong has a resort in Haicheng, and he invites many friends there every New Year. He asked if I wanted to go and meet more friends. After thinking about it, I decided to relax for a few days. I can’t keep living in the past. If it weren’t for being too busy at the supermarket on New Year’s Eve, I would have flown to Haicheng that night. Don’t come back; there’s no one at home when you do.]

Wei Lai had already made up her mind to return, but she simply followed her mother’s lead in the conversation, saying she would spend New Year’s in Beijing.

How could she leave her mother alone at home on New Year’s Eve?

“He Dong has a resort in Haicheng?” After saying goodnight to her mother, she asked Zhou Sujin.

Zhou Sujin replied, “Yes. There’s also a private beach.”

He was browsing the news and glanced at her. “Do you want to go to Haicheng for a few days?”

“Oh, no,” Wei Lai said. Her mother’s vacation plans were probably just a pretext, hoping that they would spend the New Year together.

Looking outside the car window again, they had already entered the villa area.

Even though she had been here before, it still felt unfamiliar to her.

Passing by the guest room where she had stayed for a few nights, she remembered some things from her undercover mission.

“Your clothes are all in the wardrobe; you’ll see them when you go in.”

Wei Lai’s thoughts were interrupted by Zhou Sujin’s voice. “Okay.”

At their home in Jiangcheng, the clothes he prepared for her were all standard-sized robes and loungewear. Thinking it would be the same here, she stood in front of the closet and was momentarily stunned. The pajamas and nightgowns she brought when she met his parents were all there.

She thought he had disposed of them already.

Taking off the nightgown, she decided to take a bath.

Passing by the row of watch safes, she couldn’t help but stop. The last time she was here, he explained one of the watches in the safe to her. She made a PowerPoint presentation and assigned a number to each watch.

Today, she noticed that the placement of several watches was different from the numbering she had done before. Upon closer inspection, she saw a watch in the safe that she had never seen before.

“Husband,” she called out to him.

Zhou Sujin was standing at the end of the bed, replying to an urgent email without looking up.

After a moment’s pause, he finally said, “Take it off and put it on the sofa. I’ll hang it up for you later.”

Wei Lai: “…”

He thought she called him over to hang up her sweater.

“Not to hang clothes,” she said.

“Wait for a minute.”

“Husband, come over now.”

Zhou Sujin went to the doorway and glanced at her. “You can’t even wait for a minute now?”

Wei Lai: “Hmm.”

As they spoke, Zhou Sujin walked over to her.

Wei Lai pointed to the third watch from the left on the second row of the watch safe. “Did you buy another watch?”

Except for him, she couldn’t imagine anyone else who could accurately recognize which watch had been added to the safe later.

Zhou Sujin couldn’t help but glance at her a few times. “With so many watches, how do you remember them all?”

“I made a PowerPoint presentation. Looking at them helps me remember,” Wei Lai’s gaze remained on the watch he had just photographed, relying on her limited understanding of watches to analyze why he had taken a picture of this particular one.

Zhou Sujin was deeply impressed by the PowerPoint presentation she had made at the time and asked, “How many times did you look at it?”

Wei Lai thought for a moment. “I don’t remember, many times.”

She turned her head to meet his gaze, smiling, “I can allow others to call me vain, but I will never give anyone the opportunity to say I’m not dedicated. I can’t control my vanity, but I can control my dedication.”

With that, she turned back to look at the watch. “When did you take this watch?”

“During the time we were apart. I don’t remember the exact time.”

Wei Lai now remembered those few months apart, and she still felt uneasy about it. She smiled and said, “I even wondered back then if you would suddenly come to see me.”

“Suddenly come to see you? No.”

“… “

He continued, “When I go on a business trip to Jiangcheng, I might give you a call.”

Wei Lai didn’t dwell on the past, after all, they weren’t anything to each other back then.

“Will you suddenly come to see me in the future?”

Zhou Sujin looked at her and nodded in agreement, “I’ll come.”

His straightforwardness caused a flutter in Wei Lai’s heart.

She wanted to say something in response, but her mind went blank at that moment, leaving her speechless.

She raised her hand and gripped his shirt.

Zhou Sujin glanced down at her hand, which was gripping tightly. With patience, he said, “Didn’t I promise to come see you? What’s bothering you?”

From gripping with one hand, Wei Lai switched to using both hands and looked him in the eye. “The way you put it, there is something bothering me.”

“Did you come up with that on the spot?”

Wei Lai smiled. “Well…”

Zhou Sujin gestured for her to continue. “Go on.”

Wei Lai said, “I’m not quite comfortable with the sudden lack of contact after we parted ways in the same city. We were intimate the day before, and after you left Jiangcheng, there wasn’t a single message. I don’t need anything else, but when you safely arrive, you should send me a message to let me know where you are. You’re my family now, and I’ll naturally worry about you.”

Zhou Sujin was moved. “I’ll pay more attention next time.”

He looked at her, encouraging her to continue.

Wei Lai said, “That’s the only thing that bothers me for now.”

She went to take a shower, remembering the time they met each other’s parents, she was familiar with the layout of the bathroom. The bathtub here was the same model as the one at home in Jiangcheng, making it easy to use.

The bathtub was by the floor-to-ceiling window. She filled it with water, turned off all the bathroom lights, and leaned back in the bathtub, watching the heavy snowfall. There were rarely such heavy snowfalls in Jiangcheng.

She spent quite some time in the bathroom, and when Zhou Sujin finished showering in the adjacent room, she was still inside.

Worried that she might have fallen asleep in the bath, he pushed the door.

“Wei Lai?”

Entering the room, he couldn’t see the bathtub, so he called out to her standing at the door.

“I’m fine. I was just lost in thought about the new store location,” Wei Lai said.

Wei Lai put on her nightgown and straightened the hem before coming out. Zhou Sujin was no longer at the bathroom door.

Her hair was still wet as she stood in front of the vanity, blow-drying her hair in front of the mirror.

When it was almost dry, Zhou Sujin walked in.

He was wearing a simple black pajama set, looking elegant and tall.

“What time are we leaving tomorrow?” he asked.

“I have a meeting scheduled for 11:30. Leaving at 10:00 should be enough.”

Zhou Sujin nodded. “If Cullinan doesn’t come back in time, you can take the endeavor.”

“Okay.”

“I won’t be back until 7:00 tomorrow night, so I won’t have time to accompany you. You’ll have to make your arrangements.”

This should be the earliest he could return. “That’s okay, you’re busy.” Wei Lai turned off the hairdryer when her hair was no longer damp.

“Husband.”

“Yeah, what is it?” Zhou Sujin tidied up the bottles and jars on the vanity, looking at the hairdryer in her hand. “Want me to blow-dry your hair for you?”

“No, it’s already dry.” What she wanted to ask was about the two watches in the safe that he hadn’t explained. “And the two watches from the safe that you haven’t briefed me on. Could you spare some time to explain them to me?”

“Okay.”

Wei Lai put away the hairdryer. If they were a normal couple in love and marriage, meeting after being apart would have ignited passion long before getting home, unlike them, who needed to first adapt to this unfamiliar situation.

Turning to face him, she was struggling to say something to break the silence when Zhou Sujin pulled her into his arms and gently kissed her lips.

Wei Lai suppressed her nervousness and lifted her foot, wanting to kiss him back, but he straightened up, and she couldn’t reach him.

Zhou Sujin didn’t mean to tease her; he just didn’t expect her to return the kiss.

Wei Lai smiled, trying to ease the awkwardness. “… You’re so much taller than me. If we have a disagreement one day and I want to kiss you, I won’t be able to reach you. We need to solve this height difference issue.”

Zhou Sujin replied, “I’ll try to accommodate you in the future. But the height difference is something we can’t solve.”

“We can,” but he certainly wouldn’t do it.

“What solution?”

“You can hold me.”

Zhou Sujin looked at her for a few seconds, then held her waist and lifted her.

Wei Lai’s feet dangled in the air, and her heart skipped a beat when he held her in his arms. Suddenly, it felt like she lost her balance, and she clung to his neck.

She was still slightly shorter than him, but they could almost look each other in the eye now.

There was a calm and restrained look in his eyes.

Even though he was already in the most relaxed state, wearing pajamas, there was still a sense of coldness and aloofness emanating from him.

After less than two seconds of eye contact, Zhou Sujin tightened his arms and kissed her lips firmly.

He kissed her deeply, his dominance mixed with tenderness, almost catching Wei Lai off guard.

From the vanity to the foot of the bed, he continued kissing her.

She remained in his arms throughout.

When the deep kiss ended, the room seemed dim to Wei Lai, and she couldn’t tell if she was lying on her pillow or his.

The moment he touched her, her heart skipped a beat.

Wei Lai looked at the clearly defined and deep silhouette above her. “There’s nothing at home…”

Zhou Sujin interrupted, “There is. I’ve prepared.”

He kissed her again.

Wei Lai couldn’t concentrate on responding to his kiss.

It wasn’t until she fully accepted him that she wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him back, using the kiss to release the unfamiliar tension in her body.

Zhou Sujin took one of her hands and held it tightly with his.

Some of the strength from his palm transferred to her hand.

During the contract, she had set up the scene in his room at the hotel in Jiangcheng, but she had only torn open three. Today, he replaced all of them.

Outside, the snow continued to fall until late into the night.