Chapter 15: Gu Ye, When You Need Me!

After speaking, Gu Ye took Ningning’s hand and walked away, leaving Jiang Yue standing alone, feeling disoriented in the wind.

Although Jiang Yue knew that the trouble had been caused by the Original Owner, she still felt a bit angry at Gu Ye for mocking her to her face.

Well, it was just a little bit of anger!

But it didn’t matter. After spending the day together, Jiang Yue could tell that Gu Ye was a person who appeared cold on the outside but was warm on the inside. He was also a man of strong character. Even when he was angry, he would never lay a hand on a woman, though his words could be sharp and sarcastic at times.

But this couldn’t be blamed on Gu Ye. Any man who married the Original Owner would have had to deal with similar frustrations—unable to touch his wife, still living like a bachelor after marriage, paying for everything, even hiring a maid to cook. Jiang Yue thought that if she were in Gu Ye’s shoes, she would have snapped long ago.

Yet, Gu Ye had managed to endure all this time. Tsk, that damn sense of responsibility!

“Dad, are you angry at Mom?” Ningning sat in the small washbasin and, seeing Gu Ye’s serious expression, timidly asked.

“No! Dad is not angry!” Gu Ye replied, his large hand gently wiping Ningning’s face with a small towel, speaking softly.

In truth, he knew very well that Ningning was slowly growing up. It wasn’t suitable for a man like him to be the one bathing a little girl, but what else could he do?

When he got married, it was to find a mother for Ningning, someone who could be there to take care of her when he wasn’t around.

He had chosen Jiang Yue because she was well-educated, thinking she could teach Ningning to read and write.

He had made his intentions clear beforehand and had given Jiang Yue plenty of assurances. Who would have thought that, before their marriage, Jiang Yue had agreed so readily, but after marriage, she acted in such a way?

“Mom’s fries are so delicious, Ningning wants to eat them again tomorrow!” Ningning played with the water and couldn’t help but smack her lips.

It was only when she was with Gu Ye that she would speak so much. Before Jiang Yue arrived, it had always been just the father and daughter relying on each other.

“Alright, I’ll have Mom make fries for Ningning tomorrow!” Gu Ye agreed.

Though, he wasn’t sure if Jiang Yue would continue to behave unusually the next day. Perhaps by then, she would return to her old self.

Gu Ye thought back to when Jiang Yue had offered to help bathe Ningning earlier, and the corner of his mouth curled into a mocking smile. They had been married for so long, and this was the first time Jiang Yue had actively offered to bathe Ningning. It would have been strange if he didn’t suspect that she had some ulterior motive!

Gu Ye probably wanted money and tickets again. Every time Jiang Yue wanted money or tickets to buy things, she would be nice to him.

She clearly had a whole wardrobe full of clothes, yet she still claimed she had nothing to wear. Hmph!

Although Jiang Yue had made an effort to be friendly, she had been rejected, but she quickly forgot about it.

The first rule of self-care: don’t punish yourself for someone else’s mistakes.

Jiang Yue returned to the bedroom and checked the time. It was only 7:30 p.m. In her world, at this time, the city lights would have just begun to shine, and the nightlife was only getting started. But here, in the 1970s, where televisions were not yet widespread, once it got dark, everyone just had to go to bed.

She wasn’t sure if it was because she had slept too much during the day, or if her biological clock from modern times hadn’t adjusted yet, but she wasn’t feeling sleepy at all.

She stood in front of the bookshelf, wanting to pick a book to read. However, the shelf was filled only with textbooks and reference books, nothing that piqued her interest.

It made sense, though. It was the late 1970s, and the Cultural Revolution had only ended recently. Many famous books that had been banned in the past still hadn’t been unbanned. There were hardly any books available to read.

Bored, Jiang Yue grabbed a high school Chinese textbook and began flipping through it.

The Original Owner had an obsession with wanting to attend university, and that was related to her first love.

They were classmates in high school and had gone down to the countryside together. However, they were assigned to different areas for the work assignment. Not long after, her male classmate’s family used connections to get him back to the city.

But the Original Owner’s family was just a regular working-class family, and they were very traditional. The eldest child, originally supposed to be sent to the countryside, was the son, and Jiang Yue’s parents couldn’t bear to send him away. So they used connections to keep him home and sent Jiang Yue to the countryside instead. This decision had caused her a lot of resentment, and she hadn’t returned home for two years.

The Original Owner and Gu Ye had gotten married through an arranged marriage last August, and soon after, news spread that the country would be restoring the college entrance examination system.

Sure enough, in October, the media announced that the gaokao system would be reinstated, and the first exam would take place a month later.

Her first love had asked the Original Owner to take the exam with him, but her grades had always been poor, and after spending several years in the countryside, there was no way she could pass the exam. As expected, the Original Owner failed the exam, while her first love was admitted to a university in the provincial capital…

Jiang Yue was lost in thought when suddenly, there was a knock on the door, followed by Gu Ye’s voice: “Jiang Yue, come out for a moment!”

“Bang!” The sudden noise startled Jiang Yue, who had been leaning against the desk with a book in her hand. She wasn’t holding the book tightly enough, and it slipped from her hand, hitting her in the face.

“Hiss~” The corner of the book just happened to hit the same spot on Jiang Yue’s forehead where she had been injured, causing her to feel a sharp pain that made her vision blur.

“What the hell?!” Jiang Yue clutched her forehead and rubbed her face, then threw open the door with a snap and glared at Gu Ye with irritation.

“Did you come into my room today and mess with my desk?” Gu Ye’s tone was blunt and uninviting.

“Desk?” Jiang Yue tilted her head and looked past Gu Ye. Her bedroom door was directly across from his, and there was also a desk by the window in his room.

“Yeah. I went in to clean up this afternoon, but I only wiped down the desk. I didn’t touch your stuff!” Jiang Yue explained.

Gu Ye’s sharp gaze grew colder, his tone as frigid as ice, sending a chill through the air. “Don’t ever go into my room again!”

His words were harsh and unrelenting, and Jiang Yue was also irritated now. “What, am I not allowed to clean? Did I do something wrong?”

“I don’t need you cleaning for me!” Gu Ye narrowed his eyes and coldly continued: “Jiang Yue, I don’t care what your intentions are, but as long as you’re here, you better control yourself! If I ever find out you’ve hurt Ningning again, I won’t let you off the hook!”

Jiang Yue lifted her head and glared at Gu Ye’s gloomy, handsome face. She could feel it—he wasn’t joking. He was truly threatening her.

Was it just because she entered his room?

Her good intentions were completely misunderstood, and she was furious beyond words.

“Bang!” Jiang Yue took a step back and slammed the door shut.

So what if he’s the male lead? I can’t be bothered with him!

“Jiang! Yue!” Gu Ye hadn’t expected Jiang Yue to suddenly shut the door without saying a word. Even though he was quick on his feet, he nearly had his nose smashed by the door. Furious, he raised his hand and slammed it against the door.

“Come out! Jiang Yue, open this door!” Gu Ye shouted, his words barely out of his mouth when—

“I’m not coming out!” Jiang Yue locked the door and bolted it shut, not wanting to listen to Gu Ye’s scolding.

“You think your room is so important, huh? That I have to go in? Gu Ye, let me tell you, from tomorrow onwards, if I, Jiang Yue, step into your room even once, I’ll be a dog, a pig! I’m not even human!” Jiang Yue shouted, her words filled with defiance.

There was silence on the other side of the door for a while, and after several seconds, she heard footsteps moving away.

Jiang Yue couldn’t help but grind her teeth.

Hmph! Gu Ye, don’t get too smug. There’ll be a time when you need me!

Ugh, I’m so angry!