Chapter 21.2

If the wife did something wrong, it should also be blamed on the boss for being so heartless!

The heartless boss, Jiang Qianchen, who was being discussed by the employees, was still working overtime in his office.

It was already past dinner time, but his personal phone hadn’t made a sound.

Jiang Qianchen rubbed his temples. He had been busy all day and hadn’t eaten much for lunch and dinner. Now, being alone and facing the entire dark building, his office felt particularly empty and cold.

Leaning back in his chair, Jiang Qianchen saw that several notification groups on WeChat were buzzing with activity, but the messages from his pinned contact were still from the day before yesterday.

He opened a chat with the person he had been chatting most actively within the small group and asked, [Where are you?]

Shao Qin was originally lying on the sofa with a glass of wine, crossing his legs, and chatting happily with a few friends in the group about the upcoming opening of his new bar. Suddenly, he was startled by a private message. Normally, Brother Jiang didn’t like to check WeChat, so Shao Qin was puzzled and muttered to himself. This was the time when Brother Jiang should be enjoying time with his wife. Why would he, a single guy, be contacted at this late hour?

Shao Qin: [Brother Jiang, I’m checking the decoration and layout of my new bar. Do you have any instructions? 🐶]

Unlike his other friends, he didn’t dare to invite Jiang Qianchen to the opening of his bar. It was one thing to have a different style, but causing conflicts between husband and wife would be his fault.

Thinking of this, Shao Qin felt a little emotional. In their circle, married couples played separately, and no one had the right to interfere with each other. As long as there were no major scandals, both sets of parents turned a blind eye. Unlike Brother Jiang, whose wife was not only beautiful and gentle but also very affectionate. He heard that Brother Jiang had recently even given his wife a company. It was truly a case of spoiling his wife excessively, like a divine couple, making Shao Qin, a playboy in the public eye, feel inferior.

[Okay,] Jiang Ge remained as aloof as ever. [Bring over the red wine you’ve been hiding, and bring a few bottles of whiskey as well.]

Shao Qin’s face twisted in pain, feeling like crying but unable to shed tears. [Brother, the wine in your family’s cellar is much better than mine. My bar only sells beer, and I really don’t have anything good [crying].]

[Bring it to my office now.]

Jiang Qianchen couldn’t be bothered to chat with him and simply locked his phone screen.

[Brother Jiang, please, the situation at home has been really tough lately!] Shao Qin was about to pour out his miserable story of being deceived by his ex-girlfriend Xiao Li, emotionally and financially, to Jiang Qianchen. Suddenly, he realized that something was amiss about this address.

It was already half past ten, and Brother Jiang, not busy with work, was still lingering in the office, not returning home, and even called for wine delivery to keep him company. Was this a moral decline or a distortion of human nature? Shao Qin rubbed his hands, and suddenly detached himself from the sadness of his ex-girlfriend, forcing himself to resist the urge to reveal this earth-shattering gossip in the group chat. He quickly finished preparing the delivery orders and started on his way. Shao Qin, the delivery guy, briefly considered inquiring about the specific situation of the recipient on the way, but it was clear that Jiang Qianchen had already muted his phone and blocked his messages.

Entering the dimly lit building, Shao Qin, carrying the wine, saw Jiang Qianchen standing in front of the window in silence. His previously cheerful expression was startled by the low-pressure atmosphere.

This atmosphere… doesn’t seem good. Shao Qin cleared his throat gently, “Brother Jiang, I’m here.”

Seeing him come in, Jiang Qianchen didn’t say much, poured himself a glass, drank it all in one go, and then filled up Shao Qin’s glass.

After a few rounds of drinks, Jiang Qianchen finally spoke up, “I heard you were deceived by someone.”

Shao Qin, who had been drinking to drown his sorrows, was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness at this question and took a big gulp of wine.

If it were someone else asking him about this topic, Shao Qin would either angrily curse the person or casually brush it off with a laugh. Perhaps feeling a sense of empathy today, Shao Qin drank and recounted his melodramatic and sorrowful past, wishing to drink all the alcohol and drown his sorrows.

“Love without substance is like a pile of loose sand.” Shao Qin shook his head and imitated the actions from a movie, then began to drunkenly sing, “I saw through her heart, and the lingering figure of someone else…”

Jiang Qianchen was already impatient with this drunkard’s rambling, but when he heard the lyrics Shao Qin was singing, he paused in his attempt to call someone to take him away.

Time traveled back in Jiang Qianchen’s mind as he began to reminisce about the first time he met Yu Zhi. They had both grown up in the same courtyard when they were young. The Yu family had just moved in, and he had seen the rumored cutest little sister in the courtyard with the elders. After several changes, he and Yu Zhi were a few years apart and rarely saw each other in school, let alone had any contact. It wasn’t until his father urged him to get married that he found out Yu Zhi was the arranged marriage partner.

The little girl who used to pull him to play house together had now grown into a beautiful young lady.

Jiang Qianchen had noticed the blushes and shyness of the young girl, but all he needed was someone who could fulfill the role of a wife, and other matters were not important. At first, Jiang Qianchen believed that as long as a husband and wife treated each other with respect, having deep emotions was not necessarily a good thing.

Just like his parents, on the surface, it seemed like a romantic story of Cinderella and the prince, but in reality, it was filled with mud.

However, as he spent time with Yu Zhi, he gradually realized that a warm and harmonious relationship between husband and wife was also quite nice. This sweetness and tenderness made him deliberately forget restraint and gradually immerse himself in it, unable to resist the desire to possess and be close.

But the argument that night woke him up from his sinking state—Yu Zhi didn’t seem to love him as much as he had imagined.

Although Jiang Qianchen had vaguely discovered this fact, when Shao Qin was heavily drunk and singing “She doesn’t love me,” Jiang Qianchen finally couldn’t deceive himself.

The dimples when Yu Zhi smiled, her soft voice when she acted coquettishly, and her delicate face when she fell asleep on his shoulder… Jiang Qianchen poured the wine into the cup, watching the bubbles rise from the bottom to the top and burst, and then, holding the cup with Shao Qin, he let the bitter liquor flow down his throat and into his heart.

…