Chapter 08

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Bark! Bark! Bark!

Shen Xi woke up from a deep sleep when she heard the barking of a dog. She turned her head and looked at her bedside. As expected, she saw Chu Wu sitting close by.

“Arf!” The first thing Shen Xi sees when she woke up was Chu Wu wagging his tail at her.

“Chu Wu, how’d you get in?” Shen Xi sat up in a daze. She felt a little off, and her head seemed heavy. Shen Xi took her phone from the bedside table to check the time and found that it was already 10:00 a.m. in the morning.

Jolting, she suddenly said out loud: “How come I’ve slept so long?”

Shen Xi rubbed her forehead and walked to the bathroom to wash her face. Afterward, she wore a big shawl and went downstairs with Chu Wu.

Mrs. Zhang, who had been cleaning the living room, saw the happy Chu Wu running downstairs, followed by Shen Xi. Nervous, she apologized: “Madam, did Chu Wu wake you up? I’m sorry I didn’t keep an eye on him and accidentally let him run in.”

“It’s alright. I needed to get up anyway.” Shen Xi replied with a smile.

“Madam, are you feeling unwell?” Noticing Shen Xi’s lethargic behavior, Mrs. Zhang asked Shen Xi about her health.

“Maybe I drank too much and exposed myself to the cold wind yesterday. It’s probably just a small cold.” Shen Xi went to sit on the sofa, with Chu Wu running towards her and sitting next to her feet. With a smile, Shen Xi reached out and touched Chu Wu’s head.

“Do you want to go to the hospital to check?” Mrs. Zhang asked.

“No, No, there’s no need to go to that much trouble. Do we have any cold medicine? I’ll just take a tablet and sleep some more.” Shen Xi replied.

“Oh, yes, there’s some powdered medicine. I’ll go get it now.” Mrs. Zhang went out of the living room and came back with a medicine box. Taking out the box of cold medicine, she put it in some water and then gave the cup to Shen Xi.

“Thank you.” Shen Xi took a sip.

“Madam, I’ll go cook you some porridge.” Mrs. Zhang said, “People with colds usually don’t have appetites, but you have to eat.”

“Sorry for the trouble, Mrs. Zhang.” Shen Xi thanked her with a smile.

“It’s no trouble, no trouble. It’s what I should be doing.” Flattered, Mrs. Zhang waved her comments away and went into the kitchen to cook some porridge.

Because of her cold, Shen Xi had no strength. But she didn’t want to sleep again, so Shen Xi simply nested on the sofa, drinking her medicine as she patted Chu Wu and watched the news together.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Zhang placed a pot on the stove and after the water boiled, she lowered the flame. While she waited for the porridge to cook, Mrs. Zhang was afraid that Shen Xi was getting hungry, so she brought out a few snacks for Shen Xi to eat.

“Mrs. Zhang, you’re very considerate.” Shen Xi couldn’t help but say.

“Madam, you’re being too kind. Isn’t this what I should be doing?” Mrs. Zhang smiled.

“When did you start working here Mrs. Zhang?” Truthfully, Shen Xi knew that Mrs. Zhang came to work here a year ago. However, they haven’t spent a lot of time together yet, so she pretended to not know.

“I’ve been here for about a year.” As she answered Shen Xi’s questions, Mrs. Zhang wiped the table with a rag.

“Do you like working here?”

“I’m used to it, and I like it. Mr. Su is nice and I get well-paid. I start at 9:00 a.m. and I can be home by dinner. I don’t have long work hours and I can go home and tuck my children to bed at night.” Mrs. Zhang’s huge smile showed that she clearly liked her job.

“9:00 a.m.? But you’ve been coming in earlier than that these past two days.” Shen Xi noted.

“That’s because you’re here Madam. Before getting married, Mr. Su usually just bought his breakfast outside, so I didn’t need to make breakfast. But when you arrived, things became different. Sir stayed at home and had breakfast with you instead. So now, I usually make breakfast.”

“Doesn’t that increase your workload?” Shen Xi worriedly asked.

“Well, I should be on call 24 hours a day with the salary your husband usually gives me. Making breakfast isn’t a hard thing to do, and Mr. Su even recently increased my salary by 1000 yuan.”

“But don’t you need to get up very early every day?” Shen Xi asked.

“My house isn’t that far from here, just half an hour by car.” Mrs. Zhang answered with a smile. “I can also buy my breakfast on the way.”

“Is that the neighborhood next to GuangMing Road?” Shen Xi thought about the surrounding area and if there were any cheap houses nearby for rent.

“Why yes, you seem to know the area well, Madam.” Mrs. Zhang commented, somewhat surprised.

“I’ve passed by once or twice.” Shen Xi said with a smile.

“Madam, let me tell you, I’ve worked as a nanny and maid for a lot of people and met many rich bosses, but this is the first time I’ve encountered people like you and your husband.” Mrs. Zhang found that Shen Xi wasn’t arrogant and was willing to chat, so she couldn’t help but warm up to her.

“What do you mean?” Shen Xi asked, curious.

“I mean good people.” Mrs. Zhang boasted. “You see, all the people I worked for are rich people. These people are used to having people at their beck and call and have quite a temper. If I’m too chatty or a little bit slow, they immediately go to my company and complain about me. But look at you, you’ve been very kind and how many times have you said ‘thank you’ just this morning!”

Shen Xi smiled but didn’t reply.

“And Mr. Su, although he doesn’t speak much, he’s very considerate and doesn’t hesitate to help other people, especially when in danger.” Mrs. Zhang said. “It’s rare nowadays to find such a good man.”

“Why do you say that?” Shen Xi wondered.

“You can tell by how this house is decorated.” Mrs. Zhang said. “I’ve been working here for a year, and I can count in one hand the times I’ve seen your husband. He’s always so busy, and every time I cook dinner, I often see it on the table untouched the next day. But when he redecorated the house for your arrival, your husband came home every afternoon for a week to look at the progress himself.”

“This house….” Shen Xi was stunned.

“Yes, this house was redecorated half a month ago. The furniture and curtains have been changed from top to bottom.” Mrs. Zhang said. “In fact, the previous decorations were still quite new and still looked fine, but Madam….Mr. Su said that you preferred warmer tones so he changed everything.”

“And I say, while expensive, the end result looks really good. In our old house, there was a formaldehyde smell that lingered for the longest time whenever we finished repainting a room. But see here, you can’t smell a thing.” After all this, Mrs. Zhang suddenly realized that Shen Xi had stopped talking. Nervous that she might’ve talked too much, she said: “Oh, I’m sorry Madam, I nag a lot more now that I’m old. I’ve said too much.”

“It’s alright.” Shen quickly said. “I have to thank you, I never knew that this happened.”

“Sir didn’t tell you! What a real gentleman. He says too little, but he’s such a good man, definitely someone you can rely on.” Mrs. Zhang spoke highly of Mr. Su.

Shen Xi smiled but didn’t speak.

“Ah, it’s been a while, I’ll go ahead and check if the porridge is ready.” Mrs. Zhang went to the kitchen and brought out a bowl of cooked porridge.

In her last life, Shen Xi had been too busy trying to adapt to married life. She hadn’t been in the best of moods and didn’t communicate with Mrs. Zhang all that much. Although she gradually became familiar with her, Mrs. Zhang had never talked to her like this before.

The redecoration of the house, even after two lives Shen Xi never knew a thing. Now that she thinks about it, Shen Xi did feel that the style of the house was familiar. It felt so comfortable that she never even noticed it.

Perhaps in her last life, the person who was trying to adapt all that time was Su Hang.

By noon, Shen Xi had only eaten a few handfuls of rice. In the end, she drank another cup of cold medicine and went upstairs to take a nap.

After deliberating things, Mrs. Zhang couldn’t help but call Su Hang.

Meanwhile, Su Hang was in the middle of a conference, negotiating with the other company, when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took out his phone and found the caller to be his home phone. Su Hang’s eyes suddenly lit up and with an apology, he quickly left the room to answer the call.

Seeing Su Hang suddenly leave, Li QingYuan quickly took over the conversation with the other party’s boss and continued the negotiations.

Su Hang walked into the hallway and answered: “Hello.”

“Sir, this is Mrs. Zhang.”

“Mrs. Zhang? What’s the matter?” At this, the light in Su Hang’s eyes dimmed.

“Before you went on your business trip, you said that if anything happened to Madam to tell you. So I’m just reporting that she’s sick.” Mrs. Zhang said.

“Sick? Is it serious?” Su Hang immediately tensed.

“No, It’s not serious, just a small cold.” Mrs. Zhang replied.

“Has she seen a doctor yet?” Su Hang asked.

“Madam said it wasn’t anything serious and that she didn’t need to see a doctor. She’s now sleeping upstairs after taking some cold medicine.” Mrs. Zhang continued, “She didn’t have much of an appetite and only ate a few spoonfuls of rice at noon.”

Su Hang frowned. “Alright, thank you, Mrs. Zhang.”

Mrs. Zhang hung up, shocked. This was the first time Mr. Su had ever thanked her so solemnly.

Su Hang looked down at his watch and saw that it was 2:00 p.m. He went back into the conference room and talked for a few more minutes before making the excuse of fixing a few more details to their plans and ended the meeting.

When they walked out of the building, Li QingYuan couldn’t help but ask: “The meeting was going great and the plans we wrote were well within the other party’s accepted range. Why do we need to fix it again?”

“No need to fix it.” Su Hang said.

“What? Then why’d you say we were going to fix it just now?” Li QingYuan didn’t understand.

“I just wanted to finish the meeting ahead of time.”

“Why?” Li QingYuan became even more puzzled.

“I want to go back to S City.” Su Hang said, “Tomorrow will still go ahead as planned, just talk with Fang Yu.”

“You’re putting me in charge?” Li QingYuan was shocked.

Su Hang ignored his question and turned towards Fang Yu. “I’m going to head to the airport now, help me book the earliest flight you can get.”

“Yes, Boss.” Fang Yu immediately nodded.

“Ah…” Li QingYuan wanted to ask him why he suddenly wanted to go back. But before he could even blink, Su Hang was already in a taxi and was speeding away. He could only turn to Fang Yu in amazement. “Do you know why he’s such in a hurry to go back?”

Fang Yu shrugged, indicating his confusion.

==

By 7:00 p.m., Shen Xi had started to cough. Mrs. Zhang looked anxious as she said: “Madam, why don’t I stay the night and take care of you.”

“No, I’m fine.” Shen Xi shook her head.

“…You must remember to eat dinner.” Mrs. Zheng still looked conflicted.

“Nn.” Shen Xi smiled as she nodded.

In the end, Mrs. Zheng could only leave in distress.

Looking at the hot dishes on the table, Shen Xi reluctantly ate half a bowl of rice. Afterward, she put down her chopsticks and left the table to go back to the sofa.

“Arf!” Seeing Shen Xi, Chu Wu gave a gentle cry.

“Are you worried about me?” Shen Xi rubbed Chu Wu’s head with a smile. “I’m OK.”

“Arf!” Chu Wu gave another soft bark.

“Why don’t we see a movie together.” Shen Xi took the iPad from the tea table and started a movie to watch together.

Maybe the cold medicine finally worked, or maybe she was just tired. Halfway through the movie, Shen Xi slowly fell asleep. Chu Wu lay by Shen Xi’s feet, silently guarding her.

About ten minutes later, a taxi that had been speeding from the airport stopped outside the villa.