Chapter 61 - Do You Feel Anything? (1/2)

Tang Qiu laughed. “So what if he’s handsome? There are many attractive people in this world; can I possibly fall for them all?”

“But he likes you. Have you seen the way he looks at you? You can’t have not noticed.”

“Drop it. Do you think I could be happy with someone like him? He slept with another woman right after he confessed to me. If this is what his feelings are worth, I don’t want him. My husband isn’t good-looking, but I trust that he would never cheat on me–and that’s enough.”

It wasn’t that Xie Qingqing thought Ning Mufan’s character was anything to boast about—he had, after all, been willing to sleep with someone like Niu Caijie–but as a prospective partner, he was still leaps and bounds better than Jiang Shaocheng. “How are you so certain?”

“Because my husband is disabled,” Tang Qiu replied instantly. “There’s nothing for me to worry about.”

“Right. I forgot. Poor girl. You’re stuck with a husband who can’t please you. Listen to me, Tang Qiu: a couple’s relationship, when deprived of intimacy, can’t possibly blossom. As time goes by, you’ll start feeling emptier and emptier…”

Jiang Shaocheng’s jaw tightened. Just wait. He would show Tang Qiu what ‘intimacy’ was–in due time.

***

In the afternoon, Tang Qiu returned home, eager to see her husband–only to find him chatting and laughing with another woman. Her heart skipped a beat, and her smile dropped. She stood at the door, watching them in silence.

“You’re back, Qiu,” Jiang Shaocheng called. “Ke Liuyi made some pastries, come try them.”

Her husband used to wait for her at the door when she came home. The sight of him enjoying pastries with another woman birthed a niggling feeling in Tang Qiu’s gut.

She took a bite of the pastry he offered her, and a spark entered her eyes despite herself. “I didn’t know you were such a skilled baker too,” she told Ke Liuyi. Her praise was genuine; such treats had been a rarity in the past, and the tasty dessert helped soothe her slightly.

“Thank Shaocheng,” Ke Liuyi said, never blinking. “Back then, he didn’t have much appetite. As his doctor, I had to find a way to coax him to eat.”

Tang Qiu barely heard her words as she polished off the pastry and reached for another one. Jiang Shaocheng stopped her. “I asked you to try the pastries, not keep devouring them. You shouldn’t eat too many snacks before dinner.”