21 The Second Baby (1/2)

When Joann and Xu Jing arrived at their home, Sylvia was already asleep and Mrs. Xu was still working in the home office.

Xu Jing went to greet his mother while Joann rejected the invitation to come along and wandered upstairs, citing how tired she was feeling after a long day.

After Joann got out of her dress and changed into a more comfortable pyjamas, Xu Jing knocked and pushed open the bedroom door.

The man had a deep frown between his eyes and Joann deduced that the conversation he just had with his mother, probably about the family business, did not go so well.

However, Xu Jing immediately turned his frown upside-down and smiled at his wife as he walked into the room.

The man never mixed his business life with his private life so Joann was spared the boring business talk that she would not have understood anyway.

This was a quality she appreciated in her husband. She did not like being roped into his business and she was thankful that Xu Jing had never once tried to dump his business problem on her.

Little did she know it was not that Xu Jing did not wish to share and discuss his company problem with his wife, but before they got married, Joann once shared her philosophy on the clear separation of working and private life. She expressed the opinion that a couple should not entangle themselves into each other's working life. Each party should be responsible for his or her business and the other should be wise to stay out of the other's professional life and not intervene.

Viewed from another perspective, this also meant that she frowned upon her partner oversharing his professional problems. To put it simply, Joann did not wish for her partner to meddle into her professional life nor did she want to get bogged down by his. She liked to be independent and appreciated independence in others.

Therefore, Xu Jing's reticence was another one of the man's accommodating ways towards his wife.

Joann was undoing her make-up at the make-up table and Xu Jing walked to stand behind her. He then bent down to hug his wife from behind.

”Xu Jing, what are you doing? You are going to ruin my make-up,” complained Joann jokingly.

This only made Xu Jing hug her even tighter. The man snuggled his face into the nape of her neck, breathed in her scent and asked, ”Isn't Xiu Ling's baby boy the cutest thing ever?”

”He is,” answered Joann.

”Doesn't he make you want to…” Xu Jing paused before continuing cautiously, ”Have another one of your own?”