A Straight Wife Fallen from the Sky - Chapter 50

“Mumu… I don’t want to go running anymore. I feel like it’s a waste of time, and my endurance is actually quite good.”

After another afternoon where the two of them didn’t realize they needed to eat lunch until four o’clock, Sang Zhancheng made a decision and solemnly mentioned it to Mu Jiahui.

It was a bit sudden. Mu Jiahui ruffled Sang Zhancheng’s hair.

“Are you really not going anymore? It’s only half an hour; it’s basically like a daily break.”

“Yeah. I’m going back to summarize magnetic fields. You go ahead, Mumu, or take my younger sister with you. Her athletic nerves are poor, and she has to take a PE exam for the high school entrance examination.” Sang Zhancheng shared a kiss with Mu Jiahui and then headed into the study.

Mu Jiahui touched her cheek where she had been kissed, feeling a bit strange.

It felt like she hadn’t seen Sang Zhancheng smile in a very long time.

Sang Mujin was deathly unwilling to run, so Mu Jiahui had no choice but to go downstairs alone.

“Mumu-dear~ all by yourself?” Tang Xinyue, the idle socialite, appeared right on time.

Mu Jiahui suspected this person didn’t have a job at all and just wandered around the neighborhood every day.

“Yes. Chengzi doesn’t want to run anymore; she said it’s a waste of time.”

Tang Xinyue looked thoughtful. After the two had run for five minutes, Tang Xinyue suddenly spoke.

“Mumu-dear, have you ever considered that Chengcheng is under too much pressure?”

Mu Jiahui’s stride nearly faltered.

“What do you mean?” She knew Sang Zhancheng was under pressure, but for it to be “too much”… surely it hadn’t reached that point?

For someone who started with two hundred points to break through to seven hundred in such a short time, she was doing quite well.

Tang Xinyue shook her head.

“Mumu-dear needs to be more sensitive to her partner’s emotions. When we ran together the other day, I already felt that the little sister wasn’t in a good mood, as if she was carrying immense pressure every day.”

Mu Jiahui silently swallowed the words “it’s normal to have pressure.”

She had been trained to have a strong ability to withstand stress; Sang Zhancheng had not.

In the past, she definitely wouldn’t have paid it any mind, and might have even though the other person was too weak.

But Sang Zhancheng was her partner, the young girl she had watched grow up step by step. Lately, Mu Jiahui couldn’t even bring herself to say a single harsh word to her.

“Then what should I do?” Mu Jiahui truly had never handled a situation like this before.

The students she taught in the past had their respective guardians looking after them; their psychological states weren’t Mu Jiahui’s concern.

Or they were in a situation similar to Mu Jiahui’s: a world where only success was allowed and failure meant death.

“Let me introduce you to a psychologist!” Tang Xinyue’s eyes lit up.

Mu Jiahui suddenly felt a bad premonition. She had seen that look before on the faces of those Lizardmen who wanted to scam her out of money.

Sure enough, Tang Xinyue’s next sentence began the sales pitch.

“Her original price is five hundred yuan an hour. Since you’re my friend, give her my name and I’ll give you a forty percent discount—that’s three hundred yuan an hour.” Tang Xinyue stuffed a business card into Mu Jiahui’s hand.

Mu Jiahui covered her forehead, speechless.

She treated Tang Xinyue as a friend, but Tang Xinyue only wanted to hawk her wares.

Cunning cat-girl!

Half an hour later, she returned home and added the person.

She looked closely at the card; the person’s name was Tang Rongxi.

Xi, meaning the sun. Xinyue, the heart of the moon.

This was definitely Tang Xinyue’s relative! Probably even her biological older sister!

And she had the nerve to only offer a forty percent discount—three hundred yuan an hour? Why didn’t she just go out and rob someone?

Mu Jiahui picked up her keyboard and began her bargaining battle.

The Cat tribe’s nature was soft to begin with; how could they have seen such a fierce display?

In just over ten minutes, Mu Jiahui successfully secured a free trial session, with subsequent sessions at one hundred and eighty yuan an hour if the results were good.

Mu Jiahui wiped away her sweat, feeling very pleased.

She had saved money again.

Sitting next to her, Sang Zhancheng tapped her with the exercise book she had just finished.

“Mumu, no playing with your phone. Is your work finished?”

Mu Jiahui put down her phone, utterly surprised.

The wheel of karma had turned; now it was her turn to be nagged about work?

“I was doing serious business.” How could bargaining not count as serious business?

“Fine. Regardless, no playing. We need to progress together.”

“Okay, I won’t play. I’ll grade your work.” Mu Jiahui patted Sang Zhancheng’s head.

Sang Zhancheng narrowed her eyes, looking like she enjoyed it, but she still didn’t smile, and her tail only flicked once.

Mu Jiahui was finally convinced of Tang Xinyue’s words.

Sang Zhancheng was likely under a great deal of pressure—she wouldn’t even smile.

While Mu Jiahui graded the papers, Sang Zhancheng started memorizing English vocabulary again.

This would have been impossible in the past. But now, Sang Zhancheng knew how to push herself.

This was also the diligence brought about by pressure.

As Mu Jiahui graded, she wondered: Is it possible that I shouldn’t give Sang Zhancheng so much pressure?

But thinking carefully, Mu Jiahui didn’t feel she was an extremely strict teacher; her teaching process was primarily based on encouragement.

How had she pressured Sang Zhancheng?

She couldn’t figure it out. If Tang Xinyue hadn’t mentioned it, she would have thought Sang Zhancheng’s current state was quite good—finally looking like a senior year student.

In the evening, taking advantage of the time Sang Zhancheng was showering, Mu Jiahui picked up her phone to quickly ask Tang Xinyue a few questions.

Tang Xinyue: Oh, that. Our tribe is very good at emotional perception, meow. Back in the war era, we could even perform emotional interference and inspire soldiers and such. But there’s been peace for thousands of years, meow, so our generation doesn’t know such complex spells anymore.

No wonder.

Mu Jiahui asked a bit more about her own situation.

Tang Xinyue said she felt Mu Jiahui’s pressure was also quite high, but it hadn’t reached the point where it would cause problems, so she hadn’t interfered.

Fine, it was just that Mu Jiahui was too good at enduring it.

But what was this “war” about? Mu Jiahui made a note of it, intending to search for it when she had time.

Mu Jiahui: You really do like Chengzi more. This wasn’t jealousy; it was vigilance!

Tang Xinyue: How could that be, meow~ I like Mumu-dear too~ it’s just that Sang-sang is a little sister and needs more care.

Mu Jiahui resisted the urge to block her and turned off her phone.

She had to keep Sang Zhancheng away from this cunning cat-girl.

Tang Xinyue, still wandering the neighborhood, also received a message from her sister at this moment.

Looking at the screenshot of the chat on the screen, her mouth twitched.

She now knew who the “reincarnation of a miser” being rumored about at the vegetable market was.

“Were you playing with your phone?” Sang Zhancheng had become much faster at showering; she caught Mu Jiahui right as she was sending the last message.

“I wasn’t!” Mu Jiahui raised both hands.

“Uh… I, I was messaging Tang Xinyue.” Then she realized she looked exactly like those people caught by the dean while playing with their phones, so she decided to be honest.

“Huh? Why were you messaging her?” It was fine if Mu Jiahui didn’t say it, but once she did, Sang Zhancheng became a bit alert.

Even though she had a good relationship with Tang Xinyue, Tang Xinyue was still a beautiful young woman in her prime!

A Succubus’s sixth sense never failed. Better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one slip through!

“Talking about something related to you.” Mu Jiahui simply handed her phone over to her “wife.”

Sang Zhancheng browsed through it quickly.

“A psychologist?” She begrudgingly stopped holding it against Mu Jiahui for contacting another young lady behind her back.

“Yes. You should see her; she’s coming tomorrow.”

Sang Zhancheng didn’t say anything more about “wasting time.”

She also felt she ought to see a psychologist.

There were many thoughts she didn’t dare tell Mu Jiahui, and even fewer she dared to face directly.

Lately, there seemed to be less joy in everything she did; all that remained was endless anxiety, which even affected her sleep.

Only when she was studying could she feel a sliver of solace and feel slightly better.

Even when they kissed, she was anxious.

She finally understood why Mu Jiahui had set a five-minute alarm before.

They were a couple in the honeymoon phase, full of passion; if they kissed for too long and the sparks flew, it would cost at least an hour.

Sang Zhancheng also felt that something was wrong with her in this state.

But she had never thought about seeing a psychologist, thinking she might feel better after doing well on the next exam.

However, since Mu Jiahui had made the appointment and hadn’t said anything about it being a waste of time, she would go.

The next day, the psychologist arrived as scheduled.

Tang Rongxi looked very similar to Tang Xinyue. Supposedly, Tang Xinyue’s name was so simple because Tang Rongxi had constantly complained to her mother while learning to write her own name in elementary school.

“You’re the high school senior, right? Come on, let’s find an empty room to talk. The rest of you please excuse yourselves~ no eavesdropping allowed.” Tang Rongxi led Sang Zhancheng away.

Mu Jiahui wanted to stay but was pulled away by Sang Xunmo.

“She said no eavesdropping, so don’t stick around, sister-in-law. If Chengzi wants to, she’ll tell you. If she doesn’t, there’s no use in asking.” Sang Xunmo advised.

Mu Jiahui began her anxious wait.

Considering she might be accused by Sang Zhancheng of not working hard, she brought her laptop out.

The three of them huddled in the hallway; fortunately, not many people were going up or down the stairs at this time, otherwise they might have been startled.

As she wrote, Mu Jiahui became distracted.

She couldn’t stop thinking about what the “war” Tang Xinyue mentioned was.

This world looked very peaceful and serene, not at all like a place where a war could break out.

But the more species there were, the higher the probability of conflict. If there had been a war in the past, it would be quite normal.

If there was, what role did the Succubi play in that war?

And why hadn’t she seen this so-called war in the textbooks?

Mu Jiahui had followed the history classes of this world.

But the content of history as a minor subject was quite sparse, focusing entirely on the period after the establishment of the All-Species Party.

The All-Species Party had been established and in power for several hundred years.

Mu Jiahui re-examined the textbook materials on her computer, searching carefully.

There weren’t many descriptions of the war online; she didn’t know if it had been intentionally erased or if everyone had simply forgotten.

An hour later, Mu Jiahui looked at the meager data she had found and sighed.

Perhaps she should find a long-lived species to ask.

Sang Zhancheng’s psychological consultation took another half hour to finish.

Tang Rongxi stepped out of the room alone.

“How is she?” Mu Jiahui was like a family member waiting for someone to come out of surgery, eagerly rushing over.

“She’s fine. She fell asleep; don’t disturb her for now. Let her sleep for two hours and get some good rest.” Tang Rongxi gave Mu Jiahui an extra look.

“You’re her partner, right? I have something to say to you too.”

Tang Rongxi gave a signal, and Sang Xunmo had no choice but to lead her younger sister away.

“I’ll set up a sound barrier for you for free. First of all, let me say, next time I come, you absolutely cannot pay less than 180 an hour, or I won’t come back.” Tang Rongxi was truly intimidated by Mu Jiahui.

Mu Jiahui coughed. She was thick-skinned enough not to feel embarrassed.

“You are frugal, reserved, diligent, and serious about your work—a good employee for any boss. Correct?” Tang Rongxi observed for a moment and, combined with her conversation with Sang Zhancheng, reached a conclusion.

“Probably…?” Mu Jiahui didn’t even dare to praise herself that much.

So, she wasn’t that thick-skinned after all; she clearly felt bashful.

Tang Rongxi nodded. “But to put it bluntly, you are actually stingy, socially anxious, overly hardworking, anxious but unaware of it, and you don’t know how to enjoy life. Is that right?”

Mu Jiahui fell silent.

“Mu Jiahui, your partner’s problem isn’t that big. But you—you have a big problem. And you are also the reason she is so anxious.”

Mu Jiahui snapped her head up.