Four Years Ago, Her Husband Cheated on Her Body - Chapter 33

“…For this past month, I really have been recuperating in the hospital. I couldn’t move at all. My primary doctor said the earliest I could recover would be the end of the year. As soon as I recovered enough to be able to type, I immediately found a way to contact you.”

Just because of Jia Qiao’s casual remark of “speak faster,” Zhu Nanyu began chattering away, reporting every detail of the past month’s events with painstaking meticulousness, while offering a serious and profound self-reflection on the fact that he hadn’t returned home to find Jia Qiao immediately.

Terrified that Jia Qiao might be angry, he started playing the misery card toward the end. His voice grew weak, and he occasionally feigned being at death’s door to prove that he truly had been half-dead and powerless to act.

In truth, Jia Qiao hadn’t actually been angry about it, and he was nearly convinced halfway through the explanation.

After all, being hospitalized for an illness was only natural, and Jia Qiao didn’t know how to look after sick people anyway.

However, as Zhu Nanyu’s explanation became increasingly detailed, Jia Qiao slowly began to sense something fishy—it was one thing not to come home, but he had persisted in hiding and refusing to make contact using his real identity. That was a double offense!

Most unforgivable of all was that Zhu Nanyu had donned the “Zoa” persona, hiding behind a screen to test him. It was an utterly atrocious act!

The level of malice was equivalent to making plans to play a game with a teammate, only to be stood up by them.

And even more infuriatingly, when matching against an opposing team later, one discovers that the very same teammate had defected to the enemy long ago.

If that wasn’t betrayal, what was!

Jia Qiao didn’t care if the analogy was fitting or not; he began to feel a delayed surge of anger. His expression remained as cold as frost all the way through lunch.

Having served as Jia Qiao’s housekeeper for four whole years, Lu Min knew his master preferred light meals and often had a poor appetite.

Therefore, for lunch, he had the chef prepare stir-fried seasonal vegetables, Chinese yam with shrimp, and a tureen of nourishing mushroom and chicken soup.

Mid-October happened to be the season for savoring hairy crabs. A client had sent over several crates of oversized crabs, each one bursting with rich, golden roe and fat.

Over the past few years, the family chef had tried steaming, stir-frying, stewing, and frying crabs in every possible way, yet Jia Qiao had never once touched them with his chopsticks.

So, on today’s dining table, the chef had only steamed two hairy crabs specifically for Zhu Nanyu, accompanied by ginger slivers and crab vinegar to dispel the “cold” nature of the seafood.

Zhu Nanyu opened the bamboo steamer and took out a steaming, slightly scalding hairy crab. He skillfully pried open the shell, used his chopsticks to move the roe aside, picked out a piece of snowy white crab meat, and placed it on Jia Qiao’s soup spoon.

Lu Min frowned at the sight. He was just about to rush over and stop this male ghost of unknown origin from “poisoning” his master when he saw Jia Qiao eat the morsel of crab meat without any expression.

Lu Min: ???

Wait, on what grounds did he get to do that?!

[Eyes wide as copper bells.jpg]

“Don’t be angry anymore. During the time I was in the hospital, even deshelling a crab for you was a struggle.” Zhu Nanyu picked out another piece of crab meat, drizzled a few drops of ginger vinegar on it, and continued trying to explain the previous matter with just the right amount of annoyance and self-pity.

This male ghost—he was such a “green tea”! He was a master at playing the victim!

Regardless of etiquette, Lu Min scurried over like a thief and surreptitiously handed a note to Zhu Nanyu:

‘Why is the Master willing to eat the crab you deshelled? Did you add an attractant? What brand?’

Lu Min had, of course, considered that the Master might find deshelling crabs too troublesome, so he had deshelled them completely and even carefully arranged them on a plate before presenting them to him.

But the result?!

Jia Qiao still wouldn’t touch them, as if he were naturally averse to eating crabs.

Lu Min was so aggrieved he felt like he was about to wither away!

“Want to know?” Zhu Nanyu crooked his finger, beckoning him over, and whispered wickedly, “First, tear down all those messy talismans in the house.”

“!!!” This devious, soul-beguiling, evil male ghost!

Lu Min fell into a deep state of inner conflict.

He desperately wanted to know why Jia Qiao was willing to eat the crab Zhu Nanyu gave him, but he was also afraid that if he tore down the talismans, the male ghost’s ‘demonic power’ would increase greatly, making it even harder to deal with him.

The ghost had already enchanted the Master to the point of total infatuation!

—In fact, the reason Jia Qiao didn’t touch the crabs on the table was indeed because he found them troublesome.

As for the ones Lu Min deshelled, by the time they were served, they had already gone cold and inevitably had a fishy smell.

Moreover, ever since Jia Qiao learned which parts of the crab the ‘roe and milt’ actually were, he felt a subtle, physiological rejection. It just so happened that every crab Lu Min picked was bursting with them.

To feed Jia Qiao crab, one had to stay by his side and feed him piece by piece while it was still hot.

This was something only Zhu Nanyu could do.

With great patience, Zhu Nanyu finished feeding him two crabs, wiped his hands clean, and casually picked up a pomegranate from the fruit plate.

Lu Min sneered inwardly from the side, certain that the male ghost was about to step on a major landmine this time.

Hmph! Serves him right!

One should know that pomegranates were in the top three of Jia Qiao’s fruit blacklist.

Even if deshelled and juiced, the lingering bitter taste of the pomegranate seeds wouldn’t go away.

Lu Min had once tried to de-seed a pomegranate, but the pressure was hard to control; a moment’s carelessness would crush the tiny seeds, making a total mess.

Over time, pomegranates became mere decorations in the house, never enjoying the ‘honor’ of being eaten by Jia Qiao.

Zhu Nanyu continued his pitiful act to garner sympathy, but his hands didn’t stop for a second. First, he removed all the pomegranate seeds and peeled away the white membrane.

Then, he produced a hollow metal rod—thicker than a toothpick with one sharp end—from somewhere. He poked it through the pointed end of a seed and, while maintaining the original shape of the fruit, skillfully removed the hard pit, piling the ruby-like arils one by one on the small dish in front of Jia Qiao.

Lu Min: …Is that even a possible operation?

No wonder Jia Qiao had become visibly thinner since he became the housekeeper; it turned out he just didn’t know how to feed him properly.

He had lost big time!

“I couldn’t even stand up back then. I couldn’t let you take care of me, could I?” Zhu Nanyu was so engrossed in peeling the pomegranate that his guard slipped, and his true thoughts slipped out.

The moment the words left his mouth, Zhu Nanyu knew it was bad.

Sure enough, Jia Qiao’s gaze grew even colder.

While the logic was sound, hearing it from Zhu Nanyu’s mouth made it feel inexplicably grating to Jia Qiao’s ears.

They were a married couple; they were supposed to support each other.

In Zhu Nanyu’s assumption, if he had returned home to recover, Jia Qiao would have just stood by and watched him die.

Jia Qiao, who was drinking soup, paused. He lowered his head and used his spoon to scoop all the way to the bottom of the tureen, bringing up the mushroom and chicken garnishes.

With his other hand, he picked up his chopsticks, carefully sorted through them, and left behind a thick, plump… shiitake mushroom.

He had heard from Chi Jinran before that some people might look steady, mature, and respectable, but were actually incredibly picky eaters.

When he was a child, he would even act spoiled toward his parents to avoid eating shiitake mushrooms.

Even after getting married, he had gone to great lengths to hide his pickiness, only for the truth to be leaked by his own mother.

Jia Qiao turned sideways, holding out the spoon to Zhu Nanyu’s lips, using action to ‘care’ for his weak husband.

“Jiao jiao, what are you…” Zhu Nanyu’s body stiffened, and he visibly leaned back, glancing at the plump mushroom in the spoon, then at Jia Qiao’s face leaning close.

“Ah—” Seeing him refuse to open his mouth, Jia Qiao moved the spoon closer, tilting his head slightly, his clear eyes watching him without blinking. “Not eating?”

Meeting those beautiful eyes that reflected only himself, Zhu Nanyu’s heart skipped a few beats, and his reason was instantly thrown to the winds.

With Jia Qiao feeding him with that expression, even if it were a deadly poison…

Zhu Nanyu leaned forward, opened his mouth, and resignedly swallowed that exceptionally well-marinated shiitake mushroom.

“Is it good?” Jia Qiao was relentless, leaning over until he was almost pressed against Zhu Nanyu, carefully observing his expression.

“Yes.” Zhu Nanyu swallowed, a faint, imperceptible distortion appearing on his face as he nodded and answered against his conscience, “It’s good.”

Hah, liar.

Jia Qiao reverted to his cold indifference, pushed him away, silently finished the pomegranate Zhu Nanyu had prepared, and stood up to head out.

“Where are you going?” Zhu Nanyu followed behind like a vengeful spirit, his voice tinged with grievance.

They had finally met; what could possibly be so important that Jia Qiao had to go out today?

Jia Qiao still didn’t look back, but this time he answered, “I’m going to school.”

After gradually taking over the business of Qianhe, Jia Qiao finally realized why human society placed such importance on knowledge and education.

As the chairman of Qianhe, Jia Qiao’s knowledge reserve was roughly at a high school level, making it quite taxing to handle even basic tasks.

At this stage, it was obviously unrealistic for Jia Qiao to return to high school to prepare for the college entrance exam.

Fortunately, after a period of training, the executives discovered that Jia Qiao’s fresh, pristine brain—like a brand-new computer that had just been turned on—was surprisingly suited for learning. He caught on to everything he was taught.

So, after some deliberation, the management used their connections to apply for an auditing permit for the Finance Department at A University, the most prestigious institution in the country.

According to the schedule provided by the school, today was Jia Qiao’s first class of his life.

Once Zhu Nanyu figured out the reason, he looked Jia Qiao up and down and asked gloomily, “You plan on going to school like that?”

Wearing luxury brands that the student class couldn’t hope to afford, possessing an aura of coldness that warned people off, and an overly beautiful face.

Stepping into a school, he would absolutely be the most prominent figure in any crowd, guaranteed to be gawked at like a rare work of art.

Jia Qiao looked down, examining his clothes; they were no different from usual.

“Then how should I be?”

Since coming to this world, he had never interacted with the student class, so he naturally didn’t know what a ‘college student’ should look like.

Zhu Nanyu seemed to be struck by something, and his guilt doubled.

Thinking back, when Jia Qiao was at the age when he should have been studying, he had been tricked into becoming his wife.

If he had followed a normal life path—elementary, middle, high school, and university—he would likely have become a school heartthrob, an incubus-like figure, attracting countless love rivals.

At that thought, a strong sense of jealousy and unease sprouted in his heart, making Zhu Nanyu wish he could lock Jia Qiao by his side forever, cutting him off from the prying eyes of everyone else.

But considering Jia Qiao’s level of socialization, Zhu Nanyu suppressed his dark, unspeakable desires. He picked through Jia Qiao’s wardrobe and pulled out a plain hoodie and sweatpants.

Then he had Jia Qiao sit before the mirror, slowly and methodically combing his silky long hair and tying it into a more student-like, energetic high ponytail.

Finally, Zhu Nanyu stared at that face in the mirror—one that could be elected school beauty the minute he stepped on campus—and silently pulled out a baseball cap for him to wear, deliberately pulling the brim down low.

“Jiao jiao.” Zhu Nanyu leaned in from behind, staring into the mirror, his voice deep. “If anyone confesses to you at school, just say there’s an obsessive, vengeful, ghost-like boyfriend waiting for you at home.”

When Jia Qiao heard this, his focus wasn’t on the ‘ghost-like boyfriend,’ but on the latter half: ‘waiting for you at home.’

He remembered that in the past, he was always the one at home waiting for Zhu Nanyu.

He hadn’t expected their positions would one day be reversed.

From the past to the present, Jia Qiao had always been the one waiting. He didn’t know what it felt like to be waited for.

“Oh.”

.

In fact, if Jia Qiao wanted to learn finance, he could easily have invited a professor to teach him at home; there was no need for such a grand endeavor.

However, when everyone heard that for some unknown reason he had never actually attended school, they all risked their lives to advise him otherwise!

Counting his age, Jia Qiao was only just over twenty-four.

Compared to corporate slaves already tainted by the workplace, the vibrant youths in university were his peers and, theoretically, easier to make friends with.

And so, Jia Qiao was dropped off at the gates of A University, half-willingly and half-forced.

This was the first time in his life Jia Qiao had set foot in a school. It was different from everywhere else he had been, like entering an upgraded version of a children’s playground.

In mid-October, not long after the new semester started, the freshmen were still full of curiosity about the school.

Various clubs were busy recruiting, catching people and asking, “Student, do you like cosplay?” There were also young couples in love walking hand-in-hand or sitting on benches sharing a pair of earphones.

The newly arrived Jia Qiao walked up to a directory map. Before he could find the location of the teaching building, a boy in shorts and a t-shirt—despite it being autumn—ran over, his buzz-cut head practically steaming.

“Hi, Senior Girl!” The boy smiled, showing two rows of bright white teeth, greeting Jia Qiao from behind.

After moving to the front and seeing clearly, he smoothly changed his greeting, “Hi, Junior!”

Jia Qiao, who had been categorized as a ‘Junior,’ looked up at him.

According to his prior research, college students were generally between eighteen and twenty-two. Jia Qiao, who was twenty-four this year, definitely had the age advantage over these “pillars of the state.”

“I am not your junior,” Jia Qiao explained seriously.

The boy said with a laugh, “True, with those thin arms and legs of yours, our PE department wouldn’t take you anyway! The school is pretty big; where are you headed? I’ll take you there.”

Since Jia Qiao rarely went out, his sense of direction was poor. Even with a map, he had trouble distinguishing north, south, east, and west.

He told the “steaming-head guy” where he needed to go. The other boy showed his white teeth again. “You’re going to the Management Building? It’s a long walk from this gate. But you’ve asked the right person; I’ll take you through the stadium. Let’s go!”

With that, the steaming-head guy had Jia Qiao follow him as they headed straight for the back gate of the stadium.

With the National University Games approaching, the school soccer team was practicing intensely in the stadium. Many people were watching from the stands with great interest.

“Pass! Pass the ball!”

“Nice! This one’s definitely going in!”

“Not necessarily, the opposing goalie, Brother Kui, is tough as nails. He’s already blocked three shots in the first half.”

The high-kicked soccer ball curved through the air. Under everyone’s tense watch, the goalkeeper leaped high with his arms outstretched, using his head and body to knock the ball out of bounds.

“Brother Kui is mighty! Best defense in the server!”

The man called Brother Kui climbed up and rubbed his nose. “It’s nothing. There isn’t a ball on this field I can’t stop.”

At the same time, the ball that had been knocked out of bounds rolled quite a distance, eventually coming to a stop at Jia Qiao’s feet.

The players on the field didn’t feel like picking it up. They lifted their jerseys to wipe their sweat and waved at Jia Qiao from afar.

“Student, please kick the ball back!”

The steaming-head guy estimated the distance. “How can he kick it from that far? Can’t you just come and get it yourself?”

Before he could finish, Jia Qiao took a few steps back, took a slight aim, and kicked the ball—

The soccer ball blurred through the air, accurately bypassing the players on the field and flying straight toward the goal.

The goalkeeper, who had just caught his breath, instinctively dove for the ball, but it was too late.

The ball brushed past his fingertips, slammed hard into the net, and then bounced back, rolling to about the midfield mark, right to the feet of the player who had spoken earlier.

“…” The players on both sides went silent.

“…” The spectators went quiet.

The steaming-head guy turned his head stiffly, eyes wide as he looked at Jia Qiao. It took a long time before he could squeeze out a sentence: “Wha… what did you just do?”

Jia Qiao didn’t know what he had done wrong. He pointed at the goal. “Isn’t it supposed to be kicked into there?”

Seeing everyone’s different reactions, Jia Qiao thought he had misunderstood the rules of the game again.

Right.

He had heard that the national team didn’t like kicking the ball into the goal either.