Pretty Wife Insists I Live Off Her - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Yue Lei Was Indeed Listening Through the Wall.

Ms. Mo Shu was dressed in her usual austere, androgynous style. Since flying today made a skirt inconvenient, she paired a wide-legged suit pant with a jacket.

She walked with a powerful stride, yet pinned to her lapel was a striking cloisonné enamel butterfly brooch.

Her mother was never fond of such ostentatious adornments, much less a brooch depicting two butterflies in flight.

Mo Yingxue stared at it for a while.

Only when her mother looked at her strangely did she greet her with “Mom” and, along with Aunt Wang, take her suitcase.

Aunt Wang had always held the true mistress of the house in high regard.

She exchanged pleasantries: “Madam, the last time you were back was for the Lunar New Year, wasn’t it? The past few times were in winter. Finally, you get to see the summer scenery. How long will you be staying this time?”

Mo Shu removed her suit jacket and shook her head: “I haven’t decided. I have some matters to attend to. Alright, leave the suitcases here. These are gifts for the two of you.”

Mo Shu took a box and pulled out two crystal strands that looked like snakes. Each was two meters long, enough to wrap around the neck four or five times. If separated into a necklace, bracelet, and earrings set, it could make five or six complete sets. The transparent beads seemed to have dark green aquatic plants growing inside, sparkling in the sunlight, as if the water grass could sway with the current. They were quite beautiful.

Mo Yingxue took the heavy strands and struggled for a while to coil them back into the box. She complained with a dark expression: “Mom, did you rob a crystal seller this time?”

“They’re quite nice, aren’t they?” Mo Shu shrugged indifferently. She was like a traveling frog; every time she left, she brought gifts for the two people at home. Sometimes it would be expensive perfume, car ornaments, delicate earrings, or indigenous crafts from abroad; other times it might be two fallen leaves, a pastry, or a few bookmarks. What she brought depended entirely on what she saw before her departure.

Mo Yingxue remembered when she was seven or eight, her mother returned from a trip with a bottle of viscous ointment that smelled sweet. Thinking it was candy, she dug out a large spoonful and ate it, resulting in vomiting and diarrhea that lasted for a long time. The crystal beads this time were considered a better gift.

Mo Shu looked around the house and picked up a few soft hairs from the sofa: “Xiao Xue, are you keeping a cat now?”

The kittens were not allowed to leave the guest room yet, so these hairs must have been left by Yue Lei sneaking the mother cat, Xia Yu, out. Yue Lei always claimed to give the cat fresh air, but she would put a leash on her, so Xia Yu couldn’t run far. Mo Yingxue didn’t know what the point was.

Mo Yingxue nodded and exchanged a glance with Aunt Wang: “There was a heavy rainstorm a while ago, and I rescued a litter of stray cats. Mom, I remember you don’t have cat hair allergies, do you?”

Mo Shu flicked the black and yellow cat hair away and wiped her hands: “No, I don’t. Keep them if you want, but don’t let them into my room.”

Mo Yingxue nodded: “Don’t worry. The kittens are less than two months old. They tend to disappear if they go out, so they’ve been staying in the guest room recently.” She glanced several times toward the guest room where Yue Lei was currently staying. Mo Yingxue almost had a hallucination of Yue Lei pressed against the door, carefully listening to the conversation.

However, she thought better of it and didn’t mention her to her mother.

On the other side, Yue Lei was indeed listening through the wall.

She had wanted to appear from the moment Mo Yingxue and Aunt Wang went out to greet her. But she truly couldn’t gauge Mo Yingxue’s attitude.

If she directly said she was her hired model, what if Mo Shu wanted to see the artwork? Mo Yingxue had never shown her the finished pieces, and Yue Lei had worn sexy lingerie while posing. Just the thought of her mother-in-law seeing that made her feel deeply embarrassed.

If she claimed to be a friend, then her status as a fully grown person who had to borrow a room from a girl younger than her would seem even more pathetic. And what if Mo Shu asked about her job? Yue Lei felt too ashamed to say the word “streamer.”

To be safe, Yue Lei had styled herself to look her absolute best. She curled her hair, applied light makeup, and put on her highest-quality clothes, waiting behind the door. She didn’t want to appear in home clothes and slippers, looking unkempt, if Mo Yingxue decided to introduce her to her mother.

However, she waited for a very, very long time, until she could no longer hear any voices through the door. Mo Yingxue never came to call her.

Yue Lei walked to the mirror like a lost soul. Looking at her brightly dressed reflection, she felt an immense sadness. Although Mo Yingxue hadn’t said it directly, perhaps the way she was now was simply not presentable…

The words spoken by Zhu Yi, the girl who had previously pursued Mo Yingxue, flooded back into her mind: gold-digger, unemployed socialite, unworthy in every way… At the time, she hadn’t taken the words to heart because she knew Mo Yingxue was on her side.

But now, she couldn’t be sure.

Yue Lei saw herself smiling in the mirror, but the smile was uglier than a cry. She held her phone for a long time, desperately wanting to ask Mo Yingxue why she didn’t introduce her to her mother, but she felt that doing so would be like begging for acknowledgment, which was beneath her.

After gathering her thoughts, Yue Lei finally decided to pick up her phone and start taking selfies in front of the mirror. Having put in all this effort to look beautiful today, she might as well not let it go to waste.

After posting the selfies on Qingyin Live, Yue Lei scrolled through the comment section for a while, and the warm compliments from the audience soothed her lonely mood.

She certainly suffered from internal conflict like any ordinary person. But her strength lay in her strong sense of self-worth. Yue Lei accepted that she was a person with both strengths and weaknesses; she wouldn’t compare her weaknesses to others’ strengths. The internal struggle ended quickly. Otherwise, the sheer number of cold, sarcastic remarks Mo Yingxue had made and the dismissive things she had done in the previous life would have been enough to completely destroy her self-confidence.

After notifying Miss Z and Yingzi, Yue Lei started her live stream. Perhaps because Yue Lei’s streaming schedule was so irregular, her fans cherished her streams and had added her to their special notifications. Consequently, her streams never felt too deserted at the start.

Viewers poured in one after another.

“What is President Yue streaming today? Are you taking lucky passersby out to play again? I’m in Southwest City right now!” “Woohoo, long time no see! Wife is still so beautiful! The screen is dirty, I’m licking it, I’m licking it.” “President Yue, here are the free flowers I saved up these days. They’re all for you, all for you.”

The enthusiasm of the audience gradually dispersed the gloom in Yue Lei’s heart. She waved at the camera, lowering her voice to a whisper: “Today, let’s do an ASMR sleep aid stream.”

While starting the stream was an impulse, choosing ASMR triggers was a carefully considered decision. Ms. Mo was back, so she couldn’t make too much noise. Other content relied on laughter and fooling around, but this could be quiet.

“Oh my god, ASMR for sleep aid in the middle of the day? Are you trying to kill me? I have to work this afternoon! I don’t care, I’ll watch first and leave when I get sleepy.” “It’s just time for a nap, hehe. Being lulled to sleep by President Yue is so embarrassing.” “Will President Yue post an official recording after this stream? I want to watch the playback tonight if I can’t sleep!”

“There will be a recording,” Yue Lei picked up the plush bear in the room and placed it in front of the camera. “Let the bear stream for a bit. Please wait while I prepare.”

Yue Lei ran around the room, picking up every item and tapping or shaking it to hear the sound. Finally, she quietly opened the guest room door, whispered a request to Aunt Wang for some kitchen items, and returned to her spot to officially begin the stream.

She smiled slyly: “Since I’m not a professional ASMR streamer, I don’t take requests here. You just have to listen to whatever I stream, okay? Now for the first item: tapping a wooden spoon.”

Compared to other categories of streamers, Yue Lei was relatively skilled at ASMR. In her previous life, after her studio collapsed, she led her newly recruited team to find new opportunities. She had personally guided a new streamer in this area.

At the time, there were no professional ASMR streamers in the country; everyone was streaming secretly, and the popular ones were mostly foreign, so many sound-making items couldn’t be easily replicated.

The entire company gathered to research the differences in sounds various objects made when manipulated in different ways.

That streamer was under intense family pressure to marry, couldn’t handle it, and resigned after two years to get married.

Nonetheless, she had been a mainstay for Yue Lei for two years and even left her account with the company so Yue Lei could launch another ASMR streamer.

Yue Lei never expected that the experience of helping her research various sounds would be useful in this life.

The crisp sound of the mechanical tapping motion helped to clear Yue Lei’s mind.

She began to seriously consider what she should do in this life.

It seemed she had inadvertently become immersed in the tenderness and affluent living conditions provided by Mo Yingxue. Without realizing it, she had become complacent and lazy.

Yue Lei had overlooked a very serious issue: the gap between her and Mo Yingxue might be larger than the gap between a human and a dog.

Checking the time, Yue Lei covered the microphone with plastic wrap and began applying face wash foam to the mic.

As she applied it, she thought: I’m an orphan, with no one behind me.

Mo Yingxue’s mother is a professor with multiple patents, and though she was raised by a single parent, she received sufficient love and financial support. I have a high school education, and though I have eight years of life experience, that’s all it is.

Mo Yingxue is a student at Southwest Art Institute. In the previous life, she didn’t pursue further education after getting with me. In this life, I want to encourage her to pursue a master’s, and ideally a doctorate.

The difference between them was like cloud and mud. The only things she had that could compete were this face and this body… But could she play that card carelessly?

Yue Lei thought as she wiped the foam with a tissue. Suddenly, she paused her daydream, catching a glimpse of the comments.

Yingzi: “Why didn’t Miss Z come today?”

“It’s all President Yue’s fault for not streaming; now we can’t see the domineering Miss Z doting on our little Yue Yue.”

“Maybe she’s busy now? I saw her in another stream this morning.”

“Huh? Really? Isn’t Miss Z our ‘Great Love Sister’? Is she into someone else now?”

“Probably not. That lady was quite pretty, but completely different from our President Yue’s style. She was the ‘tranquil as a chrysanthemum’ type.”

Yingzi: “I want to hear this gossip! Baby, can you private message me?”

“PM me, I want proof!”

“PM me the streamer’s name!”

“Too many people! You PM me.”

“PM what? You all look like a bunch of snakes.”

Looking at their comments and still not having received a reply from Miss Z, Yue Lei’s mood unconsciously sank back to rock bottom.

However, she showed no sign of it, simply continuing to apply foam to the mic. “I’ll do this segment for two more minutes, then switch to turning pages.”

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