The Ex-Wife-to-Be Is Acting Weird After Losing Her Memory - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Prelude Four

The little girl appeared in a dream.

In an empty, beautifully decorated room, a vague woman’s figure appeared. She was wearing a white dress, slightly lifting her slender neck. She stood in front of a piano and said with barely suppressed anger: “Lu Jiayin, you’re being lazy and skipping practice again!”

Even in the dream, Lu Jiayin felt her heart leap into her throat. Seeing that the woman was about to reach her hiding place, she carefully stepped onto the windowsill under the cover of the curtains and climbed out onto the open balcony.

This seemed to be a suburban villa area. In the glow of the sunset, Garbo lilies bloomed like brilliant clouds in the garden. The sunset flowed across the sky, pouring a misty, molten gold sheen over the clouds. She walked along the winding path by the lake and suddenly heard a faint, kitten-like whimper.

The sound came from under a banyan tree. Lu Jiayin followed the sound and found the person hiding in the shade.

It was a little girl, about seven or eight years old. She hugged her knees, trying her best to curl into a tiny ball. Her chubby face was deeply furrowed, and she was quietly muttering something.

Lu Jiayin walked a few steps closer and finally heard her saying, “Don’t cry.”

As she spoke, she fiercely pinched the palm of her hand.

Lu Jiayin couldn’t bear to watch and subconsciously advised: “If you want to cry, just cry. Bottling it up like that will make you sick.”

The little girl turned her head. She had clean, well-defined eyes that were sparkling, blurred with tears. The next second, she blinked: “I can’t cry. If I cry, Grandpa and the others will be even sadder.”

She buried her head back into her arms and said with a muffled voice: “Mom and Dad had an accident. Grandpa is just as sad as I am, and he has to take care of me. I can’t be willful and cause him more trouble. So even though I miss Mom very much, I have to hold it in.”

But as she spoke, her eyelashes kept fluttering, clearly trying desperately to hold back her tears.

Lu Jiayin’s heart stirred. She bent down and squatted opposite the girl, gently hugging her.

“Then cry to me,” she said firmly. “I don’t know your Mom and Dad, so you can just treat me like a hollow tree. Cry it all out.”

The little girl stared at her blankly, seeming to consider the logic of the statement. The next second, she started crying loudly, “Waaaah… Mom and Dad, please don’t leave… leave me alone. Waaah… I’m really scared…”

That was the saddest cry Lu Jiayin had ever heard. Although she often faked tears to escape her mother’s punishment when skipping piano practice or being lazy with her homework, those sorrows felt like light, drifting clouds compared to the person in front of her.

Hot tears fell onto her shoulder, pressing a damp sadness into her heart.

“It’s okay,” she subconsciously hugged the girl tighter, soothing her quietly. “I heard that after a loved one passes away, they ask the gods to send a guardian angel to the child left behind. So they didn’t leave you. They just changed the way they accompany you. I believe the angel they applied for is definitely on the way.”

The wind suddenly grew loud, swirling and scattering the fallen rose petals, mixing with the sound of crying and gently smoothing away the long sadness. Lu Jiayin couldn’t tell whether this was a dream or reality. The sounds around her gradually blurred. Her heart pounded, and she felt an overwhelming sadness.

A strange ceiling came into her view. Lu Jiayin rubbed her eyes, still feeling slightly disoriented.

Last night… she thought she had a fever. In her haze, it must have been Zhen Zhen taking care of her, giving her a cold compress and water. Then she sweated profusely, soaking the pillow.

Lu Jiayin abruptly sat up, fully waking up.

The sheets and pillowcases were not the lake-blue silk she remembered falling asleep on; they were a simple silver-gray. Aside from a wall-to-wall bookcase, there were no extra decorations in the room. This was Zhen Zhen’s bedroom!

The pillow on the other side showed signs of having been slept on. She could faintly smell the remaining light floral scent in the air. The owner of the other half of the bed must have just left. This realization made Lu Jiayin narrow her eyes slightly, a smile tracing her red lips.

She stepped directly onto the carpet with bare feet. The deep gray handmade carpet was thick and warm, making her pair of fair, delicate feet look even more slender. The thin nightgown clung to her curves, swaying as she walked, and she unhurriedly walked out of the bedroom.

Zhen Zhen was not in the living room. Half of the floor-to-ceiling window was open, letting the cool morning breeze into the room. Lu Jiayin continued down the hallway, searching.

Finally, she heard faint sounds coming from the study, and her heart relaxed. She quickened her pace towards it.

Through the half-open door, she saw her beautiful wife sitting at a large desk with a computer in front of her. She was wearing those tantalizing silver-rimmed glasses again, and her long hair was tied back, revealing the beautiful, sharp line of her jaw.

Lu Jiayin casually pushed the door open and walked lightly toward the person at the desk.

She stopped in front of Zhen Zhen, placed her hand on the smooth hem of her nightgown, and sat directly down on her lap.

Zhen Zhen’s body stiffened the moment Lu Jiayin sat down. Before she could react, Lu Jiayin had already wrapped her arms around her neck and leaned against her shoulder, boneless and soft: “Wife, I was so worried when I woke up and didn’t see you.”

Her tone was soft and alluring.

Zhen Zhen lightly cleared her throat: “Lu Jiayin, get down first.”

“I don’t want to get down.” Lu Jiayin rubbed against her fair, jade-like cheek, watching as the delicate skin slowly flushed red. The thin silk nightgown was pressed against the other body, exchanging warmth, making their senses increasingly heightened.

She smelled Zhen Zhen’s light, floral scent again. Zhen Zhen sat straight, her eyes behind the glasses revealing a hint of awkwardness, watching her with a clear, flowing gaze.

Lu Jiayin stared intently at those eyes. The scent lingered in her nostrils, and paired with the utterly ascetic face in front of her, it further aroused a seductive intoxication.

She suddenly leaned in to kiss those lips, but Zhen Zhen immediately raised her hand, covering her mouth at lightning speed.

Soft lips were pressed against her palm, soft and warm. Lu Jiayin’s moist breath fell onto her skin, and she curved her eyes.

The next moment, she stuck out the tip of her tongue, gently licking her palm like a small cat.

The palm restraining her lips trembled as if stimulated by an electric current.

Lu Jiayin’s eyes sparkled. Just as she was about to try to kiss her again, the hand exerted a slight pressure, pinching her cheek and moving her to the side of her shoulder.

“Lu Jiayin, don’t move,” she heard Zhen Zhen’s gentle voice, which held a thread of barely maintained composure. “I’m… on a video call with my mother right now.”

Upon understanding the meaning of her words, Lu Jiayin felt blood rush to her head. Her mind went blank, and she asked with a trembling voice: “Whose… mother?”

This time, before Zhen Zhen could answer, a voice filled with anger came through the computer speaker, directly hitting her eardrums.

“Lu Jiayin!” The voice was clearly furious. “Where did all the manners and etiquette I taught you go? Is this… is this how you treat little Zhen—so frivolous?”

This voice made Lu Jiayin instinctively flinch, and she nearly slid off Zhen Zhen’s lap. Zhen Zhen looped one arm around her waist and apologized for her: “No… Mom, she hasn’t been feeling well the past couple of days. How about we wrap up our chat for now?”

As she spoke, she raised her hand and closed the laptop screen.

While she did all this, Lu Jiayin remained like an ostrich, burying her head in Zhen Zhen’s neck, wishing she could delete the last few minutes of memory and start over.

Zhen Zhen looked down at her and, as if realizing something, smiled faintly: “You can get down now.”

The person in her arms seemed not to have heard, continuing to act as a dutiful ostrich.

“That was… my mom, right?” Lu Jiayin muffled her voice. “Why was she video calling you?”

Zhen Zhen answered: “She’s currently holding an exhibition tour in the UK and couldn’t return, but she was worried about your condition, so she contacted me to ask about your illness.”

She started by scolding me, Lu Jiayin thought. She wiggled her body into a more comfortable position: “She’s so fierce.”

“Madam Lu is indeed quite strict, but she truly cares about you,” Zhen Zhen said patiently. “By the way, she’ll be returning next Saturday for Grandpa’s birthday banquet. You’ll be able to see her then.”

This news didn’t make Lu Jiayin happy. Even with amnesia, she instinctively felt that she didn’t have much affection for this mother; rather, there was more fear.

However, she didn’t dwell on it. Instead, she looked up and asked about something else with curiosity: “Grandpa’s birthday banquet?”

Zhen Zhen nodded: “Yes, you probably don’t remember. Next Saturday is my grandfather’s eightieth birthday. The old man likes lively gatherings, so he uses this opportunity every year to meet up with his old friends from all over the world… Of course…”

She paused for a moment and then whispered: “I’ll find a time to tell Grandpa that your health hasn’t fully recovered, so you don’t have to attend the ceremony…”

“Why is that?” Lu Jiayin, who was listening intently, asked in confusion, “Don’t you want me to go?”

Zhen Zhen looked at her silently for a moment before answering: “No, you used to be very busy with work and didn’t have time to attend such gatherings…”

She suddenly stopped halfway through the sentence, remembering Lu Jiayin’s attitude toward Madam Lu just now. Perhaps… she was afraid of an awkward meeting with her mother alone? So she wanted Zhen Zhen to accompany her to meet Madam Lu at Grandpa’s birthday banquet?

Thinking this, Zhen Zhen added: “Well, do you want to go this year?”

The person in her arms nodded, curving her eyes: “If I go with you, how will you reward me?”

The implication of that question seemed different from what Zhen Zhen had understood.

Just as Zhen Zhen was momentarily stunned, Lu Jiayin leaned in again. This time, she used her fully functional right hand to take off Zhen Zhen’s glasses. She then leaned close to her ear and whispered: “I’ll go to the banquet with you, and you’ll let me kiss you.”

Support The Ex-Wife-to-Be Is Acting Weird After Losing Her Memory