The Guide to Faking Innocence to Win His Wife - Chapter 15

The summer night was stifling, and the relentless chirping of cicadas only added to the mounting frustration.

The loose wooden bed creaked rhythmically until, with a heavy grunt marking the hundredth sit-up, Jiang Zhongmu collapsed back onto the mattress, drenched in sweat. Her ragged breathing echoed in the empty room. She covered her eyes with the back of her hand to block out the harsh light, but she couldn’t shut out the turmoil in her mind.

Ever since their trip to the mountain, Xie Zhiyi had reverted to her old self. Or perhaps not quite, she was a bit softer than before, yet an invisible barrier remained between them. Jiang Zhongmu tried everything to get closer, only to find herself walking in circles.

Sweat soaked through her white T-shirt, making the lines of her abdomen more pronounced. Her brow remained locked in a frown. With a heavy sigh, she flipped over, feeling a restless energy trapped in her chest that refused to settle.

Xie Zhiyi wasn’t a math problem. There was no reference material, no standard answer even the “question” itself was a blur.

Why did she come back to Jiang Town? Why is she so full of sorrow? Why did she say so resolutely that she would never marry?

Wild guesses swirled in her head, only to be dismissed one by one. Despite her stoic exterior, she was still just a young girl, prone to the tossing, turning, and insecurity of late-night pining.

Finally, with one last heavy sigh, she stood up, slid into her flip-flops, and walked out.

The third floor was silent and dark. Jiang Zhongmu hurried downstairs and pushed open the front gate, heading toward the river where the moonlight danced in silver ripples.

With a loud splash, she vanished into the water. Circles of ripples spread outward as her white shirt billowed beneath the surface. The salt of her sweat mingled with the river water, and the gurgling sound in her ears muffled all other senses. She reached out beneath the waves, trying to grab the moon’s reflection, only to end up with shattered light and a body sinking deeper and deeper…

It was a perfect metaphor for their relationship, one where she alone harbored secret intentions.

As her last bit of oxygen vanished, she kicked hard against the muddy bottom and burst through the surface. She swept her wet hair back, her eyes red and her lips pressed into a hard line. The wet T-shirt clung to her, revealing the sports bra underneath, adding to her suffocating irritability.

She didn’t climb out. She stayed submerged, her fingertips turning pale as they swayed with the current. This wasn’t unusual; in the humid Jiang Town summers where air conditioning was rare, people often jumped into the river to escape the heat. Jiang Zhongmu had done it since childhood, though the habit had faded as she grew older.

The cool water numbed her chaotic thoughts. With her exceptional swimming skills, she floated half-submerged, as still as a stone even as fish darted past. But the unspoken emotions didn’t weaken; she let the water swallow her, her ankles tangling in river weeds.

Until…

The sudden creak of a wooden window hinge made her snap her head around.

The woman with the long curls had appeared again at the third-floor windowsill. A familiar spark of light flickered. Jiang Zhongmu watched her, her obsidian eyes darker and more unreadable than the depths of the river.

Jiang Zhongmu remembered these nights better than anyone. Every time that hinge creaked, she would wake up and stand in spirit with her, doing nothing but watching until the sky turned pale and the window finally closed.

Why?

The question circled her mind, the cool water no longer providing relief. Only the unsolvable riddle remained. She bobbed up and down with the current. The person on the third floor noticed nothing, lost in her own cigarette smoke and the distant moon.

Xie Zhiyi was looking at the scenery, suppressing her own misery. Someone below was looking up at her, treating that misery like a thesis topic—researching it over and over, only to be left with a heart full of bitterness.

Finally, Jiang Zhongmu moved. In an act of petty revenge after being stifled for so long, she threw herself backward into the depths, surfacing seconds later like a fish breaking the water.

—Splash!

Water droplets hammered back down, and the weeds on the bank bent under the force. A sleepy neighbor scratched his head, thinking it had started to pour.

Xie Zhiyi instinctively looked down.

A lean young girl was walking up the stone steps, her dripping body leaving a trail of dark footprints on the rock. As if sensing something, the girl looked up and met Xie Zhiyi’s eyes from across the distance.

One was startled, surprised. The other was as heavy and suppressed as a deep pool.

It was a gaze planned long ago, but the unsuspecting Xie Zhiyi took it for a mere accident. After a second of daze, the moment ended. The fallen champaca flowers on the ground grew even more fragrant in the wet air.

Jiang Zhongmu walked straight to her room without stopping, acting as if she hadn’t seen the woman. She entered the bathroom, her soaked clothes hitting the floor with a thud. The hot water hissed to life, filling the small space with steam.

The reckless determination she’d felt in the cold river suddenly seemed distant. As the hot water ran over her sharp shoulders, her eyes turned a misty red. If the knocking hadn’t started, she might have already begun to regret it—regret such a clumsy, temperamental way to get her attention.

But when the thump-thump-thump sounded, she abruptly turned off the faucet. Steam billowed off her skin. She paused deliberately before slowly pulling down a bath towel.

The person outside knocked again, tentatively.

The sound of knuckles against wood mingled with the sound of wet footsteps. With her veins bulging slightly, Jiang Zhongmu gripped the handle and pulled. The door opened with a click.

Xie Zhiyi stood there, a cardigan thrown over her thin nightgown. In the half-light, she looked as white as mutton-fat jade.

“You…”

Xie Zhiyi froze. She hadn’t expected the girl to come out like this. Her gaze lingered on the dripping ends of the girl’s hair; water droplets fell into her collarbone and slid down until they soaked into the towel draped over her shoulders.

Jiang Zhongmu must have used a milk-scented body wash; the sweet, creamy scent rushed toward her along with the steam.

It was a strange sensation. Jiang Zhongmu was a head taller than her, with a wider frame and tanned skin; standing face-to-face, she gave off an unmistakable sense of pressure—what her students back home would call a “dominant” vibe. Yet the sweet milk scent and her reddened eyes made her look like a little leopard pretending to be aloof.

Somehow, Xie Zhiyi thought back to the night they changed the lightbulb. If this little leopard wanted to please someone, what would she look like? Would she keep a stony face while exposing her soft underbelly?

She almost wanted to laugh, but she pressed her lips together and said, “Today… are you a bit unhappy?”

That’s how elders are—always instinctively caring for others. Perhaps it was her age, but her empathy was strong; seeing Jiang Zhongmu emerge from the water like that, she assumed the girl was in a bad mood and came down to check, despite her own mood being just as dark.

“No,” Jiang Zhongmu blurted out, her voice deep and husky from the steam.

“Then… I’ll head back up,” Xie Zhiyi said, a sudden flicker of flustered nerves causing her to take a half-step back as if wanting to escape.

“Wait,” Jiang Zhongmu called out, her hand reaching out to brace against the doorframe.

Xie Zhiyi’s eyes darted away, but she still caught sight of the girl’s partially open collar—the firm, youthful curves beneath the fabric. It was like a peach in May or June—unripe, green, with only the slightest hint of red at the tip. You know you shouldn’t eat it, that an unripe fruit will be sour, yet you can’t help but be drawn to it, wondering if it’s as crisp and juicy as you imagine.

“What is it?” Xie Zhiyi turned her head, masking a flood of emotions.

“Do you have any shampoo left? I forgot to buy more,” Jiang Zhongmu said plainly, but she leaned forward, her head lowering as she drew closer.

Her steam-warmed breath brushed against the stray hairs by Xie Zhiyi’s ear.

Xie Zhiyi wanted to pull away but didn’t. She feigned composure and said, “Yes, I’ll bring some down for you.”

“I’ll go up with you to get it,” Jiang Zhongmu pressed, her tone losing its usual relaxed pace and becoming urgent, almost demanding. A drop of water from her wet hair fell exactly onto Xie Zhiyi’s shoulder.

“I’ll just bring it down in a moment. You, you aren’t wearing anything. Running up and down, you’ll catch a cold,” Xie Zhiyi made an excuse, quickly taking a step back to widen the gap. She let out a small, secret sigh of relief as her voice regained its steady tone. “I’ll go get it.”

This time, Jiang Zhongmu didn’t stop her. She watched the woman’s retreating back, a faint, inexplicable smile flashing in her narrow eyes, the look of a mischievous child who had finally gotten her way.

Support