Chapter 5 The Belated Truth

 Lin Xiaoguai slept very soundly and vaguely remembered dreaming, but she couldn't recall the details of the dream no matter how hard she tried.

The warm, bright feeling lingered in her heart, though.

Like the rising sun of a new day, it was both nostalgic and inspiring.

"Awake?" A low, magnetic voice sounded in her ear.

Lin Xiaoguai glanced indifferently at Shen Chi and remained silent, as she truly didn't know what to say to this man.

Shen Chi didn't seem to mind her stiffness and helped her sit up and handed her a glass of water, "Take a sip of water. Someone will bring food over soon."

"I'm not hungry," Lin Xiaoguai responded coolly.

"Even if you're not hungry, eat a little, or you will get hungry during the night and won't sleep well," Shen Chi said gently, but his tone was undeniably firm.

Not wanting to argue with him, Lin Xiaoguai took a sip of water and pushed the glass back.

Shen Chi's face showed resignation; he didn't want their relationship to remain cold, but when he had first taken a fancy to Wanwan, he hadn't actually spent proper time with her to know her temperament. Now, in such a situation, he dared not make any rash moves.

Wanwan had clearly been upset just now, but he didn't know what he had said wrong.

"Chizi, may I come in?" A loud voice came from outside the door at that moment.

"Second Brother, come in," Shen Chi called back, not surprised.

Soon after, a chubby man squeezed through the door. Ma Ying, with a beaming smile, placed a basket on the bedside table and straightened up, addressing Lin Xiaoguai, "Sister-in-law, hello, I'm Ma Ying. Just call me Second Brother."

"Hello," Lin Xiaoguai, with her upbringing, couldn't ignore his greeting and managed a smile in reply.

Ma Ying then looked at Shen Chi, "I'm heading out then, Chizi. There's a lot of work waiting for me in the canteen. Just bring the basket down when you're done."

"Sure, thank you," Shen Chi said, patting Ma Ying's rotund belly.

Ma Ying didn't mind and, after smiling at Lin Xiaoguai, left.

Shen Chi uncovered the cloth on the basket to reveal a plate of stir-fried cabbage with fatty pork slices, a large bowl of chicken soup, and two large bowls of rice.

Without a word, he handed one bowl of rice to Lin Xiaoguai and took the other for himself.

"I can't eat that much," said Lin Xiaoguai, feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

"Don't worry, I'll eat what's left over," Shen Chi immediately responded without a second thought.

Lin Xiaoguai was startled by this response. She still perceived Shen Chi as the powerful admiral from the Military Department in her past life and couldn't connect him with the act of eating leftovers.

Shen Chi, heeding Shen Xiu's advice, avoided the fatty pork slices that others found tempting when serving Lin Xiaoguai.

"Second Brother's cooking is quite good; I had him cook specially for you. You should eat more," he said, picking up an empty bowl from the basket to serve Lin Xiaoguai a full bowl of chicken soup.

Seeing Lin Xiaoguai frown, he quickly added, "It's okay to eat less rice, but you must finish this bowl of chicken soup."

Lin Xiaoguai realized that Shen Chi simply didn't understand the concept of negotiation or requests.

For several days, the atmosphere between Lin Xiaoguai and Shen Chi was a bit odd, barely exchanging a few words a day, and even those were strained efforts to maintain peace.

Shen Chi was not comforted by this; he would rather have Lin Xiaoguai vent her anger on him than face this calmness that seemed to have already judged him in her heart.

Lin Xiaoguai was unaware of Shen Chi's thoughts. Recently, she seemed to be daydreaming a lot, but in reality, she was considering her path ahead.

The existence of the child meant she would always be tied to Shen Chi for life. Fortunately, she never had any illusions about love, so while she felt stifled and resentful, she was not disgusted.

She accepted the situation so quickly because she remembered the words of a woman named Xu Meimei that she had heard in a daze at the time of her death in her "previous life."

"Shen Chi, you went and had a vasectomy because of this bitch. What about me? What am I to you? You said you would marry me as long as I bore you a child—"

Though it was hard to believe, she concluded that perhaps, in her past life, Shen Chi never had children because of her, and he seemed not to remarry after her.

In fact, in her past life, after losing her child, she had blocked all information related to the past, whether from the Shen Family or the Lin Family, and moved to Shanghai as quickly as possible. Ten years later, she managed to get Shen Chi to agree to divorce and never returned.

Only as she aged and had more free time did she visit her father's and mother's graves annually, but even then, she chose times when no one else was around.

It wasn't about running away, it was just that the hurt had already been done, and she didn't want to rip open the raw, bleeding wound for all to see repeatedly.

Regardless of the internal affairs behind Shen Chi's actions in her past life, it wasn't hard to see the man's feelings, or rather his persistence towards her. This allowed Lin Xiaoguai to give this man a bit of trust, to try and make a life with him.

But that was as far as she would go.

She didn't intend to forgive Shen Chi just like that; the pain and despair of her past life couldn't be so easily erased, and Lin Xiaoguai didn't want to make it too easy for Shen Chi.

Since Shen Chi was constantly by her side these past few days, Lin Xiaoguai didn't do much else, only managing to drink another cup of Spiritual Water while using the restroom, finally allowing herself some peace of mind.

That day, Shen Xiu was off work and didn't go back home, instead heading to the hospital with her backpack on.

Seeing her, Lin Xiaoguai was very happy, after all, having another person to talk to was always a joy.

"Sister-in-law, I saw there's a wheelchair in the hospital, how about I push you outside for a bit?" Shen Xiu entered excitedly.

Lin Xiaoguai didn't hesitate to nod, "Sure, I've felt cooped up all day inside this room."

Upon receiving the go-ahead, Shen Xiu left and soon returned, pushing a wheelchair, her cheeks flushed with a pleasant rosiness, "There was only this one wheelchair in the hospital; I had quite a time getting my hands on it."

Hearing this, Lin Xiaoguai smiled, "Our Xiu'er is so capable."

Shen Xiu immediately beamed with pride, flipping her braided hair as she boasted, "Some older girl tried to fight me for it, but I just ran for it."

She grinned at Lin Xiaoguai, "Don't look down on me because I'm small. When I was younger, working in the production team, many boys older than I couldn't keep up. I'm really strong and fast."

Lin Xiaoguai's smile was gentle. In both her past and present lives, she always had a fondness for clean, candid, and non-aggressive girls like Shen Xiu.

She couldn't care to deal with those willful, selfish, self-centered girls from the future, no matter how innocent and naive they might seem.

"Xiu'er is really amazing." Lin Xiaoguai praised softly.

Hearing the praise, Shen Xiu grew more animated, her hands moving nonstop as she babbled on about her past glory, like how she left the other children in the dust when transplanting rice seedlings, or how she quickly gathered the rice during rainstorms.

Shen Chi watched from the side with curiosity; his sister was generally shy and only talked more around him, but he had never seen her so lively before. It was as if her former timidity had been just a misconception.

However, the fact that Xiu'er got along so well with Wanwan was beyond his expectations. Knowing Xiu'er's protective nature, her quick acceptance of someone was quite surprising.

Shen Chi, looking at his wife whose expression was utterly tender, felt somewhat indignant, thinking, "Who says my wife's aloof? What a waste of eyesight!"

The hospital didn't have elevators yet, fortunately, Lin Xiaoguai's health wasn't so poor that she couldn't manage a few stairs. Taking it slow, there didn't seem to be any significant issue.

It was the early afternoon, and the hospital wasn't very crowded. Shen Xiu pushed Lin Xiaoguai to an old tree behind the hospital and sat down on a flowerbed nearby.

"Sister-in-law, I heard there's a new movie at the cinema, shall we go watch it together?" Shen Xiu asked excitedly, "My classmates said it's really good."

"How much for a movie ticket?" Lin Xiaoguai asked with a smile.

Shen Xiu's enthusiasm deflated, "It's 20 cents."

"Have your brother buy you a ticket, I won't go watch. You can tell me about it when you get back." Lin Xiaoguai truly didn't have much faith in the domestic films of the time.

Moreover, given her past experience of losing a child in a crowded cinema, she didn't want to take the risk.

"Then forget it," Shen Xiu said, looking dejected, "Brother has no money now either."

Lin Xiaoguai was taken aback by this, her first reaction was disbelief. Not to mention Shen Chi's financial status at the time of her death in her previous life, just looking at the present, she knew her four elder brothers were pushovers, ruled by their wives at home, ready to oblige to almost anything, but their fondness for their little sister was genuine. If Shen Chi's betrothal gift had been small, they definitely wouldn't have sold her off so easily.

Shen Xiu glanced at Lin Xiaoguai and murmured, "At first, brother spent over 600 yuan to buy a house for grandpa and grandma in the county, and he has to send back quite a bit for living expenses every year. My tuition is also paid by him. This year, for his marriage to sister-in-law, he gave a betrothal gift of 3,000 yuan, and after the wedding feast, there wasn't much money left. He even planned to get the full 'three rounds and one sound' ready."

Shen Xiu was anxious about how coolly her brother and sister-in-law were handling things, and after some thought, she decided to reveal some matters.

"Did you say Shen Chi gave my family 3,000 yuan as the betrothal gift?" Lin Xiaoguai was astonished.

Shen Xiu nodded, and Lin Xiaoguai was stunned.

3,000 yuan at that time equated to the purchasing power of nearly 30 million yuan in the future. She knew Shen Chi could make money; even in his previous life where he steadily held a position in the Military Department, his personal assets were no less than those of billionaires due to his shrewdness.

Yet, she never expected that Shen Chi already had so much money.

And he had used all his wealth to "buy" her.

Involuntarily, she remembered the look on Shen Chi's face when she confidently proposed a divorce in her previous life, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't quite recall it.

She couldn't help but let out a bitter smile—after all, when had she ever truly valued Shen Chi?

She placed her hand over her abdomen, feeling the presence of the child she never had the chance to meet before. She thought, perhaps many had let her down, but Shen Chi never did.