After Cheng Jun’s father passed away, he left behind a house. It was a two-story villa that appeared somewhat rundown from the outside. The exterior walls were peeling, the tiles had turned yellow, and the planted flowers and plants had overgrown, but you could still make out the original well-maintained appearance.
The next day, Cheng Jun went over to pack some things to take with him, and Ruan Jiujiu volunteered to go with him.
The first thing Cheng Jun did when he returned home last night was to claim his sovereignty by lying on Ruan Jiujiu’s bed in silence.
After a whole afternoon of fussing around, Ruan Jiujiu was feeling a bit tired. She let him lie on the bed while she freshened up and quickly fell asleep.
She hadn’t slept well last night, and in her dreams, she was in a half-awake state, thinking about things from her past life. Perhaps it was because of Cheng Jun’s father’s situation that had triggered her emotions and memories. She rubbed her cheeks irritably, and Cheng Jun glanced at her, asking slowly, “Didn’t sleep well last night?”
“It’s definitely because you were sleeping on top of me last night,” Ruan Jiujiu blamed him for everything.
Cheng Jun wore a dumbfounded expression.
“…”
With the keys in hand, Cheng Jun opened the door. The courtyard was empty without anyone in sight. Ruan Jiujiu looked around, unintentionally lowering her voice as she said, “Ah, the big house does feel quite empty.” The house occupied a large area, and with a spacious courtyard, having fewer people living there gave it a sense of emptiness and desolation.
Compared to the villa, Ruan Jiujiu preferred staying in the old two-bedroom, one-living-room house, where she felt a greater sense of security at home.
Cheng Jun made a sound of agreement.
The house had excellent natural lighting, but due to the overgrown tree branches in front of the French windows, scattered and messy twigs partially obstructed the windows, casting a somewhat gloomy atmosphere that became more apparent the longer they looked at it.
All the valuable items in the villa had been cleared out by Qu Wei, and even the television had been sold. Ruan Jiujiu truly admired her determination, as she had the persistence to scrape mud even while sitting on the ground.
The first floor consisted of the living room, entertainment room, and an open kitchen. The second floor had the master bedroom, guest bedroom, and a study, as well as a storage room.
Cheng Jun went straight to the second floor and opened the door to the storage room.
Inside, there was a pile of cluttered and aged items, including yellowed books and old furniture, all haphazardly stacked everywhere.
Ruan Jiujiu’s gaze landed on a cardboard box containing several toys. Although they had been left untouched for a long time, their appearance was still relatively new, indicating that they had been hardly played with. She squatted in front of the box, taking out each toy one by one.
“Huh…” Ruan Jiujiu exclaimed in surprise and instinctively glanced at Cheng Jun.
Cheng Jun turned to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
“Your awards and trophies from the past, they’re all kept here.” They had all been neatly arranged, suggesting that they had been carefully placed there.
From elementary school to high school, up until the second year of high school, and then it abruptly stopped.
But if Ruan Jiujiu remembered correctly, Cheng Jun and Tu Nan attended the same university, which was one of the top two universities in the country. So, why were there no awards or trophies from his high school years?
Ruan Jiujiu felt that there was a story behind it but didn’t dare to ask, afraid of touching upon Cheng Jun’s painful memories.
As Cheng Jun dug through the old items, he slowly explained, “I took a year off in my senior year of high school.”
“Oh.”
“After my mother passed away, I didn’t go to school for a year.” However, he still took the final mock exam, still received his admission ticket for the college entrance exam, and still outperformed Tu Nan by a wide margin, achieving outstanding results as the top student in the school.
If he hadn’t taken a year off in his senior year, he probably would have been directly admitted to the university.
“I see…” Ruan Jiujiu changed the subject. “It’s a coincidence. When I was about to start my senior year, my parents divorced, and we were almost broke. I thought my education would end at the end of my junior year. At the time, I was even considering going to the streets to draw sketches and sell them. Who would have thought that a teacher kindly lent me money to continue my studies.”
“After graduating from high school, I worked part-time for three months and paid back all the money I had borrowed from the teacher. I saved up some money during college and eventually gave it to my parents. For me, it was like my entire family’s fortune.”
At that time, her parents were both distant and indifferent to her. They politely declined the money at first but eventually accepted it. Ruan Jiujiu considered it as cutting all ties with them.
Ruan Jiujiu blinked her eyes. “Aren’t I impressive? How many people can earn so much money?” However, during that time, she pushed herself too hard and almost ended up with a broken body, causing her to be sickly for a long period.
Later on, partly for the sake of her health and partly because she found it easy to support herself, she no longer felt the need to strive so hard for money. She didn’t know whether she would die first or run out of money first. She was determined not to let her parents, who had abandoned her, get their hands on her inheritance. She would rather be poor than let that happen.
Thinking about it, Ruan Jiujiu suddenly became contemplative. In her other world, had she already died, or had her body been taken over by someone else’s soul? However, for her, it didn’t matter much. She had already put down deep roots in this world, so why should she care whether those people were taking advantage of her or not?
At some point, Cheng Jun had stopped what he was doing and walked over to her, squatting down.
“You’re incredibly amazing,” he said seriously.
Ruan Jiujiu’s eyes widened at first, then curved into a sweet smile.
Cheng Jun was getting better and better at speaking. Compared to when they first met, he had gone from being completely clueless to an almost human level of conversational skill.
Just then, the corner of Ruan Jiujiu’s eye caught a dark, furry object, and she suddenly pointed tremblingly at it.
“Spider!!”
Cheng Jun immediately hid behind Ruan Jiujiu like lightning, making sure to keep his ears plugged with his fingers.
…
…
The silent standoff lasted for quite some time, and Ruan Jiujiu finally said in a low voice, “I made a mistake; it looks like it’s just a pile of trash.”
Cheng Jun replied, “Oh, I swept it away for you.”
Cheng Jun had quieted down after getting scared.
Ruan Jiujiu had been resentful about this incident for a long time. She couldn’t believe that when they faced danger, Cheng Jun had actually hidden behind her. Behind her??
Ruan Jiujiu was feeling angry about Cheng Jun’s behavior. They hadn’t even gotten used to Lin Niao’s identity1Idk what reference this is, and when they faced danger, they both fled separately, leaving her to fend for herself. Ruan Jiujiu was getting more and more irritated the more she thought about it. She gave Cheng Jun a death stare and said, “I’ve decided to give you the silent treatment.”
Cheng Jun put on a pitiful look, lowered his gaze, hung his head, and spoke in a low voice, “I’m sorry, I was wrong.”
Ruan Jiujiu replied, “Pretending to be pitiful won’t work. Kiddo, ‘Dad’ is very disappointed in you.”
She was able to maintain her composure, which showed that she was gentle enough.
Ruan Jiujiu glared at Cheng Jun and decided to go back and settle scores later. She continued searching for old items related to Cheng Jun and his mother. There weren’t many items, and despite searching for a long time, she didn’t find anything. However, Cheng Jun managed to find a photo album among the clutter.
Seeing the photo album, Ruan Jiujiu temporarily let go of her anger and approached with interest.
“Is this an old photo album? Maybe there are old photos in it.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s great! I want to see!”
Surprisingly, the album contained quite a few photos of Cheng Jun. From when he was a chubby toddler to going to school, junior high, and high school, he went from a chubby little kid to a slender and handsome teenager.
The graduation photo from junior high school showed Cheng Jun looking so handsome that Ruan Jiujiu’s heart started pounding just from looking at it.
“He’s so good-looking!”
Ruan Jiujiu found herself deeply reflecting on her previous school life. Not to mention a school heartthrob, she didn’t even have a class heartthrob. If someone like Cheng Jun had been at her school, his name would have spread throughout the entire city, and girls from other schools would have skipped classes just to come and see him.
“Did you have a lot of girls chasing after you when you were in school?” Ruan Jiujiu nudged him with her elbow. “Have you ever been in a relationship?”
Cheng Jun gave a short answer, “No.”
“Really? Faced with so many pretty girls, you could actually heartlessly reject them?”
But when she thought about Cheng Jun’s behavior all along, Ruan Jiujiu suddenly felt that there might be a reason why he had remained single until now. If it weren’t for her being tied to Cheng Jun through marriage, they would probably be two parallel lines that never intersected, with no chance of ever meeting.
Ruan Jiujiu turned the page of the photo album, but Cheng Jun stopped her.
She turned her head in surprise, and Cheng Jun asked, “What about you?”
“I remember mentioning this, right? I didn’t have any relationships.”
“You did mention it, that there was a super amazing senior in school.”
Ruan Jiujiu said, “Oh… I was just joking. At that time, I wasn’t interested in dating.” Of course, later on, she also lost interest in dating.
Cheng Jun asked earnestly, “No one ever pursued you?”
Ruan Jiujiu replied, “…I advise you to shut up and be a good person.”
At that time, she was also a talented and beautiful girl with some fame, and she was quite popular in school as well. Ruan Jiujiu glared at Cheng Jun, causing him to shift his gaze back in confusion. “Continue looking at the photos—”
With a “smack,” Cheng Jun closed the album.
Ruan Jiujiu’s eyes clearly lit up. She had glanced too quickly just now, but she had seen it clearly. It was an old photo, and the young Cheng Jun in the picture was wearing women’s clothing!
“It was from a kindergarten performance; there’s nothing special to see.”
“No, I have to look at it again.”
Cheng Jun said, “It’s time to go back.”
“You look pretty good in women’s clothing.” Ruan Jiujiu gave Cheng Jun a strange look, inspecting him from head to toe, which made him feel uncomfortable, as if he were being targeted.
“You’ve already seen it, are you still concerned about that one glance? If you let me see you in women’s clothing, I won’t be angry with you for the time being.”
After a moment of silence, Cheng Jun reluctantly handed the album to Ruan Jiujiu.
She carefully examined the photo, staring at the blushing young Cheng Jun. The more she looked, the cuter he seemed, and she really wanted to hug him tightly and rub his cheeks.
“We should have a daughter in the future; girls are obedient and well-behaved,” Ruan Jiujiu said. She was genuinely afraid that if they had a son, Cheng Jun would turn him into an even more troublesome, universe’s super-duper direct and clueless straight guy.
As the conversation turned to having children, Cheng Jun changed his posture, propping his hand on his knee while squatting, and looked at it from a different angle.
“No kids,” he said.
Ruan Jiujiu was momentarily surprised. “Don’t you like children? Or is there another reason?”
At this stage, Ruan Jiujiu had definitely not considered having children. But in a few years, she might want a child; it was something that would happen naturally. Cheng Jun’s sudden aversion surprised her, and she didn’t understand why he had such a strong reaction.
“All the legends and stories where parents are forcibly separated often involve the mother giving birth to a child and then being taken away for some reason,” Ruan Jiujiu said.
As Ruan Jiujiu considered this, it did seem to be a recurring theme.
Cheng Jun remained silent.
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