The husband"s hand clenched, crumpling the edge of the folder while the missus remained oblivious of his internal turmoil.
Chen Linyun was irritated beyond words. Could he be… jealous?
Nothing"s more disappointing than when you were brought up high on a pedestal by a loved one and then the next moment you realize the effort was not solely for you but for someone else. Just when he thought the wife had gone out of her way to make him feel special after a long day at work and succeeded in it, he would discover that there"s an underlying motive behind it, which may not necessarily be related to him, her husband, the recipient of her affection just a while ago.
How frustrating and disappointing could that be?
It could put anyone to such a new low, lower than even before the effort took place.
That was how Chen Linyun was taking everything.
"Just who was she doing it for?" His frown deepened.
"Take a peek if you want to know." The lady was unperturbed. She stood up but Chen Linyun held her waist in place. She had no choice but to stay seated on his lap.
The husband remained silent but decided to lock gazes with her. She could sense animosity from it.
His intense gaze pierced through her being. She stared back. "Why has he become so hostile? It"s certainly a first. Does he care so much to who"s going to enter his company? Ugh." A pit of annoyance started to build up in her guts.
As much as he wanted to quench his inquisitiveness, he was scared too. A part of him didn"t want to know. As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss.
Chen Linyun softened his gaze a bit. "Are we silently fighting? It"s my fault." He shook his head as he finally succ.u.mbed to his curiosity and opened the folder in defeat. His heart sank even further and deeper when he saw the contents. "Am I getting played here?"
Horizontal lines filled the missus" forehead. "So?... What do you think about it? The candidate finished a course in Business Management and was in the management position for years."
Chen Linyun"s face contorted in a scowl. "What is this about, Jinxu?" He clapped the folder close and threw it on the table.
The lady sprung up her feet, surprise imminent in her already anxious countenance. "Are you mad?" She rubbed her two thumbs together and bowed down.
"I-I just want to help…" After a short silence, she added softly, more like a whisper, "… help you…"
"Your family will kill me. Your grandfather!" He exhaled sharply. "Am I not doing the best I can? Am I still lacking, Jinxu? I"m sorry I cannot help but feel offended."
"Oh no… No, no, no, no…" She scampered towards him and rubbed his chest with her hand over his aching heart. "It"s not my intention to… to undermine you or whatever. I really want to help, dear…" She wrapped her other arm around his shoulders in a hug and closed their distance. Their heads now leaning side by side, she murmured her explanation on his ear. "I saw you the other night… you were dead tired. You"re getting the shorter end of the stick in this relations.h.i.+p, hon. I-I"m feeling guilty. I"m feeling that I brought it on you. Otherwise, you wouldn"t be in this difficult situation. While I…"She pulled back and stared at his dark brown eyes. "Look at me, I am living my dreams, winning at life with you. We can diffuse somehow. Right?"
"Let"s meet in the middle."
Xue Jinxu"s clear eyes relayed what was in her heart. She was the same lady who prioritizes her family over anything. And now, Chen Linyun had become her family.
Her eyes pleaded him as he was engulfed by his own manly ego.
"No."
Xue Jinxu"s communicating eyes shrunk with his response. "What? Chen Linyun…"
The husband"s facial expressions changed infinitesimally. There were flash es and a mixture of hurt, getting touched, anxious, and upset – the negative emotions outweighing the positive.
The person Xue Jinxu was endorsing whose portfolio was in the folder was none other than…
Xue Jinxu herself.
Chen Linyun thought that the wife was viewing his hard work as something trivial and her initiative to enter the company had been interpreted as her not being satisfied with him, generally speaking.
"It"s final, Jinxu. Let"s not talk about it." Chen Linyun stood up and walked towards the closet to settle in for the night. He was still in his robe.
The wife who was left alone trembled as she stared at her husband"s fading back. Fists clenched tightly, a sudden surge of emotions pushed her to burst into tears.
"Hu." A sob came out.
Chen Linyun froze in his tracks. His eyes widened, but the initial shock of the unexpected sound hindered him from moving about.
"Uhu. Hu." Some more soft sobs came by.
Some seconds pa.s.sed, a loud *blag* emanated in the air.
Chen Linyun turned around only to behold a flailing Xue Jinxu who had consequently hit the ground. Crumpled like a fallen leaf in autumn, knees folded and the back hunched, more tears fell from her eyes as her whole body continued trembling.
She was not only sobbing. She was wailing.
She clutched the hem of her cotton dress as she bit her lower lip. "What have I done wrong? Is it wrong to want to help my husband? It"s in my capability anyway."
"Why?"
"What went wrong?"
"Am I not as good as I had been?"
In her eyes, she was rejected. Her good intentions were rejected.
Certainly, this wasn"t the ending she had been foreseeing. Rejection hurts, it seemed.
"Jinxu."
Chen Linyun scurried towards the wife who had been having a breakdown. He safeguarded her in his warm, tight embrace a.s.suring her of her importance, her value. He rubbed her back in the process to calm her down.
"I"m sorry, honey. Let"s talk about it in the morning, mhmm?"
"No." She replied swiftly.
"Make me understand why you don"t want me to help. Am I not good enough?"
Chen Linyun"s hold tightened. "You"re just tired, Jinxu."
"Answer me! Dammit! I just took a break! That"s all! Now, I"m ready to go back so let me go back. Let me help you. Would you rather accept other people"s help than mine? Tell me!"
"You think I did not consider you losing face? That"s why I want to enter Chen Holdings, not Xue s.h.i.+pping! Allow me! I can do it!"
"It doesn"t mean that you are not doing well. You are! I"m so proud of you, Chen Linyun, I really am! But I"m feeling bad about myself for being such a freeloader!"
"You don"t have to carry me! I can stand beside you. I"m your equal."
"Huhuhuhuhu." Big pearl-sized tears hurried out of her eyes as if those were being chased away.
One of the paradoxes of life was the fact that behind a resilient person whose façade was strong, who acted tough and who portrayed such hard or even cold exterior, was a little child, a softie, so delicate and fragile, who only wanted acknowledgement and recognition from humanity, or at the very least, from the people they deemed important.
Such was Xue Jinxu.
For the longest time, she had not opened her heart to the world, only minding her duty to her family. Things changed when she met Chen Linyun.
In a sense, no matter how reserved he was, Chen Linyun was the same.
Chen Linyun was no different from her and was wanting acknowledgment as well. All this time, he had been wanting to prove not only to her family but to Xue Jinxu herself, that he was worthy of such a gem of a wife that he had. How could he accept the help of the one person he wanted to please?
So far, their relations.h.i.+p had been more on the reconciliatory side, never encountering differing views. This instance was one of their first of many misunderstandings that they would have to experience as husband and wife. It"s quite normal too. Such was normal drama in a healthy marriage but would be fatal if not tackled soundly.
Chen Linyun felt as if he was walking on thin ice.
He sighed as he tried to calm her wife in his embrace as he searched within himself what would be the best course of action to take for this situation without compromising his own views and beliefs.