Chapter 14

When Pei Huai woke up, half a month had already passed.

The day he woke, I didn’t go.

Zhao Yao brought Pei Mingnan to see him, but they were quickly driven out.

Zhier, gloating and animated, told me:

“Miss, you don’t know-when he saw her, the Marquis’s face was terrible. He shoved her to the ground and told her to get out of the Pei Family. The eldest young master cried so hard he couldn’t catch his breath, but the Marquis only shouted louder, saying he wanted you to come-”

But before she finished, a figure suddenly rushed in.

It was Pei Huai.

He still had bandages wrapped around him, blood seeping through, but he didn’t care at all and pulled me tightly into his arms.

“Niaoniao, Niaoniao!”

He called my name again and again.

Yet mindful of my pregnant belly, his hands were careful and gentle.

I didn’t struggle, and softly said, “Pei Huai, you’re trembling. What are you afraid of?”

My shoulder quickly grew warm.

He was silently in tears.

So his voice was tinged with hoarseness:

“I’m afraid you’ll leave. I’m so afraid-”

I gently patted his head, as if to comfort him.

“Don’t be afraid, I won’t leave. I’m still carrying your child.”

He froze, then looked up at me in surprise and joy.

“Forever?”

I can’t lie.

So I just smiled and said nothing.

His eyes instantly dimmed, his hands trembling as they gripped my shoulders.

“Niaoniao, I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have lied to you, I was foolish-”

“You’re not foolish, you’re very clever.”

I looked at him, my smile gentle: “You knew I’d be hurt if I knew about Zhao Yao, so you kept it from me all along.”

His expression changed: “Niaoniao, I-”

I raised my hand and pressed it to his lips.

“All these years, perhaps out of guilt, you treated me even better, making me ache for you even more. And because I hadn’t conceived, I felt guilty too. When I drank bowl after bowl of bitter medicine for the child, when my arms were bruised from all the needles, did you laugh at my foolishness while you were entangled with her?”

“You hid it for more than three years, not a drop leaked out. See how clever you are.”

He raised his hand, wanting to hold me tighter, and I didn’t dodge.

This time, he held me very tightly, as if wanting to merge me into his body, his breath brushing my ear as he whispered sorry again and again.

But I could smell a trace of Zhao Yao’s sweet fragrance on him.

In that moment, I understood with absolute clarity that even if Pei Huai and I were so close we were almost touching,

our hearts had long since changed.

He was no longer him.

I was no longer me.

There was no more “us” in this world.

I leaned on his shoulder, my tone light but incomparably firm-

“No need to say sorry. This was the path I chose myself.”

“It was me who loved the wrong person, trusted the wrong person. I am the most foolish, most muddleheaded person in the world.”

“I admit defeat, Pei Huai.”

“Let’s separate.”