When I Stopped Acting Spoiled, My Arranged Husband Fell Apart - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When the meal was ready, most of the dishes were my favorites.

They tasted like nothing.

Zhuo Zhishu filled a bowl with soup and set it in front of me as naturally as ever. Under my father’s cold stare, I pushed it back.

“You have it. I can serve myself.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zhuo Zhishu’s brow crease.

My heart lurched. Soup splashed over the back of my hand.

The moment I hissed, Zhuo Zhishu took the bowl and spoon from me, pulled me into the kitchen, and turned on the tap.

His face was taut, his frown deeper than before.

He had looked the same a week ago, when I made a fuss about adopting a kitten.

I had been waiting by the roadside for him to pick me up for a ski lesson when I spotted a kitten in a flower bed. It was orange, ferocious, and wouldn’t stop hissing at me.

The kitten was painfully thin. Only one eye was open; the other was crusted shut with dried discharge.

If I left it there, it would die.

I had nothing to wrap around it, so I tried lifting it by the scruff. Sure enough, it scratched my arm twice.

When Zhuo Zhishu arrived, the kitten was still all claws and fury. I told him I wanted to keep it.

“No. It’s too wild,” he said, wrapping the kitten in the coat he had taken off.

“It’ll calm down once it’s used to people. If we leave it, it’ll die.”

For once, Zhuo Zhishu lost his temper.

“It already scratched you. Don’t you realize that? I’ll find someone to adopt it, but you are not keeping it. First, I’m taking you to the hospital for your shots.”

I sulked at him for the entire day. We never made it to our ski lesson.

In the end, he was the first to apologize. He bought me the perfume I had been talking about for ages, and only then did I let the matter drop.

I had always thought he was angry because I had gotten hurt.

Now it seemed he might simply have been disgusted by how foolish and difficult I was.

Together with my father’s words, that finally brought reality home. I lowered my eyes meekly.

“I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”

Zhuo Zhishu froze.

After a long moment, he said gently, “It’s all right. Leave it to me next time.”

In truth, the soup hadn’t been very hot. The patch on the back of my hand was only a little red; it hadn’t blistered.

Even so, Zhuo Zhishu took half a day off to stay with me. Work had been busy lately, so he set up his laptop at the kitchen island.

My feelings were tangled. Curled up on the sofa, I alternated between staring into space and scrolling through my phone, stealing glances at him now and then.

His phone chimed twice from the far corner of the coffee table.

I stood to fetch it.

Zhuo Zhishu shot out from behind the island and snatched it up before I could reach it. Only afterward did he seem to realize how odd that looked.

He forced a smile. “There are several major projects at work right now. I have to stay on top of things.”

I nodded. “Oh.”

But when I followed him back to the island, he never unlocked the phone.

“Doesn’t your burn hurt anymore?” he asked. His fingertips were white where they pressed against the screen. “You got up so early today. Why don’t you take a nap? I’ll cook and wake you later.”

He was hiding something.

I shook my head. “It doesn’t hurt, and I’m not tired. I’ll stay with you. Aren’t you going to check that message? You said it was important.”

Guilt flashed through his eyes.

After a beat of silence, he pushed both phone and laptop away. Then he lifted me onto the island in one swift motion, braced his arms on either side of me, and looked up with a roughened voice.

“Then should we do something else?”

His soft lips covered mine, his kiss forceful and lingering.

“What about the message?” I asked.

“Nothing is more important than you.”

Then he kissed me again.

The touch of his cool palm against my thigh jolted me back to my senses.

What could be on that phone that he needed to distract me like this?

My heart thudded uneasily. I caught his wrist and whispered, “Never mind. I’m tired.”