Chapter 9 - Can You Tell Me What's Your Name?

Xu Qin's expression darkened.

No man could stand being questioned by someone who once shared the same bed as them regarding this matter.

His marriage life with Su Ming was said to be dry and cold.

After registering their marriage, Xu Qin did not touch her due to her pregnancy and another thing was that they were not familiar with each other.

He intended to take things slowly to develop their relationship.

Be that as it may, Xu Qin found it hard to cultivate any romantic feelings toward his wife during the early stages of their marriage.

But, after seeing what she has gone through during the pregnancy he gradually warmed up to her. At least up until the moment, she found that the child in her belly was a girl, not a boy.

Xu Qin still remembered what she said after the hospital visit.

She called their child a useless thing with eyes full of disappointments.

Whatever tenderheartedness he previously had, they were all evaporated almost instantly.

Ever since then, Xu Qin drew a clear line between them. He made a deal with Su Ming to let her give birth to his daughter while he would support her financially as her legal spouse and would not cheat on her.

Su Ming readily agreed to give birth to Xu Mei but she did not want to participate in child-rearing.

At that time, Xu Qin thought that letting his daughter stay away from a mother like her was a good choice thus he said nothing.

However, he underestimated her and she didn't even want to breastfeed her newborn child.

His impression of her dropped below a freezing point.

Xu Qin realized that no matter what he couldn't force himself to like her. He became further disgusted when she tried to seduce him with the same tactic again and again. When she resorted to manipulating her child to get on his good side it crossed Xu Qin's bottom line.

He was sure that in this life he would never be able to see her in a new light no matter what.

And yet...

The Su Ming before him was completely unfamiliar to the point that Xu Qin was unable to see the previous Su Ming's shadow on her.

How intriguing. Despite them sharing the same skin, he was unable to treat them as the same person.

Xu Qin was not one to take things while lying down either. After a moment of silence, he meaningfully said, "Whether I am big or small, do you want to confirm it with your own eyes?"

He thought that this much should scare her away since no matter what she was still a woman.

Little did he know that he made a fatal error in his judgment.

Inside that woman's body was a manly man's soul through and through. Seeing a fellow man's bird did not faze him whatsoever.

As a result, Xu Qin went stiff at the upcoming words coming out from those red lips.

Because against all odds, Xu Ming asked for his consent in a profound voice, "You sure?"

Knowing that the other party was simply provoking him, Xu Ming deliberately played along to beat him at his own game.

Meanwhile, Xu Qin was choked into silence. He could neither say yes nor no.

As countless thoughts were racing through his mind he suddenly saw the other side stop her stretching. She unhurriedly stood up before walking in his direction with a straight face.

Xu Qin's pupils shook, his whole body went tense.

Wait... Don't tell me she is being serious?!

Being caught between a rock and a hard place, Xu Qin could only stare unblinkingly at the approaching figure.

At this moment, the room was shrouded in silence. With a steady gait, her footsteps seemed to be controlled and measured causing the sound to echo pleasingly in Xu Qin's ears.

Just as the said figure reached him he who was tensed all over suddenly found that she simply bypassed him in the direction of the door.

Realizing that he was being teased by her, Xu Qin's face slightly heated up.

As expected, I shouldn't judge this person base on the previous Su Ming.

So far, Xu Qin kept eating losses whenever he confronted this woman. His guess further solidified that this person was not the Su Ming he knew.

Quickly composing himself, Xu Qin turned in her direction with his usual indifferent face, "Wait."

Hearing his low and deep voice, Xu Ming paused in his tracks. He turned around to look at Xu Qin with a slight surprise in his calm eyes, "You want to take off your pants?"

Xu Qin's temples jumped at her question. He squeezed out the word through grit teeth, "No."

Regarding his refusal, Xu Ming proceeded to question him with his gaze.

Xu Qin took another deep breath to calm himself down. He finally brought up the real business, "This morning was my fault for wronging you. I apologize."

Xu Ming was faintly surprised. He thought that the matter ended with the nanny's apology. It was rather unexpected that a high-profile man like Xu Qin personally admitted his fault to him.

Look like his good reputation is not an empty-talk after all.

Xu Ming was not a small man either so he didn't make things hard for the other party.

He lightly asked with an unchanging expression, "Anything else?"

Xu Qin silently observed the indifferent woman before him. Her face still hasn't recovered its color so she looked rather weak but her unwavering gaze spoke otherwise.

He did not know why but seeing that pair of beautiful eyes, he ultimately divulged, "... Mei-er wants to meet you tomorrow."

Finally, there was a slight change in her expressionless countenance.

But it was neither annoyance nor dislike like in the past. Rather it looked like she found the news rather unexpected that's it.

"... Was she not afraid of me?"

Xu Qin unconsciously released the breath that he didn't even know he was holding. He lightly responded, "I told her that you are not well and need to recuperate in the countryside soon."

Xu Ming arched an eyebrow, he became rather curious about the man's excuse, "What kind of sickness?"

Xu Qin gave a light cough with evasive eyes, "Mental health issue."

Back then, Xu Qin thought it was okay to come up with this idea but now that he was saying it to the person in question he suddenly felt a bit regretful.

Fortunately, the other side did not find fault with him and let the matter pass peacefully, "Come to the lakeside after breakfast."

After putting down these words, Xu Ming turned around to exit the room leaving Xu Qin to stare at that retreating back in deep thoughts.

It was hard to put her change into words.

Outwardly, she became incomparably colder and gave off such a tremendous presence but...

Xu Qin suddenly felt that she was not... that bad?

At this thought, he warily smiled.

Bad or good, it had nothing to do with him anymore.

Since they had already decided to go in separate ways.

...

On his way back to his room, Xu Ming happened to bump into the Old Butler who was doing another inspection of the villa before calling it a day.

The Old Butler was rather surprised seeing her exhausted appearance. Judging from the direction she came from, he figured that she just hit the gym a while ago.

Despite being amazed, the Old Butler curbed his emotions and politely greeted her without asking any unnecessary questions.

"Have a good rest, Mrs. Xu."

Xu Ming gave a light 'En'. Just as the Old Butler was about to go away, he suddenly stopped him.

"Wait."

"Do you have any orders?" The Old Butler inquired in a respectful tone.

However, after hearing her request, the old man once again became confused. He hesitatingly reconfirmed, "Are you sure?"

Xu Ming gave him a nod. Wanting to take a shower as quickly as possible, he walked forward without giving another glance at the confused old man.

The Housekeeper Auntie suddenly found him in a daze in the middle of the hallway and couldn't help but worriedly ask, "Butler Gu, are you okay?"

The Old Butler held his forehead, he murmured, "I guess I am indeed too old to understand the youngster's thoughts."

It was the housekeeper's turn to look questioningly at him. In the end, the Old Butler waved his right hand dismissively before going to execute his former mistress's order.

At dawn, the sun hasn't risen to the sky yet and a slim figure fully clothed in black from head to toe was seen jogging at a slow pace outside the villa.

Su Ming's body was extremely delicate. Xu Ming knew at a glance that she might have only ever done yoga and walking as exercise.

After exercising last night, his whole body was so sore that he was having difficulty climbing down from the bed.

Even at this moment, he jogged at a snail's pace and he once again found this situation ridiculous.

Feeling the exhaustion wearing him down, Xu Ming gloomily judged that he needed to rest for a few days to be able to work out again lest his feeble body got injured.

Gradually, he switched to walking as he strolled around the garden.

Yesterday, he was in no mood to appreciate his surroundings. At this moment, he took his time to look at the Xu family's enormous garden.

The design and decoration were done in moderation. Rather than saying it displayed the owner's prosperity, it merely looked pleasing to the eye.

Especially for a person like Xu Ming who came from a cold and dark place.

Shortly after, scarlet color slowly appeared over the eastern horizon. Xu Ming sat down on the wooden bench on the lakeside staring blankly at the sunrise.

A gorgeous lady sitting there alone on a wooden bench while gazing at the morning sky, the image was both beautiful and...

Pitiful.

Xu Qin silently gazed at that scene from afar.

He thought that she would lay in bed due to the soreness of her muscles. Who knew that she was more resilient than he initially thought?

Xu Qin knew that he should mind his own business and ignored her. But for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to walk away.

Before he even realized it, his long legs had already brought him closer to being a few meters away from that desolate back.

The other person seemed to notice another presence behind her the moment he moved so by the time he stopped, her face was already facing in his direction.

Xu Qin has always known that his wife's appearance was top-notch had she not gone too far with her excessive makeup and styling.

Just like now, the woman before him was bared face but her face was so mesmerizing that it was hard to tear his eyes away from her.

However, what attracted him the most was her pair of tranquil eyes that were devoid of any emotions.

Since she had her back against the sunlight, her appearance was shrouded in a shade unlike him who seemed to be illuminated with the warm glow of the morning dawn.

Did not know whether it was due to the hazy glow of the sun but Xu Ming suddenly found that the man's emotionless face looked particularly gentle while he was quietly gazing at him.

Nonetheless, Xu Ming knew his purpose for coming here so he was not surprised by his sudden arrival.

His eyes slightly glanced to look for that little ball but she was nowhere to be seen.

Just as Xu Ming was about to question the man, the latter had already beaten him to it and was the first to open his mouth.

In a soft voice that sounded neither commanding nor interrogating, he posed his question.

"Can you tell me what's your name?"