Chapter 4: The Wife

When they were alone, he got onto the bed moving her to the side gently. Resting her on his arm. He smiled gently and pulled out his phone, taking a proper picture of her this time. Another picture was taken of the two of them together by him and when he looked at it, he saw that her eyes were open.

He looked down at her. Meeting eyes with hers, he looked into her beautiful cerulean blue eyes, "You're awake wife?"

She nodded her head slowly but winced in pain. She was about to touch her head but didn't because Yuan Rui caught her arm, "Don't, you hit your head against the floor because of that stupid nurse, I got you stitched up again and you have to drink water so drink it before you make me mad," he said warningly.

She stared at him for a moment then slowly got up and had the glass of water. She settled in comfortably beside him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Yuan Rui dug his nose into her hair and inhaled. There was no distinct shampoo smell but more of a clinical smell from the disinfectant. He ran his hand through her hair and asked, "Wife?"

"Mn?" she answered. "What is your reason for coming into my room last night?" he asked her.

"I heard them gossiping about you and wanted to see for myself how handsome you are," she answered him honestly. His brows furrowed, "How handsome I am?"

"Yes, very handsome," she commented lowly. His heartstrings were slowly being pulled by her kind words. Stroking her hair he continued, "Do you know what my name is?"

She answered with a slow nod, "Zhao Yuan Rui."

He raised a brow hearing his name roll off her tongue. Squeezing he shoulder gently he asked her, "Do you know what I do for a living?" Shaking her head she answered, "Why would I know?"

He smiled in his heart, "Why don't you know what your husband does for a living?"

She chuckled, "Are you accepting that you are my husband?" Yuan Rui raised her head to look up at him, "You already claimed me so what else am I to do?"

She nodded her head, "Since we both have nothing better to do with our lives we can get married and sleep."

"Haha…" He laughed. Although playing along with her just to find out what her motives are, he never expected such an answer. She pinched his nose, "Why are you laughing at me?"

He stopped laughing and looked at her seriously, "I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at the ridiculous words you said, how can you marry a stranger just like that wife?"

She looked at him as though he was an idiot, "Husband don't you know?"

Yuan Rui sat up in bed and help her up along with him, she turned around and sat with her legs crossed and her back straight. He raised a brow at her eager expression, "No wife, I don't know so please enlighten this uneducated husband of yours."

"In ancient times men and woman married first then fell in love and loved each other," she answered him matter of factly.

Yuan Rui stifled his laugh. On her face, pure innocence was written in bold letters. He gave her a serious expression and said, "Okay, we can be husband and wife but only after you tell me what my wife's name is."

She rolled her eyes at him and sighed, "Wife's name is Zhi Rou, Liu Zhi Rou."

Yuan Rui held out his hand, "What a beautiful name for a beautiful woman, how old are you, my dear Zhi Rou?"

She placed her hand in his and they shook hands, "I'm twenty-four years old you?"

"Husband is twenty-five, my dear Zhi Rou, are you interested in a man who is impotent and is a cripple?" he asked her jokingly forgetting that this topic was the reason he was here and made him depressed.

She shook her head, "Of cause not. You better hurry up and walk soon so that I can ride your wheelchair." Yuan Rui was confused. He looked at her carefully and asked her, "Are you interested in me?"

Her posture slumped, "Whether I am interested in you or not doesn't matter, I've already decided that you are my husband and you can't go back on your word because we shook hands!"

Yuan Rui pursed his lips and continued to play with her hair. After a moment he asked her, "And children?"

"Honestly speaking, sex looks like it hurts so I'm not interested in getting hurt anymore, we'll think of something else," she answered him in a serious tone. His head shot up, looking at her he saw that she was too serious on this topic.

Wait!! She was hurt, right? The scars on her back? Thinking about it for a moment he asked her, "Wife, can I ask you a personal question?"

She straightened her back and looked at him, nodding her head she gave him approval. He stared at her intently then said, "Last night when you were laying on me I saw the scars on your back, what happened?"

He saw the hesitation in her gaze and immediately took note of her scratching her left arm. She looked away from him and said, "I was prematurely born and my aunts accused my mother of having a child with another man because I came out seven months later and not nine. My father divorced my mother and because of that, she was always hurting me. She'd drop me off at my grandmother's house and disappear then come back and abuse me. It later got worse as I would suddenly faint from the stress of worrying and become light-headed. Eventually, I was sent away while she slept around and had three other children with different men."

Yuan Rui felt awkward and bad for her. How could her mother give her those scars? He looked at her but couldn't really pity her since he was pitiful himself. "What about your father?" he suddenly asked.

"Oh him… that man… we don't speak but I see him drive around in his fancy car along with his other family," she answered listlessly.

Yuan Rui frowned, "Why don't you two speak?"

She shrugged, "When I was little, my friend and I were playing in a field between many cows when suddenly two cars stopped near us. Four scary-looking men got out of the cars and walked towards us surrounding my friend and I. We wanted to run away but the cows were blocking the exit and two men stepped close to us. This one man grabbed me and cupped my face, he gave me a good looking from both sides then his friend said, "Yup, she looks exactly like you." Then he tucked his hands into his pockets, pulling them out and placed lots of money into my pockets. My friend and I have never seen so much money before and we dashed off to the shop and bought luxuries. When I stepped out of the shop a man who was sitting there the entire time said to me, "There's your father going." I asked him who and he said he was the man that gave me the money and that was it, the first and final communication between us. After that, he would just drive past me when I walked to school or anything else."

"…" And here I thought my family was horrible for wanting me to marry Jiang Hui Yin. Yuan Rui felt bad for asking her and didn't know what to say. She tilted her head at him and smiled, "I don't feel bad about my life."

He tugged the hair in his hand making her frown because it hurt slightly. He smiled unconsciously asking her, "So what do you do for a living?"

Her eyes sparkled and she beamed, "Kindergarten teacher, I love small humans." Very ironic for someone who doesn't want children. "My dear wife, are you not interested in what I do?"

She nodded her head vigorously, "You can tell me if you want." He chuckled lightly, "And if I say I don't want you to know?" She shrugged, "Then so be it, I'm just glad you're smiling and don't want to die anymore."

He looked at her surprised. It's true, he hadn't been thinking about wanting to die since she entered his life. The mere fact that he wanted her around him so that she would ease the tension the people he knew brought him was proof too.

He realised that today was Thursday and asked her changing the topic, "Shouldn't you be at work?" she rolled her eyes and leaned down on his chest. Finding himself in this position with her on top of him awkward as she answered, "Nope, it's the school holidays. So my husband, how did you hurt yourself?" she asked him with a smile. He looked at her with great difficulty as the depression started flooding his thoughts. Seeing that he was falling into a corner again she raised his free right hand and brought it to her mouth. She opened her mouth and bit down on his wrist.

"Ssss," he hissed in pain. Glaring at her he yelled, "What was that for?!" She let go of his hand and glared back at him, "Every time you ignore me I will bite you. You will be full of holes by the end of today if you don't stop it!"

Yuan Rui grumbled, "Fine! I was driving home and the brakes of the car failed me. I drove into a tree and my spine was injured somehow. Because of that, I have been stuck in that fucking wheelchair for the past two years. I'm impotent and as PRESIDENT of my family's company, I am being forced to step down because I'm useless in that area… and before I attempted suicide I overheard my girlfriend of seven years and cousin talking about how great their plan was to be the ones pulling the strings in my accident but they just wish I had died instead so he could take over and she'd be his wife." He said the second part in a whisper. Tears were swimming in his eyes and falling down his cheeks but Zhi Rou was there to catch each and every one of them.

"Being you is pretty hard," she said as her own tears fell. This was the first time she heard of family members trying to kill a loved one. Her mother hurt her but didn't try to kill her.

Whispering to her he continued, "And you know what? I love my cousin. I treat him as my older brother and have always looked up to him since we were younger. I did all the things he told me to do and all the things I knew was wrong I still did it because I wanted to make him happy. Even Jiang Hui Yin, we've been together since high school and our families are friends. I've given her everything she wanted but now I have come to realise that she is just materialistic and manipulative… you see Zhi Rou, I feel lost. She was flirting with him but today she was all over me crying, I don't know what to think and I can't go around telling everyone what happened, I don't have any proof of what they did to me and if there was, it should have been destroyed already. It's only because I happened to pass his office in the company that I heard them speaking about it… Zhi Rou… I wasn't in an accident -- this all happened purposefully."