Sprawled beside the bed, Bai Baozhu's face lit up with excitement. Her little act of playing the victim hadn't been in vain.
She knew that Xie Chengxiao was the kind of person who appeared cold on the outside but was warm on the inside. He looked aloof, but in reality, his heart was very soft and easy to approach.
"Chengxiao, I knew you..." couldn't let me go.
Before she could finish her sentence.
"Bang—" The heavy thud of the door closing echoed.
It was Xie Chengxiao who had closed the door to Bai Baozhu's room from the outside.
Bai Baozhu was dumbfounded: "..."
How could this be?
This was completely different from what she had expected.
Shouldn't Xie Chengxiao have walked in to help her up from the floor, and when he carried her to the bed, she could take the opportunity to nestle her head in his arms?
Then she would naturally wrap her arms around his waist to increase their physical contact, followed by a blushing, heart-pounding gaze into each other's eyes.
When Xie Chengxiao tried to leave, she would cry and cling to his hand.
But now...
Not only did Xie Chengxiao not come in to help her, he even shut the door.
Frustrated, Bai Baozhu propped her hands on the floor, trying to get up by herself.
After all, the floor was a bit cold.
But after trying, she couldn't push herself up. Her fainting was fake, but her physical weakness was real.
She pushed hard again. Hiss... it hurt so much.
She must have accidentally bumped her tailbone when she pretended to fall just now. Bai Baozhu grimaced in pain and could only shout at the top of her lungs:
"Nanny Wu, Nanny Wu, come quickly, I fell!"
But this was the third floor.
Nanny Wu was still in the kitchen on the first floor brewing medicine for her.
It would be an hour and a half before she came up again.
Meanwhile, Xie Manyu had been angered by her brother. After returning to her room and crying, she fell into a groggy sleep.
The only other person with a room on the third floor, Bai Liuyue, also heard her cousin's cries for help.
She smiled.
And turned the shower in the bathroom on even louder.
She thought it would be some clever trick, but it turned out to be such a cliché routine? Tsk, tsk, how pathetic!
In the end, Bai Baozhu was only discovered an hour later by Nanny Wu, who came up to deliver her medicine.
Wearing a thin, sexy nightgown and lying on the freezing floor for so long, she had started out faking an illness, but now she had truly caught a cold.
The next day, she developed a high fever and felt dizzy. Xie Manyu anxiously called the family doctor.
"Dr. Gu, my sister-in-law seems to have a fever. Her forehead is burning hot, please come quickly."
"Hmm, is it serious?"
"Yes, very serious, hurry."
"Has Second Miss Bai been infected?"
"Ah... what the heck?! Bai Liuyue doesn't even share a room with my sister-in-law, why would she have a fever?
Besides, her own cousin is so sick, yet she left early in the morning. That's too much!"
Right now, Xie Manyu just wanted to complain to anyone she could catch.
"Left? Where did she go?"
"My brother took her shopping at the department store in the city.
Wait? That's not right, Dr. Gu. We were talking about my sister-in-law's condition. Why are you asking about Bai Liuyue?
Ugh! Just come quickly, hurry!"
Xie Manyu hung up the phone impatiently and ran upstairs with heavy footsteps.
Bai Baozhu groggily woke up.
She thought the person guarding by her side would be Xie Chengxiao, but it turned out to be Xie Manyu.
A hint of disappointment flashed in her eyes.
Xie Manyu, however, said excitedly and happily:
"Ah! Sister-in-law, you're finally awake! You scared me to death!"
"You have no idea how high your fever was. It's all my brother's fault. You fell on the floor last night, and he didn't even come to help you up."
"It's really too much!"
Bai Baozhu's voice was weak, but she couldn't help defending him:
"Chengxiao has a knot in his heart, and I was the one who did things wrong in the beginning. It's normal for him to resent me."
"Sister-in-law, you are really too understanding. If I were a man, I would want to marry you."
Xie Manyu's eyes sparkled, looking exactly like a little fangirl.
Bai Baozhu also smiled.
She thought to herself: If only Xie Chengxiao were as easy to fool as Xie Manyu!
Unfortunately, this Young Marshal Xie was intelligent and perceptive.
Any feigned emotions or feelings could not escape his sharp eyes.
"By the way, what time is it now?"
"It's already noon. I'll have Nanny Wu bring your food up. Sister-in-law, do you want Chinese or Western food?"
Bai Baozhu's mind wasn't on this, and she asked casually:
"Has Chengxiao eaten?"
"He is probably eating steak with Bai Liuyue at the department store restaurant right now."
Xie Manyu's voice was sour and carried a hint of sarcasm.
Only then did Bai Baozhu remember.
That's right.
Last night, the Marshal told Xie Chengxiao to put aside his official duties today and take her cousin to the city for a stroll.
Originally, if she hadn't gotten sick, she would have definitely tried her best to tag along.
She didn't expect that lying on the floor for too long last night would cause her to catch a cold and ruin her plans.
Bai Baozhu sighed softly, her expression sorrowful and fragile.
Seeing this, Xie Manyu felt heartache for her and quickly said:
"Sister-in-law, don't be sad. I'll talk to my brother later."
"Although he might not listen, they say one day of marriage brings a hundred days of grace. How can he really be so heartless?"
Bai Baozhu lowered her eyes.
She was filled with endless regret about why she had locked Xie Chengxiao out on their wedding night.
And even later, the two of them slept in separate beds.
The master bedroom was a suite, and they had always been separated, though no one on the outside knew.
Bai Baozhu had been reluctant to marry him in the beginning. Xie Chengxiao was also a proud man, so naturally, he wouldn't ask for a snub, putting an end to any further developments from the very start.
Instead, it was that Xu Yanci.
Bai Baozhu bit her lower lip, extremely angry. She thought to herself: Back then, when she was pregnant, she couldn't satisfy his needs, and her body was bloated from the pregnancy, no longer as graceful as before.
Xu Yanci hooked up with a student from the Jinzhong Girls' School where he taught.
He had absolutely no professional ethics as a teacher!
He was a complete and utter scumbag.
In this life, she would absolutely never spare Xu Yanci another glance, but right now, her cousin was a bit in the way.
Although Xu Yanci was a scumbag, he had endless tricks to coax young girls who had never been in love. Perhaps she could make use of that?
...
Bai Liuyue currently had no idea how Bai Baozhu was plotting her revenge plan in the Marshal's mansion.
However, right now, she was still pretending to be a docile little white rabbit, following behind Xie Chengxiao with an innocent face, facing all the merchandise in the department store.
She let out one "Wow" after another~
Greatly satisfying the man's vanity.
Seeing that she only looked but didn't buy anything, Xie Chengxiao stopped in his tracks and said:
"Our Xie family holds a thirty percent stake in this department store. Go in and pick whatever you like, I'll pay for it."
Bai Liuyue hesitated a bit.
Xie Chengxiao used to hate accompanying young girls shopping the most.
Before, when he accompanied Xie Manyu, she would practically sweep through every store, and then ask one by one,
"Brother, does this look good?"
"Brother, do you think the pink one or the blue one looks better on me?"
"Brother, why aren't you saying anything?"
Xie Chengxiao would keep a serious face and use a uniform, perfunctory response: "Yes, it looks good."
When Xie Manyu asked: "What's good about it?"
Xie Chengxiao: "It all looks good. If you like it, buy it. I'll pay."
Even if Xie Manyu was dissatisfied with his perfunctory words, as soon as she heard her brother was paying, she immediately plunged joyfully into several more shops for a crazy shopping spree.
It was precisely because of their good sibling relationship that Xie Manyu had been full of expectations for her sister-in-law from the very beginning.
She even loved her brother's wife by extension, feeling that she should treat her sister-in-law well too.
Bai Baozhu happened to be a type of woman she had never encountered before. She perfectly embodied the independent woman of the new Republican era, the exact ideal that a rebellious teenage girl yearned to become.
Instantly, she became her biggest fangirl.
As they spent more time together, she would instead frequently talk back to her own brother for Bai Baozhu's sake.
Consequently, the relationship between the siblings gradually deteriorated because of Bai Baozhu.
