***

When Shen Xi entered the house, she immediately noticed Su Hang crouched over and playing with Chu Wu in the living room. Although one was a man and the other a dog, the expressions in their eyes were surprisingly similar.

"There was a bit of traffic, so I ended up being a little late." Shen Xi had said that she would be home in 30 minutes, but because it was rush hour, she ended up getting home 20 minutes later than expected.

"Oh." Su Hang's reply sounded casual, but his hands were firmly gripping on the collar of the excitable Chu Wu who had wanted to pounce on Shen Xi.

Shen Xi was completely clueless about the secret rivalry between man and dog. She simply walked towards the pair, patted the cute Chu Wu. In a good mood, Shen Xi said: "I'm going to go change clothes; you can tell Mrs. Zhang to set the food out now."

"Un." Su Hang nodded.

After Shen Xi went upstairs. Su Hang furrowed his brows and glowered at Chu Wu. "Why is it that the first thing she touches after coming home is you?"

"Bark!" Chu Wu barked as if to say: You think it'd still be possible for you to get petted if she hadn't pet the incredibly cute me?

"Don't go pouncing on her in the future." Su Hang ordered.

"Bark!" Chu Wu looked wronged. Just because you don't dare pounce on her, I can't either?

In the end, Su Hang 'scolded' Chu Wu again, then put him in his kennel. （Chu Wu：(￣△￣；)）

Shen Xi changed into her home clothes, then went straight downstairs. When Shen Xi arrived, she saw Su Hang putting rice in her bowl. She couldn't help but ask: "Where's Mrs. Zhang?"

"Her family has something going on so I let her go home." Su Hang placed her bowl in front of her.

Back in a certain house, Mrs. Zhang sneezed for no reason. She couldn't help but wonder why she sneezed every time Sir asked her to go home early.

"Thank you." Shen Xi then looked around and noticed that Chu Wu was gone. She asked: "Where did Chu Wu go?"

Su Hang's hands turned stiff, but he calmly replied: "It seems that he got sleepy. I put him back in his kennel."

"Sleepy?" Shen Xi has never had a dog before, so she didn't know if dogs could even get sleepy.

"Yes." Su Hang said.

"Oh." Shen Xi didn't think about it any further. She just picked up her chopsticks and concentrated on her food.

Su Hang was relieved and tried to change the subject. "How is Mrs. Shen....cough....Mom? She's been in hospital for a while."

"She's good. She'll be getting discharged tomorrow. Can you come visit her with me?" Shen Xi asked with a smile.

"Ah, tomorrow morning or afternoon? I'll have to see if I have time..." Su Hang replied.

"You don't have to force yourself if you can't. I can go alone." Shen Xi interrupted Su Hang.

"Oh." In all honesty, Su Hang had asked Fang Yu to call the hospital every day and inquire about Mrs. Shen's health. So Su Hang actually knew that Mrs. Shen will be getting discharged, and even knew what time it would be. He had already asked Fang Yu to clear his schedule.

"My dad doesn't have time either." Shen Xi was afraid that Su Hang was feeling bad, so she hurriedly added. "He's been pretty busy recently."

"The Shen Group just resumed operations so he probably has a lot of things to do." Su Hang nodded.

"Then you should be busy too, right?" Shen Xi suddenly asked.

"Ah?" Su Hang's heart jumped. Lately, he had been deliberately leaving work early then continuing to work in his study through the night. Had he been discovered by Shen Xi?

"You..." Shen Xi hesitated, then continued: "You've moved such a large amount of money from your company to Shen Group. You must be experiencing a great deal of pressure."

In their last life, Su Hang went on a business trip to HK soon after their marriage too. Not only that, during the next six months after that trip, his feet barely touched the ground. If Su Hang hadn't insisted on eating breakfast with Shen Xi every morning, Shen Xi doubted that she would have seen him at all during that time.

(T/N: feet barely touching the ground is an idiom for being super busy.)

But in this life, things were different. What should've been a week-long business trip turned into Su Hang coming back the very next day. He even took a week's holiday afterward. Then, even if he went to the company to work, he would come back home every night to have dinner with her. With Su Hang's consistent nine to five schedule, Shen Xi found the vastly different circ.u.mstance strange.

What was different in this life? Shen Xi had thought about it for the past few days, and could only think of one reason. In her past life, after Su Hang had left for HK, she went to visit her mother and had ended up staying indoors the entire time. Therefore, in her last life, she had never caught a cold. So Su Hang never had a reason to come back halfway through his business trip.

And the most important thing....was that Shen Xi hadn't taken the initiative to care about and understand Su Hang in her last life.

"You know, I own a small bank." Su Hang says.

"My dad says a small bank wouldn't have that much money on site. You must have raised that large amount of money from somewhere else." Shen Xi replied.

Su Hang turned stiff again. There was even a bit of panic in his eyes, as if a long-planned conspiracy of his was about to be brought to light.

"I don't know if I've told you already," Shen Xi earnestly said. "But thank you for helping Shen Group through his trying time."

Shen Xi's sincere thanks caused a bitter feeling to spread in his heart. Sure enough, these past few days were just Su Hang deluding himself. His feelings hadn't been reciprocated. Shen Xi being good to him was really just to thank him for saving Shen Group. How could he be so foolish? How can he think that Shen Xi could even come to like him in such a short period of time.

"I'm done. I'm going to go back to my study." Su Hang put down his chopsticks, politely said his goodbyes, then coldly left the table.

Shen Xi looked at the suddenly changed man. She was a little confused? What happened? Did she say something wrong?

Su Hang's cold temperament continued to the next morning. He still had a dark expression in his face during breakfast and even Chu Wu, who was under the dinner table, knew that his father was in a bad mood. He was careful not to make any sudden movements.

Shen Xi was a bit upset by his cold att.i.tude. When Su Hang left for work, Shen Xi's heart couldn't help but feel wronged.

"Are you quarreling with the Sir, Madam?" Mrs. Zhang carefully asked.

"No." Shen Xi replied. Then, she said: "I'm going to pick my mother up from the hospital today. I won't be coming back for dinner. As for Sir, you can just cook noodles for him."

"Oh...yes!" Mrs. Zhang replied, not knowing what to do.

Shen Xi finished her breakfast, then went back to her room to change. Resolved to stop thinking about Su Hang, she drove to the hospital to pick up her mother.

After helping her mother, they left the hospital and Shen Xi drove her back to the Shen family home. Shen Xi handed her mother's luggage to the maid and slowly led her mother to the living room.

"The weather's nice today, why don't we sit out in the garden?" Mother Shen suggested.

"Alright." Shen Xi led her mother to a rocking chair in their garden, then shouted: "Sister Li, please help me get a blanket."

(T/N: Sister Li is a maid I'm guessing, but in the Chinese raw, Shen Xi really does call her 'Older sister Li.' Just so we're all clear.)

After Mother Shen sat on the rocking chair, Shen Xi accepted the offered blanket and carefully covered her mother. Mother Shen looked at her daughter's face, then with a sharp voice, said: "You look like you're in a bad mood today."

"No." Shen Xi denied.

"You're my daughter, you can't hide such things from me." Mother Shen hesitated for a bit, then asked: "Did Su Hang bully you?"

"No, I'm just trying to figure something out." Shen Xi was afraid her mother would continue to ask, so she tried changing the subject. "By the way, Su Hang wanted to pick you up, but I was afraid you would get upset, so I didn't let him come."

"Is that right? Maybe he's just trying to get on your good side." Mother Shen tilted her head.

"He often asks me about your health." Shen Xi continued.

"It doesn't matter whether he cares about me or not, what's important is that he treats you well."

"Mom, I've already told you. He's very good to me." Shen Xi helplessly said.

"Liu Fang visited me in the hospital once." Mother Shen slowly said. "She said that Su Hang never took you back to visit the Su family home."

Ever since she learned about Su Hang's past, Shen Xi felt nothing but dislike towards the Su family. When she heard her mother's words, her expression immediately fell. "Su Hang doesn't have a very good relations.h.i.+p with the Su family."

"I know that, but one has to visit the parents after marrying." Mother Shen replied.

"We're going to visit his birth mother this weekend." Shen Xi said.

Mother Shen looked at her daughter. Shen Xi looked so solemn and serious that in the end, Mother Shen stopped asking. After all, her daughter was now married to Su Hang. In the end, she can only accept both the good and the bad in him.

"Mom, Su Hang isn't an illegitimate child. His mother was Su BoNian's first wife." Shen Xi seemed to know what her mother was thinking, so she couldn't help but explain.

"What?" Mother Shen was very surprised, but her expression eased at Shen Xi's words.

Shen Xi stayed in her parent's home for a long while. After having dinner together and talking for a bit, Shen Xi eventually drove back to the villa. When she arrived home, Shen Xi went to the kitchen to drink a gla.s.s of water. As she pa.s.sed by the dinner table, she saw a bowl of half-eaten tomato and egg noodle soup.

Shen Xi's brain couldn't help but imagine a scene where a man, all alone, ate this bowl of noodles. She found it kind of funny. "He really ate nothing but noodles, ah."

tap tap tap...

Hearing a familiar trot, Shen Xi turned around and saw Chu Wu running out of the study with a white A4 piece of paper in his mouth. Filled with wonder, Shen Xi took the piece of paper and saw some words written on it.

[The noodles were unpalatable.]

"Pfft..." Shen Xi's mouth curved into a smile. She looked towards the study door. She folded the piece of paper, stroked Chu Wu's head, then said: "Chu Wu, let's go upstairs and play."

Waiting until Shen Xi and Chu Wu were on the second floor, the study door finally opened. A man with an ominous aura stood by the stairs and looked up towards the second floor.

With his lips pressed together into a thin line, he looked pitiful and lonely.

The author has something to say:

Su Hang: I knew I shouldn't have used you to send it.

Chu Wu: Bark, bark!

Su Hang: Didn't you say that acting cute would be effective?

Li QingYuan: So bewildering...

**

Hope you all had a nice Christmas