Chapter 4 — After Marrying Beijing's Young Master

“Bai Shuangshuang? You suspect me just because of those rumors?”

I glared at him furiously.

He called someone with a cold expression. “Blacklist Bai Shuangshuang.”

After hanging up, he smiled at me. “Feel better now? We broke up eight hundred years ago. Someone else is keeping her.”

“Though her team really does like using me to stir up couple rumors. Maybe they think I'm an easygoing guy.”

I stared at him blankly.

He gave me a cold look and turned to leave.

I hurriedly grabbed his leg and wailed. “Honey, honey, I was really wrong. I know I was wrong, sniff, it turns out I misunderstood you. I won't do it again. I was just possessed for a moment, sniff, sniff, sniff, I promise I absolutely won't repeat it. Please forgive me this once. Sniff. Really, I've learned my lesson. Please, honey, sniff…”

“I don't want to be locked up. I don't want to go crazy. I don't want anyone to die because of me. Please let me off this once. I'm begging you.”

He looked down at me.

So high above me, as if he were looking at an ant.

He crouched and stroked my face. “Really?”

I hurriedly nodded.

He sighed. “That's too bad, then.”

Before I could react, he glanced at me and said, “Then let's see how sincere you are…”

With that, he sat down on the sofa…

After returning from the business trip to City S, I felt as if I'd shed a layer of skin.

Xu Xingzhi really was a complete pervert.

I figured he'd die of kidney failure sooner or later.

Now he watched me like a hawk. Wherever he went, I had to follow.

He even put a bracelet on my wrist.

It had a tracking device inside.

When we went to my parents' house for dinner, my older sister pulled me aside and asked, “What's wrong with you? You look like someone sucked you dry.”

I stared at her blankly. “How's Chen Jinyan?”

“He's been bought out by your husband's entertainment company. What's wrong? Did you get caught?”

I nodded.

She clicked her tongue. “Did he do anything to you?”

I remembered the methods Xu Xingzhi had threatened to use.

There really was nothing he wouldn't do.

No wonder people said that dogs which bite don't bark.

I shook my head quickly. “I didn't admit anything, but he's suspicious now.”

At the table, I kept putting food in Xu Xingzhi's bowl and taking care of him.

My parents, older sister, older brother, and younger brother all looked at Xu Xingzhi with open hostility.

I tried to please him in a soft voice. “Honey, try this. It's really good.”

“Honey, you're so wonderful. You eat everything I give you.”

My mother said, “Zhou Giajia, what are you doing? Is Xingzhi disabled? Why are you taking care of him like an old nurse?”

My younger brother said, “Exactly, Sis. At home you're a spoiled young lady, but after getting married you're acting like a servant. If you're unhappy, just come home.”

My older brother and father said nothing. They only stared at Xu Xingzhi.

With tears in my eyes, I apologized to Xu Xingzhi in a trembling voice. “I'm sorry, honey. Don't be angry. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have put food in your bowl. I… I'll go home and kneel on the washboard again… please…”

He gave me a cold glance.

I glanced at him timidly, clenching my chopsticks uneasily as tears poured down my face.

I said quietly to everyone, “Mom, Dad, Brother, Sis, little brother, I'm fine. I'm really happy. Xingzhi hasn't hurt me or mistreated me. The bruises on my arm are from bumping into something, really…”

Xu Xingzhi frowned, took my wrist, and rolled up my sleeve to look.

The blue and purple bruises I'd deliberately made before coming home were immediately exposed.

I hurriedly pulled my arm behind my back.

He asked, “How did you get those?”

I looked at him and bit my lip. “I just bumped into something because I wasn't careful.”

Then I hurriedly looked at my parents again. “Really. I really bumped into something by accident.”

My parents had already gathered around me and pulled me over to the sofa.

Xu Xingzhi was left out.

Dad took out his phone to call my in-laws.

Mom applied medicated oil to my arm, her eyes already red.

Only my older sister looked at me suspiciously and mouthed a question.

I winked at her.

She rolled her eyes.

On the other side of the room, my older and younger brothers had rushed over and started punching Xu Xingzhi…

I paced back and forth anxiously beside them!

I really wished I could jump in and land a few more punches myself!

I shouted, “Stop! Stop hitting him!”

When that didn't work, I changed tactics and kept shouting.

After Xu Xingzhi's face was bruised and swollen, Dad finally said, “You two! What are you doing? Xingzhi is family!”

My brothers finally stopped.

My in-laws arrived, too.

I cried until my voice was hoarse, then stood in front of Xu Xingzhi. “I won't let you hit Xingzhi! If you want to hit someone, hit me instead!”

Then I turned and hugged Xu Xingzhi, who was wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, and apologized with a choked voice. “Honey, I'm sorry. It's all my fault. I got you beaten. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been hit. Sniff, honey…”

My stiff head bumped into his injury, making him suck in a sharp breath of pain.

My mother-in-law hurriedly asked, “What's wrong? What's wrong? Giajia, why are you crying? Don't cry.”

My father-in-law said, “Did this little brat bully you? Tell me and I'll beat him to death.”

I kept shielding Xu Xingzhi, shaking my head desperately. “No, no, Mom, Dad, please don't hit Xingzhi anymore. The bruises on my body really weren't caused by him. I bumped into things by accident.”

My mother angrily said, “Stop covering for him. Could you really get those bruises by bumping into something? I've raised you for twenty-three years. When have I ever seen you get injuries like these from a bump?”

My in-laws hurried over to examine the bruises on my arm.

I struggled desperately to back away.

Then Xu Xingzhi caught me around the waist.

His eyes were dark as he looked at me.

His face was swollen and bruised like a pig's head. All the cool, handsome dignity of Beijing's young master was gone.

All that was left was his disheveled appearance.

He looked at me, as if he wanted to say something. In the end, he only asked, “Did you hurt yourself anywhere else?”

I answered timidly, “No.”

Then my mother-in-law slapped him hard several times…

My parents forced me to stay at their house.

Xu Xingzhi didn't admit that he'd hit me.

I didn't admit that he'd hit me, either.

But everyone thought we were lying.

My in-laws threatened Xu Xingzhi, then apologized to my parents. My parents magnanimously said it was enough as long as he changed.

My in-laws left.

I stayed at my parents' house, and Xu Xingzhi wanted to stay, too.

My younger brother said, “My sister came home to her parents. What are you still doing here?”

He said, “We're married.”

“You hit my sister!”

“Do you have proof? Your sister herself said she bumped into something. She'll even beg me to stay.”

As soon as he said that, I felt a burning gaze from behind me.

I turned and looked at him, lowering my eyes as I said softly, “Xingzhi, maybe our horoscopes just don't match. I really want to be with you, but you keep getting hurt because of me. I feel so guilty. Could you give me a little time to ease my guilt?”

He nodded. “All right.”

I smiled at him.

I couldn't stand this control freak anymore. What did it feel like to live under his gaze twenty-four hours a day?

Suffocating.

I wanted to be free.

Then he said, “I'll wait downstairs for an hour. Come down and put medicine on me when you're done.”

With that, he ignored my brother, who was guarding the top of the stairs like a fierce god, and turned toward the sofa.

My younger brother angrily swung a fist at him.

Xu Xingzhi caught it, his tone calm. “Brother-in-law, I'll say it again. I haven't laid a finger on your sister. I accepted the beating your whole family gave me just now. But if you hit me again, don't blame me for hitting back.”

I hurriedly pulled my younger brother upstairs.

As soon as we entered the room, the three of them stood there with their arms crossed, staring at me.

I hurriedly fished my sister's phone out. “Come on, let me use it for a while. I'm suffocating to death.”

The moment I got the phone, I flipped onto the bed like a carp, stretched out, and happily started scrolling online.

The three of them silently took out their own phones and played beside me.

My sister kicked me. “So? What are you going to do now? Get divorced?”

“Divorced? How could I? I'll outlive him!”

Mainly, I didn't dare bring it up again.

Xu Xingzhi, that damned pervert.

All I dared to do was pull a prank on him every now and then.

And even then, it was only superficial injuries.

If he decided to deal with me, I'd probably end up crippled.

Why bother?

The three of them looked at me with faint contempt.

I immediately got angry. “I'm not lovesick over him!”

“Don't worry. I'm just pretending to be so bewitched by him I can't think straight.”

“It's all part of my plan.”

“Stop talking. I have my own rhythm.”

I looked up Chen Jinyan's Weibo.

He was active again now.

He still had some resources, too.

I couldn't tell what Xu Xingzhi was up to.

But judging by how inscrutable he was, maybe he planned to give Chen Jinyan some resources while keeping him under his thumb.

I scrolled on my phone for a while, checked the time, then returned it to my sister and took the medicine box downstairs.

Xu Xingzhi was sitting alone on the sofa, eyes closed as he rested.

Thinking back, whenever he'd visited my family before, everyone had surrounded him and treated him like a star.

I walked over quietly, dabbed a cotton swab with povidone-iodine, then pressed it hard against his bruise.

He hissed softly and opened his eyes.

“Sorry, darling.”

He touched my face and asked gently, “Are you really sorry?”

I nodded quickly, wanting to hug him and give him the warmest embrace in the world.

But he braced a hand against me and said, “Don't say sorry anymore. I prefer it when you apologize with actions.”

Then he kissed me as if he wanted to swallow me whole, pinning me onto the sofa as he kissed me…

I suspected he'd been a teddy bear in a past life.

By dinner, everyone had ignored Xu Xingzhi from beginning to end.

To keep me from groveling to him again, Mom sat me next to her, below Dad's seat.

Xu Xingzhi ate without expression.

I looked at him sympathetically a few times.

Then I put on the look of someone forced to be cheerful and harmonious with her family.

That evening, after we'd bathed, I applied medicine to him.

Looking at his swollen, pig-headed face, I felt a little sorry for him.

What a pity.

When he insisted on dragging me into bed, I'd kept my eyes squeezed shut the whole time.

He asked, “Why were your eyes closed?”

“Do you think I'm ugly?”

“Didn't you bring this on yourself?”

My voice was hoarse as I said pitifully, “I already apologized, darling. Can't you forgive me?”

He paused for a moment and said nothing.

I bit my lip and said awkwardly, “You look so different right now that it feels like you're someone else. I keep feeling like I'm having an affair behind my husband's back. My morals are so high that I really can't accept it.”

Then I closed my eyes. “But if I want you to feel good, I have no choice but to accept it, so I can only keep my eyes shut.”

He gave a quiet laugh and started kissing me.

When he kissed my ear, he suddenly bit it.

The sharp pain made me open my eyes and look at him in alarm.

His voice was low. “Don't close your eyes. Look at me.”

I wept silently inside.

I didn't want to look at a pig-headed face…

After staying at my parents' house for a few days, we finally went home.

During those days, he hadn't dared wake me up in the morning to make me go to the office with him.

At last I could stay home and play with my phone and iPad to my heart's content.

As for Chen Jinyan, I asked my sister to compensate him with some money.

Sigh!

Maybe we'll meet again if fate allows.

After we got home, I went back to my daily life of being monitored.

Xu Xingzhi had returned my phone to me.

But he'd installed monitoring software on it.

And he told me openly.

He said, “Married couples should be honest with each other. We shouldn't keep secrets. You won't be angry, will you?”

I looked at him, smiling so brightly my eyes curved. I wrapped my arms around his neck, looked at his handsome face, and kissed him hard.

“Whatever you do, darling, I won't be mad.”

He patted my head.

I sat on his lap and played on my phone for a while. When someone knocked and came in to ask him to sign some documents, I went over to the sofa and lounged there.

In the afternoon, I heard a commotion outside.

I woke groggily and saw a pretty young woman charge straight into Xu Xingzhi's office.

I was wide awake at once.

The woman was crying so hard she looked like a rain-drenched pear blossom.

“Xingzhi, please, don't blacklist me. I know I was wrong. Tell me what I did wrong, and I'll change. I promise!”

I hurriedly messaged my mother-in-law:

“Mom, Bai Shuangshuang came to Xingzhi's office to see him, but my blood sugar feels a little low. Could you come get me? I don't want to get in their way.”

My mother-in-law replied with just two words:

“Right away.”

Xu Xingzhi glanced at his secretary and the security guards.

They shuddered and immediately started to drag Bai Shuangshuang out.

I stood up in shock, confusion, and heartbreak, staring blankly at Bai Shuangshuang. My voice trembled as I asked:

“Honey, who is she?”

Bai Shuangshuang said, “Ms. Zhou, I'm begging you, don't blacklist me. I really have nothing to do with Mr. Xu anymore. I was the one who kept clinging to him and using his name for publicity.”

I couldn't believe it. I stepped back, swaying as if I were about to fall.

“You—you've been intimate with him?”

Bai Shuangshuang stared blankly for a moment.

Xu Xingzhi stood up and strode over on his long legs, steadying me as he frowned. “What's wrong with you?”