Chapter 39: Kneeling as Punishment

Chapter 39

Since that incident, Li Changjing has been reporting his schedule to her every day, as if he were giving a work report.

When Wen Yining finished class, she took out her phone and saw a message notification on the screen. When she opened it, she saw that Li Changjing had taken a picture of her. It looked like he was sitting on a stool and taking a picture of the floor, showing the table legs and the bright, huge peony-patterned carpet on the floor.

In the dead of winter, Wen Yining breathed in the biting cold air, but felt that there was a hint of warmth in the coldness of this winter in Beicheng.

She enjoyed it when Li Changjing shared his daily life with her. Whenever she read these words, she felt that he became more vivid and warm, no longer the aloof and distant young master Li who was different from her in age and status.

She replied, "You're texting like a young person more and more."

Li Changjing is only 26 years old. In the past, he would just call her and say a word, or at most, if he didn't answer the phone, he would reply that he was in a meeting. Now, he will take pictures and add them to his posts.

After sending it, she paused, suddenly remembering something. She frantically tried to retract the message, watching it disappear from the screen and change to "retracted." She breathed a sigh of relief and secretly prayed that he was still in a meeting and hadn't seen it.

Just as I finished thinking about it, I saw Li Changjing's phone call coming in on the screen.

"..."

He seemed particularly bothered by her mentioning his age, and in the end, she still called him "brother" before it was over.

Wen Yining blushed and awkwardly called out, when suddenly someone patted her shoulder. Startled, she turned around and saw Gu Lingling winking at her from behind. "Oh! Who are you calling brother?"

Wen Yining's face burned, and she hurriedly hung up the phone.

Li Changjing was very good at winning people over. Since their last meeting and meal together, their impression of him had completely changed. They stopped calling him a playboy in the dorm and even added him on WeChat.

*

After winter sets in, there are hardly any good days. In the late afternoon, the sky is overcast like the light at six or seven o'clock, and the air is cold and thick.

After Li Changjing started working, he rarely returned to this house unless absolutely necessary. He casually looked down at the full glass on the table, which had long since stopped steaming, as if he didn't see the tense standoff between the two people in front of him.

The study became a silent battlefield for the couple.

The couple rarely saw each other more than a few times a year, maintaining a facade of affection. In public, they were both renowned and dignified figures, but behind closed doors, stripped of their respectable facade, they were nothing more than ordinary mortals in a state of utter disarray.

How could Li Pingjiang not know about the "matter" that Li Changjing dealt with a few days ago? He came back specifically for this trip.

The couple had reached a point where they didn't mind if the other had a mistress outside the marriage. They both knew where the boundaries lay, and as long as it didn't cause a scene, it was fine. Zhou Yu turned a blind eye to his affair and didn't care.

But Li Pingjiang's mistress is pregnant, and he actually plans to have her give birth to the child.

This completely enraged Zhou Yu. Born into a military family, Li Changjing held a high position and had been a pampered young lady since her youth. Now a leader, she had been arrogant her whole life. Of course, she wouldn't allow such a thing to happen after the investigation. This matter was too shameful to be seen by others, so she forced her son, Li Changjing, to personally deal with his father's "affair."

Knowing he was in the wrong, Li Pingjiang tacitly decided to let the matter drop. However, when he returned home today, the two of them suddenly started arguing over a single sentence at the dinner table.

Even when Zhou Yu was throwing a tantrum at her powerful husband, she still spoke in a condescending tone, as if reprimanding a subordinate: "Li Pingjiang, let me tell you, this is the first and last time. Otherwise, our Zhou family wouldn't mind shaking your position!"

Li Pingjiang, who had spent his entire life leading troops, had studied management and never argued with his wife. This time, however, he had truly been pushed to his limit and said in a deep, gloomy voice, "Zhou Yu! Enough! Do you know what you're saying?!"

Li Changjing was almost impatient to be forced to sit there and listen to their argument, as if it were no different from listening to strangers arguing, but he didn't show it on his face and still looked respectful and silent.

They appear to be polite and not interrupting, but in reality, they're just too lazy to care.

Amidst the chaos, Li Changjing suddenly remembered Wen Yining. That day, she had asked him if they were getting a divorce. She seemed even more nervous than he was then, as if it were a major event.

He gave a cold, curt smile. Ordinary people would have divorced long ago, but they had reached a point where they no longer had the right to marry. They couldn't divorce, they couldn't be divorced. Their names would be bound together until death.

Li Changjing recalled how Wen Yining's voice was always quiet even when she was angry with him. Thinking of her face, the coldness in his eyes unconsciously faded a little, and the noise around him seemed to quiet down as well.

In the end, Zhou Yu slammed the door and left. Although Li Pingjiang backed down, the matter could not be easily dismissed.

He looked at Li Changjing beside him and said in a deep voice, "Kneel down!"

He personally led the team to handle it; he was the culprit.

Li Changjing remained calm and composed as he stood up and knelt down.

The mahogany floor was hard and uncomfortable against my knees.

I haven't knelt down in a long time since I grew up, but that feeling is still unforgettable even after so long.

Even if you don't really agree with it, you still have to maintain the proper father-son etiquette on the surface.

Even though no one was in the study, he remained kneeling upright. During this time, the nanny and his bodyguards stayed outside, and no one dared to enter the study. As time passed and darkness fell, the study was completely dark because no one had turned on the lights, as if it were another world.

Suddenly, his phone rang in the pitch-black silence. Li Changjing seemed to be startled awake, and almost stiffly took out his phone. The incandescent light illuminated a space. He was about to hang up when his eyes fell on the caller ID on the screen, and his finger paused on the screen.

Her voice seemed to be right next to his ear, soft, quiet, and very gentle. At that moment, it was like a temptation, and he answered the call anyway.

Wen Yining's excited voice came through the receiver, breaking the silence of the study, "Li Changjing, look, it's snowing outside! Super big, fluffy snowflakes!"

Wen Yining stood on the balcony, holding her phone with bright eyes, reaching out to touch the snowflakes in the sky. The snow fell without warning, as if from the moment the first snowflake fell, it instantly turned into a blizzard. The snowflakes were large and dense, and they felt heavy when they hit her.

The school erupted in excitement. Gu Lingling and her friends had already rushed downstairs. The ground floor was filled with people, and laughter and chatter could be heard from below.

Hearing Wen Yining's excited voice, like a happy elementary school student, Li Changjing subconsciously curved his lips as well. He had been kneeling for too long and his knees felt like they were broken. His entire lower body was almost numb, and his upper body was also very stiff.

The room was dark and quiet. The heating kept all the cold out and blocked out all the scenery. He knew nothing of what was happening outside.

I stiffly turned my head to look out the window, and sure enough, snowflakes were falling in the area illuminated by the lights in the yard.

After bombarding her with questions amidst the howling wind, she finally realized that unlike the noise on her end, Li Changjing's side was extremely quiet, without a single sound. She immediately softened her tone and asked, "Why is it so quiet on your end? Are you busy?"

"I'm not busy," he replied gently.

I wanted to tell her that I was being punished by kneeling, hoping to make her feel sorry for me, but when I heard her happy voice, my tone changed again, "It's snowing a lot, but I don't remember it snowing this heavily."

The sound of wind and snow came in through the window, but Wen Yining didn't notice anything unusual in his voice. "Hmm? I've heard that the snow in Beicheng is usually quite heavy, except for last year, which was an exception."

Li Changjing actually asked her, "Who told you that?"

Wen Yining thought he was refuting the statement, "Isn't that right?"

"Why are you asking this? A senior of mine, a native of Beicheng, said that when he was a kid, whenever there was such heavy snow, they would skip class and run to Beihai to ski and ride bikes."

Li Changjing hummed in agreement.

In the silent darkness, his face and lips were pale. He held up his phone and chatted with her with a nonchalant smile, deliberately teasing her, "Then your senior must have had bad grades, right? I was reading when I was little and didn't see the snow, so I don't remember him."

Wen Yining wanted to retort and shut him up, but she was powerless to do so. "...His grades are indeed average...but is that relevant? Maybe it shows that he had a rich and colorful childhood."

“Yes,” Li Changjing said casually. “There was a lot of material to write in elementary school, such as ‘A Record of Watching Snow,’ ‘The First Time I Was Punished for Not Finishing My Homework While Watching Snow,’ and ‘A Record of Being Beaten for Skipping Class to Watch Snow.’ It was indeed very rich and varied.”

Wen Yining: "..."

She gripped her phone tighter and asked softly, "Are you jealous?"

Li Changjing answered clearly, "Yes."

Wen Yining was speechless for a moment, but couldn't help but curl the corners of her lips and comfort him, "Don't be jealous."

Li Changjing said casually, "Your boyfriend is being punished by kneeling, and you're talking about your senior."

"Forced to kneel?!" Wen Yining frowned, feeling like she had misheard, and subconsciously raised her voice to repeat, "Forced to kneel?"

Who dares to force him to kneel?

Hearing her nervous tone, Li Changjing chuckled softly and changed the subject, "I was just teasing you, you idiot."

Wen Yining breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but pout, mimicking Jiang Fengqing's catchphrase, "You're so funny."

Li Changjing glanced at the clock on the table in the light; it was almost time. He held his phone in one hand and stood up, leaning on the table for support.

My knees felt like they were shattered, and my legs were so stiff I couldn't feel anything at all.

The moment I stood up, my body swayed involuntarily and I fell forward. I quickly braced myself on the table but accidentally knocked over a glass. Water spilled out and the glass crashed to the ground.

The voice on the other end startled Wen Yining. "What's wrong?"

Li Changjing slowly stood up again, supporting himself on the table, and reassured her in a gentle voice, "It's okay, the cup was accidentally broken."