Gu Yueji's resentment gradually spread. "Auntie, since you came to Ren Jin for money, let me ask you a question. If you can answer it, I won't make you work, and I'll give you a fixed living allowance every month."
Huang Qiuyan was overjoyed, thinking that such a good thing was like money falling from the sky. "Ask away, I will definitely be able to answer."
Gu Yueji stared into Huang Qiuyan's eyes, "You said you would cook for us, so can you name one of Ren Jin's favorite dishes?"
Huang Qiuyan's smile immediately froze, her hand on the table slowly withdrew, and her eyes were filled with the emptiness of dashed hopes and the bewilderment of not being able to answer.
Seeing that she gave up without any struggle, Gu Yueji could no longer suppress her anger. "Say it! Any question, as long as you answer it correctly, I'll give you money. You want money, right? Say it!"
Huang Qiuyan was embarrassed and annoyed. Ren Jin had never lived with her since he was a child, and she had never cooked a meal for him. She didn't even know how many bowls of rice Ren Jin ate at a time, so how would she know what he liked to eat?
Stung by Gu Yueji's aggressive attitude, Huang Qiuyan tried to save face, saying, "You'll understand when you become a mother; both your children are equally precious."
Gu Yueji's eyes welled up with tears. She thought of Ren Jin's joyful expression every time he came home and saw the food on the table, and how satisfied he was while eating. He loved many dishes: braised fish, pork belly, stir-fried eggs with green peppers, stir-fried shredded vegetables, and stir-fried dried tofu with cured meat. Every dish was very homey and ordinary.
Huang Qiuyan knew nothing about it! How could she be so self-righteous!
Gu Yueji withdrew her gaze and took a deep breath. "Both the palm and the back of the hand are flesh? Then why didn't you feel sorry for Ren Jin! If it weren't for the money, would you have come to him? You wouldn't! Have you ever thought that there's no flesh left on the back of your hand, only a thin layer of skin?"
Gu Yueji put a hundred yuan under the cup, turned around and left.
Sitting in the car, she calmed herself down for a while before calling Ren Jin, wanting to hear his voice.
He was talking to someone else on the other end of the phone. After a while, he asked her, "Honey, what's wrong?"
Hearing his voice, Gu Yueji finally calmed down, but her nose started to sting again. "Can I come see you for a moment?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Do I need to ask my wife before I see her? I'm at the construction site, come here."
When Gu Yueji arrived at the construction site, Ren Jin was smoking and chatting with people at the entrance.
Upon seeing her car, he immediately threw away his cigarette, exhaled the smoke, and walked towards her.
He explained as soon as he got in the car, "Just now, Engineer Li insisted on giving me a cigarette, so I only took one puff."
Ren Jin quit smoking as soon as they started trying to conceive, and now he doesn't carry cigarette packs or lighters with him.
Gu Yueji nodded. "I want to smell it."
Ren Jin raised an eyebrow at her. "How do you want to smell it?"
Gu Yueji unbuckled her seatbelt, leaned forward, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him.
Ren Jin opened his eyes in surprise, then wrapped his arms around her waist and cooperated with her in a friendly manner.
She tried to put her tongue into his mouth, and he obediently opened his mouth. She wanted to suck his lips, and even when she bit him hard, he didn't even flinch.
Gu Yueji, having kissed him enough, rested her head, panting, against his collarbone.
Ren Jin was a little breathless from her kisses, and he lowered his head to kiss the top of her head, "Why do I feel like you're getting more and more clingy lately?"
Gu Yueji deliberately moved closer to him, "Don't you like it?"
“I love it,” Ren Jin said, picking her up and letting her sit on his lap. “I love it so much.”
He gently patted her back, and after a moment asked, "What did Huang Qiuyan do to upset you?"
Gu Yueji was taken aback. She hadn't told Ren Jin about her meeting with Huang Qiuyan, so how did he know?
She didn't need to ask Ren Jin to guess her question. "She just called me and said that you don't respect your elders, said a lot of bad things about you, and even said that you won't call your mother."
His tone was full of teasing, without a trace of accusation.
Gu Yueji pouted, "Do you want me to call her Mom?"
Ren Jin chuckled. "I'm not calling her anything, so why should you?" He was just curious. "What did she say that made you so unhappy?"
Talking about her relationship with Huang Qiuyan would only upset Ren Jin, so Gu Yueji didn't want to say anything. "She just wants us to give her money. I've already refused her. You don't mind, do you?"
Ren Jin smiled and said, "Even if you agree, I won't give you the money."
“Yes, we won’t give it to you.” Gu Yueji finished speaking and snorted.
Ren Jin was amused by her childlike appearance. "Why did you go to see her for no reason? You're just making yourself unhappy."
“I was thinking that since we’re both married, I should formally meet her.”
Ren Jin nodded, "Let's meet once, since we won't be seeing each other again anyway."
He just made it clear to Huang Qiuyan on the phone that she should never come looking for them again.
He was willing to give Huang Qiuyan a perfunctory reply before, but when she started criticizing Gu Yueji, he knew there was no need for them to stay in touch, no point in maintaining their kinship, and she had no right to tell Gu Yueji what to do. Anyway, he had never had a mother before, and he needed one even less now.
Gu Yueji hugged Ren Jin again with heartache.
She understood that the reason he could refuse to see his parents was not because he was heartless, but because he had never received care and love from them. To him, his parents were no different from strangers.
She understands better than anyone the kind of scars that the harm inflicted by her parents on her heart since childhood.
They held each other like that, without saying a word. The carriage was so quiet that there wasn't even any music, but it seemed like they had said everything, until Ren Jin's phone rang. People from the construction site were looking for him, and he said he was coming back now and hung up.
"I'm going back to work now, take your time going back." He carried her back to the driver's seat and got out of the car from the passenger side.
Gu Yueji watched his retreating figure, then suddenly called out to him, "Come here, I forgot I had something to tell you."
Ren Jin paused, then walked back and peered at her through the driver's side window. "Did you forget to say something?"
"I forgot to tell you, I will be good to you, I will be good to you for the rest of my life."
Gu Yueji doesn't understand if loving someone is like this: seeing him suffer, you feel even more wronged than him; you not only love his strength but also pity his weakness, resent his misfortune, and hate everyone who has wronged him.
She loved this man, and she wanted to protect him from the wind and rain, and she wanted his future life to be filled with happiness and joy.
Ren Jin froze, pressed his face against the car window, and stared intently at Gu Yueji.
For some reason, this woman, whom he held in his arms like a child, always gave him so much shock and warmth. It seemed that all the gaps in his life were filled because of this woman.
He cupped her face in his hands and placed a solemn kiss on her lips.
"I will be good to you too, for the rest of my life."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com