“Yanxi is different. You won him over when he was 18, and you dated him for so many years that you didn’t have time to focus on your career. Now that his family is stable, it’s perfectly normal for him to want to return to the professional field to prove his abilities—it’s only human nature.”
Bie Yunzong listened and nodded: "That's right. My wife has always been there for me, living a simple life. She hasn't had time to work on her own career."
"So you should be more understanding of Yanxi. He was the top student at the Beijing Academy of Drama! He gave up his most precious years for you."
"Yes, my wife loves me so much! She even sacrificed her most precious years for me!" Bie Yunzong was greatly pleased by his brother and sister-in-law's words and stood up from the sofa with renewed spirits. "Okay, then I've decided!"
"What are you planning to do?" Bie Congrui looked at his younger brother suspiciously. "You're not planning to go to Guangcheng to find Yanxi yourself, are you? I advise you to be careful. With Yanxi's temper, she could send you back directly."
"Hey, I'm not going to Guangcheng. Can't I just go home?"
Bie Yunzong patted his wrinkled suit and straightened his appearance in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
"Go home, so I don't have to watch you three living happily together here—you two are still holding hands and showing off your love, it annoys me."
Bie Congrui grumbled, "When you're clinging to Yanxi, you're even more clingy than I am to your sister-in-law."
"Go back to where you are, I'm getting annoyed just watching you shut up like that."
"Then I'm leaving. Oh, right, sister-in-law, don't forget what I asked you to do." Bie Yunzong took a couple of steps and then turned back to remind Cai Yuyan, "Bye-bye, my brother loves you for me."
Cai Yuyan was amused. Bie Congrui, who hadn't heard his younger brother's words, asked his wife curiously, "What did he ask you to do?"
“It’s nothing,” Cai Yuyan smiled, her eyes crinkling, “I just asked you to investigate someone.”
Who is it?
"A classmate who dislikes Xi?"
Bie Yunzong returned home feeling half depressed and half cheerful. As soon as he left his sports car and stepped out of the garage, he was stopped by the housekeeper.
"Young Master, Young Master," Bie Yunzong had been in a bad mood lately, and the servants had to carefully consider their attitude and tone before speaking to him, "There's good news: the cat you and the young mistress raised has been returned!"
"You're back?" Bie Yunzong looked around, even bending down to search under the car. "Where's the cat? I haven't seen a trace of it."
"It's in your room, and it hasn't been taken out of the flight case yet."
The male servant rubbed his hands together, tiptoed, and boldly leaned close to Bie Yunzong's ear to offer his advice.
"Our cat has been away for too long and needs time to readjust. Young master, do you think this is a good excuse to seduce the young mistress back to Beicheng?"
Chapter 24
Author's Note:
Don't look at the dog—the cat's eyes are full of hope!
#13 The clothes smell like my wife
"Son, son, where are you?"
Bie Yunzong affectionately called out to her cat son, then excitedly rushed back to her room to find the carrier and took the drowsy cat out of it.
"Hurry, hurry, it's time for you to shine!"
Bie Yunzong picked up his phone and started snapping photos of Nubi the cat.
The kitten was washed and cleaned by a friend from the cattery before being driven home; its fur was incredibly soft and silky. Bie Yunzong felt this wasn't quite right, so he unleashed his dog-like nature and ruffled all of the kitten's fur!
Bie Yunzong snapped another few photos, his hands busy while his mouth kept praising, "That's right! You have to be pitiful, you have to be lovable, keep it up and try harder, hurry up and trick your mom into coming home!"
He selected two of the most pitiful and tragic-looking photos and sent them to Su Yanxi, along with a pitiful caption: "[Wife, our son is back. Look at him, look at what he's done.]"
Although Zongxi and her partner had been in love for seven years, they had only been married for a year. They did not meet the requirements for same-sex couples to adopt a baby, and could not raise a real little bundle of flesh like her older brother and sister-in-law.
To maintain their relationship and add some fun to their life together, the couple bought a Nubi shortly after getting married, and they've had it for almost a year now.
Su Yanxi often said that it's better to raise a cat than to spoil someone who's too clingy or noisy; therefore, she was extremely attentive to this cat. The message had only been sent for two minutes when Su Yanxi replied.
[Wife: What's wrong?]
[Wife: Didn't you take good care of me? Send me a video, I'm going to confront my friend.]
Don't hesitate, it's working! Immediately strike while the iron is hot, further playing the victim: [No, no, no, it's not that.]
First, feign denial for a couple of minutes, then add something.
[We were away for too long. He's only a little over a year old, and he didn't recognize the house when we got back; he was a bit stressed.]
[As soon as I let it out, it tried to crawl under the bed. It took me a lot of effort to finally get it out.]
Su Yanxi was surprised: [It's so stressed? Then you need to be gentle. Keep it in the room for a while to let it adjust.]
Your wife is gradually falling for it! Don't let him continue to deceive her—
[Okay. Sigh, maybe the maids cleaned so diligently that it couldn't smell anything when it came back. Silly little thing, it's one thing to not recognize its own home, but how come it doesn't even recognize its own father?]
[Honey, what if it doesn't recognize you as its mother anymore?]
Su Yanxi replied with a string of ellipses: [...]
I don't know if I'm speechless because of the cat, or because of Bie Yunzong's description.
Don't let up; finally, she brings up the issue: "[Are you very busy lately? Would you like to come back and see me and our son?]"
[It's been over a week, and I miss you, my wife.]
Inside the hotel where the film crew was staying, Su Yanxi put down the script she was marking and began to think quickly.
Because the filming location was not yet fully set up, the series could not officially begin filming. During the three to five days of rest before filming started, Su Yanxi went around meeting up with her fellow actors to rehearse scenes.
Veteran actors typically have very tight schedules, so once you've gone to the trouble of scheduling a scene with them, you naturally have to take it seriously. Furthermore, during rehearsals, the emotional connection between actors is crucial; once they're immersed in their roles, it's not easy to detach themselves from them.
For various reasons, Su Yanxi admitted that she had indeed neglected her husband, whom she considered her nemesis.
"I'm quite busy," Su Yanxi replied.
After thinking about her schedule for the next two days, Su Yanxi added a sentence.
[But it's not impossible to find the time.]
If I remember correctly, there don't seem to be any scenes scheduled for the next couple of days? The other actors in the crew are all busy with other commitments, while he's been holed up in his room studying the script every day.
Upon hearing this, Bie Yunzong immediately pressed, "[So, we can go back to Beicheng?]"
This overly proactive attitude aroused Su Yanxi's suspicion. He wondered if Bie Yunzong had done something wrong and was now testing him out of fear of being discovered.
He was a little curious: what had Bie Yunzong been doing during the few days he had been busy with work? Was he simply hanging out with his cronies, or... had he hooked up with some pretty young woman again?
Su Yanxi is a suspicious person with an outstanding ability to overthink things. Once she starts making terrible associations, it's hard for her to stop.
In order to confirm Bie Yunzong's current situation, Su Yanxi thought that it would be a good choice to make a surprise visit under the pretext of going home to see her son.
[uncertain.]
He didn't give a definite answer, but instead gave a vague and roundabout answer.
[I seem to have a schedule tomorrow. Even if I'm free, I need to ask my agent and director for leave—they might not even approve it.]
Based on his understanding, Bie Yunzong would definitely reply with something like "Okay..." to express his disappointment while also making the most of his role.
To his surprise, Bie Yunzong accepted his reply with great magnanimity, only responding with one sentence—
[Okay, sure.]
How could Su Yanxi not be suspicious of such an attitude?
Su Yanxi closed WeChat in a huff, then opened Flight Manager and bought a ticket back to Beicheng for the next day.
He had to launch a surprise attack to see what tricks Bie Yunzong was up to.
In the north of the city, a bloodcurdling scream erupted from the master bedroom on the second floor—
"Holy crap—!"
If struck by lightning on a sunny day, Bie Yunzong would reply casually, then quickly put down his phone to rescue his coat, which had been stained with cat urine.
"You brat! How can you be such an unfilial son? This—this is the clothes your mother bought for me!"
The young master, bewildered, held his coat stained with cat urine and spun around in circles before finally remembering that he was a young master with servants to take care of him.
"Help! Help! Something terrible has happened!" He grabbed his clothes and ran out of the room, pleading for help from the servants. "Quickly, someone who can hand-wash clothes clean, please save my clothes!"
Chapter 25
The shouting and yelling caused all the servants from other households to come out, and everyone was disturbed.
The farce only ended when the laundry lady patted her chest and said, "It will definitely wash clean, without leaving any odor or stains," and the servants returned to their posts.
Bie Yunzong returned to the bedroom, cursing. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the culprit was already asleep on the carpet by the bed! He was furious, but he couldn't bear to pick the cat up and discipline it properly. Instead, he angrily went to empty the litter box and prepare cat food.
"I've prepared everything for you again, I hope you'll know what's good for you—don't fucking pee on my clothes again! Especially since they're clothes your mom gave me!"
After finishing his rambling, Bie Yunzong went to fold the clothes piled on the sofa and stuff them into the closet.
These tasks could have been done by the servants, but neither he nor Su Yanxi liked having their wardrobes rummaged through by outsiders. Apart from outerwear, trench coats, and suits that needed ironing, which the servants would help hang up—or store in the walk-in closet—the rest of their frequently worn house clothes were folded and placed on this single sofa.
When Su Yanxi was around, Bie Yunzong would casually put it in the closet, but when Su Yanxi wasn't around... Bie Yunzong was rather lazy and wouldn't touch it even if he saw it.
Over time, the piling up there became an excellent spot for Nubi to urinate.
“There really are quite a lot…” Bie Yunzong muttered to himself, “I haven’t tidied up the wardrobe since that day when I went to Guangcheng.”
"—Hey, is this my wife's clothes?"
Bie Yunzong pulled out a fitted short-sleeved T-shirt that was clearly much smaller than its original size and examined it repeatedly as if he had discovered a new continent.
"It's so small, how can she wear it?" Bie Yunzong gestured with his own frame. "My wife's frame is too small. How can she fit into such a miniature dress?"
He sensed his wife's long-lost scent through this dress! He gestured to indicate the size, marveling at his wife's slender and graceful figure, while frantically sniffing, trying to capture more of Su Yanxi's fragrance from the air.
"It smells so good...it smells amazing!"
Even more surprisingly, as they continued searching, they found even more of Su Yanxi's clothes hidden underneath. Every single one of them smelled wonderful, every single one of them carried the scent of his wife!
"Wow, I'm so happy." Bie Yunzong, like a male cat in heat who had inhaled a ton of catnip, obsessively spread one piece of Su Yanxi's clothing after another on his face, inhaling carefully, "Mmm, this must be heaven..."
He had intended to just take a sniff and call it a day, but—Bie Yunzong couldn't control himself! This damn wife's scent was so good; the more he tried to stop, the more he acted like a pervert, unable to resist absorbing more from her clothes.
Then Bie Yunzong noticed that he had reacted.
"Damn, are you really that energetic?" Looking at his little son beneath him, Bie Yunzong felt incredibly embarrassed. "You get all worked up even at clothes? You're really something!"
They may complain, but their actions speak volumes.