"This will make your complexion look better."
Su Yanxi held her phone in one hand, using the screen as a mirror, and pinched the lipstick in the other hand, using her ring finger to blend the edges.
"Okay," he said, turning to Bie Yunzong with a smile after applying the lipstick, and deliberately asked, "Does it look good?"
Bie Yunzong's heart fluttered, his blood rushing to his lower body, and without thinking, he nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, yes, it's so beautiful! I—I don't even know how to describe it, it's just beautiful!"
"Your character." Su Yanxi glanced at Bie Yunzong, her slender and charming eyes revealing both arrogance and allure. "Come and take a picture."
Bie Yunzong was completely captivated and happily went over to hug his wife.
Surrounded by the beautiful aerial views of Guangzhou, the two cuddled and took selfies like a high school couple. One moment they turned off all the effects and took serious photos, and the next they piled all sorts of fancy stickers on the pictures, like rabbit ears and pig noses.
After taking no fewer than thirty photos, Bie Yunzong chose one with a cat ear effect. He didn't care whether he looked good or not; he was fine with grinning and rolling his eyes, but his wife had to look beautiful.
My wife looks especially beautiful in this picture, with bright eyes and her hands mimicking cat paws, giving off a cute yet fierce vibe at the camera. Bie Yunzong likes it more and more; she just received the picture via AirDrop and immediately wanted to set it as her desktop wallpaper.
"Finally updated desktop wallpaper, the last one was used for three months."
Bie Yunzong's lock screen is the same as Su Yanxi's, featuring their shared cat son—a one-year-old blue-gold British Longhair named Nubi. Nubi was borrowed by a friend to be a stud cat some time ago and hasn't returned home yet.
Their desktop backgrounds were different. Su Yanxi still preferred using pictures of Nubi's son, while Bie Yunzong was keen on changing them to various photos of himself and Su Yanxi together.
Bie Yunzong complained about this, saying that Su Yanxi didn't care about him. Su Yanxi's reply was to protect their privacy; she was willing to show less affection if possible. They had been in love for seven years, so a little more time for showing affection wouldn't make a difference.
"Is three months a long time? I don't even change my desktop wallpaper once a year." Su Yanxi sipped her juice, watching Bie Yunzong tapping on the screen.
"I need to update my phone with beautiful photos of my wife all the time, so that I'll feel better when I see her on my phone." Bie Yunzong proudly showed off his phone. "Look, isn't this perfect? I even moved the apps so they don't block my face."
Su Yanxi glanced at it casually, but coincidentally, she saw a pop-up window appear at the top of Bie Yunzong's phone.
[Meet at XX Club in Beicheng]
To be able to read so many words at a glance requires exceptional eyesight.
Bie Yunzong reacted even faster than Su Yanxi, giving her no time to examine the details. Almost at the same moment the pop-up appeared, he hurriedly snatched his phone back.
"Yes, there are spam messages." Bie Yunzong turned to the side awkwardly and started poking and tapping again. "It's so annoying, my inbox is full of spam messages, I'll delete some first."
Su Yanxi's expression turned cold. She turned around and finished the freshly squeezed orange juice in her hand, knowing better than to say anything.
The pop-up clearly stated "WeChat notification." It was a message from a friend on WeChat, definitely not spam.
He had exchanged lock screen passwords and Face IDs with Bie Yunzong long ago, and the two also shared each other's social media accounts and passwords. They claimed it was for easy check-ups, but neither of them were the type to pry into each other's privacy; they'd had the passwords for years and had never checked them even once.
But this time, Su Yanxi felt his curiosity growing infinitely. He desperately wanted to know what Bie Yunzong was hiding from him? What was it that was so shameful that he had to hide it and not let him see it?
He wanted to ask directly, but after drinking half a glass of cold, sweet and sour juice, he calmed down considerably.
"Honey, what's wrong? Are you angry?" Bie Yunzong was probably feeling guilty. After fiddling with his phone, he immediately tried to coax Su Yanxi, "Don't be angry... If you're worried, I'll let you look through my phone, okay?"
"No need." Su Yanxi forced a smile. "It's been seven years. I can practically recite your sleeping positions by heart. Why would I worry about you?"
While saying that, what I was really thinking was, "Give me a break, and you're pretending to let me look through your phone?"
If anything was really wrong, all the evidence should have been deleted long ago!
"Oh dear, wife, what are you saying?" Bie Yunzong didn't think much of it and shamelessly snuggled closer again. "If you're tired of the old position, I can try a new one."
"Speaking up again!" Su Yanxi poked Bie Yunzong's face, shoved the menu at him, and smoothly changed the subject, "Let's order something else to eat, this isn't enough. Take a look?"
Bie Yunzong took the menu and started looking at it. Su Yanxi leaned on Bie Yunzong's shoulder, then glanced at the phone that Bie Yunzong had deliberately placed far away, and resolved to forcibly erase that memory from her mind.
What's the secret to maintaining a sweet and passionate seven-year relationship? It's simply not checking your partner's phone.
You won't know until you see it, and life will be less stressful.
As evening approached, the once sunny city of Guangcheng suddenly changed its weather, and a gloomy drizzle began to fall.
Zong hope and her companion had planned to go shopping nearby after lunch, but the rain disrupted their plans. They decided to order an afternoon tea set and continue to while away the time in the restaurant.
Chapter 14
This upscale restaurant already had few customers, and with the rain, it seemed even emptier inside, and even the well-trained waiters appeared listless.
Su Yanxi and Bie Yunzong's seats were by the window, and were quite inconspicuous, with a food counter and a load-bearing pillar blocking the view from the other side. Su Yanxi yawned contentedly and leaned against Bie Yunzong for a nap.
"Oh, it's a typhoon day today. What a coincidence." Bie Yunzong checked the weather forecast. "Honey, we can't go shopping. In this kind of weather, even going out seems like a problem."
"Hmm? Why don't you take a look around and see what's fun to do nearby?" Su Yanxi opened her eyes, craned her neck and looked around. "Or ask the waiters? They work in Guangcheng, they should know where the best places to go are."
Guests arrived at the restaurant, and several waiters were busy greeting them. Su Yanxi's gaze followed them, and she couldn't help but glance at them a few more times.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that one of the two guests looked far too familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before!
Just as he was thinking this, the man suddenly turned around, smiling ingratiatingly as he spoke to the person next to him. Su Yanxi instinctively hid in Bie Yunzong's arms, outwardly appearing wary like a hedgehog with its quills popped open, but inwardly she was overjoyed, almost bursting with happiness.
"What's wrong, honey?" Bie Yunzong was confused and instinctively protected his wife, curiously looking in the direction she was looking. "A paparazzi?"
"Don't make it so obvious!"
Su Yanxi turned Bie Yunzong's head back, unable to hide her smile, and even the last syllable of her voice rose as she spoke.
"It's not paparazzi news, it's big news."
"I've made some big news!"
Author's Note:
===Mini Theater Time!==
At night, while Su Yanxi was taking a shower in the bathroom, Bie Yunzong unleashed a barrage of insults via voice message in their group chat.
"You fatso, I'll fuck your mother! Didn't you see my warning last time not to change the group chat name randomly?"
"I told you not to make jokes like that—my wife will misunderstand!"
The fat guy's friend who was called out typed a mocking message in the group chat: "Don't be a young master, can't you be a little more shrewish and not be henpecked for a day?"
Bie Yunzong watched, and his cursing intensified: "What do you mean you're useless? How is being henpecked useless? I'll twist your head off and kick it like a ball, then you'll know how capable I am!"
He just couldn't understand why these bachelors, who didn't even have steady partners, loved to tease him about being henpecked. Typical bachelors, they had no idea what it was like to be henpecked!
Still not satisfied with his outburst, Bie Yunzong typed in the group chat: "Being henpecked is the most promising thing!"
—Without exception!
08# Su Yanxi booked a hotel room, and they caught her red-handed.
"That one over there! Did you see it clearly?"
While recording a video with her phone, Su Yanxi pointed out the direction to Bie Yunzong.
“That was my classmate in college. Now he’s working in the entertainment industry, and he can barely be considered a second-tier actor.”
Bie Yunzong squinted for a while, but couldn't recognize Xiang Mingyue's face. However, he matched the person with Su Yanxi's description.
He couldn't reveal that he had gone to the audition, so he could only feign ignorance and ask, "I saw him. What happened to him?"
“He was my arch-rival during college, and we never clicked.” Su Yanxi zoomed in on the image on the screen. “When I got off the plane just now, I saw people holding up banners supporting him at the airport. I never expected that he would actually come to Guangcheng.”
"What's he doing here?" Bie Yunzong asked, puzzled by Su Yanxi's actions. "Wife, what are you doing? Why are you recording?"
Xiang Mingyue walked away arm in arm with the pot-bellied man beside her, and Su Yanxi also stopped recording.
"You didn't notice?" Su Yanxi couldn't hide her laughter as she opened the video and played it frame by frame. "He's on a date with his sugar daddy!"
"Sugar daddy?" Bie Yunzong suddenly realized, "So it's a sugar daddy and his lover. At first glance, I thought they were father and son."
Su Yanxi rolled her eyes at Bie Yunzong speechlessly: "If they were father and son, would I need to react so strongly?"
Bie Yunzong was good at pretending, feigning ignorance of the ways of the world, but she never imagined that she herself had been in the same situation back then—relying on her wealth and power, she dared to seduce him and keep him as a mistress when she was only sixteen.
Upon reflection, Su Yanxi realized he wasn't much different from Xiang Mingyue; Xiang Mingyue wanted to climb the ladder by relying on a sugar daddy, while he sought the protection of one. The only difference was that he'd been lucky enough to get a permanent position and was now officially licensed.
Su Yanxi paused the video, zoomed in on the fat sugar daddy's profile, and asked Bie Yunzong to identify him: "Do you know this middle-aged man wearing a gold watch? Judging from his attire, he seems to be a big boss?"
Bie Yunzong stared at him for a while, then frowned and shook his head: "I don't recognize him. This guy looks like a nouveau riche; he's not that impressive enough for me to know him, is he?"
"Ask your brother, he might know."
Su Yanxi didn't want to bother her older brother and sister-in-law over such a small matter: "...Never mind, I'll keep the video for now and ask my manager about it when I have time."
"Why keep it?" Bie Yunzong put on the airs of a domineering young master and said magnanimously, "Is he your mortal enemy? That makes things easy. Give me the video, and I'll ruin his reputation tonight."
"You dare?" Su Yanxi poked Bie Yunzong's side under the table. "I'm warning you, don't interfere in my affairs in the industry. I just want to see him make a fool of himself, I don't want him to die."
"He's your mortal enemy, why do you care if he's dead or alive?" Bie Yunzong asked, puzzled. "He's useless to you anyway..."
"It's useful." Su Yanxi curled the corners of her lips and sneered coldly, "I have something to ask him."
What has troubled him for so many years, what he desperately wants to know the details of—the disciplinary incident.
He wants to find out who was behind his downfall.
As Su Yanxi plotted her revenge, Bie Yunzong keenly sensed the intelligence.
He secretly memorized the name "Xiang Mingyue," intending to investigate it thoroughly upon returning to Beicheng. Someone who had opposed his beloved wife for so many years was clearly not an easy opponent.
Chapter 15
Knowing that his arch-rival was visiting the same restaurant, Su Yanxi became extra vigilant about his surroundings. Unfortunately, his location was too secluded—it was in the VIP area, making it difficult for outsiders to disturb him and for him to notice the regular customers.
What was initially a gentle, slanting drizzle turned into a torrential downpour under the influence of the typhoon. The aerial views were further obscured by the heavy rain and mist, appearing as a hazy, gray expanse.
The torrential rain pounded against the huge French windows, making Su Yanxi anxious and instantly losing all interest in her nemesis.
"It's raining so hard, shall we stay here and not go outside?"
The couple owned a property less than ten kilometers from the Four Seasons Hotel, bought by the older brother before their marriage, and had planned to spend the night there. However, with the rain so heavy, even driving would be dangerous.
“Okay, let’s just stay at the hotel tonight?” Bie Yunzong settled the bill with the waiter without hesitation.
Su Yanxi had no objections. After all, she had her ID card and marriage certificate; all the documents were in order. What was wrong with booking a hotel room?
He happens to be checking the viscosity tonight, so since he rarely stays in a hotel, he might as well add some fun to his life.
"Okay, let's go." Su Yanxi gathered her things and had Bie Yunzong help her to her feet.
Before leaving, he deliberately slowed his pace and looked around the restaurant. When he couldn't find Xiang Mingyue, Su Yanxi was both disappointed and relieved. She left hand in hand with Bie Yunzong.
They took the elevator down to the left side of the restaurant to the hotel lobby, where they checked in.
On the right, Xiang Mingyue was arm in arm with her sugar daddy, taking the escalator downstairs.