"It's nothing..." She had to grit her teeth through the pain, even if it was a lie. But clearly, he didn't believe her. He produced a bottle of red antiseptic and some cotton swabs from somewhere, took her hand, and began to gently dab the solution over each scrape. The cool liquid stung as it touched the raw skin. It hurt, it really hurt… She bit down hard on her lip, her face contorting in a silent grimace, but she refused to make a sound. He shot her a cool glance. "You brought this on yourself." With that, he let go of her hand, gathered the antiseptic and cotton, and headed for the door. Seeing him about to leave again, she cried out in a panic, "Where are you going?" Her shout seemed to startle him, and he turned back. "Have you even thought about me?" she challenged him. "If your mother finds out you're not sleeping in the same room, what do you think she'll say about me?" "Mom wouldn't—" "Not to your face! But what about after you've left?" she retorted, her expression sour. "I don't care! You just try walking out that door tonight!" He looked somewhat resigned. In the end, he didn't leave. Instead, he pulled a quilt from the closet, made a makeshift bed on the floor, and lay down without another word. The night fell into a dead silence. It was so quiet she could hear the frantic, chaotic thumping of her own heart. *Thump, thump…* She couldn't go on like this. Clutching her wildly beating chest, she let out a small shriek, leaped from the bed, and scrambled onto his pallet on the floor, squeezing in right beside him. He shot upright, his eyes in the darkness glinting with the cold, wary light of a cornered animal. "What are you doing?" His tone was an interrogation, as if she'd committed a crime. Her whole body was trembling, but her mind raced. She pointed at her bed. "There was… a mouse…" He got up, switched on the light, and rustled through her bedding for a long moment before turning back to her, his face a cold mask. "Where's the mouse?" He was a towering figure with sharp, predatory eyes. She withered under his intimidating presence, muttering, "There was one… It must have run off…" He just stood there, silent and immovable as a tower. Fine, she thought, shutting her eyes. Two can play at that game. Finally, he was the one to break the silence. "It's gone now. Get back in your bed." "Oh… okay…" Lin Qingping reluctantly climbed off his pallet, sat on the edge of her own bed, and watched him turn off the light and lie down on the floor again. A sly smile touched her lips. She darted back to him, swiftly and expertly squeezing in beside him again. "Now what?" his voice exploded in the darkness. She could clearly hear the impatience in his tone, but what did it matter? She pressed closer, her body flush against his. "I'm… I'm still scared. What if the mouse comes back?" Gu Juncheng was silent. "Suit yourself," he said coldly, his words final. He lay perfectly still, as if he had no intention of ever acknowledging her again. She lay beside him, closed her eyes, and let a smile curve her lips. He was so warm, like a furnace in the middle of summer. She was practically sweating plastered against him, but she had no intention of moving an inch. Then, suddenly, he spoke again in the darkness. "I happen to have a few days of leave this time. We should find a time to get a divorce." Lin Qingping's mind went blank. What did he just say? A divorce? This didn't happen in her past life. She shot up, staring at his silhouette in the dark. Her face tightened as she exploded, "Gu Juncheng! You are a real piece of work!" Gu Juncheng was stunned by her outburst. Lin Qingping's face was a mask of fury. "I'm married to you! We had a huge wedding! Everyone for miles around knows I'm your wife, Gu Juncheng's wife! How long have we been married? And you're already asking for a divorce! How am I supposed to face anyone after this?" Gu Juncheng paused for a moment before replying, "I can tell people it was my fault. That I was the problem." "And what good would that do? I'd still be the one facing all the gossip! I was a perfectly respectable, unmarried woman, and now I'm going to be a divorcée for no reason! Will I ever be able to remarry? Who would want me then? Besides, you're in the military! What will people say about me?" Lin Qingping fired off in a single, breathless tirade. Gu Juncheng was rendered speechless. "I don't care! I married you, and that means you're responsible for me! You're gone most of the year. Don't you have any idea how much you owe me? And you want a divorce? Let me tell you something, Gu Juncheng, I'm the only one who gets to bring up divorce in this relationship! You don't have the right!" Having said her piece, Lin Qingping lay back down, turning her back to him. Listening to the silence behind her, she felt a bit like a shameless bully, but how else could she crush this idea of divorce? *Hmph! So you've grown a spine, Gu Juncheng! Asking for a divorce! That certainly wasn't in the script last time.* Lin Qingping's face remained taut all the way through the next morning. The atmosphere at the Gu family breakfast table was heavy. In honor of Gu Juncheng's return, everyone had been given an extra egg, but no one seemed to have much of an appetite. Even Lin Qingping's in-laws hardly dared to speak. In the six months since she'd married into the family, she had been a whirlwind of tantrums, smashing bowls and plates, and generally making life miserable. Her temper was not to be trifled with. Also eating in silence was one other person: Li Zhiyuan. Li Zhiyuan was Gu Juncheng's son. Not by blood, though. He was the child of a fallen comrade from the army. After his friend's sacrifice, Gu Juncheng had brought the boy home to raise him. He was five now and had been with the Gu family for almost a year. This child was the reason Gu Juncheng's fiancée—his childhood sweetheart—had broken off their engagement, which had led the furious Gu family to "buy" Lin Qingping as a bride at a high price. Li Zhiyuan seemed to understand that he was a "burden" to Gu Juncheng and the family. He moved through the household with a cautious fragility, so quiet he was almost invisible. In her past life, Lin Qingping had despised the boy and never gave him a kind word. The milk powder, nutritional supplements, and clothes Gu Juncheng sent back for him, she had mostly taken to her own family, leaving the child to grow up in ill-fitting hand-me-downs. And yet, it was this very boy who, in the final days of her illness, had come to the hospital to see her. He had brought her hot soup and given her money. He had even called her… Mom. But even that little bit of money had ended up in her nephew's pocket. Lin Qingping looked at the small, thin boy, a sour ache in her heart. She picked the egg out of her own bowl and placed it in his. The gesture was so shocking it nearly made Zhiyuan drop his bowl. Everyone else stared at her. This was completely out of character. The Lin Qingping they knew was never generous. She always took the best food for herself and the best things back to her parents' house. Concepts like respecting elders and caring for the young simply didn't exist for her. Lin Qingping sensed the awkwardness and cleared her throat. "My stomach feels tight. I don't have an appetite." Zhiyuan stared down at the egg, picking at it with his chopsticks, though whether from fear or a reluctance to eat something so precious, it was hard to say. "By the way, Chengzi," her mother-in-law, Liu Fen, said, her eyes on Lin Qingping, as if trying to smooth things over. "You two got married in such a rush, and you had to leave right away, you never even made the formal visit back to her family's home. After breakfast, you should go with Pingzi to visit her parents."