C9 If I Didn't Love You

The small duffel bag that was slung over her shoulder was growing heavier by the minute.

Still, there was only silence from the other end of the line.

“Bai Tiancheng,” Yanxi finally snapped. “What. Is. The passcode? This is my home, too. You have no right to shut me out like this!”

Angry tears were threatening to slip from her eyes, but she swallowed them back until her throat ached.

“19880316,” Tiancheng said before adding, “Now get inside, take your things, and move out of the house. And don’t forget to come to the Civil Affairs Bureau tomorrow at nine o’clock!”

Then he hung up the phone without waiting for her to utter a reply.

Stunned at being blatantly kicked out of her own place, Yanxi needed to take several moments to collect herself.

“Bai Tiancheng, you bastard!” she yelled to the dial tone, unleashing her outrage and humiliation. “You’re the one who should be leaving, this is my home!”

When she finally calmed down, exhaustion fully set in. She plopped on the ground next to her suitcase, drained of energy to fuel her hurt and anger.

She had no idea how long she sat there, staring blankly into the distance, but she was jolted back to her senses by the sound of their neighbor coming home.

Yanxi hurriedly stood and entered the new passcode into the security keypad.

19880316. That number combination seemed familiar somehow.

She felt like she had read it somewhere before, or had perhaps heard of it. But she wasn’t currently in a mood to ponder the matter any further.

She walked into the house and put away her bags before heading to the kitchen to make some food.

She reached for the apron only to find that the one hanging by the pantry wasn’t the one she had always used. It looked like Tiancheng had replaced hers with a new one.

Yanxi felt a small burst of pleasant surprise. So Tiancheng was still mindful in spite of everything.

This was probably the first time he had shown her any consideration in the two years they had been married.

Her foul mood instantly lifted, and she opened the fridge to start preparing a meal.

Much to her astonishment, she found the fridge well-stocked, with fruits and vegetables piling on top of each other among other food items.

Most peculiar of all was the rows of plain yogurt neatly arranged in one of the refrigerator shelves.

Tiancheng detested yogurt, but it was Yanxi’s favorite. Well, even if it hadn’t been her favorite, the sight of the full fridge was more than enough gratification for her.

She couldn’t stop her lips from curving upwards.

‘Tiancheng, you do have a soft spot for me, after all.’

The sudden beeping at the door intruded into her thoughts.

She hesitated for barely two seconds before she walked out of the kitchen, her smile still in place. She was eager to welcome her husband home.

“Tiancheng,” she called to him softly when she reached the foyer.

It had been a long month. He appeared to had been doing well; at the very least, it didn’t look like he had lost any weight.

Yanxi, on the other hand, had been having a rough time. She had missed him terribly, having not heard anything from him for days on end.

She had lost weight, too. Within the short month she had been away, she had shed all of ten pounds.

Tiancheng’s eyes zeroed in on the apron she was wearing, then on the cup of yogurt she held in one hand.

“Who told you you can wear that?” he demanded out of the blue, his tone cold and full of menace.

The next thing she knew, he had rushed forward, and was grabbing the yogurt and yanking the apron off of her.

“These don’t belong to you, Qin Yanxi, you have no right to touch any of it!

I’m telling you again since nothing seems to get past that thick head of yours—you no longer have any place in this house. Get out!”

His voice thundered along the walls as he spat out the last two words.

“What are you saying,” Yanxi mumbled, her throat dry.

“What do you mean? If they aren’t mine then whom do they belong to?

Who is she, Bai Tiancheng? What is that woman’s name?”

She threw herself at him like a mad person and started to pound her fists against his arms and chest.

“Tell me the name of the woman who has seduced you to the point of insanity! What did she feed you, huh, for you to act this way?!”

“Qin Yanxi, that’s enough! Stop it right this instant!”

Tiancheng peeled her away from him and threw her toward the sofa.

“Like I said before,” he said in a low voice as he loomed over her. “That woman’s identity is none of your business.”

He turned away then, about to leave, but remembered something else at the last minute. “Don’t touch her things!” he warned.

“Bai Tiancheng, you bastard!”

Much later, when Yanxi unpacked and put away her dirty laundry, something caught her eye.

It was a heap of sexy lingerie—lace corsets and sheer underwear casually discarded in a corner.

She gritted her teeth as hot, angry tears streaming down her face.

So in the month that she had been in Japan, her husband had brought and housed another woman under this roof.

She picked up one of the corsets with a trembling hand, rage burning in her eyes.

‘Bai Tiancheng, you scum. If only I didn’t love you so much…

I would never have allowed you to insult me and trample on my person like this!’