On her way home, Zhi Xia ran into Wang Li.
Wang Li told her that last night, her parents had taken her to Zhi Xia's house specially to thank her, because that day Zhi Xia had pretended to be drunk and accidentally saved her.
Originally, Wang's family was still very angry. Although it was Zhi Xia who saved Wang Li, in their eyes, the one who harmed their daughter was from Zhi Xia's family. Their daughter was dragged into the infighting between the two families.
But later after reading the newspaper, they realized that Zhi Xia's family had severed ties with that vicious woman.
Additionally, these past two days, their daughter had been saying nice things about Zhi Xia. After thinking it over, they decided to go thank Zhi Xia in person.
At the same time, they wanted Zhi Xia's family to know that they could distinguish their own children's good and bad deeds. They wouldn't mention the one who did bad things, but they couldn't let the one who did good things feel disappointed.
Listening to Wang Li's words, Zhi Xia could only feel irony.
It turned out that after hearing about what happened at the wedding from Wang Li herself, they still went ahead to help Gao Meiyun get a divorce.
And they kept saying they would compensate Zhi Xia and treat her well. How could they say such hypocritical words?
After saying goodbye to Wang Li, Zhi Xia went home while the sky was still bright.
She stood at the front gate for a long time before walking next door.
It was very quiet in the Pei family's yard. Zhi Xia followed the path to Pei Jing's room and knocked twice on the door.
"The door's not locked, come in," Pei Jing's low, rich voice came from inside the room.
Zhi Xia opened the door and went in. She saw Pei Jing lying on the desk writing.
At this time, he had taken off his military uniform. His upper body was only wearing a vest, revealing the wheat-colored nape of his neck and his strong, muscular arms.
The half-revealed shoulders still carried traces of faint red marks.
Pei Jing didn't expect it to be Zhi Xia coming in. He looked up at her, put down his pen, and asked, "What are you doing here?"
The brief encounter at noon made him re-examine Zhi Xia.
From their previous meetings, Pei Jing knew that she probably didn't like him. Otherwise, she wouldn't have refused to acknowledge what happened between them, and even avoided him deliberately.
Although he was willing to take responsibility, it was more out of consideration for the relationship between their two families. What happened that day was an accident, and both of them were victims, but she as a girl suffered more.
But with Zhi Xia's repeated rejections, he didn't insist on it either.
Her pregnancy was truly unexpected, and it also made her change her attitude towards him.
Pei Jing thought that even if it was a marriage to legitimize the child, with each of them fulfilling their marital duties, their days would still go by well. But Zhi Xia's attitude at noon struck him hard.
She was still disgusted by him, and only agreed to the marriage out of desperation. This made him reconsider what their married life would be like.
With her harboring disgust towards him, how could they live well together?
Zhi Xia didn't answer him. Instead, she walked up and reached to pull up Pei Jing's shirt, wanting to see how badly he was injured.
No matter what, it was because of her that he was beaten.
But Pei Jing was startled by her bold move. He dodged hurriedly, pulled back his chair and stood up, reaching to put on a jacket.
"Sorry, I just saw the red marks on your shoulders and wanted to see how bad your injuries were." Zhi Xia realized her actions were too intrusive and felt a little embarrassed. She quickly explained.
"It's fine, not serious," he said. With his tough skin and flesh, the old man's cane on his body only left a few red marks.
Other than some slight pain when moving vigorously, it was negligible and didn't affect anything.
Since he said it was fine, she didn't insist on looking. Zhi Xia spoke again apologetically, "I'm also very sorry about what happened at noon. I wasn't yelling at you, I was just feeling unwell and took it out on you. But it won't happen again next time, so don't be angry with me, okay?"
When it came to this, Pei Jing sighed and said to her, "Sit down and talk, don't tire yourself out."
Zhi Xia obediently sat down and listened to Pei Jing continue, "The wedding is the day after tomorrow. Since you came, let's discuss our plans after getting married. You don't have a problem with that, right?"
Zhi Xia nodded. "What are your plans?"
"I was thinking, your condition is special right now. I have to leave the day after the wedding, which is quite rushed. I haven't had the chance to prepare and arrange housing over there yet. Also, after I return to the troops, I might be sent on missions and often have to leave you at home alone. So why don't you wait before joining the army, since there are many people at home who can take care of you? What do you think?" Pei Jing made the arrangements based on various considerations. Also, Zhi Xia's attitude towards him was very unstable. Bringing her along might not necessarily be good for her.
He thought the old lady's words made sense. She was still young and some willfulness was unavoidable. He could tolerate it.
After the child was born and she became a mother, and grew a little older, she would get better.
But his job was special, and there were indeed some things he couldn't attend to. If he went on a mission for ten days or half a month, leaving her alone at home, it would be hard to feel reassured.
Just a moment ago Zhi Xia was thinking of leaving this place. But now she heard that he was unwilling to take her away.
"Then what's the point of us getting married?" Zhi Xia asked him, "You don't even want to take me away. I'll give birth to the child and raise it myself. Why do we need to get married? Just to give the child a legitimate reason to be born?"
She had come wanting to apologize to him, but now she didn't like what he was saying.
"Who was it that told me just a while ago that his position had reached the level to bring along family, and now you're going back on it? Also, if you don't want to bring me along, fine, you don't need to make up other excuses to fool me. I'm not insisting on following you."
Zhi Xia stood up to leave, feeling a bit hurt.
"Zhi Xia," seeing her get angry, Pei Jing frowned, got up and stopped her, "I said we were discussing this, not making decisions. If you're not satisfied, you can voice it and we can discuss properly."
Zhi Xia wasn't completely ignorant, and could understand that from Pei Jing's perspective, his arrangements made sense.
Just like with her elder brother and sister-in-law. Wen Qing was already two years old, yet her sister-in-law was still at home. Apart from her reluctance to give up her job, surely there were reasons on her brother's side too?
After calming down and thinking it through, Zhi Xia also became composed again and replied rationally, "Actually I know there's nothing wrong with your arrangements. It's just that I don't want to stay here anymore, and I don't want to say why."
Pei Jing could probably guess some of the reasons. When discussing the wedding with the old master, he had said Zhi Xia would be married out of the ancestral home. Clearly this went against common sense.
After thinking it over, Pei Jing suddenly made a decision. "Since you think this way, then come with me. But the environment there may not be too good, transportation is inconvenient, and the housing is quite shabby..."
This was giving advance notice, in case she regretted it after going and wanted to come back, which wouldn't be so easy then.
