After My Rebirth, My Husband Pampers Me Everyday!
Chapter 206: HOW EXACTLY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO STAY CALM
The statement seemed innocent enough.
Her tone was not.
The women nearby exchanged glances. Mo Juan slowly closed his eyes.
"He works for a very good company." Auntie Mo straightened her shoulders slightly.
"He bought his own apartment two years ago."
Mo Juan looked as though he wanted to disappear. His reaction only made the surrounding women more amused.
Guiying quietly reached for a basket of vegetables. If he started working now, perhaps nobody would notice him leaving.
"Where are you going?"
Too late.
Auntie Mo had already caught him. Guiying lifted the basket slightly.
"I thought I should help."
"You can help in a minute."
That tone told him exactly how long this was going to take.
Nearby, one of the aunties bent her head to hide a smile.
Another suddenly became very interested in cleaning radishes. Nobody was being subtle.
"My son is hardworking." Auntie Mo continued as though nobody had moved. "He can cook as well."
Mo Juan looked up.
"Mom."
He said it calmly. That only made it more effective.
Auntie Mo turned to him with an expression of complete innocence.
"What?"
Several women laughed. Even Granny Wu glanced over from the opposite side of the courtyard.
Mo Juan held his mother’s gaze for several seconds before giving up entirely.
The surrender was complete and both of them knew it.
Auntie Mo took full advantage.
"My Xiao Gui deserves somebody dependable."
Silence followed.
Not complete silence. The kind of silence people created when they were trying very hard not to look interested.
Guiying stared at her.
Auntie Mo stared back, entirely comfortable.
Several women suddenly found their vegetables fascinating.
The entire courtyard knew exactly what was happening.
"Auntie Mo."
"Yes?"
She sounded delighted.
"I’m sorry to burst your bubble but I’m married."
For the first time since the conversation began, Auntie Mo looked genuinely surprised.
The reaction was so sincere that Guiying almost felt bad for her.
"You are?"
"I am."
Auntie Mo frowned and studied him carefully, looking genuinely confused.
"When did this happen?"
The courtyard exploded into laughter. Even Granny Wu stopped what she was doing.
Guiying clenched his fists slightly, thinking about it made his heart ache.
"We had a little disagreement so I took off my ring and told him not to come looking for him. I said it at the time, angry and sad. What I didn’t expect was that he really wouldn’t come looking for me."
Auntie Mo sighed softly and patted him on the shoulder.
"Well. It seems the one who needs to return is you, you ran way but maybe he’s been searching for you all this while. He’s your husband, you know him best. Do you really think he would abandon you?"
Guiying’s eyes widened, Auntie Mo’s with words opened his eyes.
Liuxian would have been looking for him, despite his ultimatum he would risk it if he could see him again.
If he didn’t come for him then something must have happened.
"Aigoo." Granny Wu stretched her back before reaching for a basket of vegetables.
The older woman glanced around the courtyard and clicked her tongue at the group gathered around the table.
"We came here to work, didn’t we? The pao cai won’t make itself."
The comment immediately broke the atmosphere.
Auntie Mo laughed and picked up a knife while several other women returned to their seats.
Within moments, the courtyard became lively again as vegetables were washed, chopped and sorted into baskets for pickling.
Guiying accepted a cabbage from Granny Wu and quietly joined them.
Although his hands moved alongside everyone else’s, his thoughts remained elsewhere.
Auntie Mo’s words had opened his eyes to something painfully obvious.
Liuxian would never abandon him.
The realization lingered in his mind as he worked. For the first time in a month, the image of Liuxian no longer filled him with resentment.
Instead, he found himself wondering how the man was doing and whether he had spent this entire time searching.
---
Meanwhile, back in the city, the atmosphere inside Liu Corporation had become noticeably oppressive over the past month.
Employees lowered their voices when passing the president’s office, and meetings rarely lasted longer than necessary because nobody wanted to become the target of Liuxian’s temper.
The disappearance of his partner had affected him far more than anyone expected.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and the beard growing along his jaw made him look exhausted.
The usually meticulous president no longer seemed interested in appearances. For the past month, he had thrown himself into searching for Guiying during the day and worrying about him during the night.
When Zhang Wei entered the office that afternoon, Liuxian immediately looked up from the documents spread across his desk.
"Have you seen him?" he asked before the assistant could even greet him.
Zhang Wei paused.
The familiar question appeared every day, sometimes several times a day, and the answer never changed.
"No, Boss."
Liuxian leaned back heavily in his chair and pressed his fingers against his forehead.
The exhaustion weighing on him was becoming impossible to hide.
"Where haven’t we checked yet?" he asked after a moment. His voice sounded rough from lack of sleep. "There has to be somewhere we missed."
Zhang Wei remained silent because he honestly did not know what else to say.
They had followed every lead they could find, and none of them had brought them any closer to Guiying.
A frustrated curse escaped Liuxian’s lips.
"Boss, you need to calm down." Zhang Wei placed the reports in his hands on the desk before continuing carefully. "You’ve been drinking far too much lately. At least think about your gastritis."
"Fuck that."
The response came so quickly that Zhang Wei was not surprised.
Liuxian pushed his chair back and stood up. The movement was abrupt enough to startle the assistant.
"I don’t know where my husband is," he said, unable to hide the frustration in his voice. "I don’t know where Guiying is, and every day we come back with nothing. How exactly do you expect me to stay calm?"
The office fell silent.
For the first time in years, Liuxian felt completely helpless. His mother called almost every day asking when he intended to bring him home,the Xue family had contacted her more than once looking for answers.
Everyone expected him to fix the situation, yet he could not even find the person he was looking for.
As he lowered his head, his gaze landed on the ring resting against his finger.
The sight made him pause.
For several seconds, he simply stared at it. Then a memory surfaced so suddenly that he shot upright.
"Zhang Wei."
The urgency in his voice immediately caught the assistant’s attention.
"Boss?"
"There was a tracking chip in the rings."