Chapter 4#
The Cowardly Corporate Slave 4#
“You shouldn’t have teased him.”
Beneath the shade of the trees in the residential area.
Shen Xifu, who had walked Jian Lixu downstairs, had icy-cold eyes, as if seeing this old friend of his for the first time.
Jian Lixu shrugged. The warmth on his surface had completely faded, leaving behind only a faint, playful ridicule in his gaze. “I was just curious. What kind of person could make you go this far for…”
Jian Lixu looked his friend, whom he had known for over twenty years, up and down, and laughed, the meaning clear without words.
After all.
Jian Lixu: “Have you ever considered, what if one day he finds out you’re a man disguised as a woman? How would you even begin to handle that?”
“That’s none of your business. And also,” Shen Xifu said coldly, “Stay away from him.”
“And stop observing us.”
Jian Lixu let out a light laugh. “Don’t you think it’s interesting?”
An ordinary employee with a timid, silent personality, yet he could make his friend, who had always been indifferent since childhood, go so far as to disguise himself as a woman, change his appearance, all just to be with him.
He was even willing to hole up in that cramped apartment where one could see everything at a single glance, playing the role of a devoted wife with a peaceful heart.
Anyone who saw it would be curious enough to take a few more looks.
Jian Lixu not pulling out a magnifying glass on them was already doing Shen Xifu a huge favor.
If it weren’t for this, Jian Lixu wouldn’t have, half a year ago, coincidentally learned that the person Shen Xifu married was a minor clerk under his own command, and then quietly approached Shen Anyu.
Wanting to see just what kind of merits he possessed.
To make Shen Xifu—or rather, the former Young Master Xie—so devoted, so blinded by love that he disguised himself as a woman, and even quietly warned all his friends and relatives before the wedding, forbidding them from revealing the fact that he was a man in disguise.
It had gotten to the point where, in recent years, quite a few people in their circle had nearly forgotten that the Xie family had an eldest son, named Xie Xifu.
Thinking back to just now, when he called out the name “Anyu,” and Shen Anyu’s panicked and at a loss reaction, Jian Lixu let out a light laugh, lowered his gaze, and lit a cigarette.
The winding smoke blurred his sharp features.
It also caused the teasing aura around him to completely fade. Jian Lixu said seriously:
“Do you plan to spend your whole life on him?”
If Shen Xifu were an ordinary person, Jian Lixu wouldn’t have asked this question.
After all, from several interactions, the feeling Shen Anyu gave Jian Lixu wasn’t as terrible as the outside world made him out to be.
Just a bit dull.
But his strength lay in his obedience. Asked anything, and he’d answer. Like a mushroom growing in a corner, making people want to poke him, to make him move.
But compared to Shen Xifu, with his distinguished family background, this faint little strength seemed especially inadequate.
Even now, Jian Lixu couldn’t figure out what exactly Shen Xifu saw in Shen Anyu, to go this crazy as he was now.
“True.”
Jian Lixu said: “You’ve even changed your surname. You can’t not waste your life on him now.”
Shen Xifu: “Get lost.”
Jian Lixu smiled, his gaze landing on the balcony of the residential building across the street.
In the sky where the gloomy rain had dispersed, there were gorgeous burning clouds of the evening.
Passing through the shade of the trees, Shen Anyu, who was witnessing the emotional rekindling between the male and female leads at the system’s request, stood on the balcony, his long, delicate lashes slightly lowered.
The glow of the sunset spilled across his profile.
His skin, too white, made him seem like a prince locked away in an attic—if one ignored his actual location, that is: just a shabby residential building.
The distance was too far.
Jian Lixu couldn’t see Shen Anyu’s specific expression, only faintly noticed that the young man standing on the balcony, for the first time, wasn’t timidly hanging his head. His eyes, unobstructed by his hair, rested calmly upon him.
As if observing just what he was doing with his wife.
Very vigilant.
Noticing this, Jian Lixu smiled, looked at his friend in front of him, and should have teased him. But his mind inexplicably jumped to Shen Anyu’s earlier flustered reaction to his call of “Anyu.”
He pinched the unsmoked cigarette between his fingers.
Jian Lixu said nothing.
Only when he opened the car door did he lift his chin meaningfully. “Looks like your ‘husband’ really can’t rest easy about you.”
Shen Xifu lifted his eyelids and coldly said, “Get lost.”
Having witnessed Jian Lixu’s departure, Shen Anyu sat on the sofa, his face pale. Three days wasn’t enough time for the wound on his forehead to fully heal.
This scene had also appeared in the original text.
After realizing that his wife seemed to have exchanged contact information with his boss, even the naturally dull corporate slave had vaguely sensed something.
In the following period of time, he silently observed his wife.
Until the boss’s second visit.
Watching his wife’s attentiveness and fawning over the boss.
The absurd conjecture in the corporate slave’s heart was completely confirmed.
In the end.
To win back his wife, and to assert his sovereignty, the usually cowardly “Shen Anyu” shed his timidity for the first time. After the boss left, he stood on the balcony, openly watching his wife see the boss off downstairs.
At this moment.
Watching Shen Xifu return from downstairs, Shen Anyu opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but due to his naturally dull personality, he closed it again.
“Husband?” Shen Xifu asked, sensing he wanted to speak.
Shen Anyu was silent for a moment, then picked up his phone from beside him, his fingers tapping on the screen. After a long while… looking at that line of text in his memo, he deleted it, word by word.
—Do you… have something you want to tell me?
Just being able to type out this sentence had used up all of Shen Anyu’s courage.
He didn’t dare ask it out loud.
But Shen Xifu was still waiting for his answer.
In the nerve-wracking silence.
—It’s nothing…
Shen Anyu typed this line and retreated back into his shell, as if as long as he didn’t pierce through the current situation, he could maintain the status quo and continue to bury his head in the sand.
Shen Xifu watched, set down the fruit he’d bought on the way back from the supermarket, and slowly walked over to Shen Anyu.
Bending down slightly.
Shen Xifu’s ice-cold fingertips cradled Shen Anyu’s face as he said softly, “Look at me, okay?”
His long, silky hair naturally fell from his shoulders.
Shen Anyu looked at Shen Xifu uneasily, not understanding what he was going to do.
Shen Xifu said: “What did my husband want to say just now? I didn’t see clearly. Say it again, okay?”
“Her” gentle voice lured her husband, who had retreated into his shell, to express his true inner thoughts.
After all, this was the first time in their three years of marriage that Shen Xifu had discovered Shen Anyu’s possessiveness over him.
Not as intense as his own feelings for him.
Like a tender sprout of a plant, probing with softness.
This made Shen Xifu feel pleased.
Shen Anyu’s mind went completely blank, with only the faint, chilly fragrance emanating from Shen Xifu flooding into his nostrils.
Even though Shen Anyu had long known his wife was very beautiful—otherwise she wouldn’t be one of the protagonists in the original book—he still lost his focus, not even noticing when his tightly held phone was taken from his hand.
The memo app had an undo function.
And so Shen Xifu saw, clearly, all the words Shen Anyu had deleted.
Snapping back to reality, Shen Anyu panicked and wanted to explain, but was interrupted by Shen Xifu’s gentle “shh.”
“Are you jealous, my husband?” Shen Xifu said.
Shen Anyu lifted his head, his front hair messy, his pair of clean, transparent eyes exposed. He stared blankly at Shen Xifu for a long while before realizing his wife had guessed his thoughts. He lowered his head, somewhat embarrassed, wanting to explain something, but his throat was parched.
Even without suffering from a language disorder, Shen Anyu would find it very difficult to make a sound at a time like this.
Like a little rubber duck that had fallen into a pool, no matter how hard one squeezed it, it remained silent.
“I…” Shen Anyu opened his mouth, “Sorr…” He said with difficulty, “Sorr…y.”
Shen Anyu didn’t know what he should do at a time like this; he could only apologize on instinct.
He shouldn’t have suspected Shen Xifu.
But in that scene, looking down at his wife, who looked so perfectly matched with his boss, Shen Anyu couldn’t stop himself from giving rise to… unease.
Finally getting the answer he’d wanted, even Shen Xifu’s breathing missed a beat. “It’s okay…”
He said: “It’s okay…”
After all.
He really liked Shen Anyu’s possessiveness over him.
This way, it gave Shen Xifu a sense of satisfaction, as if Shen Anyu could never leave him again.
·
For the rest of the night, Shen Xifu was soothing his sensitive, overthinking husband.
The dimness of the room.
Prevented Shen Anyu from noticing the true appearance of the wife who was pressing close to him.
He could only rely on instinct, dazedly chasing the shameful coldness.
In the end, he didn’t even know why his wife’s hand had become so hot, so unable to accommodate him.
“So obedient…” Shen Xifu sighed.
…
In the following few days, except for occasional work needs, Shen Xifu stayed at home, accompanying the sensitive and overthinking Shen Anyu.
But on Saturday night, he received a phone call and left in a hurry.
Shen Anyu didn’t know who was on the other end of the line; he only vaguely sensed it was one of Shen Xifu’s family members.
This period of rest had allowed the wound on his head to heal almost completely; recently, he no longer needed to put on gauze.
Summoning 9106, the discomfort in his lower back made Shen Anyu silently shift to a different position. He had meant to ask how far along his background character plot had progressed, but unexpectedly learned from 9106 where Shen Xifu had gone.
[Going home?] Shen Anyu asked.
9106 said: [Yeah, yeah~ At this point in the original book, the female lead Xie Xifu’s younger brother happened to have a falling out with his family and ran away from home. After being hungry outside for two days, he finally remembered to seek help from his older sister, who had already cut ties with the family. He’s probably already been picked up by the female lead by now~]
As the culprit who had caused Shen Xifu to cut ties with his family, Shen Anyu was silent for a moment before speaking: [Younger brother? Was there such a character in the original book?]
9106 spoke with unshakable authority, opening the original book and placing the corresponding plot in front of Shen Anyu.
[It’s right here.]
It happened to be a chapter Shen Anyu had skipped before.
After all, as a restricted novel, many of the “plots” in the original book were blatantly labeled in the chapter titles. As a corporate slave who had been slaving away for capitalists for many years, Shen Anyu had long since automatically optimized away those worldly desires. Skipping some content was only understandable.
Now, with 9106’s reminder, Shen Anyu silently filled in the content he had overlooked. In the original text, at the beginning of the chapter, the name of the female lead Xie Xifu’s younger brother was clearly indicated—Xie Yuzhi.
He was another tool character meant to push the relationship between the male and female leads forward.
It was just…
Shen Anyu looked at the original text, at Xie Yuzhi’s disgust for the brother-in-law who had caused his sister to sever ties with the family after arriving at his sister’s home, as well as the outrageous actions that followed. He silently closed the book, his eyes lifeless.
Like a salted fish that had lost all hope.
He’d never heard of a background character being forced into extra scenes.
At the same time, from outside the door came Shen Xifu’s cool, clear voice, along with another distinctly restless tone, “You… live here?”
The speaker sounded incredulous. “How could he treat you like this?!”