Lu's mother's arrival was like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing the sharp words Lu Peizhi was about to say.
Zhang Jingxu looked at Lu's father and spoke humbly and steadily: "Uncle Lu, I'm really grateful that your son saved my wife today. Since you're both here, we'll take our leave now."
With that, he took Yu Wanwan's hand and walked out of the ward without looking back.
"Wanwan..." Watching his beloved walk away, Lu Peizhi couldn't help calling out, but the pain in his wound made him wince on the bed.
Lu's father stepped forward, looking at his son writhing in pain, and scolded him in a tone of frustration: "How did you get tangled up with Yu Wanwan again? She's already married. Why can't you learn to let go?"
"Enough." Seeing her son in such pain, Lu's mother's voice was full of heartache, wishing she could take on the pain herself. "Your son is like this, and you're still scolding him."
"Can't I even say something?" Lu's father's tone remained harsh. "You know how much trouble your son has caused over Yu Wanwan recently. Last month, I sent him to negotiate a deal with the Zhang family on my behalf, and he dared to flirt with the wife in her own home. He ruined a sure thing. Do you know how much loss he caused the company with that one move?"
"Dad." Lu Peizhi tried to argue, but the pain in his shoulder made him bite his lip.
Seeing this, Lu's father softened. Suppressing his anger, he quickly walked out to find a nurse.
Yu Wanwan sat in the car on the way home. The night was pitch black, the wind and rain lashing against the window, and her mood was as gloomy and terrible as the weather.
Zhang Jingxu drove attentively, his knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel. He glanced at Yu Wanwan sitting in the passenger seat with a worried expression. Every subtle frown from her was like a needle pricking his frayed nerves.
The car was dead silent, only the howling wind and rain outside, as if reflecting the turbulent waves in his heart that couldn't be released.
Finally home, the man looked at Yu Wanwan, still dejected, and spoke gently, as if the confrontation at the hospital had never happened: "Are you hungry? I'll make you some noodles."
"I'm not hungry." Her voice was thick with exhaustion.
Zhang Jingxu continued softly, "Eat a little. Your stomach was growling all the way. You won't sleep well if you don't eat."
"I really don't have an appetite." Yu Wanwan looked up, a hint of irritation creeping into her voice.
Too many things had happened today. She just wanted to take a shower and sleep.
Seeing her almost emotionless attitude and weary avoidance, Zhang Jingxu could no longer hold back his feelings.
The silence in the car on the way back, the howling wind and rain outside, her always lowered profile and tight lips in the passenger seat—all of this was like a blunt knife, slicing through his last thread of reason.
Just as she was about to go upstairs, Yu Wanwan suddenly heard his cold question from behind: "Is it because you're worried about him that you have no appetite?"
When these words came out, even Zhang Jingxu was surprised by the harshness in his own voice. He didn't want to be like this. He wanted to be as decent as a perfect partner, but now he couldn't.
He walked in front of her, his eyes like burning coals fixed on her face, filled with complex emotions she had never seen before.
It was like restrained anger, mingled with other indescribable feelings.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Yu Wanwan was intimidated by his gaze and defended herself weakly. "He got hurt saving me today. It's only natural for me to care about him, right?"
Zhang Jingxu questioned her again, his tone icier than ever: "So you admit you're so worried about him that you can't eat?"
Yu Wanwan looked into his eyes, which seemed determined to get an answer, and her heart trembled. That inexplicable guilt and panic seized her again. She was silent for a long time, then finally whispered weakly, "I don't want to argue with you."
"I'm arguing?" Zhang Jingxu raised his voice, disbelief and hurt in his tone. "The way he looked at you, hugging you right in front of me to provoke me, every word he said, Yu Wanwan, I'm going crazy, do you know that?!"
From seeing the media treat him as if he, the legally recognized husband, didn't exist, randomly linking the two together, to the netizens in the comments unanimously supporting their reunion, to the scene of them embracing at the hospital, and now her being distracted by another man... all these images replayed wildly in his mind.
Even if he was calm and composed, he couldn't bear this continuous provocation and neglect.
"What do you have to go crazy about?" Yu Wanwan sighed, her eyes full of fatigue. Having been interrogated by two men in one day, she just wanted to escape. "I'm really tired today. If you want to go crazy, can you wait until tomorrow?"
Zhang Jingxu pursed his lips and let out a heavy breath, his voice like the calm before a storm: "Do you think my feelings can wait until tomorrow?"
Seeing him blocking her way, neither letting her leave nor being able to communicate, Yu Wanwan got angry too, raising her voice: "What exactly do you want?"
His eyes stuck to her face. Although the words were about caring for her, they came out stiffly: "I want you to sit down and eat."
Yu Wanwan locked eyes with him, choosing to confront him head-on: "What if I don't?"
She was indeed hungry now, but his attitude made it impossible for her to sit at the same table and eat with him.
Zhang Jingxu asked her one last time: "Are you going to eat or not?"
Yu Wanwan still stubbornly retorted: "I'm not eating."
Her words snapped the last thread of reason in Zhang Jingxu's mind. The man suddenly went crazy, grabbing her hand and roughly dragging her to the dining room, forcing her into a chair.
"Zhang Jingxu, what are you doing?" Yu Wanwan was startled by his sudden move. She stood up, trying to break free, but he pushed her back down.
"Zhang Jing..." As she tried to speak again, Zhang Jingxu suddenly leaned down and fiercely captured her lips.
This was not a gentle kiss.
It was a possessive, jealous conquest with a hint of punishment. His lips and tongue forcefully parted her teeth, delving, tangling, sucking without allowing refusal, as if to completely erase the other man's scent from her through this.
He wanted to leave his mark on every part of her body.
"Mm... Zhang Jingxu." Yu Wanwan had never expected that the usually reserved, gentle, and polite Zhang Jingxu—more courteous than any man she knew—would kiss her forcefully. Her mind was in turmoil. She pushed him away with all her strength and reminded him, breathing heavily, "We agreed to keep a certain distance at home. You've crossed the line."
"So what." He pushed the half-risen woman back into the chair. "I want you to know who's kissing you now."
With that, he kissed her again, swallowing all her protests.
He continued to plunder in her mouth, his gaze shifting to her left shoulder—the place where Lu Peizhi had leaned earlier.
At that thought, Zhang Jingxu's jealousy reignited. He rubbed her shoulder roughly, as if to completely erase any trace of that man.