Chapter 84: Step one of confessing.

Weijun hesitated to respond, thinking that she would add something to her words. Something to confirm that she was not suicidal just because she was the unluckiest woman in the world. What puzzled him even more was how she could manage to smile as she said such grim things.

“You…” he started and stopped, because his phone was ringing. The caller was his brother Weifeng. Nervously, he looked at Liwu and stood up. “I have to take this.”

She waved her hand lazily, dismissing him without saying a word. The call was probably from Manman, she thought.

Weijun walked to an emergency exit door, pushed it open and checked the stairs above and below. Silence was all that existed around there. Not a single human beside himself, and he liked it like that.

He called Weifeng back. “Feng’er.” he said slowly. His voice always softened when he was talking to his younger brother. Years of guilt at the burden he had put around his brother’s neck had chipped away at it.

Weijun heard anxious breathing from the other end of the phone and a groan. “Are you hurt?” He asked. “What happened? Tell me where you are and I will come and get you.”

“Is she really back?” Weifeng asked a question in return.

The ’she’ he was asking about was easy to guess. “Yes.” Weijun replied. Hiding it was useless because everyone knew by now that Manman was in the city.

“She came to see you.” Weifeng said in a voice that held something between anxiety, accusation and fear.

Weijun leaned against the wall. “Mmm.”

“What….?” Weifeng sighed. “Did she pick you?”

“No.” Weijun answered quickly, loudly. He clenched his fist and added, “I am married, I know better than to cross that boundary. I did not confess love to her, if that is what you are worried about.”

Weifeng chuckled. “Married!”

Weijun’s heart trembled. “Yes, married. Are you having a lapse in your memory as to how I ended up becoming Tai Liwu’s husband? You went away to figure out your life and win Manman’s heart. I have been figuring out my own life as well, understanding what it is that I truly need.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I have doubts I never had before. Anyway, come home soon so that we can all figure out our lives before things get out of hand.”

Weifeng hung up. He did not even say goodbye.

Weijun stared at his phone for a while. He had been hoping to keep the lie going for a while. At this rate, it seemed like he would need to come clean about his identity sooner than he thought. Given that they were barely a month into the marriage, maybe the fall out would not be so bad.

He was a man that knew how to do calculations and he knew that the best piece on the board to balance the game was none other than his mother-in-law. But the stress of contacting her was really high.

After hearing what he had to say, they would all be lucky if she did not burn down One city! His hands trembled as he drew out an exotic cigarette, its rare fragrance filling the air with a sharp, expensive calm. He lit it slowly, savoring the illusion of control, smoke curling like the fragile promises he made when the alliance was being initiated.

With a sigh, he reached for the phone and called Tai Alix. He hoped she would take a minute to answer, or maybe even not answer at all. But, she picked at the second ring!

“Hello mother-in-law, it’s Weijun. I am Liwu’s husband and I think we need to talk.”

A soft laugh came from the other end of the phone. “Ah, so you finally grew the balls to come out of the wrong name closet.”

Weijun scoffed softly, “So you know. Of course you know.”

Alix replied, “I got a call from your grand aunt. Your Shen family actually has a wise elder, despite her being a kid. The name in the marriage register was changed to yours three days ago. Your new marriage certificates were sent to your grand aunt.”

Weijun was in shock. What else had been happening behind the scenes without his knowledge?

“If you are calling me to fess up, then I take it that you don’t hate my daughter as much she imagines.” Alix said with another laugh. “How you choose to come clean to her is your business. All I care about is her happiness and Sister Bai says you are the man for her. Whatever you do, don’t hurt my daughter, her life has been hard enough as it is.”

Weijun clenched his jaw and thought back on Liwu’s words about the expectation to die young. Had it been something she heard from her family?

“The family is having its second round of the entrepreneurship funding competition soon. I hope that cotton candy business of Liwu’s and Xixi will have some good results to show. My children have not won the grand prize in the last five years. Zhang Bo’s children don’t play apparently and I love them but I hate losing.” Alix sighed as if she was unhappy. “I suppose I should not mind much because I belong to the first branch of the Zhang family and the victory is all about branches.”

Weijun blinked. He took the phone away from his ear for a moment and stared at it. He had agonized over the confession of his true identity to a point of smoking for the first time in ten years and his dragon mother-in-law had slid over it so easily!

Not just that but she had changed the topic to something that he was not invested in. That Zhang family in house entrepreneurship competition was known to everyone. It was one of the things that made the Zhang children the envy of many of their peers.

But not him. So, he politely ended her chatter. “Err, mother-in-law, if there is nothing else I will hung up now. I am at the hospital with Liwu, she banged her head against a wall in the morning. The doctor is calling us now, bye.”

He sighed as he lowered the phone. The first hurdle had been passed, many more were to come. The next person he needed to see was Old Tai. The old man would not take the news as gently as his mother-in-law had done.

Whenever they met, Old Tai used water to humiliate him in some way. It would probably be worse this time. With one last sigh, he walked to the door and pushed it open, just in time to hear a scream and see his wife’s baton flying in the air and it hit a man in the back of his head.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep