Then I’ll Kneel With You

They walked back toward the Zou family residence.

Jiang Jibai carried her laptop bag, while Wen Xi walked with empty hands, feeling light and relaxed.

She tilted her head up and asked curiously, “How did you find out I was at that café?”

“You can see that place from the second floor of the kindergarten,” the man replied calmly.

“…So you mean you noticed me there from the very first day?”

Jiang Jibai neither confirmed nor denied it.

Wen Xi groaned in frustration.

“I thought I was being so subtle, pretending I didn’t know you were coming here every day! Jiang Jibai, you’re so sneaky. You knew I was there, and there was even that dog outside. I was terrified, and you still didn’t tell me. You just watched me from upstairs!”

“Why did you sit there the entire day?” Jiang Jibai asked, lowering his gaze to look quietly at the girl’s pale face.

“Why do you care? I’m not telling you,” Wen Xi huffed, deliberately acting proud.

Jiang Jibai withdrew his gaze and didn’t ask again.

“…You’re so impatient,” Wen Xi complained. “Couldn’t you ask one more time?”

Jiang Jibai glanced at her from the corner of his eye and repeated in a calm voice, “Why were you sitting there all day?”

“I wanted to keep you company.”

Wen Xi’s voice softened.

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Even though you’re very cold and very smart, Jiang Jibai… you seem especially lonely here.”

“As your wife, I naturally have the duty to accompany you.”

“Wen Xi, you’re mistaken,” Jiang Jibai said.

What?

He actually denied it?

Wen Xi suddenly stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

Jiang Jibai had no choice but to stop.

He looked down at the girl who was staring up at him.

“Jiang Jibai.”

She lifted one hand and gently touched his eyebrows and eyes.

Jiang Jibai didn’t stop her.

He allowed that small, fragrant hand to brush over his brow bone and eyelashes.

He even closed his eyes instinctively.

Then he heard the girl speak softly.

“Your eyes are really beautiful.”

“But they can’t lie.”

“There’s nothing shameful about admitting you’re lonely.”

“When I was little, I was very lonely too. So I can recognize the feeling. The atmosphere around you right now is exactly the same as how I used to feel.”

“But it’s okay now.”

“You have a wife.”

“I talk so much that you definitely won’t feel lonely anymore.”

Her hand withdrew.

She stopped teasing his eyelashes.

Jiang Jibai opened his eyes and looked at the extremely serious girl in front of him.

Wen Xi continued meeting his gaze.

“Of course… with how noisy I am, you might also think I’m annoying—!”

Before she finished speaking, a child chasing a helium balloon suddenly bumped into her from behind.

Her body was pushed forward.

Jiang Jibai didn’t move.

Her face crashed directly into his chest.

Her hands instinctively grabbed both sides of his waist.

A broad hand landed on her back.

She heard the man above her speak.

“I don’t find you annoying, Wen Xi.”

On the fifth day, Jiang Jibai finally allowed Wen Xi to go out with him.

But Wen Xi still stayed in the café waiting for him.

Jiang Jibai had asked if she wanted to go inside the kindergarten and look around, but she refused.

Just looking from the outside, the place was already dilapidated.

The inside was probably even worse.

Someone who had never lived there could never understand the meaning and value behind every room and every object.

She ordered a coffee in the café.

While drinking it, she opened the notes Lin Shu had sent her and began studying.

Around three in the afternoon, someone sat down across from her.

Wen Xi lifted her eyes from the laptop screen.

She blinked slowly.

Outside the door was the same black Maybach that had stopped Jiang Jibai two days earlier.

At six in the evening, Jiang Jibai came out of the kindergarten and went to the café to get Wen Xi.

They walked back side by side.

Wen Xi hesitated as if she had something to say.

“If you have something to say, say it,” Jiang Jibai said.

“You’re not the type to hesitate like this.”

“Well…”

“While you were inside today, someone came to see me.”

“He asked me to give you a gift.”

“He said it was to congratulate you on your upcoming twenty-seventh birthday.”

Wen Xi took out an A4 sheet tied with a silk ribbon from her bag.

Jiang Jibai glanced at it.

Then, without expression, he took it from her hand and threw it directly into a roadside trash can.

“Hey! Don’t throw it away so quickly. At least look at it first.”

Wen Xi hurried to pick it up.

But Jiang Jibai grabbed her wrist.

“It’s not something good. There’s no need to pick it up.”

Wen Xi had already seen what was inside.

It was a share transfer agreement.

The Shen Group intended to transfer eighteen percent of its shares to Jiang Jibai as a birthday gift.

Even Wen Xi, living in Ning City, had heard of the Shen Group.

It had started with the hotel industry before expanding into banking and finance.

It was a family enterprise capable of influencing the entire economy of Sicheng.

Eighteen percent of its shares…

That gift was worth an unimaginable amount of money.

Wen Xi finally pulled her hand free.

She ran back, picked up the document, and tore it into pieces before throwing it into the trash.

Then she jogged back to Jiang Jibai.

“I’m not forcing you to take it.”

“But the document already had the company seal.”

“You should at least handle it properly.”

“If you just leave it there, someone else might pick it up and get rich overnight.”

Jiang Jibai looked at her coldly.

“Wen Xi.”

“I know you dislike that person,” Wen Xi quickly explained.

“I’m not clueless. He just left the paper and asked me to give it to you before leaving.”

“I tried to return it, but he had already gotten into the car and left.”

“So I didn’t know what to do with it.”

“That’s why I brought it to ask you.”

Jiang Jibai said nothing.

Wen Xi remembered a financial magazine she had once seen in his room.

The cover had featured Shen Yi, a famous businessman.

She wanted to ask if Shen Yi was his biological father.

But her reason told her not to ask.

When they returned to the Zou residence, Ji Lingling ran over with a strange expression.

“Brother Jibai! Sister-in-law! Wait!”

Wen Xi stopped.

Jiang Jibai kept walking.

“Grandma wants to see you!”

Only then did Jiang Jibai stop.

He turned and walked toward the main hall.

Wen Xi followed behind.

“Why does she want to see him?” Wen Xi whispered.

“I thought she refused to meet him.”

Ji Lingling looked devastated.

“This isn’t good.”

“My cousin is probably going to get scolded.”

They stepped into the hall.

Before their bodies were fully inside, a porcelain vase smashed violently onto the ground.

The fragments scratched Wen Xi’s ankle.

She winced.

Then she looked toward Chen Zhangyu sitting in the main seat.

“Should I call you Shen Gu or Jiang Gu?!”

The old woman’s hoarse voice rang sharply.

Jiang Jibai stood at the entrance.

His face remained expressionless.

“If you want to return to the Shen family, I won’t stop you!”

“Your mother in heaven will never acknowledge a son like you!”

Chen Zhangyu grabbed another vase and threw it toward him.

Wen Xi instinctively flinched.

But a large hand suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind Jiang Jibai.

Another vase struck his leg heavily.

Wen Xi gasped.

“You old lady, how can you be so cruel—!”

Her voice was drowned out by the sound of shattering porcelain.

She tried to step out from behind Jiang Jibai.

But his hand firmly held her in place.

She couldn’t move at all.

From behind his shoulder, Wen Xi saw Zou Jiayun sitting silently in the hall.

She didn’t say a word.

“Go kneel in the ancestral hall!”

“Kneel before your mother and repent for your sins!”

Chen Zhangyu gave the order.

Jiang Jibai turned and left.

That night, the ancestral hall was brightly lit with candles.

Jiang Jibai had already knelt for more than an hour.

Then footsteps approached.

Someone placed another cushion beside him and knelt down.

He turned his head.

A pastry was suddenly stuffed into his mouth.

A small hand covered his lips.

“Don’t spit it out!”

“If you dare spit it out, I’ll feed you mouth-to-mouth!”

“….”

Jiang Jibai easily removed her hand.

The pastry fell to the floor.

“You’re so annoying,” Wen Xi muttered.

She picked up another pastry.

“I really will feed you mouth-to-mouth.”

“I don’t eat sweets,” Jiang Jibai said calmly.

“…Aren’t you hungry?”

“I ate a lot at lunch.”

Wen Xi placed the pastry beside him.

“Then eat it when you’re starving.”

“Go back to sleep.”

“I’ll kneel with you.”

She rubbed her face.

“It’s my fault today.”

“Your grandmother thought you contacted the Shen family through me.”

“That’s why you were punished.”

“I should kneel with you.”

“Even if it wasn’t my fault.”

“You’re my husband.”

“I’m your wife.”

“Even if our marriage is just a mutual arrangement… I should still stay beside you.”

“It’s not your fault,” Jiang Jibai said quietly.

“And it’s not yours either,” Wen Xi replied immediately.

“I’m serious.”

“I don’t know what happened between your parents.”

“But I know one thing.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Jiang Jibai looked at her.

Her expression was completely sincere.

After a moment, he turned away.

“Go back to sleep, Wen Xi.”

“I’m staying.”

“I’m not even tired. I can play on my phone.”

“And if you’re not in the bedroom, I’ll be scared sleeping alone.”

“So just let me stay here with you.”

Jiang Jibai stopped arguing.

After eleven at night, the girl beside him slowly leaned toward him.

Jiang Jibai caught her.

She had fallen asleep.

He took her phone from her hand and sent a message to Ji Lingling.

[Come to the ancestral hall and carry your sister-in-law back to the bedroom.]

Moments later she replied.

[Brother Jibai? Are you using her phone? Is she sleeping there?]

[Come now.]

He placed the phone back into Wen Xi’s hand.

His gaze fell on her small, delicate face.

Her earlier words echoed in his mind.

“I wanted to keep you company.”

“Your eyes are beautiful, but they don’t lie.”

“You have a wife now.”

“You won’t be lonely anymore.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

…

Jiang Jibai came back to his senses.

Only then did he realize his hand had unconsciously touched the girl’s cheek.

He paused.

Then quickly withdrew it.