His Wife's Past

After hearing the full, truthful account, the man's expression remained dark and stormy.

Secretary Chen couldn't help putting in a few good words for Ji Mingzhu, but the man gave no response, so he could only fall silent.

Gu Shang's expression was grim.

They had only just married, and there had already been tears on their wedding night and a scene the next day... How were they supposed to get through the days ahead?

Gu Shang had a splitting headache. He thought that, if only for the sake of a more harmonious home life, he ought to do something to get that little tyrant at home to settle down for a while.

...Of course, this certainly didn't mean he was giving in and trying to coax him. He just wanted to make his own life easier.

Gu Shang's inky eyes lowered, his gaze suddenly landing on his bare ring finger.

Oh, right. We had a pink diamond, but we still didn't have matching wedding bands.

Since Gu Shang hadn't put much thought into the wedding, he had simply bought a pink diamond at auction as a betrothal gift. It hadn't occurred to him to have someone design matching wedding bands.

Gu Shang tapped his index finger against the desk. That was something he could arrange.

The man clicked his tongue as another wave of headache struck, then leaned back in his chair and held out his hand.

Gu Shang said, "Secretary Chen, have you finished compiling the information on him?"

"Here." Secretary Chen neatly straightened the documents in his hands and passed them over, thoroughly professional.

It was a fairly cursory background report.

It began with Ji Mingzhu's upbringing, the schools he had attended, and so on. It was much the same as what Gu Shang had learned before, and those details had also circulated amid the flurry of rumors.

His adoptive father was an electrician, and his adoptive mother was a housekeeper.

His father had violent tendencies and a drinking problem. Whenever he got drunk, he would beat his wife and child. When Ji Mingzhu was eight, his adoptive mother finally couldn't take it anymore and left, abandoning the child.

In an environment like that, Ji Mingzhu naturally couldn't focus on his studies. Forget university-he hadn't even attended high school.

At this point, the man's eyes darkened.

He'd only finished middle school. Wouldn't that have made him fourteen or fifteen? A child that young had been forced out into the world to fend for himself?

Gu Shang suddenly recalled the young man's eyes, always sparkling as though they held starlight, and the contented smile that always played at the corners of his lips. Gu Shang hadn't even treated him particularly well and was always wearing a stern expression, yet he kept coming close as though nothing could hurt him.

Had that ability to read people's moods and keep his own emotions in check been honed by his childhood experiences?

The rumors all called Ji Mingzhu a delinquent, but... no one had considered that he might not have chosen that life.

At least this report showed that Ji Mingzhu had done fairly well in middle school, ranking in the top ten of his year. Clearly, he wasn't stupid. Not only could he have gone to high school, he could even have attended a top one.

Then why had the young man given up his education so early? They would probably have to ask Ji Mingzhu's drink-obsessed adoptive father.

Gu Shang's lashes stirred slightly, and he continued reading.

The next part briefly outlined the jobs Ji Mingzhu had taken after entering the working world at such a young age.

Because of his age, Ji Mingzhu couldn't find a decent, stable job, so he could only look for manual labor. Those jobs had high turnover, with plenty of people doing them temporarily, and the entry requirements were low. Anyone could do the work, so a child wasn't out of the question either. Besides, they could pay him far less than the other workers for the same work.

The foreman made it sound reasonable: he wasn't old enough, so they couldn't pay him that much. In reality, they were taking advantage of the fact that the young man had no one to back him up and was alone and vulnerable.

And before long, whatever money he brought home would be snatched away by his adoptive father to buy alcohol.

He couldn't keep doing that work for long, so Ji Mingzhu had no choice but to give it up.

Gradually, he got to know a lot of older guys, who taught him all kinds of bad habits, turning him into a "bad kid."

Then, when Ji Mingzhu's adoptive father ran out of money for alcohol, he tracked down where Ji Mingzhu was, smashed the place up, and forced the young man to hand over his savings.

Only then did Ji Mingzhu move on to his third job, at a repair shop.

The report also included a photo of the young man working at the repair shop, obtained from the owner.

The young man's looks were so striking that he had become an attraction at the repair shop. Many young men and women were happy to patronize the business of this handsome younger guy. Realizing he had found the key to making money, the owner took a picture of him and put it up at the shop.

But people kept taking it, so the owner simply had a whole stack of copies printed.

Every time one was taken, he put up another.

In the photo, the young man wore only a light racerback tank top and jeans. Unconcerned about getting dirty, he lay on the ground repairing a heavy motorcycle.

Oil had blackened his hands, and a few streaks had inadvertently rubbed onto his face. He looked dirty and disheveled, like a little stray cat nobody wanted.

Yet his eyes were astonishingly bright, outshining even that priceless pink diamond.

As though he knew someone was taking his picture, the young man glanced lazily over and gave the camera a bright, carefree smile.

The man's breath caught for a moment.

He had seen the young man's soft, clingy side, but he had never seen this resilient side of him face-on. At the wedding, he had only watched from a distance and from behind as the young man calmly handled an awkward situation. So this was what he looked like from the front.

Secretary Chen spoke up at just the right moment. "You see what I mean, Mr. Gu? I'm not just putting in a good word for your wife. He... really does make your heart ache for him."