More to look forward to

And so, in the dead of night, Xia Zhi received a call from distant Country X. She was so annoyed she wanted to curse, but remembering that he was her hope of getting back, she forcibly swallowed her anger.

"Hello, hubby..."

The anger she swallowed naturally came out sounding listless.

There was a trace of sleepy languor in Xia Zhi's slightly husky voice.

Lu Heng suddenly found that "hubby" rather pleasant to hear.

"Why didn't you answer my calls?"

That same question again.

Xia Zhi: "..."

She had been wrong.

She should never have ignored the archvillain's calls. She should have known that twisted people tended to be obsessive.

"You called at half past midnight just to ask me that?"

She really wanted to offer his entire family a friendly greeting.

Xia Zhi was dead tired. She had spent the whole day shopping, then racked her brains that evening matching wits with that scheming woman. She was utterly exhausted, and all she wanted now was to dive headfirst into Duke Zhou's arms.

But this man just had to...

She was so angry.

She wanted to curse so badly. What was she supposed to do?

Xia Zhi took a deep breath, then another. Calm down, calm down. The archvillain was terribly petty. She absolutely could not curse at him. If she had to, she could only do it silently.

Even through the phone, Lu Heng could sense that Xia Zhi was on the verge of exploding. He was in a good mood.

"Yes."

He just loved going against her.

"Why didn't you answer my calls?"

Xia Zhi could hardly tell him honestly that she had just staged a fake phone call about their loving marriage and had been afraid he would refuse to play along a moment later, making her a laughingstock in front of Tang Green Tea, could she?

She wasn't stupid.

Xia Zhi gritted her teeth. Her only option now was to sacrifice a little of her image. "I was on the toilet. It wasn't convenient."

She was betting that the cleanliness-obsessed archvillain would not be able to stand discussing toilet business with her.

Sure enough, Lu Heng fell silent, seemingly at a loss for words. But the archvillain was not so easy to fool.

"Then why did you hang up on me afterward?"

Xia Zhi naturally had an explanation ready for that too.

"If you wanted me, you should have called my phone. Instead, you called Tang Fangjing's phone to reach me. What would other people think?"

Lu Heng genuinely did not understand. "What would they think?"

"They'd think you were closer to her than to your own wife, of course. Besides, she isn't your biological cousin. You two aren't related by blood at all. It's easy for people to get the wrong idea."

Lu Heng frowned slightly. He had never considered any other kind of relationship between himself and Tang Fangjing.

"She's my cousin."

Lu Heng's adoptive parents' family was closest to Tang Fangjing's family. His uncle and aunt had doted on him since he was little. In Lu Heng's eyes, they were all his family.

Xia Zhi had to give Lu Heng a reminder or two. "You might think that, but other people don't necessarily see it that way."

"At her birthday party today, I heard those girls from her extended family gossiping behind my back about how you two were childhood sweethearts and would get married and have children someday."

Xia Zhi was not making this up out of thin air. She really had heard some gossip, though no one had said anything about having children.

Lu Heng frowned, beginning to feel uncomfortable. "Don't listen to their nonsense."

"I only see Xiaojing as a younger sister."

Xia Zhi sighed. "But other people don't know what you think. And you just had to call her phone to reach me. Doesn't that only confirm how close you two are?"

"A whole roomful of people was watching me like hawks while I answered the phone. If I hadn't thrown my weight around and shown a little temper, they really would have thought I had no standing at home."

Xia Zhi made that whole string of twisted reasoning sound so convincing that she actually managed to fool Lu Heng.

"I'll be more careful in the future."

Xia Zhi wiped the sweat from her forehead. She had finally bluffed her way through.

"What did you want to talk to me about tonight?"

Only then did Lu Heng remember why he had wanted to call Xia Zhi earlier. In truth, there had been nothing in particular. He probably could not even explain to himself why he had made that call.

But since Xia Zhi had brought it up, he asked in passing, "What did you say to Lu Kuo?"

Xia Zhi's heart skipped a beat.

"What's wrong?"

She hadn't said anything, had she?

Nothing beyond how much she loved her archvillain husband. Lu Kuo shouldn't have anything to tell on her about, right?

But that man was truly impossible to figure out. Xia Zhi could not be sure the male lead would not spout nonsense.

"He told me he wanted you to go with him to the matchmaking event on Saturday night."

Xia Zhi shot upright. "What?"

Did the male lead have a hole in his brain?

Why did he want her to accompany him to a matchmaking event?

Sure, she loved watching a good show, but she was his sister-in-law. His younger brother's wife! Xia Zhi had never heard of anyone taking his younger brother's wife to a matchmaking event while that brother was away on business.

She just wanted to ask the male lead: was that appropriate?

Xia Zhi's head hurt. The male lead's thought processes were even harder to understand than the archvillain's.

The man's voice turned slightly cold. "So what exactly did you say to him?"

Heaven knew how wronged Xia Zhi was.

"I didn't say anything to him."

The man's voice grew colder. "Then what did you two do?"

At that, Xia Zhi felt as though her brains were about to burst out. "What could I possibly do with him?"

"He's your brother. Your brother! Even if I really wanted to find a man to do something with, I wouldn't choose your brother!"

She really wanted to pry open the archvillain's head and see what was inside.

Straw?

The person on the other end seemed even angrier than she was and hung up outright.

Xia Zhi stared at the disconnected call, all sleepiness gone. What was the archvillain playing at?

No, what was the male lead playing at?

Just as Xia Zhi was about to explode with anger, a voice quietly popped up in her mind. [Dear host, could the male lead have fallen for you too?]

Xia Zhi: [...]

[What makes you think the male lead likes me? He's obviously messing with me.]

Little Sponge: [??]

Xia Zhi: [If the male lead really wanted me to go to the matchmaking event with him, he should have asked me first. Why did he call Lu Heng instead, when he's far away on a business trip in Country X?]

Only then did Little Sponge catch on. [That does seem true.]

Xia Zhi could not help forming a conspiracy theory about the male lead. [This male lead is awful. He must be trying to drive a wedge between me and the archvillain and make us divorce so he can get his hands on the Lu Family's assets.]

[Once we get divorced, the archvillain will lose the Xia Family's support.]

Little Sponge cautiously pointed out a fact. [Dear host, the Lu Family no longer needs any support from the Xia Family. On the contrary, the Xia Family is seeking help from the Lu Family.]

Xia Zhi racked her brains but could not figure out why the male lead would do this. After scratching her head in frustration for a while, she said,

[Whatever. I'm dead tired. I'm going to sleep.]

Having said she would sleep, she went straight to it without another word.

Xia Zhi's eyelids were so heavy that even toothpicks could not have propped them open, yet her mind was unusually clear.

After tossing and turning for the hundred and eighth time, Xia Zhi finally broke down. Now she wanted even more to pry open the male lead's head and see what was inside.

In fact, Xia Zhi really was overthinking it.

Lu Kuo had always considered teasing Lu Heng one of life's great pleasures. Now that Xia Zhi had joined the mix, he felt that life gave him more and more to look forward to.

The next morning, Xia Zhi dragged herself out of bed with dark circles under her eyes. She was eating breakfast when she received the old madam's imperial decree.