Before going into the bedroom, Wen Ning took a few deep breaths and practiced her simp smile.
Once she was sure everything looked right, she let out a long breath and opened the door!
The orange light of the setting sun filled the room. A man stood beside the head of the bed, his back to her.
Just as when she had first met him, Bo Yan wore a simple white shirt and black dress pants today, his shirt tucked in to outline his lean, narrow waist.
Much like in that wedding photo, Bo Yan looked slender, but his frame was exceptional: broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long, straight legs. Throw on a jacket, and he would be a suited thug through and through.
Wen Ning stared at the scene before her, momentarily dazed.
Bo Yan simply stood there with his back to her, holding something in his hands and studying it with his head lowered.
The bedroom was bathed in sunset, like an orange ocean, and Bo Yan seemed like a lone boat upon those vast waters. It was beautiful, like an oil painting, yet inexplicably lonely and desolate.
The night Wen Ning first met Bo Yan, she had noticed an air of isolation from the world around him.
Bo Xubai had something similar about him, but in his case, it came more from his inherently aloof personality.
Bo Yan, however, seemed like... a pitiful little thing who had been abandoned.
For some reason, Wen Ning felt a little troubled.
Realizing she was starting to feel sorry for the man before her again, Wen Ning hurriedly shook her head, forcibly shaking the "water" out of her brain.
That bastard Bo Yan still wanted to kill her. What the hell was she feeling sorry for him for? If she had time for that, she might as well feel sorry for herself!
Judging by what he was holding, it should be the diary she had prepared beforehand.
Wen Ning knew where things stood.
Hearing the noise, the person in the oil painting turned to look at her. In an instant, it was as though he had broken through the dimensional wall. He lifted the corners of his mouth at her in a faint smile.
Bo Yan habitually greeted people with a slight smile, but whether there was sincerity or pretense behind it was something you had to work out for yourself.
Right now, for instance, Wen Ning thought he looked fake as hell.
Of course, she was pretty fake herself.
"Hubby, I'm back!" Meeting Bo Yan's gaze, Wen Ning spread her arms and ran toward him with a dazzling smile.
Bo Yan did not so much as furrow his brow. The moment she lunged at him, he calmly bent down and ducked under her arm, denying her the hug.
Wen Ning secretly rolled her eyes. When she turned around again, she was pouting. "Why are you dodging me? We haven't seen each other in days. Can't I even have a hug?"
Her little mouth opened, and out poured a stream of complaints. "You have no idea how much I missed you. It's been three days! Three days! I thought you'd come get me the next day..."
Bo Yan silently watched her act. Only when she finished did he say flatly, "Oh, then I really am sorry. This cripple only managed to get out of bed today."
Wen Ning choked. That single sentence from Bo Yan would have her waking in the middle of the night wanting to slap herself, cursing herself for being such a damn wretch, saying something like that to a patient who had nearly ended up in the ICU.
She felt a little guilty. "I'm sorry. I just wanted you to come looking for me on your own..."
Wen Ning tilted her head and looked up at him.
She only came up to Bo Yan's chest, so she had to tip her head back to look at him.
She asked cautiously, "Hubby, are you still mad at me?"
Bo Yan lowered his eyes, his long lashes casting a small patch of shadow beneath them. From this angle, Wen Ning could not make out the look in his eyes. She only vaguely sensed that the air around him did not seem quite so icy anymore, at least not as cold as on the day he had been drugged.
He seemed to be scrutinizing her, his thin lips pressed together. He did not say he was angry, nor did he say he was not.
Wen Ning felt a little aggrieved, but she still apologized to him again in all seriousness. "What happened that day was my fault. I really, really know I was wrong. I'm sorry, hubby. I really won't do anything like that again. Can you forgive me?"
Bo Yan looked at her as though he could see straight into the depths of her eyes.
She probably did not know that reading people's expressions was the most basic rule of survival for someone like him, from childhood onward.
Without that much ability, he would probably have been killed by the traffickers on the road when he was five.
No matter how well a person acted, the baseness in their bones could never escape Bo Yan's smiling yet icy eyes.
Like Jiang Tingwan that night. She had actually concealed it very well, but Bo Yan had still found the way she looked at him utterly irritating.
The woman before him was not even half as good an actress as Jiang Tingwan, yet she always thought she was putting on a wonderful performance.
Bo Yan easily caught emotions like frustration, grievance, and defiance in her beautiful eyes.
Those were things the old Wen Ning would never have shown.
The old Wen Ning would have lashed him with a whip long before she ever apologized.
Bo Yan suddenly grew curious about the Wen Ning before him.
He wanted to know whether she was still the original Wen Ning...
But before that, meeting Wen Ning's aggrieved yet apologetic eyes, Bo Yan felt his heartbeat inexplicably turn strange.
The tips of his ears felt a little hot. He gave a quiet cough, turned his face away, and said coldly, "If there's something wrong with your brain, go see a neurologist."
Wen Ning nearly failed to hold her expression. Forcing a smile, she pounded Bo Yan's chest with her little fist. "Hubby, you're so mean. I'm apologizing seriously, and you suddenly start making personal attacks?"
Bo Yan's injuries had yet to heal. Wen Ning's unexpected punch nearly finished him off.
The corner of his eye twitched as he clutched his chest and looked at the woman.
She did that on purpose, didn't she?
Who exactly was making personal attacks here?
Bo Yan could not be bothered to explain that he had already answered the relevant question on WeChat two days ago.
Fortunately, the woman was not truly stupid. At least she was a little smarter than before. Soon, she exclaimed, "I get it! You've already forgiven me, haven't you?! That day, you told me on WeChat that if I ever did it again, you'd kill me! You've forgiven me, right?"
When she had received that WeChat message that day, Wen Ning's attention had been entirely on "kill you." Now that Bo Yan brought it up again, she belatedly realized that what he meant was that, as far as he was concerned, the drugging incident was over.
Family watching through the screen, who gets it? I finally don't have to become wild boar feed!
Bo Yan found her noisy and turned toward the balcony.
But the instant he turned, the muscles at the corners of his mouth seemed to slip out of his control, curving slightly upward.
Wen Ning did not see Bo Yan smile. She was still chattering away as she followed him, showing off her newly decorated room. "What do you think, hubby? Don't you think this room is really special?"
Bo Yan wanted to say he was not blind.
Half an hour earlier, he had barely stepped through the Wen Family's door before Auntie Zhao took him straight up to the third floor.
Her purpose could not have been more obvious.
He had only visited Wen Ning's bedroom once before, on their wedding day.
Yet hanging in his own bride's bedroom was a wedding photo of her with another man.
At the time, seeing that badly Photoshopped picture had stirred little emotion in Bo Yan.
He had only come to go through the motions. He did not love Wen Ning. If they had to speak of feelings, there was only disgust. Wen Ning felt the same about him: nothing but hatred.
But his lack of reaction did not mean the others there to escort the bride and receive her had no reaction.
The scene that day had truly been awkward and suffocating. Not a single person dared speak; everyone merely laughed awkwardly.
Expressionless, Bo Yan walked over to Wen Ning, posed for photos, put her shoes on her, then turned his back to her and knelt on one knee.
Wen Ning kicked him away. She neither climbed onto his back nor let him carry her, walking out of the room herself.
Unconcerned, Bo Yan pushed himself up and brushed off the faint dust on his clothes. Just as well. He did not want to touch her either. It was disgusting.
As he left, he heard someone whisper behind him-
"This isn't a wedding. It's a funeral procession."
"Cuckolded on his wedding day. That bastard deserves it."
"What a joke. That bastard really is spineless. The young miss kicked him like a dog, and he still got up as though nothing had happened. If it were me, I'd be so humiliated I'd have found a crack in the ground to crawl into..."
While the bride was there, not a single person dared speak.
Once she left, everyone mocked and sneered at Bo Yan, demonstrating to the fullest what it meant to fawn over the powerful and trample the lowly.
As though he were an outsider, Bo Yan listened the whole way with an indifferent expression.
Sometimes, he thought he was like those insignificant passersby in novels who nevertheless had to exist.
He often could not find any meaning in his own existence...
And that day, from entering to leaving, Bo Yan had barely looked at the room at all, nor had he looked at its owner from beginning to end.
When Auntie Zhao brought him to Wen Ning's bedroom, Bo Yan instinctively resisted, but did not show it.
He was used to hiding all his joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
As usual, under Auntie Zhao's gaze, he pushed open the door with a faint smile on his lips.
Yet the instant the door opened, that smile froze.
The wedding photo was gone, replaced by portraits and posters of him.
They covered the walls.
For an instant, Bo Yan thought he had wandered into some lawless place.
His wanted posters covered the walls...
"Look at this body pillow. I specially ordered one as tall as you! I've spent these three days hugging him..." Wen Ning picked up the pillow and rubbed her cheek against it, looking utterly lovestruck.
Bo Yan: "..."
"And these posters on the walls!" Wen Ning swept her arm through a great semicircle toward the walls, smiling like a blooming flower. "Every time I missed you these past few days, I put another one up! Look, now this room's walls are covered in my longing for you!"
Bo Yan: "..."
"Oh, right," Wen Ning remembered something. "I printed out our wedding photo too!"
Almost on the heels of her words, someone knocked on the bedroom door.
Wen Jing's voice came from outside. "Sis, I brought your photo up!"
Wen Ning's eyes lit up. Pointing toward the door, she told Bo Yan excitedly, "I'll go bring it in!"
She raced over to open the door and, sheltered by the half-open door, gave Wen Jing a thumbs-up!
You know what's what!
Wen Jing winked at her and clicked his tongue, lowering his voice. "Piece of cake. I'm a professional love security guard!"
Wen Ning ruffled his doggy head, then carried the photo inside with him.
The moment Wen Jing entered, he saw the man standing beside the balcony's floor-to-ceiling windows.
The setting sun shone like molten gold. In his white shirt, Bo Yan stood in that orange ocean like an immortal who had stepped out of a painting.
No wonder his sister was so dizzy with infatuation.
Looking at him like this, the dumbass really did have something going for him.
He flashed Bo Yan a toothy grin. "Hi, brother-in-law!"
Wen Jing had thought things through over the past few days. Since his sister liked this dumbass so much, he would reluctantly acknowledge him as his brother-in-law.
Bo Yan paused.
A moment later, he smiled faintly and nodded at Wen Jing. "Mm."
Just then, Wen Ning called him. "Bo Yan, come here a second. I can't hang this by myself."
Hearing Wen Ning call his name so suddenly, Bo Yan did not react at first.
These past few days, it had been either "hubby" or "baby." She had hardly ever called him by his full name.
Bo Yan's heart trembled for no reason.
He suddenly felt that, compared to "hubby" or "baby," hearing her call his name was more pleasing to the ear. It sounded less fake.
He did not know why, but he simply walked over, took off his slippers, and stepped onto the bedsheet covered in prints of his face that left him utterly speechless, reaching up to steady the frame.
The photo was huge, taking up most of the wall above the head of the bed.
Bo Yan did not look at the photo right away. Instead, he could not help turning to look at Wen Ning on his right, holding the frame alongside him.
Wen Ning was very pleased with the photo and smiled happily.
Sensing his gaze, she suddenly turned to look at him.
Bo Yan did not look away. He simply stared straight at her.
It was as though the setting sun had fallen into her eyes.
Wen Ning's peach-blossom eyes curved, her smile beautiful and pure.
Bo Yan froze in place.
He had only visited this bedroom that one time. In his memory, the light in the room had been cold and gloomy, leaving him feeling stifled and suffocated.
Perhaps today's sunset was too radiant and beautiful. The cold, gloomy bedroom in his memories suddenly took on warm hues.
At that very instant, a word suddenly surfaced in Bo Yan's mind-
Home.