Chapter 45: Li Zhenguan and Upright People

A long silence.

It was impossible for Chen Fangli to not feel ashamed. Li Zhenguan’s words had thrown his dignity on the ground and rubbed it. However, he was not someone to be trifled with either. After Li Zhenguan said those words, he momentarily got carried away by his drunkenness and couldn’t help but retort.

“So, Mr. Li, how did the child in your belly come about?”

After saying this, his expression became very calm. His slightly narrow eyes were half-lidded as he looked at the road below with its unceasing flow of cars, the river flowing endlessly opposite, and the colorful buildings across.

This hotel was located on the riverside, offering a great night view.

“I thought Mr. Li wasn’t exactly an upright person either,” Chen Fangli said with a laugh before hanging up the phone. However, this time he was quite aware of his physical condition and didn’t force himself to endure. After spacing out for a while, he took his car keys and went downstairs, intending to visit a nearby hospital.

He felt his stomach was a bit uncomfortable, thinking he shouldn’t have drunk tonight. He went downstairs and sat in the driver’s seat but hadn’t inserted the key yet when his whole body couldn’t help but curl up. The pain seemed to spread from his stomach to his entire body.

The face buried in the steering wheel was frighteningly pale, but in the end, he still didn’t dial Wang Zhao’s number.

Some things happen again and again. That woman wasn’t a fool; she would eventually tire of him. However, to be fooled by a man like Li Zhenguan showed she hadn’t improved much. At least her brain had taken in quite a bit of water.

In the days that followed, it seemed like nothing had changed, yet it also felt like everything had changed.

With one more person in the house, it suddenly became lively. At least Zhang Ke’s mood improved a lot. Usually, with one woman going to work and another studying, locked in a room all day, they barely exchanged a few words. He had no one to talk to, busy with housework all day.

Wanting to meet friends for afternoon tea was impossible to arrange. Whenever he tried to set a time, everyone said they were busy in the afternoon and couldn’t make it.

Now that Li Zhenguan had come, he felt he had a companion. The key was that Zhenguan had a good personality, obedient and well-behaved, very comfortable to be around.

Wang Zhao took Li Zhenguan to school once to apply for re-enrollment. He could start attending classes this week. So her daily routine became regular again, either staying in the study or taking Li Zhenguan to school. She simply decided to spend the whole day in the library, with Li Zhenguan dragging her to the cafeteria for lunch.

However, it was obvious that this person hadn’t eaten in the cafeteria many times. After a few attempts, Li Zhenguan barely touched his chopsticks. Left with no choice, she had to drive Li Zhenguan out to eat.

One disadvantage of reviewing at school was the possibility of encountering junior students. Once, while Wang Zhao was taking a walk downstairs from the library, she was greeted by two unfamiliar junior male students. In fact, she had no impression of them at all, but they seemed to know her, and the original owner of this body must have met these two before.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wang Zhao understood that these two should be students of the original owner’s master’s degree supervisor, a few years junior to her.

This made Wang Zhao feel relieved, but it also made her realize that most of her classmates seemed to be from her undergraduate years, with very few friends from her postgraduate period. Meeting these two junior students was a coincidence.

However, one of them accidentally glimpsed the ring on her index finger and was surprised: “Senior, you’re married?”

“Mm.” Wang Zhao smiled and hummed in affirmation, “Just recently.”

One of the students said, “Senior and Brother-in-law have been together for so long, it’s about time you got married.”

Wang Zhao’s gaze fell on him, certain that he was referring to Chen Fangli. This original body’s love life was truly well-known, Wang Zhao thought with some headache. Was there anyone around her who didn’t know about these two being together?

Since their relationship was so widely known, their breakup was comparatively low-key. If she hadn’t mentioned it, probably no one except the two involved would have known that the original owner and Chen Fangli had broken up.

What did this mean?

After parting with the two junior students, Wang Zhao’s thoughts were unsettled. She couldn’t help but think deeply, maybe both of them felt that this breakup wasn’t the end? But such speculation was too unlike Wang Zhao. The personality she had conceived for the original owner wasn’t like this, slightly indecisive.

However, after leaving the library, Wang Zhao suppressed all her emotions and rubbed her temples.

Li Zhenguan was standing outside, about to send Wang Zhao a message asking why she hadn’t come down yet, when he saw the woman appear at the entrance. He called her name and walked over.

“Why did you take so long to come down?” Li Zhenguan said. It had been over ten minutes since he sent her a message. If he hadn’t seen her, he was about to borrow a card to go upstairs and look for her.

Wang Zhao casually replied, “I met two acquaintances while coming down and chatted for a bit.”

She changed the subject: “What do you want to eat for lunch?”

“Sour and spicy noodles?” Li Zhenguan said hesitantly after thinking for a moment.

Wang Zhao nodded.

She knew there was a small sour and spicy noodle shop on campus, usually crowded. She had become accustomed to dealing calmly with Li Zhenguan’s occasional strange food requests.

After they finished eating, Li Zhenguan had no afternoon classes. He went to the library with Wang Zhao, carrying his beloved novel website.

While she was preparing for her internship, Li Zhenguan sat nearby reading. He didn’t have a clear career plan now, still unsure about what to do in the future. Most of his time before was spent following Wang Zhao around. Now that his dream had come true, he felt a sense of confusion.

After all, he had chosen the English major back then because the score requirement was low, and his family didn’t want him to go far away. So after comprehensive consideration, he had chosen the Business English major.

Li Zhenguan stared absently at Wang Zhao across from him. His father didn’t quite approve of him being a house husband. Although for him, staying at home could support himself and he wouldn’t lack money, Yang Jin still hoped he could cultivate his own interests or career, not putting all his thoughts on Wang Zhao.

He took a book about pregnant men and unconsciously started scratching the pages with his fingernail.

Wang Zhao noticed from the corner of her eye but didn’t say anything to Li Zhenguan.

Perhaps pregnant men just liked to space out?

She wasn’t quite sure, but whenever Li Zhenguan sat across from her, the most common thing he did was space out. At first, she felt uncomfortable with him staring at her in a daze, but after a few days, she could face his gaze without changing her expression.

The civil service exam was this weekend. Wang Zhao didn’t dare relax tomorrow either. This world was different from the previous one, and the part she dared least to relax on was the common knowledge section.

In the evening, the two returned home. After dinner, Wang Zhao took Li Zhenguan downstairs for a walk. After returning, Li Zhenguan still needed to exercise a bit more, as required by the family doctor, saying it would help with the delivery.

After exercising, Li Zhenguan would go to sleep first, while Wang Zhao continued reading in the study. Since she started sleeping here, Wang Xuechun no longer worked in this room, taking her computer and books back to her room to prepare lessons.

Days passed like this, seemingly no different from before, but when she saw another man lying on the bed, she would feel a slight discomfort.

However, this feeling would quickly pass. Most people prefer to live alone, and for Wang Zhao, having someone intrude into her living space also required adjustment, especially since more people might intrude in the future.

This week of married life passed just like this. Of course, living together at home couldn’t be without friction. Li Zhenguan clearly grew up in a wealthy family, because on the third night, Li Zhenguan developed allergy symptoms for some unknown reason, seemingly having touched something. They finally discovered it was due to using a certain detergent.

That night, with the intention of helping Zhang Shu, he said he would help clean the kitchen and some dishes. Then, without wearing gloves, he developed an allergic reaction and low fever that night. At the time, no one in the family noticed until Li Zhenguan, feeling dizzy, called Wang Zhao in the study, alarming the whole family.

In the middle of the night, she drove him to the hospital for a check-up, only to find out it might be an allergy. Because Li Zhenguan was pregnant now, many medications couldn’t be used. They could only quietly apply some medication and wait for the allergic reaction to pass.

The whole family was quite scared, especially Zhang Shu, who thought something serious had happened to Li Zhenguan in the middle of the night. Later, knowing it was the detergent that caused Li Zhenguan’s allergy, they replaced all the household cleaning products just in case, fearing the same thing might happen again.

This incident made Zhang Shu sigh a few times, saying that Li Zhenguan, having grown up in a wealthy family, was a bit delicate.

Wang Zhao was speechless. This was absolutely not the time to interject.

Even the best relationship between a father-in-law and son-in-law would have conflicts, so Wang Zhao didn’t dare say much in this situation, fearing she might say the wrong thing. Besides, Zhang Shu was just complaining casually. He wouldn’t dare say such things in front of Li Zhenguan, and Wang Zhao wouldn’t repeat it either, or it would be stirring up trouble.

Fortunately, the allergy symptoms weren’t very severe. The low fever subsided that same night, making them all breathe a sigh of relief.

This was the only heart-pounding incident of the week, leaving the whole family a bit shaken at midnight.

Because of this, her plan to sleep in separate rooms was forced to halt, mainly because they might not notice if something happened to Li Zhenguan sleeping alone. So Wang Zhao had to move back.

The weekend arrived, and this weekend was the time for the civil service exam. Li Zhenguan stayed at home while Wang Zhao had to go to another district for the exam. To avoid wasting time, she booked a hotel near the exam venue the day before, to avoid having to wake up early and drive there the next day.

However, on that evening, just as she came out of the bathroom after showering, her phone on the counter rang, showing a video call from Li Zhenguan.

Wang Zhao frowned slightly. At this moment, there was also a knock on the door, probably her takeout arriving. She had to answer the phone while opening the door.