Chapter 54 The Early-Married Wang Zhao

After staying in the hospital for three or four days, Li Zhenguan was discharged. By this time, the weather had gradually become hot. Although the air conditioner was on in the ward, Li Zhenguan still felt unusually uncomfortable. The first thing he did when he returned home was to take a shower.

The child was placed in the crib, and the study was modified to set up a screen, separating a small space to house the caregiver.

Wang Zhao resumed her normal work hours, and Li Zhenguan also had his own matters to attend to during this period.

He was about to graduate from his undergraduate studies, and his thesis defense was scheduled around this time. Actually, he had finished writing the thesis around January or February, and had been making various deletions and revisions over the next month or two. In a few days, it would be the date of their undergraduate thesis defense. It was quite a coincidence that he had just given birth. Otherwise, if he had gone to participate in the thesis defense with a big belly, who knows what kind of unpleasant remarks would have been spread. It wouldn’t be surprising if it became a local news story.

This day, Wang Zhao got off work at eleven o’clock in the evening. Most of the people in the company had already left, with only a few people remaining. Wang Zhao was one of them. As mentioned before, she was not the type of person who liked to leave things for the next day. As long as there were tasks at hand, she would try her best to resolve them on the same day.

Another person who stayed in the company was an intern who had just joined a few days ago. Before getting off work, the person in charge of leading him had given him a task, asking him to complete it tonight and send it over for review.

The new intern had a good personality and had not yet entered society. He was a good-natured person and didn’t dare to refuse. So, he had been working until now. When Wang Zhao got off work, she was a bit surprised to see him still sitting at his workstation and casually asked him a question.

“Why haven’t you gotten off work yet?”

The intern felt a little embarrassed. The computer in front of him was still open, displaying a PPT that was more than halfway done. He was still searching for information.

“I haven’t finished my work yet,” he said softly to Wang Zhao, glancing at the screen.

Wang Zhao raised her hand and glanced at her watch. It was already ten minutes past eleven. “I remember your school is quite far from here. Are you planning to spend the night at the company tonight?”

The intern shook his head. “I’ll go back after I finish. I still need to send it to Lucy later.”

Wang Zhao glanced at his computer. It wasn’t an urgent task, and it was really too late now. It wouldn’t be very safe for him to return to school alone at this late hour.

She glanced at her phone and said, “Alright, you can finish what you can’t complete tomorrow. At this rate, even if you send it to her tonight, she won’t be able to look at it. The road I take to go home happens to pass by your school. I’ll give you a ride to the school gate.”

The intern hesitated for a moment.

It was indeed very late. In fact, he hadn’t expected it to be this late. He only discovered that the information wasn’t easy to find, so he spent a few hours to get more than half of it done. However, thinking that it would definitely be inconvenient to catch a ride at this late hour, he slowly nodded and said thank you to Wang Zhao-jie.

Wang Zhao waited for him to pack up his computer, and the two of them went downstairs to the parking lot together.

The parking lot was empty and deserted late at night, without a single person in sight. Even in the middle of summer, one could feel a sense of coolness.

“Which gate is more convenient for you to return to your dormitory from?”

“The north gate.” It was only a five or six-minute walk to the dormitory from there.

When they reached the car, Wang Zhao got in and noticed that he was standing by the passenger side with some hesitation. She fastened her seat belt and said, “Just sit in the passenger seat.”

She turned on the navigation.

It would take half an hour to send this intern back to school. On the way, Wang Zhao didn’t ask many questions, mainly for fear of causing misunderstandings. If it weren’t for the fact that he was still alone in the company at eleven o’clock and she remembered him mentioning that he had to take a forty-minute subway ride from school every day when he first joined, Wang Zhao wouldn’t have thought of sending him home. After all, this was too intimate.

Halfway through the journey, her phone rang. Wang Zhao glanced at the phone placed on the console and saw that it was indeed a call from Li Zhenguan. She pressed the Bluetooth headset.

“I’m still on the road.”

Li Zhenguan looked at the time on his side and lowered his voice. The child was sleeping in their room today. The caregiver for the child had something to take care of and needed to take a day off. He had only taken care of the baby for one day and already felt exhausted and extremely tired.

“It’s almost twelve o’clock. Didn’t you get off work at eleven?” Li Zhenguan thought something might have happened to Wang Zhao on the road.

The intern sitting in the driver’s seat, of course, also saw the caller ID on Wang Zhao’s phone screen and the wedding ring on her ring finger on the steering wheel. He blinked his eyes, a little surprised that Wang Zhao had gotten married at such a young age.

Actually, when he first came to this company and saw Wang Zhao, it was difficult not to have some thoughts. When Wang Zhao first arrived here, even a few older colleagues in the company wanted to introduce her to someone. It wasn’t until they saw the wedding ring on her hand that they dismissed the idea.

When the intern saw such an excellent woman like Wang Zhao in terms of appearance and quality, there were indeed some ripples in his heart. However, those ripples only lasted for a few short days before quickly calming down, returning to a state like a pool of still water.

Indeed, all the good women already have boyfriends or are married at a young age.

Wang Zhao didn’t think about the thoughts of the intern beside her. She just casually explained to Li Zhenguan, “I’m sending a colleague home. I should be able to reach home in about twenty minutes. You go to sleep first. You don’t have to wait for me.”

Li Zhenguan didn’t respond. He told her to be careful on the road and hung up the phone. It was clear that he wasn’t going to listen to Wang Zhao’s words and would continue waiting for her to return.

Feeling the silence in the car, the intern curiously spoke up, “Wang Zhao-jie, was that a call from your husband?”

“Mm.” Wang Zhao turned the steering wheel. “He probably thought something happened to me on the road since I hadn’t returned home, so he called to ask.”

“It’s not very noticeable,” the intern chuckled. “You look quite young.” It seemed like she had just graduated. There weren’t many people who got married at this age.

Wang Zhao laughed, “Not only am I married, but I also have a child. I’m almost thirty years old, not as young as you think.”

The intern widened his eyes in surprise. No matter how you looked at Wang Zhao, she didn’t seem like someone who had a child. At least there were no signs of gaining weight after marriage.

Wang Zhao smiled.

It seemed that most people showed this surprised look when they heard that she had a husband and even a child, as if saying she had married early.

The two of them didn’t speak again. The road was very quiet late at night, unlike the bustling traffic during the day. About ten minutes later, Wang Zhao’s car stopped at the entrance of the north gate of the school mentioned by the intern.

It was pitch dark here, without even a light in front of the school gate. It should be a side gate.

As the intern got out of the car, Wang Zhao still said something to him, “In the future, pay attention to the time when you get off work. Don’t go home this late again. If you have things you can’t finish, you can let Lucy know. She’s a very nice person and not that strict.”

He nodded and said thank you again before disappearing into the night. Wang Zhao watched him enter the school before driving away.

About ten minutes later, she arrived home. She opened the door and saw that the living room light was still on. Li Zhenguan was lying on the sofa, probably tired from waiting for her with his eyes closed.

She patted Li Zhenguan’s shoulder, “Zhenguan, don’t sleep here. Go back to the room to sleep.”

Li Zhenguan woke up immediately and rubbed his eyes. “You’re back. Are you hungry? Dad left some food. I’ll go turn on the stove and warm it up for you.”

“No need.” Wang Zhao told Li Zhenguan to go back to the room to sleep. She was about to go to the study to take a look, which had become her daily routine. Usually, the baby slept with the caregiver in the study because the baby might make noise at night, so it wasn’t convenient to take care of the baby if they slept in the same room.

Li Zhenguan stopped her, “Uncle Yang said he had something to take care of at home today and needed to take a day off. The baby is sleeping in our room today.”

He stood up and complained to Wang Zhao in a low voice, “He was very naughty today and fussed around all day. Dad and I were busy non-stop.”

Wang Zhao laughed, “Zhenguan, you worked hard.” After saying that, she took the opportunity to kiss him on the cheek.

This was a new way she discovered to comfort Li Zhenguan. After giving birth, men often experience emotional lows. For a period of time, they wouldn’t expose their bodies in front of Wang Zhao. His body didn’t look very good now due to the various side effects of childbirth that were evident physiologically.

There were stretch marks on his belly and white lines on both sides of his thighs. The small freckles on his face had not disappeared yet, which didn’t look very good.

Li Zhenguan smiled. He touched his ear and then pulled Wang Zhao, ready to go back to the room. “I have already put your clean clothes for changing after the shower in the bathroom.”

Wang Zhao hummed in response.

However, she still went to take a look at the baby sleeping in the crib. It had been over half a month, and the child had fully grown a little. Previously, it could be seen that the baby was a delicate and pretty little one. The eyes looked a bit like Wang Zhao’s eyes.

She touched the child’s face, afraid of waking up the little one, so she didn’t use much force. Wang Zhao stared blankly at the baby in the crib for a while before rubbing her brows that showed signs of fatigue and went to the bathroom.

After taking a shower, Li Zhenguan was lying on the bed, looking at the company’s recruitment. He wanted to find a job, but he didn’t know what to look for. In the end, he applied for a few interpreter positions.

His major was too awkward. Most of his outstanding classmates had gone abroad to study and learned several other foreign languages. The slightly better ones were doing secretarial work in foreign companies or large corporations.

He was pondering when Wang Zhao walked out of the bathroom. Li Zhenguan’s thoughts immediately returned.

“You seem to be very busy recently,” Li Zhenguan closed the computer. Before making a decision, he didn’t want to mention to Wang Zhao about him looking for a job.

Wang Zhao hummed in response and sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the child before sitting on the bed. “A few big cases came in, so it’s a bit busy. It will be better after this month.”

Counting the time, she would resign in about two months. The official entry of the assistant prosecutor was in September.

Li Zhenguan said oh and talked to Wang Zhao about their trip to the Golden Avenue yesterday. “Dad and I went there to take a look. The house should be livable. It has been ventilated for more than half a year. Actually, it was ready last year, but some furniture hadn’t been put in place, so it was delayed for some time.”

However, Wang Zhao felt there was no need to rush. “Let it ventilate for another two months. The child is still too young, and you have just given birth not long ago. It will be safer to ventilate for another two months.”

Li Zhenguan had no objection.

After they finished talking, they were about to sleep, mainly because it was too late. Wang Zhao was already very sleepy. However, not long after the light in the room was turned off and before the two of them fell asleep, crying sounds started.

Wang Zhao was awakened by the noise, and Li Zhenguan also woke up.

The baby in the crib was crying non-stop. Li Zhenguan hurriedly approached and coaxed the baby for a few times, but it didn’t work. He touched the baby’s clothes, and they were still clean.

The baby was probably hungry.