Chapter Six: Run!

Divorce? Fang Zhiyin looked as if she had just swallowed something foul, her face twisted in consternation. “Ouyang…”

“You wanted a divorce, didn’t you? That night, I was indeed reluctant,” Ouyang Junyan replied, his voice cool and detached. “But I’ve thought it over now. Divorce it is. It’s really nothing worth fussing about.”

Nothing worth fussing about?

A surge of inexplicable anger welled up in Fang Zhiyin. “You think it’s that simple? Now it’s my turn to refuse!”

“What?” Ouyang Junyan stared at her in disbelief, a cold, mocking smile tugging at his lips. “I’m ill, and it seems rather serious. Why would you hesitate to divorce me?”

Fang Zhiyin was at a loss for words.

Truthfully, she didn’t know why she suddenly changed her mind the moment she heard Ouyang Junyan mention divorce.

He gazed at her, his expression calm but tinged with heaviness. “You’ve seen how I’ve been these past couple of days. You know what I’m capable of when my mind isn’t right… But I can’t see myself! Rather than risk me staying and possibly hurting you, wouldn’t it be better to just let me go?”

Fang Zhiyin mulled it over, deciding to try reasoning with him. “You know you’re sick! Yes, at first you really frightened me, but now I understand what’s going on. The doctors have examined you. I feel that if I left you at a time like this, it would be heartless and unjust.”

Ouyang Junyan shook his head helplessly. “All for the sake of so-called responsibility?”

“Not… entirely,” she hesitated.

There was still a sliver of love, wasn’t there? But Fang Zhiyin dared not voice that thought.

“I think…” Ouyang Junyan started, but then fell silent.

Fang Zhiyin stared at him in confusion, unable to follow his train of thought.

“Fang Zhiyin, why have you dragged me to this place during work hours?” Ouyang Junyan’s face clouded, his tone brimming with anger.

Work hours? But it was already nighttime!

Fang Zhiyin regarded him for a long moment. “Ouyang… Thirty-five years old?”

“What’s the point of bringing up my age out of nowhere?” Ouyang Junyan retorted coolly.

Because that’s the only way to tell who’s who! Fang Zhiyin screamed inwardly.

“It’s just past six in the evening. I should be at the company holding a meeting!”

“Uh…”

“What’s going on in your head? Are you thinking of nothing but playing every day?” Ouyang Junyan chided her with unreserved arrogance. “Starting tomorrow, you’ll get up at the same time as me.”

Fang Zhiyin: ??

“Ouyang, you must be joking!”

“Why would I need to joke? As my wife, it’s your duty to share my schedule and progress together!”

What?!

“From tomorrow, we get up at five thirty. And we won’t have the servants make breakfast for us—you’ll make breakfast for me!” Ouyang Junyan ordered coldly.

“Ouyang! I can’t cook.” Like a grade schooler reporting to her teacher, she raised her right hand, “If I make breakfast, you’re likely to get food poisoning!”

If the thirty-five-year-old Ouyang Junyan knew that his twenty-five-year-old self made breakfast every day and even fed his wife mouth to mouth… what would he think?

“Let the servants do it instead!”

Ouyang Junyan spoke with the air of a father lecturing his daughter, “You’re my wife. Could breakfast made by a servant compare to yours? Are you that lazy? Is making breakfast going to kill you?”

Fang Zhiyin: …

What could she do but endure? The man was ill, his mind was split! What choice did she have?

“Fang Zhiyin, I’ll get you up, don’t worry about that!”

“And after breakfast, we’ll eat together, then you’ll join me for training.” As if that weren’t enough, Ouyang Junyan had even more demands.

Is he out of his mind?! she thought—then realized, well, technically yes…

“Ouyang!” Fang Zhiyin thought despairingly, I’m still young—I can’t let this man torment me to death!

“If we finish breakfast by six, we’ll go for a jog together for an hour. And since you took up my working time tonight, you’ll have to make it up tomorrow—so we’ll jog for two hours.”

“You’re insane!” Fang Zhiyin finally exploded.

Ouyang Junyan’s lips curled into a frosty smile. “Did you just curse at me?”

Fang Zhiyin: … I hate you!

The next morning, sure enough, Ouyang Junyan woke Fang Zhiyin at five o’clock.

He used a blaring megaphone right by her ear.

And they had slept in separate rooms the night before…

The sound jolted Fang Zhiyin awake, and for a moment she thought she was dreaming.

“Fang Zhiyin, get up and make breakfast for your husband—that’s me.”

Ha! In your dreams! Fang Zhiyin resolved to turn over and go back to sleep.

The next second.

Ouyang Junyan simply reached out, placed his hand on the crown of her head, and lifted her straight out of the soft, comfortable bed.

Fang Zhiyin: ???

Bleary-eyed, Fang Zhiyin shuffled to the kitchen and prepared breakfast.

“No! Do it again!” Breakfast went into the trash.

“This is inedible!” Another attempt, another failure.

“Make something fit for a normal human being, okay?” This time, Ouyang Junyan didn’t even have time to grab the plate, because Fang Zhiyin had already picked it up, so infuriated she nearly smashed it against his head.

But Ouyang Junyan only folded his arms, his expression indifferent, as if daring her—“Try it, and I’ll make your life a living hell.”

Fang Zhiyin had never experienced anything like this. She was being tormented by the thirty-five-year-old Ouyang Junyan until she was neither human nor ghost. She really wanted to kill him!

“Hurry up and make another!” Ouyang Junyan ordered.

She lost track of how many failed attempts she made, but at last Fang Zhiyin managed to produce a breakfast Ouyang Junyan was willing to taste.

Yet he took only a tiny bite.

Fang Zhiyin: ???

“That’s enough, it’s getting late—we need to start our morning run.” Ouyang Junyan dabbed his mouth with a napkin.

“At least let me rest a moment…” Heavens, she’d been so busy making him breakfast, she hadn’t made any for herself—not a single bite!

“Let’s go!” Of course, Ouyang Junyan showed no pity for her. High-handed and domineering, he seized her hand and dragged her out the door.

“I haven’t even washed my face or brushed my teeth!” Fang Zhiyin protested loudly.

“Who’s going to see you?”

Fang Zhiyin: You??

To make matters worse, Ouyang Junyan produced a little whistle from who knows where and began blowing it as he ran.

What sort of bizarre human behavior was this?!

Fang Zhiyin, startled awake at the crack of dawn, forced to make countless breakfasts only to go hungry herself, stumbled through the run weak from hunger.

Ouyang Junyan had been far ahead, but suddenly, as if realizing something, he whipped around and jogged back to her side.

“You go ahead of me,” he said, then moved behind her without another word.

The thirty-five-year-old Ouyang Junyan now ran at her back. Fang Zhiyin gritted her teeth and hopped forward a few steps.

Instantly, she was overwhelmed by pressure, feeling as though his gaze would burn holes straight through her.

At any moment, without warning, the man behind her would start blowing his whistle at her.

Beep—