"Wife, how am I not ambitious, exactly? With the kind of work we do, is it something one person can finish alone? It needs every researcher in the group to work together in sync to get it done. Alright, if you don’t understand then say less. I need to rest now. Any day now I’ll have to go back to the institute and get busy again, so let me have a proper break."

As his voice trailed off, He Wei closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep, so his wife wouldn’t pull him up and start nagging on and on again.

"I really don’t get Teacher Wen either. What was going through his mind back then? He just had to divorce a good woman like Song Ning and marry a home‑wrecking troublemaker like Xiao Su into the family."

Even though He Wei had his eyes closed and was faking sleep, he heard every word Qin Fang said. Inwardly he thought: What else could he be thinking, if not that he wanted a son!

That, of course, was something He Wei couldn’t say out loud. Otherwise, Qin Fang would definitely jump up and start another long tirade.

For example, a whole series of opinions about "valuing sons over daughters."

Wen’s family.

"Let go." Wen Siyuan was trying to get his bedding roll back from the cabinet, but Su Man blocked the front of the cabinet and wouldn’t move an inch. Her eyes were swollen and red, her expression stubborn. "You’re going back to work again soon. You have to sleep in the master bedroom tonight."

Strictly speaking, the reason they quarreled tonight, to the point that Su Man broke down crying, was that she could no longer endure the fact that Wen Siyuan hadn’t shared a bed with her for the last two or three years.

But aside from that, there was another reason: at the end of last year, Xu Wei had completely cut ties with Su Man and married a girl in her early twenties, a college student, as his wife.

Originally, Su Man should have been happy. After all, when she accidentally got pregnant with Xu Wei’s child and had no choice but to go to the hospital to have it removed, she’d already made up her mind to cut things off with him.

But at the time, Xu Wei had used what had happened between them to threaten her, forcing her against her will to maintain that shameful, hidden relationship with him.

Strictly speaking, she’d been coerced. But after being together for so long, and given that Xu Wei did have real skill in business, she picked up a few tricks by following him around. In the last two or three years, she’d made quite a bit of money as well. Because of that, she couldn’t help but see parts of him in herself.

What’s more, her husband—her husband in the legal sense—hadn’t shared a bed with her for two or three years. Aside from those days and nights when he was genuinely too busy with work to take leave, whenever Wen Siyuan, her husband, was on vacation and at home, he couldn’t even be bothered to say a word to her, much less share a bed and pillow, and he was even stingy about giving her a single glance.

He treated her entirely like air, like a stranger living under the same roof.

And as a woman, she was flesh and blood, not a block of wood. She needed affection. So even knowing full well that Xu Wei wasn’t sincere toward her, she still couldn’t help but develop a certain dependence on him.

She thought that since she still held the title of Wen Siyuan’s wife, and in the shadows she had Xu Wei as emotional comfort, this kind of life wasn’t really so bad.

As long as she was cautious and careful, and no one noticed anything, she wouldn’t have to worry.

Who could have known that just when she thought things would simply go on like this, Xu Wei, in order to marry a college girl, would ignore all their past connection and insist on ending whatever they had between them.

Thinking of this, Su Man’s heart couldn’t help but twist in pain. She lowered her eyes to keep Wen Siyuan from noticing anything unusual from her expression, but her heart still clenched again and again.

Especially when she recalled what Xu Wei had said to her in the end: "Here’s five thousand yuan. You’d better listen to me. From now on, even if we run into each other, just act like we don’t know each other. Otherwise, don’t blame me for mailing those photos of you to your husband."

The photos had been taken by Xu Wei while she was asleep. If even one of them got out, she’d have no face left to go on living, and even if she did end her own life, what she would leave her son Pengpeng would still be an indelible wound.

"Just looking at you makes me sick. You really think I’d lie in the same bed as you?" His expression cold, Wen Siyuan stared at Su Man blankly for a long moment before saying, "You should be grateful that Wen Peng is still so young. Otherwise, our marriage wouldn’t have dragged on without being ended until now."

Forcing down the emotions surging in her chest, Su Man lifted her eyes to meet Wen Siyuan’s icy, emotionless gaze. Tears fell from her eyes as she said in a hoarse, desolate voice, "Even criminals are given a chance by the law to correct their mistakes. Even if I did things wrong before, haven’t the last two or three years of punishment from you been enough? Do you really have to keep torturing me like this?"

Her words carried accusation, but also a plea. "I’m your wife. Our marriage is protected by law. You’re supposed to fulfill a husband’s responsibilities and duties toward me. All I want is to be a normal couple with you, to give you a few more children. Is even that too much to ask?"