Chapter 13: Birthday

I held him a little tighter, sighing inwardly.

I really had brought all this trouble on myself.

Our wedding anniversary was supposed to be important, yet I hadn’t prepared properly. I’d worn high heels, which was bad enough, but I’d picked a pair that didn’t even fit right.

And if that weren’t enough, I’d gone down the stairs without even watching where I was going.

Lu Mingqi had just reminded me to be careful, and less than a minute later, I’d gone tumbling down the stairs right in front of him.

It wasn’t hard to imagine how terrified he must have been.

Accidents were nobody’s fault. Once it had happened, no one could bring themselves to blame me. After all, I was the one who ended up in the hospital.

I could only blame my terrible luck.

Why on earth had I suddenly gotten the urge to read that ridiculous “everyone’s darling” novel right before the party?

And the author was something else.

Out of all the names in the world, they just had to pick one identical to mine.

Seriously, Jiang Yueling wasn’t exactly a common name you heard everywhere you went.

We sat in silence for a while.

Lu Mingqi had been genuinely exhausted lately. He held me close and closed his eyes for a moment.

Seeing that, I decided to get up and let him rest a little longer.

But the second I moved, his eyes opened.

He pulled me back and asked anxiously,

“Where are you going?”

“Um… I thought you should go lie down in the lounge for a while. There’s still half an hour before your meeting.”

“Come with me.”

I wasn’t sleepy at all. I’d slept until nine that morning.

But seeing the dark circles beneath his eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse.

“Okay.”

I rested my chin in my hand and looked at him.

My husband loved me this much.

What was I supposed to do about that?

Not long afterward, Lu Mingqi went into his meeting.

He told me to stay in the lounge and wait for him. Once he finished work, he’d take me out to dinner.

I was so bored lying there that I was practically about to grow mushrooms when Zhang Yong messaged me to gossip.

So I told her everything that had happened from beginning to end.

She immediately replied with a ridiculously long string of ellipses.

“My fresh young thing is lying in my bed right now. I’m officially declining this dog food, thank you very much.”

Then she asked,

“So you really lost your memory?”

I corrected her.

“Technically, it’s a memory disorder. But yes, I did lose part of my memory.”

Zhang Yong replied instantly.

“You really are one of a kind. What the hell was so appealing about those shoes that you were willing to risk your life just to wear them? I told you they were impossible to walk in.”

“I’ve learned my lesson. Looking at them now, they’re not even that pretty.”

“You nearly died and you’re still worried about whether they’re pretty.”

A few minutes later, she sent me another long message.

“Honestly, I understand why Lu Mingqi reacted the way he did.

“You fell and passed out immediately that day. No matter how much anyone called your name, you wouldn’t wake up.

“The Lu family’s villa is out in the suburbs, so it took the ambulance a while to get there. None of us dared to move you.

“You know what Lu Mingqi is like in business. He’s always calm, like everything is completely under his control.

“But that was the first time I’d ever seen him panic like that.

“He cried.

“He kept calling your name over and over.

“And you just lay there, completely still.

“Honestly, I thought that if something really happened to you, he might just go with you.”

I froze.

I hadn’t realized Zhang Yong had been there that day too.

From the way she was talking, it seemed everyone already knew exactly how Lu Mingqi felt about me.

I asked,

“Last time I told you Lu Mingqi and I were just in a marriage alliance, that our relationship was basically loveless. Why didn’t you correct me?”

Zhang Yong immediately exploded.

“You idiot! You said it like you were stating an established fact. Who the hell was going to argue with you?”

I continued interrogating her.

“You even slipped that handsome guy’s business card to me. Lu Mingqi caught me with it.”

“It’s not like that was the first time.”

I stared at the screen.

“What? No way! Lu Mingqi told me we were very close and had never done anything shady behind each other’s backs.”

“Who said you were supposed to do anything shady?”

Zhang Yong finally lost patience and sent me a voice message.

“Girl, do you have any idea how much you’re worth?

“There are tons of young handsome guys out there who want you as their sponsor.

“They’ve got an entire network. One guy knows another, and the second they get a signal, they start introducing each other.

“We’ve always had an understanding about this.

“If they give you their contact information, just take it to be polite.

“Message them if you’re interested. Ignore them if you’re not.

“It’s just normal socializing.

“Who knew something would go wrong with your brain?”

Now it was my turn to interrogate her.

“What about all that gossip you spread about Lu Mingqi and Lian Rong? You said he wouldn’t even spare a married woman.”

Zhang Yong answered as calmly as ever.

“I was just enjoying the drama. There are all kinds of ridiculous rumors floating around in our circle. I never actually believed it. I was only messing with you.”

What a great friend.

She could seriously joke about something like that.

“Your husband loves you this much. What more could you ask for?

“It’s hard to find someone who genuinely loves you in our circle.

“If you feel guilty, just treat him a little better.

“Oh, and his birthday is next month.

“Don’t tell me you forgot?”

That made me freeze.

Fortunately, after thinking for a few seconds, Lu Mingqi’s birthday immediately came back to me.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Thank God.

At least I hadn’t forgotten something that important.

Zhang Yong’s reminder made me realize I hadn’t prepared a birthday present for him yet.

In previous years, our birthday gifts had been so practical they were almost hilarious.

He gave me luxury goods that were likely to appreciate in value.

I gave him gold bars that would hold their value.

He’d never complained, so I assumed he was pretty happy with the arrangement.

But this year was different.

I wanted to prepare something a little more special.

Something that would genuinely make him happy.

The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized something terrifying.

I had no idea what Lu Mingqi actually wanted.

In my eyes, he was the kind of man who put his career first and loved the thrill of winning in the business world.

I might spend my days eating well and sleeping comfortably at home, but I wasn’t completely useless.

When he married me, he’d gotten both a beautiful wife and someone who could be useful when needed.

The problem was, all the business dealings between our families were handled by my father and older brother.

I knew practically nothing about the business world.

Trying to suddenly bring him some huge business deal would obviously be a fantasy.

I only had a basic understanding of investing, too.

Whenever there had been a good investment opportunity, Lu Mingqi had always been the one to bring me along.

And simply giving him money…

No.

Forget it.

He was the one who gave me my monthly allowance in the first place.