Chapter 12: The First Time I Saw Him Cry

At ten that morning, Xiao Li and I were getting ready to head out.

There weren’t many places left on Lu Mingqi’s list. Our first stop today was Lu Corporation.

My memory might have been a mess, but my life as a spoiled housewife who did absolutely nothing all day was very real.

I’d married Lu Mingqi right after graduating from college. I’d told him I didn’t want to work and would rather stay home and make a living doing freelance work.

He’d given me an additional card linked to his account and told me to spend my time doing whatever made me happy.

Over the past three years, I’d tried all kinds of things, but I hadn’t managed to accomplish much with any of them.

Before the accident, I’d been learning to paint and had even set my sights on becoming an artist.

I’d looked back at my old paintings before.

Honestly, calling them “artwork” was being generous.

Maybe my family had spoiled me too much.

Then I married someone like Lu Mingqi, who practically gave me everything I wanted, which only made me even more spoiled.

I’d never experienced any real hardship, so I approached everything with the enthusiasm of someone who worked for three days and took two days off.

I called Lu Mingqi when Xiao Li and I arrived outside the company building.

He personally came downstairs to pick us up.

Xiao Li asked if she could go find Lian Rong and catch up with her.

My curiosity got the better of me.

I told Lu Mingqi to go to his office first while I went to see what Lian Rong actually looked like in person.

To my surprise, Lian Rong wasn’t working as Lu Mingli’s assistant.

She was working alongside Lu Mingxing instead.

The moment he saw me, Lu Mingxing strode over.

“Hey, Sis-in-law.”

He didn’t even ask why I was there. He simply told someone to prepare some flower tea and pastries.

Lian Rong wasn’t particularly photogenic, but in person, she was much prettier than her pictures.

She was wearing a matching ring identical to the one on Lu Mingxing’s finger.

Looks like the two of them had gotten back together.

Lian Rong still seemed bothered by what had happened before. She stood awkwardly in front of me.

“Miss Jiang, I’m really sorry. I caused you to misunderstand everything. That idiot Lu Mingxing refused to listen to my explanation, so I already gave him a good talking-to. I hope you won’t hold it against him.”

Her voice was incredibly soft, almost like a warm spring breeze.

For some reason, standing in front of her made me feel a little guilty.

Before I knew the truth, I’d silently judged her more times than I cared to admit.

I gave her an awkward smile.

“It’s okay. I was partly at fault too. I didn’t understand the situation and interfered in your relationship. I even told him to break up with you. Good thing he didn’t listen. Otherwise, I would’ve been the one causing trouble.”

Lian Rong quickly waved her hands.

“No, please don’t say that. What you said was actually exactly what I used to worry about.”

“You probably know what my circumstances are like. The Lu family is so powerful and well-established. I never dared to imagine that I could stay with him for the long term.”

“But after you said those things, he finally understood what I was worried about. He took me home, and his parents treated me so kindly. That was when I finally felt at ease and decided to sincerely stay by his side.”

Lu Mingxing also seriously thanked me.

But he still seemed a little traumatized by our previous conversation.

“Still, Sis-in-law, the things you said that day really scared me. You kept talking about a marriage alliance and how some ‘kept man’ would have to pay compensation. I honestly thought you meant every word.”

“I know how much my second brother likes you. At the time, I actually felt like he was the one getting the short end of the deal.”

The memory made my face burn.

Back then, I really had sounded like a completely heartless, awful woman.

No wonder Lu Mingqi had gotten so angry that he moved into the company for an entire week.

Seeing how embarrassed I was, Lu Mingxing quickly changed the subject.

“How have you been feeling lately, Sis-in-law?”

“Much better.”

I’d spent the past two days going through Cinderella Reborn: From Forgotten Girl to Everyone’s Darling again.

My memories still hadn’t completely returned to normal, but at least I could now distinguish between what had actually happened and what belonged to the novel.

Everyone around me had been incredibly patient.

Whenever I asked a question, they told me everything they knew without hiding anything.

After sitting there for a while, I got up to leave.

Just then, I received a message from Lu Mingqi telling me to hurry to his office.

I had barely reached the door when Lu Mingxing suddenly called after me.

“Sis-in-law.”

I turned around.

“Please be careful from now on.”

He rarely sounded this serious.

“You have no idea how scared my second brother was the day you got hurt.”

He let out a quiet sigh.

“I’m this old, and that was the first time I’d ever seen him cry.”

“He was shaking so badly. He was genuinely terrified that he was going to lose you.”

I froze.

I’d been unconscious that day. I had no idea what had happened outside.

This was the first time anyone had told me.

The relationship between Lu Mingqi and me was actually rather strange.

From Lu Mingqi himself, as well as everything our family and friends had told me, it wasn’t difficult to see just how deeply he cared about me.

It was just a shame that I couldn’t remember it.

For three months, the identity of the “villainous female lead” had been deeply ingrained in my mind.

During that time, my feelings for him had never gone beyond admiration and affection.

I’d always kept a safe distance, as though I could turn around and walk away at any moment.

He told me so many things.

How we met.

How we fell in love.

How we got married.

How happy we’d been after getting married.

But to me, it all felt like I was listening to someone else’s story.

None of it felt real.

And yet, he really was exactly my type.

My feelings for him were growing stronger with every passing day.

The problem was…

We weren’t moving at the same pace.

Sometimes, Lu Mingqi wouldn’t say anything at all.

He would simply sit there and look at me.

I’d caught glimpses of disappointment in his eyes more than once.

He would tell me stories about our memories together.

There were some things I vaguely remembered.

But my reaction was always too calm.

Not happy enough.

Not moved enough.

Not like someone who had actually lived through those moments.

And he didn’t like that.

Once, I borrowed his phone.

His search history was filled with one question after another.

“How do you treat memory loss?”

“How can you recover lost memories?”

“What should you do about memory problems caused by a concussion?”

“Can hypnosis help restore memory?”

…

Almost every single search was about my condition.

He had even consulted countless doctors.

But none of them dared to give him a definite answer.

Some said my condition could be serious.

After that, he stopped asking them.

Xiao Li once told me that whenever I was resting in my room, family doctors would occasionally come to the house.

They would go into the study and talk with Lu Mingqi for at least an hour.

He really wanted me to go back to the way I used to be.

But in front of me, he was always the perfect husband.

He never let his worry or impatience affect me.

Lately, work had been keeping him extremely busy.

He often worked late into the night.

It had been quite a while since we’d had a proper conversation.

Today, I stopped by the company to see him.

He seemed to be in a particularly good mood, so he used his lunch break to show me around.

When we returned to his office, I pulled out the list of places he’d written down for me.

“I’ve been to almost all the places you suggested, but I don’t think they’ve helped much.”

Lu Mingqi took the paper from me and looked it over.

“Getting bored? Don’t want to go anymore?”

He knew perfectly well that I preferred staying home to running around all day.

“It’s not that.”

I shook my head.

“My condition isn’t like ordinary memory loss. I haven’t forgotten that much. My memories are just… mixed up. Going to familiar places hasn’t helped me remember anything new.”

“Okay.”

He crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it straight into the trash.

“Then you don’t have to go anymore.”

I hurried to explain.

“That’s not what I meant. I’ve already reread the entire novel, and now I can tell which parts are real and which parts I probably imagined.”

He casually praised me.

“Mhm. My wife is pretty smart.”

“…”

I stared at him helplessly.

“What I mean is, if I stay like this in the future, you don’t need to worry so much. This memory disorder doesn’t affect my daily life. Your work is already stressful enough. Don’t put more pressure on yourself because of me. We can just let things take their natural course.”

The smile on Lu Mingqi’s face gradually disappeared.

“I don’t like knowing you’re sick.”

“I’m not sick.”

“As far as I’m concerned, if you haven’t completely recovered, then you’re still sick.”

“It’s not exactly something we can fix just because we want to.”

Lu Mingqi patted his thigh.

The meaning was obvious.

He wanted to hold me again.

Whenever he felt insecure, he liked holding me like this.

I obediently sat on his lap, wrapped my arms around his neck, and gently rubbed his back the way he always soothed me.

“Lu Mingqi.”

“Hmm?”

“I like you. So please don’t make yourself so anxious anymore, okay?”

His voice immediately turned low.

“You used to say you loved me.”

I quickly corrected myself.

“Fine. I love you.”

“You also used to kiss me first.”

I leaned down and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

“I still do.”

He clearly wasn’t ready to let it go.

“Then why did you say our marriage was a business arrangement?”

That was obviously still a thorn in his heart.

“Because something was wrong with my head back then.”

“And you said you wanted a divorce.”

“That’s not going to happen anymore.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and said seriously,

“From now on, we’ll live well together. Besides, who else am I supposed to find if I leave you?”

Lu Mingqi gave a soft scoff.

“Don’t your friends introduce men to you all the time?”

“I’ve never been interested in those guys.”

“Oh?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“So if they weren’t that type, you’d be interested?”

The jealousy practically poured off him.

“You even brought another man’s picture home.”

I was so wronged I wanted to slam my head against the table.

“Zhang Yong shoved it into my hands! If I’d known what it was, I definitely wouldn’t have taken it.”

The more I explained, the more innocent I felt.

“And he was wearing shorts! What’s so scandalous about that?”

“A young man?”

Lu Mingqi immediately seized on that.

“He didn’t look much younger than me.”

“Maybe just a few years younger. He just debuted. He’s young.”

“So you’re saying I’m old?”

He tightened his arms around my waist.

“I’m only twenty-five. I’m not old.”

I was completely speechless.

Who had said he was old?

I could only patiently stroke his hair, imitating the tone he often used with me.

“If your brain is sick, you have to treat it. You can’t hide your illness just because you’re afraid of taking medicine, understand?”

Lu Mingqi burst out laughing.

He wrapped his arms around me and leaned back in his chair, finally relaxing a little.

After a while, he spoke again.

“I watched the security footage of your conversation with the youngest.”

“I know. You were watching it when I got home that day.”

“I watched it over and over.”

He sighed softly.

“At the time, I didn’t know you were suffering from post-concussion symptoms. I actually thought you’d been pretending with me for the past three years.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

He gave a helpless laugh.

“When you said those things to the youngest, you looked so serious that I couldn’t help believing you.”

“So you really believed me?”

“I was half convinced.”

He answered honestly.

“My head was a mess at the time. But you didn’t even bother explaining yourself. You came home and didn’t say a word to me, as if you were silently admitting that everything was true.”

I felt wronged just thinking about it.

The hospital had run so many tests before, yet no one had found anything wrong.

Maybe my condition really was that unusual.

The scans looked completely normal, so no one would have thought to investigate a problem with my memories.

“That week, I barely slept.”

He continued.

“Big Brother saw what I was like, so he stayed with me every night. He wouldn’t leave until I finally fell asleep.”

“Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore and demanded to know what was going on.”

“I told him everything.”

“Big Brother was much calmer than I was. The moment he heard the whole story, he realized something was wrong and immediately told me to take you back for another examination.”

So my older brother had played an important part in all this too.

Lu Mingqi continued, clearly determined to air his grievances.

“And what about you?”

“You were perfectly happy even when I wasn’t home.”

“You even brought another man’s business card home.”

I was so innocent I could have cried.

Zhang Yong had shoved it into my hand, and I’d forgotten about it almost immediately.

If I hadn’t dropped that bag, I might not have discovered it for another year.

I wasn’t exactly the type to use the same bag every day.

“I was really angry then.”

He sounded almost like he was filing a formal complaint.

“I thought I was just going to stop caring about you.”

But then the corners of his lips curved upward.

“And then you reached out and grabbed my hand.”

“You even asked if I’d eaten.”

“And just like that, I wasn’t angry anymore.”

I laughed.

“You’re really easy to win over.”

He shook his head.

“No.”

“It’s because I love you too much.”

I froze.

Lu Mingqi rarely said things that straightforwardly.

He was much more comfortable proving his feelings through actions than putting them into words.

For him, saying something this cheesy was practically crossing a line.

Or maybe it was because my memories still hadn’t completely returned.

In my memory, Lu Mingqi only showed this vulnerable side of himself once in a while, or acted quietly needy in ways that were almost impossible to notice.

And usually, it only happened when he felt extremely insecure…

when he needed to be comforted more than anything.

Just like now.