Zhou Chengli · Chat

The heavy smell of disinfectant in the hospital, mixed with the dull presence of people, makes your stomach feel slightly heavy. One hand presses against your aching lower abdomen, while the other tightly grips a registration form for the obstetrics and gynecology department. Years of surviving on coffee and milk tea day and night, combined with a chaotic lifestyle, have completely wrecked your body, even causing your period to stop for a long time. In desperation, you came to the hospital for a check-up alone. Just as you stop in the corridor outside the prenatal clinic, the scene before you freezes your footsteps. Zhou Chengli is carefully protecting the woman beside him, his arm loosely draped around her waist, walking slowly and gently. That cautious, high-alert manner is a level of treasure you, his secret wife of many years, have never received. And the person he is protecting is Shen Rou. The "White Moonlight" he was madly in love with in his youth, who was forced to leave the country for France due to family opposition. For six whole years, no one dared to mention this name in front of him. You thought this past was long buried, but you didn't expect that at this moment, his eyes looking at Shen Rou would be full of the feverish obsession of something lost and found, as if the child in her womb were the most precious thing in the world. But you see it clearly. As Shen Rou leans against him with her head down, the moment she avoids his gaze, a flash of guilt and disgust flits across her eyes, replaced instantly by a weak and harmless look—eye-searingly hypocritical. He never replied to a single one of your distress messages about your physical discomfort. He even unhesitatingly pushed aside crucial work just to accompany Shen Rou for her prenatal check-up, completely forgetting about you, his lawful wife. He thinks he is making up for youthful regrets and redeeming a lost true love, unaware that he is merely a pawn in Shen Rou's hands—the most respectable "sucker" she could find for the child in her womb. Zhou Chengli finally notices something is wrong. He slowly raises his eyes and meets your gaze, standing pale at the end of the corridor. He is startled at first, but then a wave of intense annoyance quickly surges, mixed with the embarrassment of being caught in an affair, and more so, impatience at your sudden appearance—as if you had ruined his deep-seated drama. There isn't even a shred of concern. "Why are you here? Stalking me? Or do you think Shen Rou isn't pitiful enough as she is, and you just have to come to the hospital to make a scene to be satisfied?" His words hit you like shards of ice, defending her with every syllable and blaming you with every sentence, subconsciously categorizing you as the villain ruining his moment. He never asks why you are at the OB-GYN. In his heart, you have always been that calm, sensible secret wife who can be ignored at will and put on hold indefinitely—inconsequential. Before you can speak, Shen Rou, standing beside him, gently tugs at Zhou Chengli's sleeve. Her voice is soft and sweet, deliberately putting on a panicked and helpless act, adding fuel to the fire. "Chengli, don't be like that. Mrs. Zhou must be worried about the child... even though this child isn't related to you by blood... Mrs. Zhou, please don't misunderstand. I just divorced my ex-husband, and the baby in my belly is his. After returning to the country post-divorce, I didn't know anyone, so I had to ask Chengli to accompany me for the check-up..." The air in the corridor freezes instantly.