After My Rebirth, My Husband Pampers Me Everyday!

Chapter 152: WON’T YOU ASK ME WHY I’M ENRAGED

Guiying exhaled slowly and looked at himself in the mirror.

We are such slaves to our secondary genders, he thought, and it was not a new thought, but it landed with fresh weight this morning. Seneca wrote that we are more often frightened than hurt, our troubles springing more from imagination than reality, but Guiying thought the man had never considered what it was to be a biological creature at the mercy of a cycle that didn’t consult your feelings or your schedule before arriving and dismantling everything you had carefully arranged.

He set the empty pill packet down on the vanity.

"This is the last one I’m taking," he said to his reflection, with complete finality. "If that man doesn’t know how to buy condoms, then I will buy them myself, and it shouldn’t be difficult to find his size." He paused, considering. "The biggest one should do it."

The flush that climbed up his neck and into his face immediately afterward was entirely unwelcome, and he was annoyed at himself for it.

He pressed both hands against his cheeks, staring at his own reflection with an expression of profound self-reproach. "I am so unserious," he muttered, his voice dropping lower with each word. "I just finished cursing the man out completely, yet here I am calculating his condom size so he can use it to fuck me senseless. What is wrong with me?"

He lowered his hands slowly.

Then a thought arrived, quieter than the others and considerably more uncomfortable, stopping him where he stood.

He had told Liuxian clearly that he didn’t want children right now and had meant every word of it. He had also, last night, after approximately three seconds of hesitation, said okay and meant that too.

He stared at himself in the mirror for a long, deeply uncomfortable moment while the thought finished arriving and settled itself squarely in the middle of his chest.

Am I a hypocrite?

He held his own gaze and genuinely did not have a clean answer.

Readers, he thought with no small amount of distress, am I a hypocrite?

He shook the thought off. Sitting with it wouldn’t produce a satisfying answer, and work was waiting. After finishing in the bathroom, Guiying stepped out.

Guiying pulled on the houndstooth shirt and buttoned it fast. The black knit polo went over it next. He tugged the collar flat and rolled the sleeves until the shirt cuffs showed clean at the wrist. Pinstripe trousers came next, belt through the loops, then the black dress shoes. Silver rings went on one by one, thumb, middle, ring finger, until his hands looked right.

A glance in the mirror said Guiying looked better than he felt. Then it was downstairs.

Liuxian was already at the table, fully dressed. His grey overcoat draped over the back of the chair while he scrolled through his phone, tea in the other hand, entirely unbothered by the morning.

Without a word, Guiying sat down across from him.

From the kitchen, Old Li appeared with breakfast plated and set everything down without comment. He retreated to the doorway, wiping his hands on a towel but not actually wiping. His eyes stayed on the table.

Forks scraped against plates. Neither of them spoke. Guiying kept his gaze on his food. Liuxian kept scrolling, but his thumb paused more than once.

Reaching for his tea, Guiying looked Liuxian over properly for the first time since coming downstairs, taking in the suit, the tie, the overcoat from collar to cuff, then set the cup down.

"Why are you dressed like that?"

Liuxian looked up from the phone. "My European business partners are coming in for a meeting this afternoon. This is a show of wealth, my darling." His gaze ran over Guiying from collar to cuff, slow and deliberate. "That’s why I’m taking my most expensive car, my most expensive jewelry, and the most precious of all. You."

From the doorway, Old Li let out a low whistle. "Now that," he said to no one in particular, "was smooth."

Chopsticks paused halfway to Guiying’s bowl. His jaw tightened. Then the corner of his mouth pulled up despite him.

Breakfast finished, Liuxian shrugged his overcoat on while Guiying picked up his bag, and they headed out together.

Outside, the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail waited, bespoke and obscenely expensive. Its coachwork caught the pale morning light in a way that made a statement without trying, and Guiying stopped to look at it for a moment before getting in.

Liuxian held the door open. Guiying slid in without a word, settling into the seat while Liuxian came around and got in beside him. The car pulled out of the gates and into the city.

The city moved past the windows, and the car stayed quiet for a while before Liuxian spoke.

"My team updated me on Ren Hao this morning. He’s stable, moved to a private room with a dedicated doctor." A brief pause. "He won’t want for anything."

"Good, that’s nice to hear," Guiying said quietly.

Another stretch of silence.

Then Liuxian said, "Who is Shen Zihao to you?"

Guiying kept his eyes on the window, shocked that Liuxian had asked him such a question.

But then again, it would be weird for an intelligent person like Liuxian not to ask.

Especially with what he had said to Ren Hao yesterday.

"He was arranged to me," he said. "Before we got married."

Liuxian smiled slightly, stretching his legs and leaning back.

He tapped his knee one beat at a time, making Guiying wonder if he was waiting for him to add more words.

"Yes. I’m well aware of that. But at the same time, I don’t believe that’s all this is about. Your relationship with Shen Zihao runs deeper than you let on."

Guiying’s eyes widened, stiffening just for a bit.

He was relieved a little, having his back facing Liuxian so he wouldn’t see his reaction.

Yet the man caught it through the window.

"Tell me, Guiying, has he done something to you? You know, when you talk about Shen Zihao or whenever he’s mentioned around you, I’m enraged."

He stretched his arm slightly, just enough for it to land on Guiying’s shoulder and pull him toward him.

"Ah!" Guiying let out, landing face first into Liuxian’s chest.

"What the hell is wrong with you! Why would you—" Guiying’s words trailed off when he saw the smile on Liuxian’s face.

The smile was there, but his eyes were practically oozing with bloodlust.

"Won’t you ask me why I’m enraged, my dear? Ask me why."

Guiying gulped. He didn’t like where this was heading at all.

He knew, before Liuxian asked him his questions, that he had already gotten some form of the answer he wanted to confirm.

Slowly, he raised his head toward Liuxian and asked, "Why?"