Shi Che’s voice was somewhat dry, filled with a dusky tone and carried an imperceptible sense of loss.
"We are husband and wife..."
These five words slowly reached Ling Chuxia’s ears. She blinked, gazing unconsciously at Shi Che.
"Husband and wife...?"
During these three years, although they were married, they were different from ordinary married couples. He was moody and capricious. No matter how carefully or thoughtfully she tried to please him, he still loathed and detested her.
She thought that in his heart, he never considered her his wife.
But now he was saying, "We are husband and wife"? In his heart, did he consider her his wife?
"I... am I, am I really your wife?" Ling Chuxia’s voice was hoarse, her lips trembling slightly as she spoke each word extremely slowly.
Ling Chuxia’s words abruptly shook Shi Che.
He knew he had caused Ling Chuxia much grievance and embarrassment over these three years, but he hadn’t realized that she was even uncertain about this?
Shi Che gazed at Ling Chuxia’s uncertain, timid, and even cautious eyes. His heart felt as if it were being pricked by thousands of fine, dense needles—bloodless, yet able to penetrate deeply, spreading pain bit by bit throughout his body.
His dark eyes conveyed a trace of sorrow as his hands clenched. His gaze fixed firmly on Ling Chuxia’s face, his voice still husky but resolute, "Chuxia, of course, you are my wife, and I, I am your husband."
Even though, in these three years, she might never have considered him her husband, yet in his heart, since the day she married him, since the moment she told the priest "I do," regardless of her intentions, she had been his wife.
The person he was talking about was Chuxia, was Ling Chuxia. Not Ling Yunshu, but Ling Chuxia.
He said, "Chuxia, you are my wife, I am your husband."
Previously, Ling Chuxia thought that happiness meant having enough food and clothes; later, she thought it was about being together with her elder sister forever, then she believed happiness meant her elder sister coming back soon so they could reunite.
Now, happiness was just one sentence from Shi Che.
Three years of grievances and embarrassments, she couldn’t have truly felt nothing. She had cried, been heartbroken, despaired, because of Shi Che’s harsh words time and again, because of his explosions of fury.
She had already done so well, yet she couldn’t earn even a bit of recognition from him.
How could she not feel aggrieved? How could she not be embarrassed?
Even her desire to have a child could not be expressed directly to her closest husband like ordinary couples, but had to be calculated secretly and stealthily.
And when the child did come, it was the start of another embarrassment.
Yet, now he was saying that she was his wife.
These three years, her efforts had not been entirely meaningless, had they?
Ling Chuxia’s eyes became uncontrollably moist, her throat choked up as she looked at Shi Che, her gaze still flickering with disbelief. In a hoarse and uncertain tone, she spoke again, "Am I, am I really your wife?"
Shi Che’s heart trembled violently with her words. How much insecurity had he inflicted upon her? Clearly... the spoiled and wilful Ling Chuxia had now become so sensitive, so fragile, so vulnerable.