Lili never expected Shi Che to be so harsh, her smiling face freezing in an instant, her entire being petrified. The host of the event hadn’t anticipated Shi Che’s reaction either and was momentarily stunned. But having battled in the business world, he was quick to react and immediately waved Lili away, "Right, with your vulgar and gaudy appearance, President Shi wouldn’t spare you a glance. Go on, get lost, don’t obstruct President Shi’s view."
Tears suddenly veiled Lili’s wide eyes, on the verge of crying but daring not to let the tears fall. She obediently shrank back into a corner.
Seeing this, the host knew Shi Che was really in a bad mood that night and dared not make any more casual arrangements.
A few men started to play cards, and Shi Che’s luck wasn’t good that night; he kept picking up mediocre hands. But the other three were cunning, fully aware of Shi Che’s foul mood. They deliberately lost, making it look like they were struggling. As a consequence, after several games, it was Shi Che who kept winning.
Shi Che was already irritated, and seeing the three others acting so smugly with their little tricks only added to his irritation. He pushed the cards in front of him away and said with a cold voice, "I’m done playing, you guys go ahead."
With that, he stood up and walked over to the sofa, sat down, picked up a glass of red wine from the table, and downed it in one gulp.
The three men at the card table looked at each other in bewilderment, wondering what had just happened, unaware of why Shi Che was still in such a poor mood even though they had let him win.
It seemed they all needed to tread carefully that night.
The room was full of people, with laughter, playful shouts, music, and the sound of shuffling cards echoing in his ears. Despite the lively atmosphere, Shi Che only felt overwhelming emptiness, as if his heart contained an abyss that nothing could fill.
He took out his cell phone, two of them, and laid them side by side on the table. One of them, as usual, had numerous missed calls and messages, crowding the screen. The other, just as always, was emptily barren, so clean it couldn’t be cleaner.
He subconsciously counted the days again, from the morning he had left home till now, it had been another week or so...
His expression chilled, a flicker of darkness crossing the depths of his eyes.
He was always silently keeping track of the time since he had left her, hoping that one day she would ask him to come home.
However... she never did.
Before, when she wasn’t in a hurry to have a child to show for their marriage, she never took the initiative to call him to come home early. Later, when she needed a child, indeed there was a period when she would occasionally call him. But of what use were such calls to him?
She remembered him only when she needed him; once she didn’t, she would be indifferent, casting him aside.
He didn’t know if, in all the time they were married, she had ever truly wanted him to come home, not for her so-called duties or purposes.