Chapter 628

For several days straight, he spent his days at the New Future Tutoring School, carefully reviewing study-abroad textbooks and all kinds of supplementary materials, pointing out any areas that could be improved to truly plug the gaps and make up for deficiencies.

After dinner, he would take Zijin, who had just returned from school, for walks around town.

This time, he had no intention of going to Peking University or meeting Song Yu; instead, he poured all his energy into Zijin. For this woman who had been the first to follow him, for this woman who in his past life had been the first to bear his children, he owed her in both lifetimes.

And it was a debt that could never be fully repaid.

Sometimes he wondered: if there were a next life, and if in that life she hadn’t been born into the Chen family, he would surely marry her again, to achieve the same fairness he had given Xiao Han and Song Yu.

Since the summer after her sophomore year, he hadn’t spent this much patient time with her before; Chen Zijin looked utterly delighted.

One night, she lay on her back, gazing up at the man above her, and suddenly spoke with emotion: “Husband, I want to ask you something.”

Li Heng blinked and said, “That’s not like you—speak.”

Chen Zijin said, “Lately I’ve been overthinking everything. I feel like I’m no longer as carefree as before. Has maturity done this to me?”

Li Heng reached out and pinched her, thoroughly satisfied: “You’ve been mature for a long time already.”

Chen Zijin gave him a playful glare, then fell silent, several times opening her mouth as if to speak but holding back—until finally, gathering her courage, she said: “Husband, please let me have the first child.”

Li Heng froze, staring at her intently, a strange ache rising in his chest.

This time, Chen Zijin didn’t look away; she gazed back at him with deep, unshakable affection.

She understood that by saying this, she was, in a sense, stepping out of the competition with Xiao Han and Song Yu.

After weeks of repeated reflection, she understood even more clearly: her mother had become her Achilles’ heel. For the past two years, he had never gone to the Chen household, and Uncle Jianguo and Aunt Tian had never asked him to go—many things were already obvious without being spoken.

Though Chen Zijin’s heart burned with resentment, she couldn’t blame her husband or the Li family; she could only curse her own birth. Otherwise, if she had followed him faithfully through middle school, high school, and university, none of this would have happened.

One misstep, and every step after is wrong.

She was miserable—on one side was her own mother, on the other her husband. Her full heart of grievance had nowhere to go, so she crushed it all down and swallowed it, bearing it alone.

During this time, she had weighed everything repeatedly: his decision to go to Shanghai for the college entrance exam instead of coming to Beijing to be with her proved how strong Xiao Han’s pull on him was; she had little chance of winning against Xiao Han.

And facing Song Yu, who was also in Beijing, she had even less chance. She considered her own looks and demeanor top-tier—wherever she went, she was the center of attention—but it was Song Yu.

How many women in this world could match Song Yu’s beauty?

How many women in this world could match Song Yu’s allure to men?

Xiao Han to the south, Song Yu to the north, the Chen family dragging her back, and Yu Laoshi utterly crushing her from all sides—Chen Zijin suddenly felt powerless, ready to give up.

In her past life, Chen Zijin had never surrendered, always fighting against Xiao Han and Song Yu—because back then, Li Heng was just an ordinary man. Even if the Chen family dragged him down, it couldn’t shake her determination.