Chapter 12

Watching Jiang Jie’s retreating figure, Bai Ziling said nothing, but her gaze burned with unyielding determination.

Sima Xingchen had more free time than Xia Zhen and Chang Weiwei; besides, Lan Baiwei wanted her to live lightly, not to meddle in the “accounts receivable company,” only to take care of her health and prepare for pregnancy, so she spent her days idling, waiting to give birth. Today she’d met Bai Ziling for coffee—partly to kill time, partly to check on her friend.

The current Bai Ziling was truly different: her feet wore MIUMIU shoes, her hand held PRADA’s latest trendy peach-colored handbag, and she looked stylish and fashionable.

“Ziling, how much of your one point five million is left?” Sima Xingchen was reminding her, and also teasing her.

“Still a lot,” Bai Ziling replied with a brilliant smile.

“Money runs out.”

“I’m frugal. I’ve planned carefully.”

“Ziling, you can live without one more handbag, but if your heart is pierced a thousand times…,” Sima Xingchen let the thought hang.

“Xingchen, I’m fine!”

“Still just ‘roommates’?” Sima Xingchen asked with concern: “You’re a man and a woman alone together…”

“Jiang Jie spends little time at home—he only comes back to sleep. To him, I might not even be as important as his bed,” Bai Ziling admitted. “So don’t worry he’ll hurt me—even if I wanted him to, he seems uninterested.”

“Ziling, he’s not gay, and he’s not Liu Xia Hui. How can a woman as beautiful as you still fail to stir his desires? I find that hard to believe,” Sima Xingchen said skeptically.

“Maybe he truly doesn’t want any connection with me,” Bai Ziling said bitterly.

“Is he really only after his grandfather’s inheritance?”

“It seems so.”

Stirring her iced coffee with a straw, Sima Xingchen sincerely hoped Bai Ziling would find happiness too, yet she always believed love mattered more than wealth—a man who loves you is more precious than a rich one.

“Xingchen, you really don’t need to worry about me. There’s still over two months left—things could change at any moment!” Bai Ziling said confidently.

“You’re so optimistic.”

“My conditions aren’t bad, are they?”

“But Jiang Da isn’t an ordinary man!”

“True! But he’s still a man,” Bai Ziling smiled. “I just don’t want to exploit my feminine advantages. Otherwise… men are just men.”

“Ziling, don’t go too far,” Sima Xingchen exclaimed.

“I won’t!”

“A person must have dignity.”

“I know! Otherwise I’d have drugged his coffee and made it a ‘fait accompli,’” Bai Ziling joked. “Or I could’ve held him at knifepoint until the deed was done…”

“Ziling, are you trying to kill me with laughter?” Sima Xingchen nearly choked. In the twenty-first century, still someone doing this?

“That’s why I say I won’t do anything—I won’t let him look down on me.” She still had that much pride.

“A wife is not as good as a concubine; a concubine is not as good as a mistress; a mistress is not as good as one you can’t get.”

“Playing hard to get?” Sima Xingchen asked.

“Wu wei,” Bai Ziling mused, thinking of Laozi’s philosophy.

“But you earned this three million too easily—what then? How will you return to simplicity?” Sima Xingchen glanced again at Bai Ziling’s designer bag. “Do you know what it feels like to be trapped in quicksand and unable to pull free?”

“It’s not that terrifying!”

“It’s easy to go from frugality to luxury, hard to return from luxury to frugality.”

“Xingchen, is this an idiom hour now?”

“I fear you’ll never want to buy cheap things again.”

Bai Ziling kept drinking her black coffee, but suddenly she seemed to understand. “Xingchen, I drink coffee with sugar too—I’m just used to it without. So if, two months from now, I’m drowning in credit card debt again, with no future in sight… I can still handle it.”

“Then we’ve all worried for nothing,” Sima Xingchen hoped Bai Ziling truly was this carefree and composed.

“Tell me about Jiang Da. After half a month of observation, what kind of man is he? Is he worth loving?”

“I don’t know yet,” Bai Ziling answered honestly. “We spend little time together—he never comes home for dinner, and he never eats breakfast.”

“What about weekends?”

“He doesn’t believe in two-day weekends. He works on Saturdays. On Sundays… he wakes up at noon, plays golf in the afternoon, and spends the evening online in his study.” Bai Ziling knew his routine well.

“You never went out together?”

“No.”

“You could join him for golf.”

“First, he never invited me. Second, I don’t know how to play golf. I don’t want him to think I’m an octopus—men hate clingy women, and they hate women who follow them,” Bai Ziling said. She hadn’t had many relationships, but she understood men’s minds.

“So there’s no real interaction between you.”

“We’re ‘roommates’ with the detachment of gentlemanly friendship.”

“If I were you, I’d be bored to death!” Sima Xingchen had a stubborn temperament, especially toward men. “He… probably has no interest in you at all.”

“I’m not giving up yet,” Bai Ziling replied with high spirits.

“If he had any intention, he’d have already…”

“Xingchen, some people are slow to warm up. I still have time…,” Bai Ziling said with confidence. “I haven’t even truly started yet!”

A phone call came: Jiang Jie told Bai Ziling to meet him at a private obstetrics clinic, as the time was right—they’d been married nearly a month, and it was time for a pregnancy test.

The doctor solemnly ordered her to provide a urine sample and blood draw. Though she wasn’t pregnant, she had to memorize her estimated due date and prenatal checkup schedule. The doctor even told her the exact day she’d “conceived.” Thinking of this, Bai Ziling found it absurd—how much had Jiang Jie paid this doctor? Or was their friendship so close he didn’t care if his medical license got revoked?

While Jiang Jie chatted with the doctor, Bai Ziling went to the nursery room. Behind a large glass pane, she watched the newborns. Though each wrinkled face looked like a tiny old man or woman, they were so adorable, brimming with life. Tears welled in her eyes—every small life was a treasure, a perfect gift.

Look at Xia Zhen. Look at Chang Weiwei. When would it be her turn to become a mother? Suddenly, she longed for her own child.

“We can go,” Jiang Jie’s voice sounded beside her.

Bai Ziling turned, calmly meeting his gaze. She wondered what kind of father he’d be—strict, or indulgent? She couldn’t tell. More importantly… did he even want to be a father?

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Jie asked, studying her eyes.

“You’re going to be a father,” she “congratulated” him.

“Bai Ziling, this is fake!”

“I’m going to be a mother,” she continued.

“Stop acting foolish!”

“Do you think our baby will look more like you or me?”

“Bai Ziling, what are you talking about?” Jiang Jie grew annoyed, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the clinic exit. “My five hundred million hasn’t even been transferred yet—watch your words!”

“Which sentence did I say wrong?” She suddenly yanked her hand free. “It’s only because I’m playing along that I asked.”

“Your tone and expression…”

“Jiang Jie, you should act happy and excited. Otherwise people will think you don’t want your wife pregnant—or worse, that you think the baby isn’t yours.” Bai Ziling didn’t know where the anger came from—she couldn’t stop her tongue.

Jiang Jie glared at her, momentarily speechless.

“Right! Don’t scold me—I’m the ‘pregnant woman’ now,” Bai Ziling shot back, unafraid.