If You Could Hear My Heart

Thinking to save some for tomorrow, she sat on the bed and turned on the TV.

But once the TV was on—suddenly, she remembered the scene she had witnessed at the hotpot restaurant.

Shen Chi stood side by side with another woman…

A sort of sourness crept into her heart, as if a stone had struck it.

Absentmindedly flipping through channels, she remembered the question she’d asked Weiwei that afternoon: “Do you believe it? I’ve known Shen Chi for thirteen years, and he has never taken me to Shen’s.”

No one would believe it, and yet he truly never had.

Maybe, whenever she stood beside him, she was just not suitable.

In truth, she had worked hard over these past five years, diligently studying her major in school and even receiving praise from leaders during her internships.

But no matter how hard she worked, even if she were to stand on a ladder, she still couldn’t reach the stars.

That was the distance between them. As a child, she hadn’t understood, but as an adult, she understood all too well.

Once she understood, she became scared…

Scared that she would shatter to pieces before she could even reach him.

She didn’t want to experience that kind of pain ever again.

Just like five years ago, when she took a bullet for him and would have rather died than open her eyes to see him again.

Her chest felt entangled in waterweeds, clump upon clump of breathless agony.

She got out of bed, drew the curtains, turned off the TV, and turned out the light.

Lying in bed, perhaps because she was so tired from the day, she soon fell asleep.

She held the soft comforter in her grip, and slept quite soundly.

Shen Chi didn’t return to the Shen Family home until after midnight. He had drunk quite a bit with a group of partners that evening and was slightly intoxicated.

The butler had brought him home and seeing him frown, let out a sigh, “President Shen, must you drink with these people yourself? Can’t you send Xiao Mo and the others?”

“With the president of the partner company here personally, I can’t just not join them,” Shen Chi said, holding his forehead, his voice hoarse.

“You could’ve drunk less.”

“I’m fine.”

Shen Chi got out of the car, and it was now the most peaceful part of the night, the entire villa area quiet, without a peep of noise.

The night breeze was neither warm nor cold against his face.

Butler Ling came out to help Shen Chi, but he didn’t let her.

“Is she asleep?”

“She’s been asleep a long time.” Butler Ling knew who Shen Chi was asking about.

Shen Chi walked up the steps and through the living room to the upstairs.

The vast Shen home was extraordinarily quiet. He hadn’t seen her all day and missed her deeply, especially while accompanying partners for drinks in the evening, when all he wanted was to come back early to see her.

He first went to his own bedroom, finding the bed empty, which made him smile wryly. He knew she had gone back to her own room again.

She was just so disobedient.

Turning back to the next room, he only turned on a wall lamp, which cast a gentle, not harsh, light.

Under the dim light, there she was, indeed, sleeping soundly, her hand tightly clutching the blanket, appearing just like a child.

Shen Chi’s slender, clean fingers brushed her hair, and he leaned down, slowly drawing closer to her.

Perhaps it was too warm under the covers, her cheeks were flushed red, like blooming cherry blossoms.

Her slightly pouting lips looked tender and inviting, as if glazed with honey.

Shen Chi propped his arms around her, his head lowering further and further.

He really wanted to kiss her.

Xu Chaomu’s brow furrowed as she sniffed a strong scent of alcohol, quite heavy.

Then there was Shen Chi’s hot breath mixed with his unique woody fragrance, invading her nostrils.

Just as Shen Chi was about to kiss her lips, Xu Chaomu pulled out a hand from the blanket and pushed against his shoulder.

“Awake?” Shen Chi squinted at her.

“Mm,” Xu Chaomu grunted softly.

She turned over, away from him, and closed her eyes again.

He gazed at her cold back and felt somewhat disappointed.

Without further disturbance, he went to take a hot shower in the bathroom.

Hearing the sound of running water in the bathroom, Xu Chaomu didn’t fall asleep. She had just had a dream where they argued fiercely, he pushed her, and then she woke up.

Upon waking, she saw him bending down wanting to kiss her, which irritated her.

It didn’t take long for Shen Chi to come out of the bathroom. He sat on the edge of the bed, about to turn off the light and hold her to sleep, when Xu Chaomu spoke.

“Go sleep in your own room.”

Her eyes remained shut, her voice indifferent.

Shen Chi’s brows furrowed as he leaned down to turn her over, “What’s wrong? Are you angry?”

He still thought she was angry from the morning when he asked her to call him “husband.”

“No.”

“There is something. Your eyebrows are all knotted.”

As his hand touched her face, Xu Chaomu brushed it away, “Are you annoying or what? Can you go sleep in your own room?”

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I just don’t want to see you.”

Xu Chaomu kept her eyes closed. Even though he had taken a shower, she could still smell the strong scent of alcohol on him.

Wining and dining, who knows how many women his hand had touched, or how many had touched him.

Just like the scene she saw during the day, that woman hooking his arm, and he didn’t refuse.

Although Shen Chi was a bit drunk that evening, seeing her temper flare, he didn’t take it to heart, knowing from others that pregnant women could be temperamental.

“Mumu, stop this, let’s sleep.”

He lay beside her, reaching to turn off the light. He had drunk quite a bit, and his head ached.

Just as he lay down beside her, Xu Chaomu’s temper flared, and she abruptly sat up.

Her large eyes fixed on Shen Chi, annoyance written on her face: “Didn’t I say to go and sleep in your own room?”

“What’s with you today?” Shen Chi said in a deep voice, also sitting up.

His sharp gaze met hers, his expression colored with emotion.

“I told you to go to your room to sleep, didn’t you hear me?” Xu Chaomu raised her voice.

Xu Chaomu’s complexion was off, and suddenly she was so, so tired of this version of Shen Chi. He doted on her in front of her, but who knew if he was sweet-talking another woman behind her back.

“What provoked you? You sleep, I won’t touch you.”

“I’m so annoyed, leave!” Xu Chaomu’s face set in anger, she grabbed a pillow and threw it at his face.

Although Shen Chi caught it, her fit left him irate.

He was already tired and headachy from drinking, and he didn’t have the patience to coddle her. He threw down the pillow and left.

“Making a scene for nothing!”

His icy voice echoed in the air as Shen Chi went out with a “bang,” slamming Xu Chaomu’s bedroom door behind him.

Her outburst only intensified Shen Chi’s irritation, and sleep eluded him.

He returned to his own room, casually lit a cigarette, and stood on the balcony in the breeze.

Stirred up by him, Xu Chaomu couldn’t sleep either. She snapped off the wall lamp and buried herself under the covers.

Tossing and turning inside the blanket, sleep evaded her. The good night’s sleep he had interrupted left her feeling utterly vexed.

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