Chapter 722   - Know Your Place (2)

Li Meili opened her eyes and frowned when she realized that she was alone in bed again. She reached out and touched the indented space on the bed where Zhang Jiren slept. It was still warm and new, which meant that he had come home late again last night and had just slipped out of the bed.

She had stayed up until eleven in the evening waiting for him because she wanted to apologize for raising her voice the other night when they were having disagreements about her work. After Tang Moyu came and explained why Zhang Jiren vehemently forbade her to go to her work, Li Meili then realized that she shouldn't have yelled at her husband as he was only concerned with her safety.

Since it was saturday, Zhang Jiren surely wouldn't leave for work today. Perhaps it wasn't too late for her to apologize for what she had done the other day. With such eagerness to see and talk with Zhang Jiren, Li Meili hopped out of the bed only to sit right back down when her sight dimmed and she felt dizzy for a moment.

This was the third time she experienced something like this and thankfully she managed to sit as soon as she could before she fell on the floor unconscious. After a few minutes, she stood up carefully and everything came back to normal. She slipped into her silk robe and slippers and decided to go down to the kitchen where she was expecting to see her husband.

She was greeted by the sight of Zhang Jiren working in the kitchen. At first she didn't believe one bit that he was a capable cook, that was until he made her something for dinner. It seemed like Tang Moyu wasn't the only person blessed with a husband who knows his way in the kitchen.

Due to growing up in the orphanage and being neglected in the Zhang Estate when he was younger, Zhang Jiren learned to be self-reliant from childhood and because of this, he possesses exceptional skills when it comes to cooking.

Zhang Jiren was too focused on what he was doing and failed to notice that Li Meili had joined him in the kitchen. Li Meili knew that he had always been an expressionless person like Tang Moyu, but the more time she spent with him, the more she knew that there was more about him that people didn't know about.

He always had an air of indifference around him and with such a handsome expressionless face that Zhang Jiren had, it was only natural that people assumed that he was invincible.

"You're early today. What are you cooking?" Li Meili announced her presence by calling after him.

Zhang Jiren turned around with a surprised look on his face, which he easily hid and asked her casually.

"Are you hungry? I'm still cooking our breakfast so you might need to wait for a while."

He then noticed her eyes reddening, as if Li Meili was about to cry or had cried earlier. Was she crying about Tang Beixuan again? There were nights when he found her sleeping in the middle of the night, crying while whispering Tang Beixuan's name. No matter how long it had been since his death, he was still in her heart and Zhang Jiren understood that.

'Know your place, Tang Lingjun. She isn't to be yours in the first place. You must be deluding yourself to think that you deserve a happy life in this lifetime just because of how much you've lost so far.' His mind taunted him.

However, it didn't mean that he liked seeing her this way. If he could do something to make her happy, he was willing to try his best to fulfill her wish.

"Meili, what's wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?" He asked. He realized right then that he didn't like seeing Li Meili crying. Even the first time he met her years ago, he disliked seeing tears on her face.

"N-no…" Li Meili said in response, not wanting to make him worry again. She already offended him the other day by raising her voice towards her when he was only showing his concern over her safety.

"Okay." Zhang Jiren replied and returned to cooking, hiding his distraught face from his wife.

He'd promised to take care of her, to protect her, but he wasn't supposed to fall in love with her. What was love anyway? For a person who had lived for years without any love and affection, did he even know what it was?

Whatever it was, Zhang Jiren knew that it was wrong for him to hold such feelings for his twin sister's best friend. Perhaps, when the two years of their marriage were over, everything would return to normal.

He would release her from the chains of their marriage and let her live happily and free with her and Tang Beixuan's daughter while he… as long as he could stay in a place where she couldn't see him, being allowed to silently watch her from afar, would be enough for him.

The congee and steamed dumplings Zhang Jiren made this morning were very delicious, but Li Meili couldn't find it in herself to enjoy it.

There was something about how Zhang Jiren acted today that seemed off in her opinion, but she knew that she wasn't qualified to question him as their marriage was nothing but a sham. However, that didn't mean she didn't care about him at all.

Distant and indifferent, handsome but capable. Although Li Meili knew that the man she was married to was unpredictable at times, she believed that he was a kind person, but something about him today told her that something was wrong.

It seemed like he was avoiding her, but why? She wondered. Was it because of the nasty things she said the other day?