No Wind or Rain

When Du Jiayi arrived home, the lights in the house were turned off. 

Yu Sichun had called earlier today to say that she had a cold and wouldn’t go deliver him lunch at the company.
 
After hearing that, he told her to have a good rest, so she should be sleeping right now. 

Sure enough, he saw the quilt in the bedroom bulging slightly. She was curled up under it, looking rather helpless. 

He walked to the bed and reached out to touch Yu Sichun’s forehead. There was no fever so it was probably only a minor cold. 

Yu Sichun was in a light sleep so she had already woken up by the time he reached the side of the bed. It was just that she kept her eyes closed and pretended to be asleep until his hand covered her forehead. Her eyelashes trembled and she opened her eyes.
 
“You’re back” Her voice was hoarse from crying all afternoon, adding to the fact that she just woke up, there was a nasal tone to her voice which made her sound like she really had a cold. 

Yu Sichun sat up and looked at the handsome man in front of her. She tried to control her emotions and speak in her usual tone, as if everything was alright. 

“En, did you take any medicine?” Du Jiayi casually asked.
 
“I did. I’ll help you fill the bathwater.” She lifted the quilt, planning to get out of bed. Her mood that day wasn’t very stable. She needed to calm down. 

But he stopped her and said. “It’s okay. You can continue sleeping. I’ll go sleep in the side room after washing up.” 

“Okay.” 

——– 

He really was a very considerate person. 

Sadly, he didn’t love her. 

But people were always greedy. When Du Jiayi’s ex-girlfriend went abroad to study for her dream, Du Jiayi asked her a total of 3 times if she would go abroad or break up. In the end, his ex-girlfriend left him and he got married to her afterwards. 

That all happened within three months.
 
She still remembered that day very clearly. Du Jiayi asked her. “Do you want to get married?” 

She liked him, might have even loved him so naturally, she answered yes.
 
Perhaps her answer was too quick and firm. Du Jiayi was stunned and asked her. “Do you love me?”

How did she answer him? Ah, she said, how is that possible? 

They were all grown-ups who met at the right time, right place and with the right person. There was no such thing as love and romance but they did feel some affection for each other. After all, they were getting married. It was impossible for them to marry someone they didn’t like at all.
 
She noticed that he appeared relieved after hearing what she said, but she still smiled and told herself that she could finally marry him, right?

Even if he didn’t love her, maybe didn’t even like her.
 
But couldn’t Du Jiayi sense that she loved him? Or was he pretending to be a fool? 

——–
 
“Oh.” Yu Sichun didn’t continue getting up. After slowly lying back down, she pretended to go back to sleep. She had been sleeping the whole day and now only felt drowsy, not sleepy. 

She carefully thought back to her dream. In the dream, she had a car accident at the age of 28. No one said nor did anything but she was just really tired. 

Right from the beginning of their marriage, she knew that there would need to be unlimited patience and frequent accommodations made for him. She had low self-esteem and was sensitive. Seeing the news about him and his ex-girlfriend on the media, she began to think that he would get back with her. When she went out to buy groceries, she got into a car accident because she wasn’t paying attention.
 
But after calming down and rationally thinking it over, Du Jiayi was a very sensible person. Whether it was work or family-related things, as long as she was still Mrs Du, he would never wrong her. She had always believed him to be loyal.
 
He was a calm and independent person with great self-control. Since she married him, he had cut off everything from before.

A substitute wife or something from novels may really exist in reality but it would never happen to him. 

Of course, she didn’t have so much self-confidence to think that he would eventually fall in love with her. It was only because she understood him so well that she could make such a judgment about him.
 
However, she still had an inferiority complex and because of that, she became emotionally unstable and encountered a car accident when she saw the newspaper with the words: “The President of SY and the famous pianist Lu Sisi1 went on a date, is this an old love reignited or a new love story?”, printed on the front. 

——– 

The next day, Yu Sichun2 woke up to help Du Jiayi make breakfast. There were fried eggs, milk and bread, it wasn’t a particularly tasty meal but it was a normal breakfast. She would just have it done by the time he woke up.
 
Du Jiayi’s biological clock was very accurate. Recently, he had been really busy because the company was getting listed, but he still managed to maintain his habit of getting up at 7 am. 

“Sisi, help me find a shirt from the closet.”

“Okay.” 

He had always called her “Sisi”, especially when they were making love. He would say it slowly, full of sentimental emotions.  
 
But she could never tell whether he was calling her “Sisi”[efn_not]思思[/efn_note] or “Sisi”3. She didn’t say anything and he didn’t seem to care so that was how she ended up being addressed as that. 

To this day, they have been married for 3 years and in those 3 years, he had always called her that and she had been responding to it for 3 years. So much so that she got used to him calling her “Sisi”. As for why he did it, who knew? She no longer thought too deeply about it and she didn’t have any more fantasies, let alone any expectations in reality. 

It was the third year of her marriage to Du Jiayi. There was no vigorous or touching love story after marriage. Feelings slowly entered their lives; she didn’t know whether there was any love or if they just went to familial love.  

He was busy with his work but he would still try to go home before 10pm. In the past, he gave up his dream of being a painter and devoutly went into business. His journey was similar to a live business tycoon film. By the time she died in her dream, his status in Jiangcheng was already very high.

Du Jiayi sat at the table and planned to eat breakfast but he saw the dark bags under Yu Sichun’s eyes. He asked with concern. “Did you not sleep well last night?”

“I had a nightmare.” 

She said nothing more and quietly ate breakfast. Du Jiayi didn’t ask anymore.

Before leaving, Yu Sichun helped him tie his tie. There was a stray piece of hair on her cheek and he reached out to tuck it behind her ear. He felt her body temporarily stiffen, as if she was not used to that moment of intimacy between them. 

He didn’t show any dissatisfaction or other emotions and instead lowered his head to kiss her eyes. He whispered, “get some more sleep, you don’t need to come and deliver food today.”

“Okay.” 

——– 

After thinking about it a little last night, Yu Sichun decided to continue to learn German. Her parents were both diplomats and were usually too busy to care about her. 

Moreover, they later on divorced. Although they didn’t let her go hungry or cold, they each got remarried. She was uncomfortable no matter who she decided to live with, and in the end, it was just better for her to live alone.
 
The first thing she learned during adolescence was to observe people’s faces and distinguish their emotions.
 
She was a person who longed for warmth and was eager to be loved. However, before she could learn what love was, she had already fallen in love with Du Jiayi. 

Originally, she should have followed her parents footsteps and become a diplomat but she gave it up to be a housewife. Everything in her dream seemed to be real and it caused fear to linger in her heart. She was extremely bored; it was better to do something than nothing at all. 

At around 11am, she put the German dictionary away and went to the kitchen to make lunch. She packed some for Du Jiayi and left the rest in the pot to keep warm for her to eat when she came back. 

When Du Jiayi’s company just started, a lot of money was needed for various things. She was considerate of him and went to the wet market every day to buy vegetables. She would bargain with the aunties and uncles for the freshest vegetables at the lowest price possible. 

At 12:20pm, she arrived at the SY building. She said hello to the receptionist and took the elevator to go to Du Jiayi’s office. 

The people in the company had always thought that he was still single because he didn’t have a wedding ring on his hand. He lost it during their second year of marriage and didn’t buy another one afterwards. Therefore, for them, she was probably just a nanny Du Jiayi hired. 

“Knock——” 

“Come in.”
 
Du Jiayi didn’t raise his head while talking. He was sorting through the documents in his hand and thought it was the employee who sent those to him. Only after a while did he slowly lift up his head and frown. She didn’t know what he was thinking about. After seeing Yu Sichun, he put down the documents in his hands and went over to take over the thermal lunch box from her.  

“Why are you here? Didn’t I tell you get some rest?”
 
“I couldn’t sleep so I made some dishes to bring to you. The company is so busy that you’ll forget to eat.”
 
Yu Sichun was pulled along by him to sit on the sofa. He opened the thermal lunch box. The three dishes and one soup inside were all his favourites. Her cooking skills were very good but he knew that a long time ago.

“Have you eaten yet?”
 
“I’ve eaten.” 

“Do you want more?”

“No, you eat it. I’ll go back first. Just bring the lunch box back with you when you go home in the evening.” 

Yu Sichun pulled out the hand held in his palm and planned to get up but he took ahold of her hand again. 

“Stay here for a while and wait until I finish eating then go, okay?”

“I… okay.”
 
Yu Sichun thought that he would ask about her recent abnormality but he didn’t. 

Only ordinary friends would maintain the principle that if you don’t say then they won’t ask, don’t they? 

But what about Du Jiayi? 

Was it out of respect? 

Du Jiayi sat on the sofa as he ate. His movements were elegant, he didn’t eat too quickly or too slowly. Yu Sichun didn’t have to wait long. After storing away the lunch box, she bumped into Du Jiayi’s assistant on the way out of the office——Qiao Cheng, who was also a good friend of Du Jiayi. 

“Xiaochun” 

“En.” 

“You’re not staying any longer?”

“I won’t disturb you guys. I’m going to go back first.” Yu Sichun smiled. 

That’s right, his brothers and friends never admitted her identity. They would call Lu Sisi “sister-in-law” but would only ever just politely refer to her as “Sichun” or “Xiaochun”. 

They didn’t have a very grand wedding. They simply invited their parents and a few friends to have a meal. Even the wedding ring was randomly selected in a store before the dinner gathering so it wasn’t the right size and got lost. 

“There is a very important party tonight so I might be very late. You don’t have to wait for me, just sleep early.”
 
“Oh.” 

——–
 
Du Jiayi was sent home in the evening by his employees. He was very drunk because he had successfully negotiated a business deal. He couldn’t help but drink a bit more because of that.

After arriving at the apartment, the two employees opened the door and found that the lights in the apartment were turned on. They thought that Du Jiayi didn’t turn them off when he left and didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. They placed him on the sofa and planned to leave. 

“Won’t you stay for a glass of water?” Yu Sichun turned on the lights in the living room when she saw them send Du Jiayi up and asked. 

“No, no, no.” The two employees said together. They stopped for a moment and asked. “You and the boss…” 

“We live together.” 

Yu Sichun didn’t say that she was his wife. Perhaps she subconsciously couldn’t even believe that she was already his wife. Husband and wife, husband and wife. Those words were too intimate and made her feel cold.

“Oh, so it’s like that…” One of the employees nodded and went into silence for a moment. “Well, Xiao Wu and I will go home then. We’ll let you take care of the boss.”

“Thank you for sending him back. You guys really won’t have a glass of water before leaving?”

“No need, no need, no need…”