Volume One, Chapter 20: The Secret Beneath the Quilt

Su Ying’s face darkened as she listened to me. Her lips trembled with rage, and she glared at me as if her eyes were spitting fire.

Finally, she pointed at my nose and roared with immense fury, "Li Yue, we are through!"

With that, she turned and stormed out, slamming the door of my home so hard the entire house shook.

I let out a dismissive laugh, tidied myself up, and drove to the office.

—

I rarely visited the company.

When the business was first founded, I had briefly served as Shen Yixiao’s secretary. Later, as I got married and began the exhausting journey of seeking medical help to conceive, I lost the heart to work. I stayed home to nurse my health, hoping for a miracle that would allow me to carry a child.

Gradually, I watched the company grow, its profits soaring, and the gifts Shen Yixiao bought me becoming increasingly extravagant. We bought houses and cars, completely bidding farewell to the chaotic, impoverished days of the past.

Except for major company events where Shen Yixiao would bring me along, I almost never came here.

Fortunately, everyone knew me. I made my way to the executive floor without obstruction. After circling through the secretarial department, where everyone greeted me, I realized I didn't see Lu Xiaoyun.

"Madam, Mr. Shen is currently in a meeting. It should end in about half an hour. Please wait a moment," someone said, brewing tea for me and speaking in a soft voice.

I nodded, sat in the office, and sipped my tea while surveying my surroundings.

Eventually, my gaze fell upon the filing cabinet behind the desk. There was a safe embedded directly into the lower part of the unit. My heart began to pound violently. Could my ID card and household registration document be inside?

Back then, my parents, in a fit of anger, had handed me my registration document, telling me to go off and live or die with Shen Yixiao. Dazed by love, I had used that very document to marry him.

Now, I needed those items to leave.

And money—I felt that money was even more important. In this world, you cannot take a single step without it.

—

Driven by an inexplicable impulse, I stood up and walked toward the safe.

I took out my phone and snapped a photo of it. I didn't rashly attempt to enter a code, knowing it wouldn't be that simple; at the very least, it would be a dual-layer security system that I couldn't possibly bypass.

After taking the photo, I calmed my nerves and turned to head toward the sofa, but my peripheral vision caught a door. My heart felt as if it had been gripped by a cold hand, leaving me unable to breathe.

I slowly walked up to that door. The lock required a fingerprint scan. When I placed my hand on it, a mechanical voice informed me that the authentication had failed. The red warning light blinked, staring at me like the eyes of a devil, making me feel deeply uneasy.

"Darling!"

Suddenly, Shen Yixiao’s voice rang out. I jumped, turning around abruptly to see him standing at the doorway, his eyes dark and inscrutable.

I pulled my hand back, forcing myself to remain calm. "You're done with your meeting? I remember this being a lounge, why does it need a fingerprint lock? I was just thinking of going in for a nap."

Shen Yixiao took off his suit jacket. His handsome face showed no signs of tension or unease, only a smile. He strode over, placed his hand on the fingerprint scanner, and opened it with a light touch. "I'll add your fingerprint later. I usually rest in here, and I changed it to a biometric lock because I was worried about people barging in and disturbing me."

I murmured an "oh" and looked at the open door, wanting to go in and take a look, but my feet felt as heavy as lead, unable to move.

"Go on, take a look." Shen Yixiao kept his hand on the doorknob; the white knuckles and blue veins were clearly visible to me. He smiled in a casual, natural way, showing no trace of a guilty conscience.

From the doorway, I could see the layout of the lounge. It was like a small studio apartment—a bed, a sofa, a wardrobe, and a bathroom. The bed was perfectly neat, the quilt spread flat as if no one had slept in it for a long time. There was almost nothing on the table or the sofa; it looked minimalist and tidy.

"Forget it. You're done with your meeting, why would I need to rest?" In the end, I chose not to enter.

Shen Yixiao’s hand finally let go of the doorknob.

He put an arm around my waist and used his other hand to close the door. As he turned toward the sofa in the office, he coaxed me gently, "Why did you suddenly come by today? If you had told me earlier, I could have postponed the meeting to spend some time with you. Is something wrong? Did you come to the office for a specific reason?"

"I mentioned before that I wanted to come back and work at the company. Can you arrange that for me?" I let Shen Yixiao pull me down to sit, my words clear and firm.

Shen Yixiao clearly hadn't expected me to bring this up again.

The smile on his face faded slightly, becoming serious. "Darling, we aren't short on money. If I let you come to work, people will mock me, thinking I can't even afford to support my own wife."

—

"I'll just do some light tasks. Didn't I work as a secretary before? Even though my experience is shallow, you said it yourself—I'm your wife. Just treat it as me coming in to pass the time. Don't you want me at the office? Don't you want to see me every day?" I countered, my tone laced with skepticism.

Shen Yixiao quickly explained, "Of course not. I wish I could see you twenty-four hours a day. I’m just worried about you getting tired. Your health isn't great right now, and I’m worried."

"It's fine. I'll just help deliver files and serve tea or water. Secretary Lu and the others can handle the rest; I won't overexert myself." I had made up my mind to return to the company. Only then would I have the chance to open the safe and get what I wanted.

Otherwise, I wouldn't even be able to see the safe, let alone open it.

Under my persistent requests, Shen Yixiao finally buckled. He gave in, but he didn't want me in the secretarial department; he insisted I work in the administrative department handling human resources.

I knew why: he didn't want me and Lu Xiaoyun crossing paths all the time. Moreover, if I were constantly by his side, they wouldn't have a single chance to sneak around.

"Fine," I agreed readily.

I left the company shortly after. Only once I was inside my car did I unclench my tight fist. Inside was a sticky note.

The elegant handwriting on it felt like a poisoned blade: *My dear Mr. Shen, there is a surprise under the quilt in the lounge. The bunny girl uniform you’ve been wanting. Tee-hee, let's work some overtime tonight!*

The note had been tucked under the laptop on his desk, dated for today.

Secretary Lu might have taken a leave from work, but her body certainly hadn't.

I suspect Shen Yixiao hadn't seen it yet; otherwise, he wouldn't have been so careless.

It was a pity that such a "romantic" gesture had been discovered by me. It was a disaster.

When I got home, I took a photo of the note and then used a lighter to burn it to ashes.

If I had pulled back that neatly spread quilt earlier, there wouldn't have been a shred of dignity left in my marriage to Shen Yixiao.