“Why are you calling me this early?” Her husband spoke without affection.

“Where are you?”

“I’m in the hotel!”

“I want to meet you at the hotel!”

“Isn’t the final coming up very soon? Don't bother coming and focus on the competition instead. I'll go back soon!”

“I want to have a video call with you then!”

“Why?”

“I haven't been seeing you a lot these few days. I miss you. I want to have a video call with you!” Lin Wan said affectionately.

Without saying anything, Li Mu video-called her.

Once the video call was connected, Lin Wan observed her husband's surroundings on purpose. She then breathed a huge sigh of relief and asked with a smile, “Honey, did you have breakfast already?”

“Breakfast won’t be served until 7:30 in the morning. It’s not time yet. I'll head down and have breakfast later!”

“You look really pale. Did you stay up late?” Concerned, Lin Wan asked.

“Yeah. I was busy revising the bidding documents until the early hours of this morning. I just managed to get some rest not long ago.”

“I see. Sleep for a little while more then. I called just to see you. There’s nothing much on my side.”

“Got it. I'm pretty busy these two days and may not have the time to call you. Take care of yourself and stay safe!”

“You too. Take care!”

“Good luck in the competition. All the best!”

“Alright. I’ll try my best!”

“Okay. I'll get some more rest now. Bye!”

“Goodbye!”

Lin Wan was relieved and much more at ease after ending the video call. But right after that, she sensed that something was off. After thinking for a while, she finally realized what had gone wrong.

Her husband’s choice of words was too polite. It was as if he was talking to a stranger instead. His expressions were calm and lacked affection.

This was not how a normal conversation should be like between a married couple. The two of them acted like a pair of partners at work. They were respectful and polite to each other, but lacked the love and affection that should be found between lovers.

Lin Wan got out of bed and took her suitcase out of the cupboard. She wanted to get to her husband right after she packed her bags.

However, she started to hesitate when she was halfway done with packing. That championship meant so much to her, and was now within her hand’s reach. Did she really want to give it up?

Lin Wan contemplated for a long time and finally decided to put her clothes and suitcase back in place.

She’d better finish the competition first. She would make sure meeting her husband would be the first thing she did when the competition was over. She wanted to ask what the matter with him was. Was it because he felt left out? If this was the reason for his exasperation, she was ready to apologize sincerely and make it up to him.

Lin Wan was convinced that their love was indestructible, and they’d overcome any sorts of challenge.

She no longer suspected that her husband was cheating on her. But instead, she thought that Li Mu was unhappy with her neglect.

Lin Wan couldn't help but feel amused. Sometimes her husband acted like a child who needed to be sweet-talked to and cared for, just like Lu Jiaxue.

She was confident that when things got back on track, she would be able to make her husband happy again with her beauty and intelligence. Their relationship would definitely be back to how it was before.

“I’ve come this far now. All I need is just two more days. After the final, I will focus entirely on my family, and be a good wife to my husband and a good mother to my future children.” She thought.

“Li Mu was just throwing a tantrum. It’d be good to let him calm down for a couple of days first. Nothing is more important than the competition now. Everything else can wait.”

Lin Wan's breakfast was yesterday night's leftovers. The amazing delicious food she prepared for her husband remained untouched. Well, at least all this food was enough to last her for days.

“That nuisance seems to have a really bad temper now. How dare he not eat what I cooked? I will let you pay for it when you come back!” Lin Wan thought furiously.

“Yes, I must punish him. I know! I’ll ask him to cook for me for a week. Scratch that, two weeks! I’ll force him to cook even if he doesn't know how to. Let’s see if he has the guts to throw a tantrum again in the future.”

Lin Wan was still foolishly engrossed in her imagination, completely unaware of the upcoming disaster which was about to hit her.

After breakfast, Lin Wan began to clean up the house, leaving it speckless.

After finishing the chores, she looked at her watch and realized it was already a little past 10 a.m.

She took a break and planned to go out after lunch. Tomorrow would be Lu Jiaxue's birthday. As her mother, she must not attend her daughter's birthday party empty-handed.

When she thought of the word “mother”, Lin Wan was amused at how she had turned into her student's mother.

Lin Wan had never experienced the love from her mother, and always felt that she could somehow see her childhood reflecting in Lu Jiaxue’s. Hence, accepting to be Jiaxue’s mother was more like an act of self-comfort.

But this was coming to an end soon. After the final, she would not cross paths with this duo anymore. If she were keen to be a mother, she would have to pray that things would work out with her husband, and that she would have her own children as soon as possible.

Lin Wan did not feel an ounce of regret at all. People are all destined to meet and part at the end of the day. Recalling the memories would be equally as heartwarming when one turns old.

Of course, when the truth came out, Lin Wan would certainly not feel this way. This memory would be a nightmare for her, and never a happy moment.

It was close to noon when her phone rang. Was it Li Mu?

Lin Wan hurriedly checked and realized it was Lu Fangliang. She shook her head in disappointment and hesitated for a while before deciding to pick up the phone.

After exchanging greetings, Lu Fangliang went straight to the point, “Miss Lin, I am planning to get a birthday present for my daughter this afternoon. I’d like to ask you to be my advisor. Do you think it’s alright for you?”

Before Lin Wan could respond, Lu Fangliang explained, “Miss Lin, I apologize in advance. I'm sorry to bother you constantly. But as you know, Jiaxue and you have the same temper and share the common likes. I'm usually busy with work, hence I don't really know what kind of birthday gift she would like.

Lu Fangliang was very sincere. When Lin Wan talked with Lu Jiaxue, the latter had also complained to her numerous times that her father was always caught up with work, and rarely had time for her.

Lin Wan couldn't help but complain, “Mr. Lu, I know it's important and hard to make money. But it's equally important to be there for your child's growth. It is already miserable enough for Jiaxue to not have a mother. If you don’t give her enough attention, she'll be lack of parental love. This is very bad for her growth.”

“Miss Lin, you’re totally right. Jiaxue's personality has brightened up a lot after a few days of us spending time together. This has prompted me to seriously reflect on this issue. I admit that I did a bad job before, hence I am determined to mend it now. I thought that I could kickstart it with her birthday. Miss Lin, do you mind shopping for her birthday present with me?”

Lin Wan was once again soft-hearted and decided to do them one last favor. She wanted to go gift shopping anyway. It’ll be convenient for her to give some opinions to Lu Fangliang too.

After Lin Wan agreed, Lu Fangliang was overjoyed and immediately invited Lin Wan, “Miss Lin, if it's convenient for you, let's have a casual lunch together at noon and discuss what gifts should I get while we eat. Do you think that's okay?”

Lin Wan thought this was a good suggestion as this would save her more time and energy. She was a married woman after all. It didn't seem appropriate to accompany a widowed man to go shopping together. She would be less likely to get into trouble if they could discuss and have a plan beforehand.

With that in mind, she happily agreed.

Actually, she wasn’t aware that this was a type of subliminal influence.

She and Lu Fangliang had had dinner together twice. The first time was a candlelight dinner and the second happened just yesterday. After having two meals together, it became a matter of course when she was asked to have a meal together for the third time.

He Xiaoyu once said, those who play with fire would get burned. This was very true indeed. People who often walk on the borderline will slowly relax their vigilance. As time goes by, who’d know what will happen?

The two met at a western restaurant. At first, Lin Wan felt a little strange that Lu Fangliang knew she liked western food. However, she shrugged it off as she thought he probably took a wild guess and got it right.

It was a hearty meal for the two of them. Besides, they were quite familiar with each other for now, and had many common topics to talk about. There wasn’t a moment of silence or awkward throughout the meal and they were bursting with chemistry.

After the meal, the considerate Lu Fangliang ordered an ice cream for Lin Wan, which left a quite good impression on her.

At the end of the conversation, they started talking about the birthday presents.

Lin Wan listed several suggestions, all of which were gently dismissed by Lu Fangliang.

It was too tacky to buy clothes, plus the little girl had a lot of clothes that she never worn after buying them. Besides, they weren’t sure of her fashion sense. So buying her clothes might not be something she could like.

It was so hard to get her a toy too. She had all sorts of toys, and even had a few sets of limited-edition Barbie dolls. Hence, it was challenging to pick a toy that she would like.

After pondering for a while, Lu Fangliang suddenly tapped the table gently and said with a smile, “I have an idea!”

“Well, tell me. What's your idea?”

“Buy jewelry!”

Lin Wan looked at him in disbelief. Buying jewelry for a nine-year-old girl was a little too early and could easily mislead her to be too materialistic. This definitely wasn’t a good idea.

“Mr. Lu, Jiaxue is only nine years old now. Even after her birthday, she will only be ten years old. Won’t it have a negative impact on her development and growth if you buy her jewelry at this age?”

“Miss Lin, you don’t need to worry. Jiaxue likes jewelry a lot. Her mother gave all her jewelry to her before she passed away. She treasures them a lot and often plays with it. Since she likes jewelry a lot, we might as well gift her what she likes. What about a set of jewelry that has great sentimental value?”

“Jewelry that has sentimental value?”

“Yeah, maybe something like hairpins, brooches and so on. I don't know much about these things though. It’ll be alright as long as they look nice, not tacky and suitable to be worn by children.”

Oh, so he had these in mind. Lin Wan nodded and thought that Lu Fangliang's idea was pretty good. It’d be better to gift someone something they liked, otherwise it would be a waste of time and effort.

She scooped a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and nodded, “Alright. Then we'll go to the jewelry shop later and see if there are any accessories suitable for children.”

“Okay, let’s go with this then.”

Both of them were overjoyed to finally reach a mutual understanding. Seeing a drop of ice cream hanging from the corner of Lin Wan's lips, Lu Fangliang considerately used a napkin to wipe it away.

Lin Wan did not expect him to do this at all. She froze immediately and glared at him, annoyed. His actions were too intimate, which was something she absolutely could not accept.

Lu Fangliang looked embarrassed and panicked like a schoolboy who made a mistake.

Lin Wan subconsciously glanced around and heaved a sigh of relief after she saw that no one was paying attention to them.

What she didn't know was that in the corner behind her, a camera was silently recording everything down. Her expressions could not be seen at all from that viewpoint. When this video footage was viewed by someone else, they would only think that Lin Wan approved the man’s intimate behavior.

This “someone else” mentioned was none other than her husband. It would never have occurred to her that each and every move of hers was observed by him, causing his affection for her to slowly fade away.