Chapter 21 Gratitude of an Ungrateful Female Lead 21 – Making Big Money, Raising Xie Qing

Xie Qingjia had worked overtime the night before and hadn’t come to the hospital, so he stopped by in the morning before work.

The moment he walked into the ward, Xu Meijuan bombarded him with questions about the extra three hundred thousand in the hospital account. She thought he and Zhou He had borrowed the money as a married couple.

Xie Qingjia had been keeping an eye on how quickly the medical expenses were being used up, and he had indeed contacted classmates and friends to borrow some money, but he still hadn’t fully gathered it all. He was not the one who had topped up the account.

He soothed his mother. “It wasn’t me. Don’t worry yet. I’ll go ask.”

Then he went to the payment office to check the account, and when he came back, his expression was a little dazed.

“Well?” Xu Meijuan asked.

Money had suddenly appeared in the account, and if they didn’t find out where it came from, they wouldn’t feel at ease. What if someone had accidentally deposited it while making another payment? That was money to save a life. If it really was a mistake, they had to return it right away.

Xie Qingjia said, “Don’t worry. There wasn’t any mistake. Xiao He was the one who paid it.”

Even though she had suspected as much, now that it was confirmed, Xu Meijuan was still astonished. “That child, why didn’t she say anything? Where did she get that much money?”

Xie Qingjia said, “Since it’s already been paid in, we’ll use it.” He sighed as he spoke. “She probably took out all the private savings she’d kept hidden away.”

He knew Zhou He had some money saved, and he also knew she earned income from writing stories. He just hadn’t expected her to be able to come up with this much.

Xu Meijuan’s tears came down. “That girl, really… she’s about to give birth. How could she not need money herself?”

Xie Lingge kept her head lowered, silent, no one knew what she was thinking.

Xie Qingjia comforted his mother, but even he was rarely this lost.

Maybe it was because it had always been him paying for all kinds of things for Zhou He. This was the first time she had spent money on him, and in one go at that. He wasn’t quite used to it.

The feeling was unfamiliar. How should he put it? There was joy and excitement, but also… panic.

That panic latched onto him, throwing his thoughts into chaos. He became anxious and uncertain, and scenes of imagined possibilities surfaced uncontrollably in his mind…

For example, Zhou He telling him that she had already repaid everything the Xie Family had spent on her over the years, and that she was leaving.

For example, Zhou He putting a divorce agreement in front of him when he got home from work and asking him to sign it.

Or Zhou He saying that being pregnant in the prime of her life was affecting her career development, and that she wanted to abort the child.

…

One imagined scene after another made Xie Qingjia more and more panicked. The moment he left the hospital, he didn’t even go to work, but drove straight home.

He needed to make sure she was still at home waiting for him to return. He needed to make sure she wasn’t going to leave.

It wasn’t that Xie Qingjia lacked a sense of security for no reason. It was just that Zhou He’s changes over the past half year compared to before had been so astonishing that sometimes he felt these happy days of intimacy and togetherness with her were like something stolen.

When Xie Qingjia got home, the house was quiet. There was no sound from Zhou He, and no sign of her anywhere.

The living room, the kitchen, the balcony, the bathroom, not even a corner of her clothes could be seen.

He cried out in a daze, “Xiao He… honey…”

A surge of tears swept over him, and even the tail end of his voice carried a sob.

An impatient response came from the bedroom. “Xie Qingjia, what the hell are you shouting about so early in the morning?!”

Xie Qingjia’s voice caught, and only then did he remember that at this hour, Zhou He was usually still asleep, so it was normal not to find her anywhere else. He had no time to dwell on how he could be this stupid and make such a low-level mistake…

He pushed open the bedroom door and went in.

Now that winter break had started and she didn’t need to work, Zhou He slept until she was fully rested every day before getting up. It wasn’t easy for her to move around, and she didn’t go to the hospital every single day either.

She had been having a sweet dream when she heard Xie Qingjia shouting outside.

Dragged awake from her dream by force, Zhou He was in an awful mood. Her belly was huge now and cumbersome, and even getting out of bed required her to move like a turtle, so she didn’t budge. She only answered from inside the bedroom, naturally sounding irritated. “What is it this time that you can’t find?”

“Honey…”

Along with that call, the culprit who had ruined her sweet dream pushed open the door and came in. He didn’t even take off his shoes, and climbed right onto the bed, wrapping his arms around her together with the blanket.

“Honey, you’re still here?”

Zhou He: “…”

Zhou He: “If you keep smothering me like this, I’ll be dead in under a minute. Then I really won’t be here!”

Only after hearing that did Xie Qingjia back off a little.

Zhou He lifted her head and saw that not only had he come into the bedroom wearing outdoor shoes, he had even gotten onto the bed without taking them off…

“Xie! Qing! Jia! I just changed the duvet cover and sheets! You’re dead!”

The gloom filling Xie Qingjia’s chest instantly scattered without a trace amid her shrieks, and he subconsciously lifted both feet into the air, looking absurdly comical.

His wife beside him was fuming, eyes wide as she glared at him.

The tears that had almost spilled earlier were forced back again. His eyes felt a little sore now, and Xie Qingjia blinked to ease it.

Zhou He misunderstood that movement and exploded even more. “Did you just wink at me?”

Xie Qingjia: “…”

That really wasn’t a wink. He had forced his tears back halfway, and his eyes felt a little uncomfortable.

But he couldn’t explain the whole chain of events behind it, and now that the earlier anxiety and fear of loss had vanished, he suddenly felt like what he had just done was a little embarrassing.

Zhou He was still staring fixedly at the feet he had raised in midair.

From her eyes, Xie Qingjia read the meaning clearly: Did holding your shoes in the air mean bacteria and dust wouldn’t fall onto the bed?

Fair enough.

Under his wife’s furious glare, Xie Qingjia bent down, took off his shoes, and got off the bed in his socks, planning to put the shoes by the door.

He had only taken two steps when a shriek came from behind him again. “If you walk in socks over the floor you just stepped on with shoes, won’t your socks get dusty? Then when you put your shoes back on later, won’t the inside of the shoes get dirty too?” Then she added, “Your socks are full of bacteria. If you step straight on the floor like that, even mopping won’t clean it properly, and you’ll spread your foot fungus all over the house.”

Wonderful. His wife’s emotions were even more unstable than his. Xie Qingjia had no idea what expression to make. Any expression would have looked awkward.

The problem was, when she said this, one of Xie Qingjia’s feet was still lifted in the air. For a moment, he didn’t even know whether he should put it down.

And he really wanted to retort: so which was dirtier now, the floor with dust on it, or his socks with bacteria on them? Who exactly was contaminating whom here?

Was there really nothing wrong with this logic?

But he didn’t dare argue.

After Zhou He got pregnant, Xie Qingjia had done a lot of research. There was something one interviewed father had said that he now felt made a lot of sense.

There is a kind of logic in this world called pregnant-woman logic. This kind of logic comes in all shapes and forms, is utterly unbreakable, and forms a complete system of its own. It is strongly exclusive, and no other theory of logic can defeat it. When faced with this kind of bandit logic, the only option is surrender. Otherwise, you’ll earn the title of “heartless man” and be kicked out of the bedroom at night to achieve the “sleeping on the water sofa” accomplishment.

At this moment, Xie Qingjia felt that this father had summed it up perfectly. He was practically a sage among fathers, lighting the way for those who came after.

He had finally gotten sentimental and delicate for once, but now the atmosphere was completely gone, and all that remained was his wife’s anger.

That entire morning, Xie Qingjia didn’t go to work at all, staying home to clean up the mess he had made.

First he stripped and washed the bedsheets and duvet cover, then carefully mopped the floor, and finally, under Madam Wife’s supervision, went over the entire house a second time with an infrared floor washer that sterilized and removed dust mites.

While he was doing all that, his wife sat nearby eating the fruit he had cut for her and directing the work. By directing, of course, she meant moving her lips to tell him this wasn’t cleaned properly and that wasn’t done properly…

But Xie Qingjia enjoyed it tirelessly. Being beside Zhou He made him feel at ease, and the repetitive labor gradually calmed his emotions.

Zhou He got a taste of what it felt like to be the Empress Dowager¹. All morning long, Xie Qingjia was exceptionally attentive to her. How attentive? He even fanned her bowl of rice until it was warm and perfectly comfortable to eat, and before handing her the spoon for soup, he warmed it with hot water so it wouldn’t feel cold in her hand.

Xie Qingjia hadn’t gone to work all morning, so not only did he make breakfast that day, he made lunch too. He even peeled her a whole plate of nuts and cut up the fruit she would eat that afternoon.

He even coaxed her into taking a nap after lunch before going back to work.

He brought up the money that had been deposited into the hospital account…

“Oh, that.” Zhou He said, “I topped it up at the window and was planning to tell you and Mom. But then I took out my phone to send a message, and I saw a guy by the road outside the hospital selling crispy fried potatoes. You have no idea how good they were. The outside was golden and sizzling with oil, the inside was soft and fluffy, and the seasoning the owner mixed up smelled amazing… So I used the phone screen I’d already opened to scan and pay for the potatoes. Then I forgot what I’d taken my phone out for in the first place. I just kept feeling like I’d forgotten something, and turns out it was this. I was even thinking of going to the hospital after I woke up from my nap this afternoon. I wonder if that potato-selling uncle is setting up his stall today…”

Then she went on and on to him about how delicious the potatoes had been. As she talked, she nearly lulled herself to sleep.

Zhou He had already half-closed her eyes when she suddenly felt that something was off, and instantly wasn’t sleepy anymore.

She opened her eyes and sat up. “Well, well, so this is the kind of Xie Qingjia you are! I was wondering why you’d been so attentive today. So it was because I deposited money. So you’re that practical too, huh?”

Xie Qingjia was amused by her puffed-up, indignant look of disbelief and laughed.

Zhou He said, “And you’re still laughing! Good thing I love you with all my heart.”

Xie Qingjia scratched his cheek. “With all your heart?”

His gaze dropped to the apron he still hadn’t taken off.

This? Her loving him with all her heart meant turning him into a full-time housekeeper?

Zhou He looked away and gave two fake coughs.

Then she put on a proud, huffy pose to save face and said, “That’s not such a bad thing anyway.”

Xie Qingjia said, “What’s not?”

Zhou He suddenly perked up. Full of energy, she flung off the blanket and knelt upright on the bed, standing up would have taken too much effort.

Xie Qingjia was alarmed by the sight of her belly and quickly reached out to hover a hand protectively at her lower back.

Zhou He clenched both fists to cheer herself on. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Xie Qingjia, as if they were filled with starlight. She grandly declared to him, “I’ve found my life goal from now on!” Then she nodded to herself in affirmation and stressed, “Mm, a goal worth striving for all my life.”

Xie Qingjia said, “Hm?”

How had the conversation suddenly gotten here? Pregnant woman logic really was unbeatable.

“There’s nothing bad about a practical Xie Qingjia,” Zhou He continued, picking up what she’d been saying before. “In that case, I want to be a pay-to-win player². I want you to only ever be this good to me! So my life goal from now on is: make lots of money and support Xie Qingjia!”

“Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough…” Hearing such “bold words,” Xie Qingjia choked on his own saliva.

“What kind of reaction is that?” Zhou He said unhappily. “You don’t believe me?”

“I believe you, absolutely. I just got too excited.” Xie Qingjia nodded solemnly and encouraged her, “That’s an excellent goal. Work hard. I believe my wife can definitely do it! Aren’t you already starting to support me now?”

“Hmph, of course.”

Delighted and smug, she kicked her little feet up. Kneeling got tiring, so she sat down to rest for a bit.

Xie Qingjia looked at his wife, who was radiating drive and overflowing happiness from head to toe, and his eyes turned tender enough to melt.

Translator’s Notes