The Brooding Guy's Wife Is Everyone's Crush - Chapter 1

Grandpa died.

I knelt before his memorial tablet for three days.

Before he passed, he clutched my hand and told me, haltingly, “Keep the token safe. You have to—have to go find your Grandpa Chi…”

He never finished the sentence. His hand slipped limply from mine.

I went through the funeral in a daze. Then I locked the door to our house, shouldered my bag, and boarded a bus bound for the city.

After a long, jolting ride, I found myself standing stiffly outside the Chi residence.

Old Master Chi had served with my grandfather in the army, and Grandpa had once saved his life. When he heard the news of Grandpa’s death, his eyes reddened.

“Chen Wu, from now on, you can think of me as your grandfather.”

When the childhood betrothal he and Grandpa had once arranged came up, he hesitated. “I have several grandsons…”

The older ones were already married with children. Only the youngest was still in school.

Society was open-minded these days; gender wasn’t the problem. But the gulf between our families was too wide, and I knew it.

I was about to talk Grandpa Chi out of it when something heavy slammed against a door upstairs. A vase shattered a second later.

“Don’t come any closer!” a young voice roared.

Everyone tensed. I looked up nervously as a fierce-looking boy rushed to the top of the stairs, a shard of porcelain in his hand. His gaze swept over the people below before fixing viciously on me.

“You want me to marry you?”

I opened my mouth to deny it, but he had already turned on the grim-faced Old Master Chi.

“Have you lost your mind, old man?”

Grandpa Chi bristled. “You insolent brat!”

The boy sneered and raised the shard toward his wrist.

“Let me make this clear. I, Chi Jin, would sooner marry a dog than this country bumpkin!”

Mrs. Chi arrived in a rush and went pale at the sight of her youngest son’s endangered wrist. Her knees buckled, and she burst into tears.

“Dad! You can’t drive Chi Jin to his death!”

The servants crowded around the stairs, none daring to approach for fear of provoking him.

The farce ended only when Old Master Chi brought his cane down hard against the floor. His face had gone white with anger, his lips trembling. On one side was the dying wish of the comrade who had saved his life; on the other was his own family’s threat.

Before he could speak, I said, “It’s all right. The betrothal is off.”

Everyone froze.

In their minds, a poor boy from the countryside ought to cling shamelessly to Old Master Chi’s guilt. After all, marrying into the Chi family would guarantee a life without want.

I lowered my eyes. “Grandpa Chi, I’ll stay here for one year. Once I finish the college entrance exam, I’ll move out.”

I transferred into the best private high school in the city. At Grandpa Chi’s insistence, Chi Jin and I became deskmates, and Chi Jin was told to look after me like a younger brother.

I sighed under my breath. I would have been grateful if he simply didn’t make trouble for me.

On my first day, a group of delinquents cornered me right after school. Their smiles were ugly.

“Heard you’re the Chi family’s child bride.”

“They must give you plenty of pocket money, right?”

The boys laughed, their expressions and voices thick with contempt.

Years of farming with Grandpa had left me stronger than I looked, but I had only just arrived and didn’t want trouble.

“I don’t have any money,” I said, pressing my lips together.

These young masters weren’t short of cash. They just enjoyed bullying someone weaker.

When I refused to cooperate, one of them shoved me against the wall.

“Who are you trying to fool? The Chi family has that much money, and they don’t even give you an allowance?”

The others closed in around me. Sweat gathered in my palms.

“I’m not Chi Jin’s child bride,” I said. “I have nothing to do with him.”

Chi Jin wanted nothing to do with me anyway. I might as well make that clear.

They didn’t believe me, so I pulled out the empty lining of my pockets. “Search me.”

Perhaps they had never seen anyone so open about it. The boy in front snorted and rudely swept aside the hair covering my forehead.

“You’re such a backward little hick…”

His hand stopped.

Around us came several quiet intakes of breath.

I frowned and pulled away from his hand. “If you’re done, may I go?”

He stared for a moment. “No.”

I looked at him, confused.

“I’m He Nanxing, Class Two, senior year,” he said. “You don’t have to pay protection money, but when I call, you come.”

My brows drew together. Grandpa’s last wish had been for me to get into a good university. After transferring from a rural school, I was already far behind. If I didn’t make the most of every minute…

Staring at He Nanxing’s chin, I said quietly, “I need to study.”

He fell silent for a beat. “I won’t call you that often.”

I considered it. “All right, then.”

After being forced to exchange contact details, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. But the moment I rounded the corner by the stairs, I found Chi Jin standing there with his hands in his pockets, watching me coldly.

I opened my mouth. “You saw all that?”

He glanced at me and started toward the school gates.

I pressed my lips together and followed. The wind snapped his white shirt around him as I kept my head down, carefully avoiding his shadow.