Contract Marriage: Emperor CEO's Secretary Wife

"Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Xiu. We would like to apologize again for our rudeness before. We'll contact you again once we already have the results of our investigation."

After the two agents left the room, Xiu Mei took a deep breath to calm down her emotions. Lu Chen held her hand and took her into his arms to comfort her which she greatly welcomed.

It wasn't like she hadn't experience someone treating her rudely before, but it's a different thing to be treated like a criminal when you're the victim itself.

She remembered the days when she was being blamed and pointed at by people when her best friend died. She was already feeling remorse that she survived alone but being pushed to the cliff by those people, made it all worse on a different level.

She was the victim, yet why was she being treated like she a criminal.

That was why back then, she was the one who sinned. And she strongly believed that she was the one who killed Ying Yue. Her mental health was too unstable to differentiate the facts and lies that she chose to just blame herself entirely and become the sinner.

That was why what those agents did was totally unacceptable for her.

She just got out of that prison, and she was starting to accept that it wasn't her fault at all.

And with their irresponsible remarks, it felt like someone was poking her wounds again. It wasn't pleasant and she almost walked out of the room.

Xiu Mei breathed as she calmed herself down in Lu Chen's embrace.

Thank god for you.

Thank you for staying with me.

Thank you for speaking out for me before I did.

That was all her thoughts at the moment. Thankfully, she wasn't alone.

Thankfully, she had him.

It only took a moment for her this time to get a grip of her emotions. She was visibly getting better at controlling her emotions so that she wouldn't get random panic attacks.

She recalled Dr.Lee's words that this was truly the first sign that she was on the right track.

"Do you still want to return?" Lu Chen was asking if they're still going back to his brother-in-law's room.

Xiu Mei nodded. "He'll definitely notice something if we don't go back there first. I doubt he'll sit back once he learns about what happened."

Lu Chen cupped her cheeks and examined his wife's face before getting convinced that she was truly fine.

"Okay, I'll listen to you. Let's go back."

Holding her hand, the two returned to the room and acted as if nothing just happened.

Xiu Min didn't seem to have noticed anything wrong so the couple was able to leave the hospital safely without being caught by him.

Xiu Mei breathed in relief as soon as they got into the car.

If her elder brother knew what happened, he'll surely jump off his bed and chase after those two agents ah. Even though they have a lot of relatives with high positions in the military, she doubts they'll let him slide if he beats them up so it was better if her brother didn't know about it at all.

"Chenchen, I'm actually curious about--"

"Chenchen?" Lu Chen was surprised by the nickname.

Xiu Mei grinned.

"Isn't it cute?"

"..."

It is cute. But…

Lu Chen's brows furrowed. Maybe… the nickname is too cute?

On the other hand, Xiu Mei held back her laugh as she watched him getting confused.

She was actually quite embarrassed to call him 'hubby' and 'husband' in private, and Chen somehow sound strange in her mouth and it still felt so distant so she pondered carefully what to call him that could be in between those two so she came up with calling him Chenchen.

It's not as intimate as calling him hubby, but it's not as distant with just 'Chen'.

Though she admits, calling him 'Chenchen' sounds cute which is a bit strange considering that Lu Chen doesn't give off any cuteness at all. It even sounds a bit childish.

But well, as long as it works, why not?

"Don't you like it?" Xiu Mei pouted.

Lu Chen initially wanted to say 'yes' but looking at his wife's expression, he could somehow feel an invisible pressure coming from her.

His instincts were clearly warning him that if he answers her affirmatively, he can only dream to stay with his wife starting tonight.

...so Lu Chen followed his instincts and changed his words.

"I like it." He briefly answered. "What was your question awhile ago? Something that you're curious about?"

He quickly changed the topic to divert his wife's attention. Xiu Mei smiled triumphantly and went along with him.

"I'm just asking this because I'm genuinely curious. Imagine yourself that you're a coward and then what if one day you're suddenly cornered by your enemy. Would you choose to die or let them catch you instead?"

"Hm? Why are you suddenly asking about that?"

"Well, I just thought about it. I've been caught and cornered countless times, but each time, my first thought was to run away and survive instead of dying. But Zhu Lin, you said he jumped from the window because people were chasing after him. So that means his first instinct was to die. But when we were kidnapped together ten years ago, his instinct was to run away because he was too coward to even save us. That's why I was wondering why this time, he suddenly chose to jump to his death instead of surviving."

"..."

"Was it because he knows he can never escape since we're inside the military hospital? But then, if he really wanted to do something, why did he have to choose—" Xiu Mei paused.

The two of them met each other's gaze and immediately knew that they were both thinking of the same thing.

"Oh."

Xiu Mei's gaze deepened as she realized her casual question made them both realize something bigger.

It seems like there was more to Zhu Lin's death than what they know.