The wealthy military officer spoils his wife excessively

He closed the door, picked up the shopping bags from the floor, and smiled wryly. The bags contained various groceries and snacks he'd bought at the supermarket. He'd planned to cook a big meal that evening to make amends, have a nice dinner with her, and then apologize later. Unexpectedly, he encountered a long queue at the checkout and waited for over half an hour. He'd also forgotten his umbrella there. Afraid of being late, he ran back, getting completely soaked, but in the end, he still couldn't win back even a little bit of her affection.

Looking at it from another perspective, perhaps separation is the right thing to do given the current situation. This would be a better way to protect her and the child.

Lu Zheng carried the groceries into the kitchen, no longer in the mood to cook anything. He rinsed the rice in the rice cooker, pressed the "cook porridge" button, then took a hot shower and changed into clean home clothes.

Looking refreshed, Lu Zheng walked past the guest room and saw the half-open door. He bent down and knocked.

"Susu, are you asleep?"

There was no sound inside.

He gently pushed open the door and saw Su Wen curled up asleep under the covers. To be honest, her sleeping posture was less than flattering. When she was alone, she always curled up like a cocoon, but when she was with him, she wanted to be like a koala, clinging to him with both arms and legs. Lu Zheng, of course, also liked her when she was clinging to him like this, but he was very warm, and if she hugged him for too long, she would start kicking off the covers, leaving half of her bare back exposed. Later, he heard from some comrade that girls do this because they lack a sense of security.

The rice cooker in the kitchen beeped, and the aroma of rice porridge wafted through the air. When he saw the clean kitchen, he guessed that she probably hadn't eaten dinner. He wanted to wake her up to have some porridge, but seeing that she was fast asleep, he gave up the idea.

Lu Zheng walked over, pulled up the printed silk quilt, spread it out, and covered her with it. He then gently smoothed the strands of hair that were falling across her face and leaned down to lightly kiss her forehead.

"Goodnight." I turned off the bedside lamp.

The door closed gently.

Nie Suwen, lying on the bed, suddenly opened her eyes. Her dark pupils shimmered with a bright, watery light in the dark room.

She wrapped herself even tighter in the warm blanket, curling up into a ball, and then slowly reached out to touch the spot on her forehead where he had kissed her, her nose stinging with tears.

Actually, the resentment she felt had already dissipated when she saw him soaked to the bone when she opened the door. For the sake of her ridiculous pride, she suppressed the urge to get him a towel to wipe him down. Seeing the shopping bag in his hand, she understood what he had gone out to do. Hearing the sounds of him rinsing rice and cooking porridge, she felt waves of sadness, but could only face him with her cold back. However, after he left, alone in the dark and lonely room, she felt an indescribable regret and guilt.

At this time, he needs someone by his side the most.

She chose to run away.

I didn't want to face him, so I moved out. I didn't know what to say to him, so I pretended to be asleep.

She cruelly watched the wounded and gloomy expression on his face, and for a moment, she felt a sense of satisfaction, as if she had taken control of the marriage. However, when she was alone, she felt even more miserable, as if she were the executioner, stabbing another knife into this already riddled and precarious marriage. This torturous act, which she did herself, felt novel and exhilarating at the time, but afterwards only brought endless heartache.

The rain lessened the next day, but it was still a light drizzle, not a pleasant downpour. When Suwen woke up in the morning and looked at the rain outside the window, she felt a sense of gloom.

I buried myself in the blankets again and went back to sleep until my eyes were swollen and my whole body was bloated before I finally got up in a daze.

She pushed open the door; the living room was empty. The master bedroom door was closed but unlocked, and Suwen had no desire to open it. She went into the bathroom, and just as she was about to squeeze toothpaste, she saw a note on the mirror: "The porridge is warming in the rice cooker. Don't forget. Skipping breakfast will give you a stomachache."

Suwen rubbed her eyes, took the note down, and read it again to confirm that Lu Zheng had already left. She crumpled the note into a ball and threw it into the wastebasket.

After washing up, I went to the water dispenser, intending to make myself a hot coffee, when I saw a note on the coffee box: "It's not good to drink coffee while pregnant. There's milk next to it."

She was taken aback, turned to look at the food cabinet, and sure enough, there were several boxes of Mengniu milk.

This time, she didn't open the note, but she also lost interest in drinking coffee and went straight to the kitchen. The rice cooker had been on keep-warm setting. When she opened the lid, the room was filled with the aroma of rice porridge. After cooking for so long, the rice grains were almost melted in the water, soft and sticky.

A note was also stuck on the pot lid: "Don't be angry now that you're full. Wait for me to come back and make lunch."

Suwen couldn't help but let out a "hiss," but the corners of her mouth involuntarily curled up.

On the kitchen counter were vegetables he had washed early in the morning, all sorted out, chopped, and plated. All he had to do was cook them when he got back.

Suwen served herself a bowl of porridge and carried it to the dining room. Two side dishes had already been prepared for her on the table: hand-peeled bamboo shoots and eight-treasure vegetables, both of which were her favorites.

As Suwen ate her fragrant porridge, she made up her mind that when he returned, she would confront him honestly and resolve all her unhappiness face-to-face. She absolutely could not endure this dragging on and ambiguity any longer!

After finishing her meal, she browsed the web on her computer for a while. Outside the window, the gray sky remained endless. Around 11:30, she received a phone call at home. She guessed it was probably from Lu Zheng, but when she answered, it was Gu Huai'an's voice.

"Sister-in-law... could you come here for a moment?"

"Huh?" She was a little surprised. "Where to?"

Gu Huai'an gave an address, then paused and said, "Lu Zheng is here too."

"Oh, okay." As soon as she heard that Lu Zheng was there, she agreed without thinking too much.

While changing clothes, I started to wonder why Lu Zheng was going there so early in the morning, since the place Gu Huai'an mentioned seemed quite far and remote.

She certainly didn't doubt Gu Huai'an's words. She took an umbrella, along with one for Lu Zheng, and hailed a taxi after going downstairs.

The driver paused for a moment when he heard the address she gave, and kept glancing at her through the rearview mirror.

Suwen noticed this, looked at him for a while, and then asked, "Master, do you know what that place is for?"

She asked this, and the other person finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Girl, you don't know? That's a drug rehabilitation center! I was wondering what you, a seemingly respectable young woman, would be doing there."

“Ah…” Suwen was speechless. Upon hearing the words “drug rehabilitation center”, she immediately had a bad feeling.

Just as she was in a daze, the driver asked her again, "Do you have a friend who's been there? That kind of place, oh my, it's terrifying just thinking about it. I've heard it's not much better than a mental hospital. Those drug addicts, when they're in the throes of addiction, they don't even recognize their own family. They'll do anything to get some drugs, even murder! I advise you to be careful."

The driver kept rambling on as he drove, while Suwen's heart just kept sinking, sinking lower and lower.

Didn't Gu Huai'an say that Lu Zheng didn't have to go to the drug rehabilitation center? Could it be that his drug addiction relapsed and he did something harmful?

The taxi drove along the highway, and the road became more and more desolate and remote. When it reached a T-junction, the driver refused to go any further.

"Just keep walking straight ahead, you can go in by yourself." The driver pointed out the direction to her. Suwen paid the fare, opened her umbrella, got out of the car, and walked.

Outside the drug rehabilitation center was a patch of withered yellow grass. Gradually, you could see high gray walls, just like the gray sky, standing tall and topped with barbed wire. People inside couldn't see outside, and people outside couldn't see inside.

Fortunately, Gu Huai'an was standing at the intersection with an umbrella waiting for her; otherwise, looking out from this gray, high wall, she wouldn't have been able to find the door at all.

Inside was an ordinary open space, next to a playground where several people dressed in matching navy blue clothes were playing ball. Suwen couldn't help but glance at them a few more times.

Gu Huai'an then explained to her, "Their condition is mild; when they are not having an attack, they are almost like normal people."

Suwen is most concerned about how Lu Zheng is doing.

She clutched her sweaty palms and followed Gu Huai'an silently. In this awful weather, her trouser legs were completely soaked from walking all the way.

Gu Huai'an led her to a four-story concrete office building. The stairwell was gloomy, as if it were about to get moldy. He stopped at the last door on the right after turning a corner on the second floor.

Suwen's heart jumped.

Before opening the door, he reminded her, "Don't be surprised by what you see later. Lu Zheng is at a critical juncture. What you need to do now is stand by his side, encourage him, and give him strength. He is very vulnerable right now and cannot withstand repeated hurt. I don't care what happened between you two. Believe me or not, if you push him away this time, you may push him into hell forever."

Suwen opened her eyes wide and stared at him blankly.

After a long pause, he nodded.

Gu Huai'an then opened the door.

This is a dark, poorly lit room with simple furnishings: a bed against the wall, a table, and two chairs.

Lu Zheng sat in one of the chairs.

Saying he was sitting might not be the right word, because his hands and feet were bound, his hands tied behind his back to the chair back. He was hanging his head, his forehead obscured, so his expression was unreadable; he was very quiet, as if he were asleep.

Suwen's heart clenched, and she turned to Gu Huai'an, asking, "How could you treat him like this?"

"He requested it himself."

Inside the room was a woman wearing a white coat and metal-framed glasses perched on her nose.

"This is the only form of forced treatment we can develop right now. He received it yesterday and it worked well. However, something unexpected happened today, so we discussed it and decided to call you over."