Bringing the Nation's Husband Home

Lu Jinnian waited impatiently, then got up and paced a few steps at the entrance of the restrooms. In the end, he stopped at the women restroom door. He hesitated for a moment, then pushed open the door and walked right in, as though he couldn’t care about this now.

Luckily, it was the middle of the night, so there was no one in the women’s public restroom in the lobby. However, as this was the first time Lu Jinnian had ever entered the women restroom, he still had a mental barrier, and his posture while walking exposed his unease. He quickly sped past, opening every cubicle and carelessly sweeping his eyes across them.

When he shut the final door, his brows furrowed tightly.

Qiao Anhao wasn’t in the restroom at all!

As Lu Jinnian took big strides out of the women restroom. He pulled out his phone, ready to call her, when he suddenly saw the emergency route in the restroom. At that moment, he turned around and walked towards the elevator as though he’d confirmed a guess of his. He desperately pressed the open button by the elevator, walked in, and headed straight for the top floor.

The corridor of the top floor was silent. Lu Jinnian followed the way down it and turned at the corner. Before he could walk on, Qiao Anhao’s calm voice traveled from the very end of the corridor in front of him.

"I came here to see you, because I have something to tell you. Whatever you want to tell me, I don’t actually want to hear it.

"Lu Jinnian is my husband. My legal husband, under Chinese law. I have a marriage certificate here. I believe you wouldn’t understand it.

"I don’t care about what happened between you and him in America, but what I want to tell you now, is the you and him must end it here.

"Because the one who will grow old with him, the one who will give birth to his beautiful children, and the one who will take care of them as they grow up is - ME, not YOU. So I hope that you will stop pestering him. His future will never have you in it. Nor will I allow you to be in his future.

"I’ve said everything I wanted to say. Thank you for your cooperation. Goodbye."

Qiao Anhao’s voice wasn’t loud, but the clarity in her every word traveled through the silent corridors and into Lu Jinnian’s ears. As he listened, his heart skipped a beat.

It was not until he heard the sound of her high heels draw closer and closer to him that he abruptly snapped back to reality. Seeing as she hadn’t noticed him, he took the opportunity to quickly turn around and walk back to the elevator.

-

After Qiao Anhao entered the elevator, the rims of her eyes couldn’t help but redden.

The Lu Jinnian who loved her so much and who did so much for her... How could he mess around with other women?

She knew that when a wife normally discovered her husband doing such things, they’d hit the mistress, curse out the husband, or even harsher yet, they’d file straight for divorce. Some would even go as far as to ruin their husband’s reputation altogether.

When she had knocked on room 1002, in her mind, she had asked herself that if she saw Lu Jinnian, what would she do? Would she give him a cool slap on the face, then grit her teeth and cry divorce?

Yet when she opened the door and really saw him, she realized that she couldn’t bring herself to divorce him. Even if she understood that this would remain as a thorn in her heart, which she could never pluck. She would mind. She would mind until she reached the end of her life, but she would rather mind, because she couldn’t divorce him.

So, in reality, she chose the most cowardly method. She didn’t cry or throw a tantrum. She pretended to not understand a thing, as if nothing had happened between them.

She stepped out of the elevator on the second floor, and followed the emergency stairway down to the first floor.