Chapter 9 Walking Down Together
He Yuheng and I walked into the elevator side by side.
Even now he was still busy, making calls to arrange things with different people.
I studied his handsome side profile through the reflection on the elevator wall.
The question rose in my mind again.
Why would He Yuheng do this because of me.
I was absolutely sure there were no feelings between us. Our marriage certificate was nothing but a complete misunderstanding.
It all started because of a child that never existed.
A clichéd one-night-stand beginning.
I had been set up by my previous company’s manager. While escaping in a daze, I stumbled into the wrong room and ran into a drunk He Yuheng.
My memory of that night wasn’t clear.
I only remembered that I was the one who took the initiative.
When he woke up, he said he would take responsibility.
But everything had been an accident. And honestly, sleeping with a top-tier handsome man felt a thousand times better than with a balding manager.
I refused his proposal to get married.
He didn’t force me. Instead he started taking responsibility in other ways.
He dealt with that awful manager and the colleague who helped set me up. Both of them ended up in prison.
After that we lost contact.
We met again downstairs at this company.
I never expected my second job hunt would land me right in his territory.
In my hand was the brand-new entry medical report. It said I was pregnant.
The pregnancy didn’t affect my hiring.
But it changed He Yuheng’s judgment of me.
He proposed marriage again. He wanted to take care of me and the child.
At the same time he said that if I didn’t want to keep the child, he would still stay and take care of me.
After all, he had some responsibility in this.
I was completely stunned at the time.
My periods had always been irregular—a problem left over from childhood. With all my close family gone now, the idea of this child felt strangely precious to me.
After agonizing over it, I decided to keep it.
I got the marriage certificate and started the job at the same time.
I still remembered that day clearly.
The day I moved all my luggage to He Yuheng’s house and hadn’t even unpacked yet—when I found an anonymous letter on the office desk.
It was from a girl who joined at the same time as me.
Her wording was polite, but the content was absurd. She told me I was never actually pregnant.
She had discovered her own pregnancy before the check-up. Afraid that a big company like Ruiheng would fire her for it—like what happened at her last job—she secretly swapped our urine samples.
The letter said she was happy I got to join successfully.
At the same time she apologized again, hoping it hadn’t caused me any trouble.
I felt the cruelty of fate right then.
No trouble?
I had married He Yuheng because of that child… and the very next day after getting the certificate, I was told the child didn’t exist at all!
He Yuheng and I sat facing each other. Neither of us spoke.
My luggage was still scattered in bags and boxes all over his house.
Dead silence.
I twisted my fingers and tried to say, “Since there’s no child… maybe we should just end it. We only just got the certificate anyway.”
He Yuheng looked up from the letter. His expression was serious.
“Marriage is not a game.”
He tossed the paper aside and repeated, “Besides, I already have the duty to take care of you. Even without a child, I should still take good care of you.”
He started unpacking and organizing my things.
And just like that, I stayed in his house.
For the months since the marriage, he really did take care of me well—just as he promised.
But that was all. Nothing more.
Sometimes I even wondered if things would have been better if the child had been real.
Because that nonexistent child was the whole foundation of our marriage.
If there had been a child, maybe our daily life wouldn’t feel so stiff and repetitive.
Maybe, as parents, He Yuheng and I could have developed some real feelings…
He Yuheng suddenly took my hand.
I looked at him in shock. The elevator doors slid open on both sides.
He gave me a gentle smile, voice steady and low.
“We’re here. Let’s go.”