Marry by Relying on Favor: Chapter 155 - A Mom-Type Boyfriend
For the next half month, Qu Bixin hid out in her best friend’s apartment to take refuge. She didn’t step outside at all. Shen Fu came by once every day, but always stayed outside the door, never crossing that line, only leaving her nutritious post-miscarriage meals.
Through Yu Jiaojiao’s gossip, quite a few people in their social circle came to know about Shen Fu’s “mom-type boyfriend” traits.
Qu Bixin didn’t accept any of Shen Fu’s goodwill. She spent her days eating and drinking lavishly, even ordering spicy hotpot. Her little life couldn’t have been more enjoyable—why would she want to drink the chicken soups he stewed?
“Today your ex-husband gave me a sum of money,” Yu Jiaojiao said, her tongue sticking out from the spiciness of the hotpot as she spoke indistinctly. “He said it’s for your food and lodging while you’re staying at my place.”
Qu Bixin nearly choked. She coughed lightly. “What right does he have to pay you my living expenses?”
“Mmm, your ex-husband said he’s very grateful I’ve been taking care of you these past two weeks.” Yu Jiaojiao paused for two seconds, then added, “He also reminded me that if I dare keep ‘occupying’ you, he’ll find time to have a meal with my cousin.”
“…”
Qu Bixin really didn’t want to face the outside world.
After finishing her sentence, Yu Jiaojiao said, “After this good meal, you’d better go back to your own big villa and eat your confinement meals.”
“Yu Jiaojiao… can you really just watch me die without helping?”
“I can’t help it. You gave me money—this is courtesy before force, sister.” Yu Jiaojiao didn’t want her family to freeze her credit card, so she chose to send Qu Bixin to the execution block. Their superficial friendship was on full display.
Looking at the fragrant, spicy pot of food in front of her, Qu Bixin instantly lost her appetite.
7:30 p.m.
After three hints from Yu Jiaojiao, Qu Bixin finally stepped out of the apartment building.
Standing on the street, she had no idea where to go.
During the half month she’d run away from home, Shen Fu came every day to deliver post-miscarriage meals, yet the two never met. She had been busy enjoying herself, wishing that this man would never appear in front of her again in this lifetime.
Just as she was feeling lost, her new phone received a message from He Qingchi.
After getting married, that woman had shut out all worldly affairs. For her to actively invite Qu Bixin to hang out at a club was truly unexpected.
Qu Bixin took a taxi to the club and was led up to the third floor by a waiter.
There were many people in the private room this time. As soon as she walked in, she saw He Qingchi talking to a beautiful woman. Both had their own charms. Compared to He Qingchi—who was used to maintaining her identity as a socialite from the He family and always wore a signature smile in public—the other woman had cold, distant eyes and looked hard to approach.
As Qu Bixin drew closer, she realized why the woman looked familiar.
Wasn’t this the internationally acclaimed Best Actress Shu Tongyi, known everywhere in recent years? She ignored almost everyone, only exchanging a few words with He Qingchi.
Other actresses nearby also wanted to approach her but were afraid of disturbing her.
Qu Bixin had no such concerns. She stepped forward and patted He Qingchi’s fair shoulder. “What are you chatting about with your husband’s former rumored lover?”
That one sentence truly offended He Qingchi.
In a calm tone, she retorted, “Instead of worrying about this gossip, why don’t you worry about what you’ll do when Shen Fu finds out your miscarriage confinement was fake?”
Qu Bixin took the champagne handed to her by the waiter and took a gloomy sip. “I’ll just deny it to the death.”
Shu Tongyi wasn’t familiar with Qu Bixin, so she left with a cold expression.
“What does that woman want? Asking you about your husband?” Qu Bixin was still gossiping.
He Qingchi displayed the composure of a legal wife and said leisurely, “It’s better she asks me about Shuchen than goes directly to him, isn’t it?”
“He Qingchi, I’ve realized that if you lived in ancient times, you’d either be the empress in the harem or the mistress of a grand household, even arranging a few concubines for your husband to carry on the family line.”
Qu Bixin meant it as praise, but He Qingchi didn’t accept it. She changed the topic. “Shen Fu told Shuchen that to avoid him, you haven’t left the house for half a month?”
“He even has the nerve to bring private matters to the company?”
Qu Bixin was about to explode. “You didn’t sell me out, did you?”
He Qingchi’s slender hand held the wineglass as she took a sip of red wine. “Not for now. As for later—it depends on my mood.”
Qu Bixin: “…” As expected, superficial friendships were unreliable.
He Qingchi smiled at her again. “Shen Fu knows you like to have fun and was afraid you’d get bored, so he asked me to invite you out for some fresh air.”
First, he subtly threatened Yu Jiaojiao not to shelter her, and now he asked He Qingchi to step in. That man’s intentions were practically impossible to hide.
Qu Bixin’s expression turned complicated. Her pale fingers traced the rim of her wineglass. “If I go back, he’ll make me ‘sit the month’ again.”
“Cough!”
He Qingchi suppressed the urge to choke and maintained her composure in public.
“Do you know? Shen Fu isn’t depressed at all. I went to extremes and said the harshest things.” Qu Bixin couldn’t help wanting to vent. She gritted her teeth, resentful that he seemed so unaffected.
“You think he doesn’t care about this?”
“The facts are right in front of me.”
She had lied about being pregnant and having an abortion, saying all kinds of humiliating words to him.
The fact proved that Shen Fu could completely not care. He didn’t understand feelings at all.
After finishing the last sip of her wine, He Qingchi told her something. “Half a month ago, Shen Fu asked Song Chao to find a cemetery plot.”
Qu Bixin froze for two seconds as He Qingchi continued, “He found a burial place for your child and even went to a temple to ask a master to give the child a name and perform rites. While you were avoiding him these past two weeks, Shen Fu was handling all of this.”
The private room was still filled with laughter and chatter, but their corner fell especially quiet.
“Song Chao told me,” He Qingchi added. She wasn’t trying to speak well of Shen Fu.
Qu Bixin’s expression turned unnatural. “He told me the child was just an undeveloped embryo, not a life.”
So she had subconsciously believed Shen Fu didn’t care about it. He had always seemed cold-blooded—how could he become depressed over something like this?
He Qingchi didn’t mention that she had spoken with Shen Tingji in the hospital ward last time. She only said gently, “You can ask a beggar on the street if they want a home. Even beggars want one—let alone Shen Fu.”
Qu Bixin’s fingers curled slightly. A hundred complicated feelings rose in her heart.
After a pause, He Qingchi said softly, “I really don’t approve of you joking about a child like this. Sooner or later, something will go wrong.”
Meeting her calm gaze, Qu Bixin didn’t know what to say.
The gathering in the private room lasted until early morning. He Qingchi had a husband and child and couldn’t stay out late, so she left early.
Qu Bixin stayed until the end, drinking until she was eighty percent drunk. A faint blush appeared on her delicate face. She didn’t even know how she got home. She walked as if floating, vaguely feeling someone supporting her. The person’s arm was firm and strong, but no matter how she tried to look up, she couldn’t see his face clearly.
Later, when her consciousness cleared slightly, she was already lying on a warm bed.
In her hazy state, she seemed to hear Shen Fu’s voice. He was on the phone, sounding displeased, questioning He Qingchi about how she could let Qu Bixin drink alcohol.
Oh, right.
How could someone “sitting the month” after a miscarriage get drunk?
Qu Bixin lay by the bed and giggled, her cheeks half-covered by her short hair. She raised her pale, slender finger and pointed at the blurry male figure in front of her, scolding drunkenly, “You—you—you’re really stupid. Even more stupid than me—”
Shen Fu didn’t argue with a drunk person. Suppressing his anger, he first changed her into clean, comfortable clothes, then went to cook a hangover soup and half-forced her to drink it.
It tasted awful. Qu Bixin’s face scrunched up as she tightly grabbed his collar and asked through her drunken haze, “Do you really like me? Is it sincere?”
Shen Fu held her with one arm. Under the light, his expression was focused and serious. “You forced me to make a choice. I chose you. Do you think that isn’t sincere?”
Qu Bixin was delighted. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “So I finally won against Shen Tingji once?”
Knowing she wasn’t sober, Shen Fu still stared at her intently and asked in a slightly hoarse voice, “You won. I’m the loser now. So, can you take me home as your trophy?”
Qu Bixin listened seriously for quite a while and thought for a long time.
When she thought of the past, her chest felt unbearably tight. Uncontrollably, her eyes began to redden.
“I’m so jealous that you treated Shen Tingji so well. For her… you were fierce to me, and you forced me to divorce.”
She no longer brought up those things, but she hadn’t forgotten them.
Now, like a wronged child with no adult to complain to, she pressed her face against his chest, tears falling straight down. “Wasn’t I good to you? You wouldn’t even touch me. In Japan… when you touched me, you even covered my face with a bath towel. You don’t like me—I know you don’t.”
Shen Fu’s long fingers lifted, stopping an inch away from her tear-streaked face. He didn’t dare move closer; they trembled slightly.
Qu Bixin listed his wrongdoings one by one, crying until she felt dizzy. “When I was little, elders liked me even more than He Qingchi. From kindergarten on, I was everyone’s favorite child. How dare you not like me? You made me a laughingstock in the socialite circle, wuwuwu… Now whenever people mention He Qingchi, they praise her for having good taste, marrying Jiangcheng’s top elite. When they mention me, they say that Miss Qu was cheated of money and marriage, becoming a discarded wife at such a young age.”
“It’s my fault.” Shen Fu held her like a priceless treasure, not even daring to wipe her tears with force. In the end, he kissed them away again and again with his thin lips.
Qu Bixin cried herself tired and lay in his arms. After a while, she lifted her wet eyes to look at him.
Shen Fu lowered his head and gazed into her eyes. His voice rolled in his throat several times, hoarse beyond recognition. “At that time, I was angry. You used to look at me with admiration and joy in those eyes… but you changed your eyes, and even the way you looked at me became unfamiliar.”
So he was unwilling to accept even the slightest change in Qu Bixin’s feelings toward him.
What he had done during that period had indeed been excessive. Shen Fu had even wanted to carve himself into a thousand pieces to make up for the tears she had shed.
Qu Bixin raised her pale hand and traced the contours of his refined face, her eyes still red. “You’re very gentle tonight.”
“Even the fiercest vicious dog becomes gentle when it encounters love.” Shen Fu lightly kissed her cheeks, her tear-stained lashes, and the corners of her lips, cherishing her with the utmost tenderness.
Qu Bixin fell into his gentle trap and responded of her own accord.
With her eyes closed, she reached to undo the buttons of his shirt. Complex emotions lingered in the deep of the night. Only the warmth beneath her fingertips gave her a fleeting sense of reassurance.
She knew she was falling into an endless abyss, never to climb out again.
The next morning, in the quiet aftermath of a disheveled room, sunlight streamed brightly through the windows, spilling over the walls and the white bed. Just before her mind fully cleared, Qu Bixin vaguely felt herself tightly held, not even having space to turn over.
She opened her eyes groggily. First, she saw a firm male chest. Looking upward, she saw a familiar, delicate face.
She almost screamed.
As she woke, Shen Fu gradually stirred as well. Very naturally, he lowered his head and brushed a light kiss against her forehead. “You’re awake? Hungry?”
Qu Bixin looked completely stunned. She vaguely remembered fragments of last night, yet feared it had been a dream—it felt too unreal.
So she didn’t speak for a long while, stiff as she remained in his arms.
After lying there about five minutes, Shen Fu released her and got out of bed to dress. “I’ll go make breakfast.”
Qu Bixin hid under the covers without saying anything.
After he left the master bedroom, she quickly threw off the blanket to check herself. Aside from her wrinkled nightdress, there were no signs of having been violated.
Which meant that despite sharing a bed last night, they had only talked about life?
Slightly shocked, Qu Bixin sat at the edge of the bed, tangled in her thoughts for a long time.
She remembered everything about being carried home drunk by Shen Fu, including how she had cried miserably. It definitely ranked among the black-history moments of her life—losing face in front of her ex-husband.
She raised a hand and covered her face.
Downstairs, Shen Fu spent fifteen minutes making breakfast.
He no longer prepared confinement meals for her. Instead, he sat patiently in the dining room, waiting for her to come down.
Qu Bixin spent nearly half an hour giving herself a mental pep talk before slowly going downstairs. When she saw Shen Fu, she felt slightly awkward and chose the chair farthest from him at the dining table.
Neither of them mentioned what had happened after returning home last night. Just as they were about to finish eating, Shen Fu handed her a card.
Holding her bowl, Qu Bixin blinked her dark eyes.
Without changing expression, Shen Fu said, “This is my salary card.”
“Oh.” On the surface she was calm; inside she was nearly losing her mind.
What did he mean by giving her his salary card???
Shen Fu spoke in a calm yet gentle tone, laying everything out honestly. “My assets right now are less than five million. The money on the card is your allowance. Xinxin, give me a year. I’ll be able to afford you.”
By “afford,” he meant letting her spend at high-end venues without blinking, bid on jewelry she liked at auctions, buy any villa she fancied outright, and drive a different luxury car from the garage every day.
Still holding her bowl, Qu Bixin responded again, “Oh.”
What he said next made her finally look at him properly. “Today I’ll move out of your villa and go back to the apartment I rent.”
She hadn’t even dared to imagine he would voluntarily propose “living separately.”
Trying to appear worldly, she forced down the upward curl of her lips.
Shen Fu glanced at her and said slowly, “I’ll come see you often in the future. I’ll give you space and freedom.”
Qu Bixin wanted to nod repeatedly. Clearing her throat, she said, “It’s not very appropriate for me to take your salary card.”
In truth, even when he hadn’t moved out before, he hadn’t been after her money.
During the period they had lived together, he paid for daily groceries and fruit, drove her to the supermarket and took the initiative to pay for household supplies, and even handled property management fees and utilities.
He wasn’t as disgraceful as rumors made him out to be—handing all his money to another woman while freeloading at her place.
That was why Qu Bixin hadn’t really resisted him living in her villa in the first place. Who would refuse a free housekeeper and an excellent bed partner?
Of course, the premise was that this “housekeeper” shouldn’t meddle too much.
Shen Fu didn’t take back his salary card and didn’t allow her to refuse. “From now on, everything I earn will go toward supporting you. If you permit it, I’ll come over two days each week on my days off. If you ever want to eat my cooking, you can come to my apartment.”
His sudden reasonableness made Qu Bixin feel awkward instead.
“If you run out of money, remember to ask me for living expenses.”
Since she had taken his salary card, she couldn’t be too harsh with him.
Shen Fu smiled at her. Good-looking people were pleasing to the eye when they smiled.
Perhaps because she was in a good mood, she began to find him more agreeable.
……
Shen Fu had always kept his word. Just as he had once promised that when he became successful he would marry her—marrying first and then forcing a divorce, he had still fulfilled his promise.
So in the following months, Qu Bixin lived like a wild horse freed from its reins. No one at home controlled her, and someone else footed her bills.
On workdays, Shen Fu never showed up to bother her. His favorite tactic was to prepare a table full of lavish dishes—all her favorites—then post it on social media for her to see deliberately.
Qu Bixin didn’t quite understand her own mindset. At first, she coldly “liked” his posts and continued partying with her girlfriends. Gradually, she began to be tempted by those tables of food and occasionally honored him with a visit once or twice.
She despised her foodie nature and tried to find excuses to convince herself not to go to Shen Fu’s apartment.
Unfortunately, there were no excuses to be found.
To this day, Shen Fu had never touched her. Even when they were alone at night, he was usually the first to keep his distance and leave. Sometimes it gave Qu Bixin a fatal illusion—as if she and Shen Fu had returned to the very beginning.
Life went on in this lukewarm way. In the blink of an eye, three or four months passed, and the end of the year arrived.
During such family-reunion days, Qu Bixin had long since returned to the Qu family home, using her sweet tongue to coax everyone into high spirits.
But a small incident occurred—she had a fierce argument with Qu Yanming.
It stemmed from Kang Yaoduo still refusing to give up and wanting to form a marriage alliance with the Qu family.
Qu Yanming had long selected his ideal brother-in-law and spared no effort praising this “little prince” of the hotel industry before their father. What he hadn’t expected was that Qu Bixin wouldn’t buy it at all and refused to visit the Kang family during the Spring Festival.
The siblings immediately began tearing into each other. In a fit of anger, Qu Yanming exposed her secret. “Dad, Xinxin’s involved with that guy surnamed Shen again. Don’t think I haven’t heard the rumors. You’ve wanted to remarry him all along, haven’t you?”
The lively atmosphere in the living room instantly froze. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Qu Bixin.
She was dressed in red today, the dress hugging her curves perfectly—waist and legs in all the right places. With her dazzlingly fair skin, it was no wonder Kang Yaoduo still hadn’t given up on her.
She was cracking sunflower seeds at the moment, smiling brightly without a trace of guilt. “Brother, don’t believe every rumor you hear. You say I’m with Shen Fu—what evidence do you have?”
Qu Yanming stood up agitatedly, pointing at her. “If you’re not with Shen Fu, then why won’t you marry Kang Yaoduo?”
“Xinxin, is what your brother said true?” Father Qu was worried she would repeat past mistakes and be coaxed away again by that ungrateful Shen Fu.
Seeing her family staring at her nervously, Qu Bixin felt a little irritated. She also felt there was no point in hiding it any longer.
She tossed away the sunflower seed shells, clapped her hands, and said, “Shen Fu is pursuing me.”
With that one sentence, Qu Yanming excitedly pointed at her again. “See? I wasn’t wrong!”
And Father Qu, for the first time, experienced what the old man next door from the He family must have felt when he fainted. Unable to take the shock, his vision went black.
“Dad! What’s wrong, Dad!”
“Quick, call an ambulance!”
Qu Bixin and Qu Yanming were both stunned—they hadn’t expected their argument to end with their father being angered into the hospital.
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