After My Rebirth, My Husband Pampers Me Everyday!

Chapter 273: Chapter 273

Liuxian lay still for another long moment, staring at the ceiling, letting the ache in his back settle into something he could ignore well enough to function.

Getting up meant facing the day properly, and he wasn’t ready for that yet, not with Guiying’s door closed just a few feet away and no idea what waited behind it now that morning had actually arrived. He pushed himself upright anyway, wincing at the pull along his spine, and reached for his phone on the side table.

Six missed notifications waited on the screen, most of them work, one from Zhang Wei flagged urgent. He scrolled past all of them first, needing a moment before he let the day’s actual demands back into his head.

He showered quickly, dressing on autopilot, buttoning his shirt with hands that moved through the motions faster than his mind kept pace with them. Every few seconds his gaze drifted toward the closed door separating his room from the hallway, some part of him half expecting Guiying to appear there, though he knew better than to hope for it this early.

He didn’t.

Liuxian made his way downstairs eventually, following the smell of tea brewing in the kitchen more out of habit than appetite. Old Li glanced up from the stove, something careful in his expression that told Liuxian plainly enough that word of last night’s tension had already reached the staff, however quietly.

"Good morning, young master." Old Li set a cup down without commentary, the kind of restraint that came from decades spent reading a room before speaking in it.

"Morning." Liuxian accepted the tea, though he didn’t drink much of it, his stomach still too knotted to want anything sitting in it.

He checked his phone again while he stood there, opening Zhang Wei’s message properly this time.

Zhang Wei: Court date confirmed for next week. Bai Feng wants to meet beforehand to go over Kong Siying’s testimony. Also, your flight for the trip leaves Thursday morning, not Friday as originally scheduled. Airline moved things up.

Liuxian read it twice, the timeline compressing tighter than he’d planned for. Thursday meant two days from now instead of three, one less day to fix anything before he’d be gone an entire week.

He set the tea down, appetite gone entirely now.

Guiying still hadn’t come downstairs by the time Liuxian needed to leave for the office, and he found himself standing at the base of the stairs longer than made sense, listening for movement that never came.

He left without seeing him.

The drive to the office passed in near silence, his driver sensing well enough not to attempt conversation. Liuxian stared out the window instead, running through everything that needed to be handled before Thursday.

The court case.

The final logistics on the holding facility.

Zhang Wei’s team monitoring whatever remained of Shen Zihao’s network still scrambling to save itself.

And underneath all of it, quieter but no less persistent, the fact that he was about to leave for a week without knowing where he and Guiying actually stood.

He pulled out his phone once more before the car reached the office, thumb hovering over Guiying’s contact.

He typed three different messages and deleted all three before settling on the simplest one he could manage.

Liuxian: I didn’t see you this morning. I love you. I hope you have a good day.

He hit send before he could second-guess it further, some small, uncertain hope sitting behind the plain words that it might be enough to start bridging whatever distance still sat between them.

The reply came almost twenty minutes later, longer than usual, long enough that Liuxian had already convinced himself it wasn’t going to come at all.

Guiying: Love you too. But it’s not good for your back to sleep on the couch next time.

Something in Liuxian’s chest loosened at that, the first real breath he’d managed to take since waking up alone in that room.

Liuxian: I’ll try.

Guiying: Try harder than that.

A faint, unwilling smile pulled at the corner of Liuxian’s mouth as the car rolled to a stop outside the office.

Guiying had been midway through his skincare routine when Liuxian’s message came through, phone propped against the mirror while he worked serum into his cheeks with careful, practiced patting motions.

That was the reason his reply had taken so long, not hesitation, though he suspected Liuxian had probably assumed the worst during the gap.

Reading the message properly once his hands were free, something in his chest eased at the plain honesty of it.

No malice sat anywhere in those three short lines, no attempt to justify last night or smooth over what had happened between them.

Just an apology shaped like affection instead, offered without demanding anything back.

He’d smiled despite himself, typing his reply with a little more warmth than he’d expected to feel this morning.

Once he’d finished his skincare, he pulled on a soft gray hoodie and matching sweatpants, comfort winning out entirely over anything resembling effort today, and slid his feet into his bear slippers before heading downstairs.

The kitchen buzzed with quiet morning activity by the time he reached it, and several of the maids looked up from their tasks, offering warm greetings as he passed through the hallway.

"Good morning, Second Master."

"Sleep well?"

Guiying returned each greeting with a small wave, grateful for the easy normalcy of it after everything churning beneath the surface of the last twenty-four hours.

Mrs. Chen stood near the pantry, sorting through a delivery of fresh produce, and looked up with genuine surprise the moment she spotted him.

"Second Master, I haven’t seen you in weeks." She set down the basket in her hands, wiping her palms on her apron before offering a small, respectful bow. "You’ve been so busy lately, I was starting to think you’d forgotten this house had a kitchen staff at all."

"Never." Guiying smiled, genuinely pleased to see her. "Things have just been chaotic. How have you been, Mrs. Chen?"

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