My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

Prolonged sleep deprivation and accumulated stress led to high blood pressure. When he drove in the middle of the night, Guan Xiaoxiao's ruthless sentence kept on repeating in his mind over and over again, the more Jiang Huocheng thought about it, the angrier he became.

His chest felt stifled and it was difficult to breathe. Even his vision swayed. When his legs turned numb, Jiang Huocheng sensed that something wasn't right, he parked by the side of the road and tried to regulate his breathing to no avail. It was like there was a hole in his chest where air poured out continuously, leaving him with a glaring and empty hole.

His work phone rang, his assistant called, asking where he was and why he hadn't arrived in the company yet. Jiang Huocheng hadn't had time to answer yet when his sight darkened and he lost consciousness. He woke up the next day in the hospital and the doctor told him that he had a mini heart attack.

Even though it was just a small alarm, it would eventually become very dangerous in the future. He was told to exercise a healthy habit and not to let himself get angry very often. Jiang Huocheng's assistant was the one who arranged everything, from his hospitalization to the concealment of his illness; or else, the barely stabilized Guan Empire would collapse once again.

His assistant entered with a haggard look as he reported his work one by one. It took almost an hour by the time they finished and Jiang Huocheng finally asked, "How about my wife and son?"

The assistant was too busy and forgot about it. He apologized profusely. Jiang Huocheng saw that he didn't do it on purpose and he was indeed too tired already, thus he dismissed him and disregarding the doctor's words to stay in the hospital for a few days, he dragged his tired body and went home.

Only to find the house which had been turned upside down.

Shards of glasses on the floor strewn haphazardly, the furniture was overturned. Jiang Huocheng couldn't find the resemblance between this messy house with the one he had just left behind yesterday. Seeing Jiang Huocheng return, the nanny almost burst into tears. "Sir, you're finally back!"

Jiang Huocheng frowned. "What happened? Where's Madam?"

"Madam is…" The nanny described what happened last night in detail. After smashing all of the things in the living room until there wasn't anything to smash, Guan Xiaoxiao marched into the room and locked the door. Then, the sound of smashing and crashing continued all night.

The nanny kept on calling Jiang Huocheng's phone all night but it couldn't connect. She wanted to go to the company to seek for him but she couldn't leave Jiang Jinyan alone. The baby had been crying all night and now, he even sported a low fever.

Jiang Huocheng worriedly went to check on his son and found that he had cried so much that he had difficulty breathing. His head ached even more. Tiredly, he requested, "Wait for a moment while I check on Madam. We will go to the hospital together."

Jiang Huocheng knocked on the door softly but it was as if Guan Xiaoxiao had been waiting for him all night behind the door as it instantly swung open and a pillow was thrown into Jiang Huocheng's face. "You still know to come home?!" With tear streaks on her face and bloodshot eyes, Guan Xiaoxiao vented her anger. "You still know that you have a wife and son at home?!"

Seeing her wife's manic state, Jiang Huocheng felt a pang of sadness. But he was the head of the family, he couldn't collapse at this moment when they needed him the most. He sighed and lowered his voice, "Xiaoxiao, Jinyan is sick. We can continue our conversation later after sending him to the hospital okay?"

But in Guan Xiaoxiao's ears, his sentence came out differently. He was tired of me…tired of my tantrums, tired of coaxing me. He didn't even want to talk to me a bit longer. She burst out in tears and collapsed. "Why?! I want to talk now! Why can't we?!"

"Xiaoxiao!" Jiang Huocheng chided harshly. "Jinyan is your son! Are you still a mother? How can you be so selfish?!"

For all her life, Guan Xiaoxiao had never received such harsh treatment before. Her mother and father treated her very well and never got angry with her. Jiang Huocheng was also like that, he had always been gentle and tolerant so why…why did he change now?

"Why?! Why are you talking to me like this? You have never been like this before! Are you finally tired of me, huh?! Jinyan is your son too, so why don't you care about him?!"

She couldn't accept such a change, she couldn't bear it. She dreamed of a perfect relationship like one of her parents but why couldn't she get it? Her happily ever after was shattered in face of reality and her fragile state couldn't bear such a blow. Adding with her loneliness, grief and anger, she almost lost her mind and slowly turned paranoid.

In the end, the family doctor had to come and inject a dose of sedative into her. The elderly man sighed, he had been Guan Family's exclusive doctor since Guan Xiaoxiao was born so he was biased toward her. But when he saw how messy Jiang Huocheng was, he didn't have the heart to berate him. So, he just lectured him patiently. "A new mother has to be treated with care and patience. You can't lose your temper at her."

Jiang Huocheng rubbed his face roughly. "I know. It's all my fault."

After that, Jiang Huocheng earnestly tried to change. He delegated less important work to his vice president and his assistant, only attending the most important social gathering himself. He came home more often too to accompany his wife and son.

But it was as if his hard work sank like a small stone to the bottom of the ocean. Guan Xiaoxiao turned more and more paranoid each day. When Jiang Huocheng attended an important social gathering and succeeded in signing a huge contract, he was happy and drank a little bit more than usual. He came home in a tipsy state and Guan Xiaoxiao accused him. "Where are you going?! Is that really a social gathering?! Why are you smelling of smoke and perfume?!"

When he was in a late meeting and didn't answer Guan Xiaoxiao's call for an hour, what he got when he called back was another accusation. "What are you busy with? You're not deliberately hanging up on me right?"

It was to the point where Guan Xiaoxiao could go crazy when he returned ten minutes more than the usual time.

Jiang Huocheng was massaging his aching temple when his wife barged into his study and pointed at the reddish stain on his shirt. "Jiang Huocheng—you…what is this?! Are you cheating on me?!"

Jiang Huocheng frowned with two points of impatience in his brows. "It's only the sauce on today's dinner that splashed on my shirt. Don't think too much."

Guan Xiaoxiao looked at his cold countenance and tears streamed down her face. "Don't think too much? How can I not think too much when you're like this?! You've changed, Jiang Huocheng! You are not like this before, I don't even recognize you anymore!"

The door slammed behind Guan Xiaoxiao, leaving Jiang Huocheng stifled in his seat.

Exactly who had changed?

Exactly how…did they become like this?