As Liu Fen was immersed in this newfound power, a gloomy voice came from not far away.
"You've grown quite bold, now you know how to run wild outside?"
Liu Fen looked up abruptly and saw Liu Jianjun standing in the shadow of a streetlamp not far away. His face, which she once knew so well, was now filled with impatience and disgust. The smell of cigarettes mixed with alcohol emanated from him, pungent and unpleasant.
After a few days apart, he seemed a bit haggard, with stubble on his chin and a grayish collar on his shirt. Without Liu Fen's help, this man who appeared respectable on the outside quickly revealed his inner slovenliness and dishevelment.
Liu Fen remained completely unmoved. She carefully folded the two cents and put it in her inner pocket. She looked up at him calmly, as if he were an insignificant stranger.
Her calmness infuriated Liu Jianjun. He rushed forward, grabbed her wrist with a force that seemed to crush her bones: "Are you mute? I'm asking you a question! Where have you been these past few days? Don't you know there's a child at home? Don't you know there's a ton of chores that no one's doing? You think you're all grown up now!"
A sharp pain shot through her wrist, but Liu Fen didn't even flinch. She simply looked at him coldly and said, word by word, "Let go."
"Let go? You dare to talk back to me!" Liu Jianjun laughed angrily. "Liu Fen, let me tell you, I'm only here today to give you face! My mother is old, and my daughter cries terribly at night; she can't handle it all by herself. The house is a complete mess, like a pigsty. You'd better come back with me right now! I can pretend the past never happened!"
He spoke these words with such conviction, as if he were bestowing an immense favor. He assumed she would, as she had done in the past, readily accept this offer and gratefully go home with him.
However, Liu Fen just looked at him with those empty eyes, and then suddenly laughed.
"Go back?" she repeated softly, then, with her other hand that wasn't being held, she slowly, one finger at a time, pried open his grip on her fingers. She wasn't very strong, but the resolute look in her voice made Liu Jianjun subconsciously loosen his hold.
"Liu Jianjun, listen carefully." She shook off his hand, took a step back, and created a safe distance between them. "I'm not throwing a tantrum today, nor am I waiting for someone to give me a way out. I'm informing you that I want a divorce."
The word "divorce," spoken by her again, carried a hundred times more determination and weight than the last time she uttered it in the house.
Liu Jianjun seemed to have heard something unbelievable. He was stunned for a moment, then burst into a huge rage: "Are you fucking never going to stop?! Let me tell you, Liu Fen, don't push your luck! Divorce? What will I eat and drink if you divorce me? With a child in tow, do you think anyone will want you? Do you believe that you'll starve to death outside this residential compound?!"
"What I eat and drink is none of your business anymore." Liu Fen's tone was completely flat. "I've been in your house for five years, eating spoiled food and doing the work of an ox, and all I got in return was a body full of injuries. Liu Jianjun, I would have starved to death in your house long ago. Now, I'm going to live for myself for once."
Liu Jianjun stood there, stunned. The woman in front of him was so unfamiliar.
"You...you'll regret this!" He could only manage to shout this out in a show of bravado.
"My biggest regret is that I was blind to marry you five years ago." After saying that, Liu Fen turned and left without looking at him again.
"Where are you going!" Liu Jianjun shouted behind her.
"Go and take my life back." Her voice came, clear and firm. "Go back to your office now and write the divorce petition. I'll take Nannan out, and tomorrow we'll go to the regimental headquarters to get the leader's signature. This divorce is final!"
She didn't go back to Su Wantang's house, but went straight to the hellish "home" she had fled from. Every step felt like walking on a knife's edge, yet every step felt more solid than ever before.
Liu Jianjun stood frozen, watching her slender yet upright figure disappear around the corner of the stairwell. A night breeze blew by, and he felt a chill run through him. He suddenly realized that he wasn't giving Liu Fen "face," but that the woman truly didn't want him anymore. She wasn't threatening him, nor was she acting out of spite; she was showing him through her actions that she had personally severed all ties between them.
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