Chapter 8
Tang Chengting returned home early in the morning. Their public institution didn't offer the same freedom as a law firm. If Chen's mother hadn't called last night, he would have been waiting for Chen Huanong to return. Chen Huanong put some juice and a box of sandwiches in the car and told him not to forget breakfast. It was a late spring morning, and the countryside was still a bit chilly. Chen Huanong, dressed in pajamas and draped over a shawl, shivered slightly in the morning breeze.
"Hurry back and sleep for a while." Tang Chengting hugged her, and the familiar scent of Chen Huanong filled his nose, which made him feel inexplicably at ease. "I get up early to go to work, why are you getting up so early?"
"I'll take you to work, or my mom will scold you again." She sounded a little aggrieved, a little helpless, and a little spoiled, like she was still in a bad mood. Tang Chengting suddenly thought Chen Huanong was a little cute. The man with a strong nasal voice looked at him and asked unhappily, "What are you laughing at?"
"You're such a good kid, but you're still afraid of your mother."
"That's right. You're not like me. You're so sharp-tongued. That's why your mom doesn't even call you anymore. She calls me all the time. Tang Chengting, you're going to fall out of favor." Chen Huanong laughed again when he thought of this. "But my mom calls you, so it balances it out. You go to work. I'm going back to sleep."
Chen Huanong didn't stay at home for many days. On Friday, his mother packed up his things and threw him into the driving seat. "You drive, and your cousin and I will sit in the back and talk."
Qin Huai had heard of Chen Huanong's news earlier and was waiting for them in the office. His assistant was busy trying to make tea, but Chen Huanong stopped him and said, "Don't bother. They had tea and fruit on the way here. They didn't treat themselves badly at all. I guess they're still holding on." He then briefly recounted the incident to Qin Huai and turned to ask his cousin's grandmother, "Anything else you want to add?"
"I just want to ask if this lawsuit is easy to win. Can I win? If not, can I still go see my grandson?"
"Don't worry, if it's hard to fight, that's his problem. Don't worry about it. No matter if I win or lose, I'm sure you'll get to see my grandson."
The matter is not that complicated. It is just a matter of going through the entrustment procedure. Shensong takes human cooperation as its development concept, and there are not many rules and regulations that are too strict. This one is the only iron discipline that no one can mess around with.
It was almost eleven o'clock when they finished. Qin Huai had to go on a business trip that afternoon, so his assistant couldn't leave. In the end, she had to take Chen's mother and her cousin's grandmother out for dinner. Chen's mother was not very happy about eating out. The older generation had malicious speculations about eating out. Chen Huanong scoffed, "If everyone wanted to live like you, then don't open restaurants. China's catering industry would go bankrupt. What kind of losses would that cause?"
Chen Huanong chose the mall closest to Tang Chengting's office building. The food was served just as Tang Chengting came over from get off work. Chen Huanong felt that he was really clever. Chen's mother was helpless, not knowing why her genes had mutated into this state. "Chengting chose the place, Chengting called to make the reservation, and even ordered the food. What's so clever about you?"
"I chose my husband!" Chen Xiaohua belatedly realized what she had said. Facing her mother's undisguised disdain, she continued to eat without batting an eyelid. She grew up in a family with free speech. With the exception of curse words and outspoken remarks, she'd been free to speak her mind. Her mother had complained, but her father couldn't stop her from saying, "Being expressive is a skill." Tang Chengting, on the other hand, felt a little embarrassed by the elder's restrained smile. Even after five years, he still wasn't used to Chen Huanong's indirect "confession" in public.
After dinner, Tang Chengting returned to the office. Chen Huanong sent Chen's mother to the underground parking lot. She had two shopping bags in her hands. Chen's mother couldn't help but scold her for spending money again. Chen Huanong didn't care. Money is meant to be spent. There is no need to save things that you can't bring with you when you die. Chen's mother also knew the truth. Instead of blaming her, she was actually more happy. She always realized when the little girl who used to nestle in her arms and needed to be taken care of grew into a graceful young lady. Why does Chen Huanong need her, an old lady who is halfway to the door of destiny, to worry about her now? But as a parent, the heart that cares about their children will never be easily let go.
Chen Huanong was already on vacation, and after seeing her mother off, she was completely lost in thought for a quarter of an hour, unsure of what to do. Mo Yiyan looked at the WeChat message, confirming it four or five times. The note at the top of the dialog box was indeed "Chen Yaonie." How could Chen Yaonie not know what to do?
Others may not know what Chen Huanong was like before she got married, but Mo Yiyan knew her best. During Chen Huanong's busiest year, Mo Yiyan lived only two kilometers away from her, but they met only a handful of times. Every time he asked her what she was doing, she would answer with a single word: "busy." Mo Yiyan naively thought she was working overtime or something, and felt sorry for her for a long time, until he saw Chen Huanong dressed like a slut at the cashbox, with the standard wavy hair of a badass woman and wearing high heels of more than ten centimeters. Several young men stood beside her, calling her "little sister." Mo Yiyan was stunned and pointed at her, speechless for a long time. Chen Huanong had anticipated what she was about to say, and her eyes curved with a smile, but her words were as uninhibited as ever. That slut said, "Sister, if you can't hook up with any man you want, why waste money looking for a gigolo? What if he's too small and doesn't do the job well? Then I'll be at a huge loss." Listen, is this even human language?
During those two years, Chen Huanong was very unrestrained. In addition to work, she filled herself up with a bunch of extracurricular activities. For example, if she didn't have dinner parties on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she would go to the gym, learn dance on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, practice Taekwondo on weekends, and spend two hours learning tea art. Mo Yiyan said, "You are not interested in drinking tea, so why bother learning it?" Chen Huanong took a big sip of Starbucks' latte. The rich milk and espresso flavor dominated her entire taste system. She really liked it. However, the old guys all liked to make tea, paint and talk about life. When Chen Huanong said this, she had some of the cuteness and cleverness of a little girl. At that moment, Mo Yiyan clearly realized the difference between herself and Chen Huanong. Chen Huanong lived too transparently. She knew too well what she wanted, so she never made fruitless efforts.
Now this woman asked Mo Yiyan with great sincerity what she should do. Mo Yiyan deleted and edited it, then deleted it again after editing it, and finally sent five words: go shopping and watch a movie. Chen Huanong lowered her eyes and took a look at her outfit. A short T-shirt with wide-leg patterned trousers and a pair of old Beijing cloth shoes was a perfect pastoral style. Even if she secretly wanted to be a girl picking grapes, this outfit didn't fit the rhythm of the city after all. She walked around twice and finally only liked two dresses. Since she officially joined the law firm, most of her clothes have been custom-made, and the prices are not very expensive. It happened that the tailor was very good at tailoring and could cleverly avoid all the flaws of Chen Huanong's figure, and she would never wear the same clothes as others. These two points made Chen Huanong very satisfied. As time went by, her eyes couldn't help but become more picky. She sent two photos to Tang Chengting and asked which one looked good. After about a minute, he replied that they both looked good. Chen Huanong smiled and had a bit of a mischievous thought, "Can I buy them all?"
This time Director Tang replied quickly, "Okay!"
"But I've been suspended, Yingyingying..."
"Chen Huanong, pretending to be cute doesn't suit you. You have to face reality at your age." Just as she finished speaking, Director Tang's transfer reminder arrived. Chen Huanong didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She didn't know whether to say that this man was a terminal straight man or a model husband. Is she short of money? Is she short of money! At this moment, she suddenly remembered that when they were just together in the early years, Director Tang said that it was difficult for me to respond to your feelings and I couldn't love you. So, would you still be with me? Chen Huanong didn't care. We are a political marriage. Love or not is all a passing cloud. Director Tang asked again, what do you want from me? Chen Huanong asked back, yes, what should I want from you? Director Tang told her, money! These days, you either want feelings or money, you have to want one of the two, and from Director Tang's point of view, money is much more reliable than feelings. So Chen Huanong believed that Director Tang was extremely reliable to her.
Chen Huanong didn't dwell on it too much. The movie started at 3:30, and she entered the theater right on time, clutching a handful of popcorn. Sure enough, everyone was in pairs. She was alone in the center, the most conspicuous spot, with two empty seats on each side. Chen Huanong wondered if she should cover her face and walk in. Facts proved that words like shy and embarrassed had long since vanished from Chen Dahua's career. Far from being embarrassed, she proudly straddled three pairs of young lovers, as proud and dignified as a peacock flower.
It was rare for her to post on WeChat Moments, and Qin Huai immediately exploded in the group chat. What he meant was probably something like, "Chen Huanong, you are so shameless. I work so hard for you, and you actually have the leisure to watch a movie. The most outrageous thing is that you ate a whole bucket of popcorn by yourself." Qin Huai, who is so calm, actually loves popcorn the most. If Chen Huanong hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she really couldn't believe it. In Qin Huai's words, who doesn't have a little princess living in their heart? In order to calm down the anger of the little princess Qin, Chen Huanong recorded a video of herself eating popcorn and posted it in the group chat, and wrote a fifty-word review of popcorn. Then Chen Huanong found that she was kicked out of the group chat.
When Tang Chengting picked her up that night, she was arguing with Qin Huai and secretly asked her assistant to add her to the group. However, the assistant, under the pressure of Qin Huai, pretended not to see it. It was rare for Tang Chengting to see her like this, a little childish and a little noisy, "You clearly know Qin Huai's personality, but you still have to tease him."
"Oh, you know how dull Qin Huai's personality is. If he hadn't been influenced by me for so many years, how could he be as likable as he is now? I'm thinking about finding him a wife."
"He definitely hasn't met the right person if he doesn't get married. Instead of living a life of compromise, sometimes it's better to live alone. Qin Huai isn't the type of person who would get married just to continue the family line. He'll definitely put a lot of thought into this matter."
"What about you? Have you been putting up with me for the past five years?"
Tang Chengting looked up at Chen Huanong, who sat directly across from him. She wore a gentle smile, her voice soft, her hands never stopping to arrange the dishes, as if discussing something quite insignificant, yet this was the topic of his discussion today. She could see that he hadn't yet thought of a good opening line for this conversation, so she took the initiative, in this nonchalant manner.
"We're not compromising. The five years I've been with you have probably been the most peaceful five years of my life. I've never lived with someone in such an intimate relationship for such a long time."
"Then you should know that no one except me can tolerate you for this long." Chen Huanong's expression finally became serious. "What did Zhao Liangqi talk to you about? Did he threaten you?"
"It doesn't matter what he said. I don't care about anything that happened between you two. After all, we're not together because of love. Others don't know it, but you and I know it very well."
"I have always known about this. You don't need to remind me again and again. I just happen to have the logical reasoning ability of a lawyer. Not long after Zhao Liangqi made an appointment with you, you asked Zhang Xingyan to draft a divorce agreement. The timing is too coincidental." If Chen Huanong was still the Chen Huanong five years ago, she might have been hurt to death by Tang Chengting's words. But in the past five years, she has experienced situations that are more difficult to deal with and heard more hurtful words. Crying or being sad can never solve any problems.
"You got the order wrong. I was planning to divorce anyway. Zhao Liangqi just happened to show up before I drafted the divorce agreement."
Chen Huanong had expected him to say that. Director Tang was a master of sophistry. Continuing to dwell on this issue was becoming pointless. He simply dispensed with all the tangles and went straight to the point. "Why do you want a divorce?"
Tang Chengting didn't want to beat around the bush anymore, so he met Chen Huanong's eyes. "I've experienced married life, and I've explained to my mother. The five years I've been with you have been the most peaceful, but also the most tiring. I need to pay attention to your emotions and respond to all your small conversations. Those are not my strengths, and they are not the life I want. I want to walk the rest of the road alone, without having to consider anyone else, and just follow my own ideas."
Even though Chen Huanong thought she was immune to all poisons, she couldn't help but feel a bit sad after hearing Tang Chengting's confident words. She thought she had given Tang Chengting enough freedom, tolerance, understanding and support, but it turned out that it was not the case. Tang Chengting didn't like quarrels, so she suppressed her anger and stripped away all the thorns on her body; Tang Chengting liked to keep his own space, so she tried not to disturb his free time; Tang Chengting didn't like being mediocre, so she tried her best to catch up with him, not daring to slack off; Tang Chengting liked spiritual independence, so she never mentioned the grievances and hardships she had suffered; Tang Chengting needed a little sun that belonged to him to warm him, and so she quietly became Chen Dahua, the omnipotent Chen Dahua, the indestructible Chen Dahua, the impeccable Chen Dahua.
Time flies like this, the moon moves like a wheel, day after day, month after month, year after year, she shed her proud character and replaced it with a body shape that she thought could make people feel comfortable, but she forgot to ask the person in front of her, what do you want?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
