Chapter 9 Divorce Him
In front of the hotel was a U-shaped driveway. It was the time for the banquet to be over, and the entrance was quite lively, with a river of lights in the slightly white cold rain.
The doorman could also call a taxi for them. Cheng Ti went to negotiate, and Ye Siheng followed and said, "I'll take you home."
Cheng Ti said, "You've returned all your car keys."
Ye Siheng said, "Then I'll take you home in a taxi." As he said this, he suddenly remembered that he had left the house key upstairs. He laughed to himself, "It's over. I have nothing now. No wonder my wife ran away too."
He looked back upstairs and said, "Si Ji is here, I'll get two rooms and make do with tonight."
Cheng Ti didn't want to stay here any longer, so she just shook her head and said, "No, thank you. The hotel I stayed in before was very good."
Ye Siheng pulled her closer and looked at her face: "I saw you didn't eat much just now. I'm treating you to a meal. Don't be angry with me, okay?"
Perhaps he also felt that he had been too free-spirited today, lacking team spirit, and he felt guilty. This was the first time Cheng Ti saw him trying to please her with a guilty conscience, and she found it amusing. She smiled and said, "On the contrary, I'm very grateful to you."
As she was talking, a taxi arrived. She said she would contact him later and bent down to sit in the back seat. Unexpectedly, Ye Siheng also got in and even said to the driver first, "Go to XX Sanatorium."
Cheng Ti looked at Ye Siheng in surprise, but in fact she could probably guess in her heart: that was where his mother was.
The last time I saw Ye Siheng's mother was at a wedding. Now it's been turned into a sanatorium. This house was built in the concession a hundred years ago. The red brick walls are a fusion of Chinese and Western styles, and the environment is very quiet and elegant.
Mother Ye still looked generous and decent, with a better temperament than anyone else in the Ye family. However, her face was sallow, she had lost a lot of weight, and her face looked sickly.
Mrs. Ye was surprised to see them, and she was very kind: "Why are you here at this time? Isn't today your father's birthday?"
Ye Siheng replied casually: "It ended early, so I came over to take a look."
Cheng Ti said, "I'm sorry, Mom, I haven't been able to come and see you."
Mrs. Ye smiled and said, "It's okay. Si Heng said you were helping out with the company recently, and I told him not to bother you. You two are newlyweds, and it would be unlucky to go to the hospital every day."
After sitting in harmony for a while, Cheng Ti noticed that Mrs. Ye spoke with a slight accent, which sounded very familiar.
The province's accents are complex, and even neighboring cities might be unconnected. Cheng Ti was just about to ask if Madam Ye was from near Qizhen when a nurse arrived to give Madam Ye a vitamin injection and take her blood pressure. Ye Siheng and Cheng Ti left the suite and waited in the hallway. The hallway was sparsely populated, the dim lights making it seem even quieter and more empty.
Cheng Ti and Ye Siheng were alone, and she thought of a more pressing question: "What disease did Auntie have?"
“Breast cancer.”
She was stunned. She didn't expect it to be so serious.
"I've had three surgeries before. I felt unwell the past two days, so I had an emergency checkup. It wasn't a relapse, but I was just weak." Ye Siheng lowered his voice, "The old man got mad at me."
Cheng Ti recalled the atmosphere of dinner and asked gently, "Does your sister often visit Auntie?"
Ye Siheng sneered, "You're not her mother, what are you doing here? Are you going to piss off the old lady?" He even spoke nonchalantly when revealing his own scars, "I'm her only child."
Cheng Ti had already guessed it, but she took a deep breath after listening to it: "So, uncle and aunt are..."
"They haven't divorced. Neither side wants to," Ye Siheng said mockingly. "The old lady has been through so much with her husband, there's no way she'd give up her position to a vixen for nothing. As for the old man, he's been through all sorts of hardships in his early years, and his first wife has countless handles on him. That's why he doesn't dare to do that. Neither side wants to suffer any loss, so they'd rather torture each other like this."
He rested both arms on the railing, his shoulders slumped and his head lowered. The ends of his hair were a little fuzzy under the light, like a helpless child. Cheng Ti was silent for a moment before saying, "Why are you telling me this?"
Ye Siheng said slowly, "How do you say that? 'If you had seen my past self, you might have forgiven my present self.'"
Cheng Ti was amused: "You still read Eileen Chang?"
Ye Siheng smiled and said, "I once had a girlfriend who was a little sister. She would force me to read her novel every day. The other things were too pretentious, so I've forgotten them all, but I remember this." He stood up and leaned against the stone railing, turning his head to look at the sparse rain outside. "Anyway, I'm sorry about what happened tonight. If your brother needs an explanation—"
Cheng Ti looked away, her voice a little muffled: "Don't worry about him."
Ye Siheng paused, and finally asked: "What is the deep hatred between you and your brother?"
Her eyelashes drooped, and the reflections on her dark pupils. She didn't even know if she was joking. "He's very good, but I'm heartless. When I was little, I had to obey him because he took care of me. Now that I've grown up, I want to go against him."
Ye Siheng seemed to be both amused and annoyed: "He is indeed heartless, but he is quite frank."
He looked at her with a certain amusement, as if he were exploring a strange painting. After a long while, he couldn't figure out anything. Finally, he smiled and said, "Sometimes I suspect that you only look innocent, but you are actually playing the pig to eat the tiger."
"You just realized it? You've been fooled." Cheng Ti also laughed, "You still have time to run now."
"Want to break up? You wish!" Ye Siheng rejected her request without hesitation. "You want me to tell my mother that my daughter-in-law is fake? Look at my mother, she looks old and weak. Can she withstand such stimulation?"
His smile deepened, and he spoke confidently, "I'll go find a house tomorrow and we'll move out. It'll save Aunt Chen money, and I'll have fulfilled my promise to you. I'm not a good person anyway, so why should I be afraid of you taking advantage of me?"
A lot had happened that night, and Cheng Ti was really tired. She knew it was a waste of energy to continue arguing with Ye Siheng, so she didn't agree. She just said, "I might have to go traveling for a few days first."
Ye Siheng asked, "Where are you going?"
Cheng Ti shook her head and said she hadn't thought about it yet, but what she was thinking was: It's time to go back to Qizhen.
… …
In the next two days, Cheng Ti was busy with the notarization of his driver's license. He planned to exchange his Canadian driver's license for a temporary domestic one. When he arrived in Qizhen, he would rent a car, which would make it much more convenient to pack up the old house and move things.
That afternoon, I finally got the certificate and went back to the hotel. I passed a black car and went up the stairs. After taking two steps, I suddenly stopped and turned around.
A man got out of the driver's seat of the car.
He was wearing an iron-gray suit and a silver tie. Even the sky behind him was a dull gray, but it was still afternoon.
There was an alert in the morning saying that there would be thunderstorms in the near future. Now there were strong gusts of wind, and Cheng Ti's long hair was blown all over the place. She reached out to push it away, but saw him standing in the wind. Such a strong wind did not blow down his heroic and upright figure, but instead added a sense of strength and neatness.
Cheng Ti suddenly realized that since returning to China, seeing him was like seeing an exhibition of suits, which were also the work clothes for his position.
She nodded to him, her smile a little stiff, "Brother."
He didn't respond, but walked to the passenger seat and opened the door. "Let's talk."
Maybe it was because of the weather, but he looked a little haggard, so Cheng Ti didn't ask him how he found the hotel. She walked down the steps and got into the car. When he closed the door, she politely said, "Thank you."
When he sat in the driver's seat, his expression seemed to become even colder.
Cheng Ti could probably guess what he was going to talk about.
But she didn't expect that he would bring her to his home.
This apartment, a branded property under a renowned hotel, boasts a stunning view, high-rise. On a clear day, the view stretches as far as the eye can see, but right now, it faces rolling dark clouds. The apartment must be well-furnished, adhering to the same "less is more" philosophy as the hotel. It's fully furnished, but because it's large and airy, it feels sparse and airy, and the light-glossy marble tiles lend it a chilled feel.
Shao Mengdong hadn't spoken a word all the way, and only spoke at this time.
"What would you like to drink?"
“…Water will do.”
She said so, but her eyes only flicked twice to the De'Longhi coffee machine on the dining table. Shao Mengdong glanced at her and changed the water and beans—he had probably not been home for quite some time. Apart from the coffee machine, the house showed almost no signs of habitation.
"Sit down," he said.
When she lived in a rented house, she was a guest. Now she was a guest. Cheng Ti sat down on the sofa politely and reservedly like a guest.
He poured two cups of black coffee without asking her if she wanted milk or sugar. Perhaps he remembered she ordered iced American coffee last time, or perhaps he was used to making the decision for her.
There was an envelope on the table that had been there for a long time.
He said, “Open it and take a look.”
Cheng Ti paused and gently poured out a stack of business cards, each of which had four words written on its signature.
divorce lawyer
She raised her head and met Shao Mengdong's gaze. There was no expression on his face: "You choose one."
Calmly, as if asking her to choose a piece of cake to go with her coffee.
"What are you going to do?"
The coffee was very hot, and he frowned slightly, perhaps out of impatience with her asking questions even though she already knew the answer.
"Divorce him."
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