Chapter 38
After getting off the plane, Shen Huan checked her bank accounts. All three joint accounts with Li Ting were empty. She wasn't sure if it was Li Ting's or Chang Yueqing's idea, but in the end, Li Ting must have given his approval. Chang Yueqing wouldn't offend him over such a trivial matter.
The savings in Shen Huan's several bank cards were enough to last for a while, but he obviously couldn't afford to live with a nanny and a driver.
She called Li Ting, and as usual, it was Chang Yueqing who answered. Shen Huan asked if she could talk to him, and Chang Yueqing always said that Li Ting was resting.
Chen Huan had two fund accounts, each allocated according to Li Ting's instructions. Daily expenses and major purchases went through Li Ting's account, so the family's cash, current accounts, and stocks all stayed with him. He'd give her some during the holidays and teach her how to invest in long-term deposits and medium-term government bonds. Now that they were separated, she felt awkward.
She planned to sell some of it at a discount to save for an emergency, but it wouldn't take too long to buy everything together.
The bulk of her assets consisted of shares in several Xuan Tao subsidiaries. She thought she should cash them all out before the divorce, as Li Ting could easily make them worthless later. But the timing was terrible. With Ronghui implicated, it was difficult to find a fair price for the shares in these small companies. The only one willing to come up with real money was Qingyu, Xuan Tao's rival.
Besides, she couldn't sell her shares in a low-key manner. The people inside and outside this group were like a regular and dense spider web. Any movement would be heard by Li Ting immediately.
These were the worries and fears that had plagued her for the past six years. Without the protection of her marriage, she was in a state of utter despair. Looking back, it seemed she had driven herself into a corner.
If Chen Huan had agreed to Chang Yueqing's request when Li Ting was unconscious, the shares of the head office would have been transferred back to Li Ting. She would have received a large living allowance from the family trust in New York every month, and would not have to be caught between Qingyu and Xuantao, with both sides treating her like a traitor and besieging her from all sides.
Or maybe after breaking up with Li Ting, she didn't go to the United States and didn't answer Meng Zixian's call at the rain-soaked airport. Maybe Li Ting would give her some leeway now because of their old relationship. Her predicament was inseparable from Meng Zixian. If the other person wasn't Meng Zixian, Li Ting wouldn't have been so decisive.
She wondered if Meng Zixuan had ever considered her current situation. Perhaps he dismissed it, always having more important things on his plate. In the past, it was guns, drugs, and human lives; now, it was capital, power, and the fate of the company. Unable to contend with these things, she could only wait silently. She had waited for so long she was tired of waiting any longer. There would be voices accusing her of not understanding the bigger picture.
Like many years ago, she packed her bags as if fleeing, stuffed two suitcases that couldn't even be fully zipped into the trunk of her car, and left Fayette's apartment. As she drove past Schumer's house, she saw Emma standing on the lawn, her suspenders loose and her jeans unzipped. One foot was half-shod in a slipper, the other bare on the grass. Her face, without foundation, was as pale as death, her whole body faded like a dying sunflower. Her eyes stared silently at Shen Huan in the car, her body slowly turning in line with her car.
Chen Huan pretended not to notice. If the passenger window hadn't been manually cranked and out of her reach, she would have certainly rolled it up. Emma had a pair of piercing blue eyes, but under the golden sun, amidst the tranquil lawn, she accidentally exchanged glances with Emma, and she felt like she'd stepped into a dark cavern. She didn't want to face Emma's dying gaze.
At the time, she had naturally assumed that the look in his eyes was a result of Henry's death, bringing him hatred for the living. Later, when most people in Benny Fort had lost contact with her, she had to admit that in their eyes, she was a shameful deserter, and Shen Huan thought so too.
Three months after leaving North Carolina, Shen Huan received a text message from Emma. Emma asked if she could fly back to Fayette. “Meng isn’t doing very well,” she said.
Shen Huan said she would not go.
Twelve hours later, Emma replied: "You are the most faithless person I have ever met."
Shen Huan didn't know what faith she was talking about. God? What did this have to do with God? She didn't ask Emma.
Many years later, Chen Huan met a fluent Chinese-speaking priest in a New York bar. He asked a beautiful young woman, "Can I order you a drink?" Chen Huan looked at the silver cross dangling from his chest and asked for whiskey.
On the rocks? he asked. Or soda?
Chen Huan said nothing. She'd never had straight whiskey before, but it sounded like something someone without worries would order. Amid the blaring music from the bar, she wrote the words on a white paper towel that held her iced beer and pushed it toward him.
You are the single most faithless person that I know of.
"What are you saying?" Shen Huan asked the man, "Are you accusing me of being an atheist?"
"Your handwriting is very beautiful," the priest said, clutching a rosary. "But no, that's not what I meant. I meant it like this: 'You are the most treacherous person I have ever known.'"
Chen Huan took the tissue back. The black handwriting was blurred by the condensed water droplets. The neon light on the ceiling was a mixture of cold blue and fiery red, shining on the line of words so that she could not see clearly. She put the paper in front of her face and read it again with her head tilted. Is this what Faithless means? Chen Huan didn't quite believe it. She looked at the man who claimed to be a priest again. She thought that apart from this rosary, how could he interpret God. She left the bar alone without tasting the neat whiskey brought by the waiter.
But no matter what it was, faith in God, the fidelity of marriage, or standing behind the soldiers without conditions, she hadn't done it. Shen Huan felt ashamed of herself. She was indeed a traitor.
On Thursday morning, Shen Huan went to Yunjingli again. She wanted to talk to Li Ting again. If they could break up peacefully, she didn't want to go to court.
Chang Yueqing warmly invited her in. Chen Huan sat on the fabric sofa she had chosen for the living room, her feet still on the thick carpet. She lowered her head to look at the beige wool blanket where she had recently knelt beside the sofa, absorbing the urine stains bit by bit with a fiber towel. The blanket was clean, without a trace of disgrace.
Shen Huan thought Li Ting would come to the living room as well. She had heard that Li Ting's condition had improved a lot and that he was walking around the neighborhood every day in a handcart. But Li Ting didn't come to see her.
Chen Huan asked. Chang Yueqing was sitting next to her, pouring her a cup of tea and pointing towards the inner courtyard with her left hand. She said Li Ting was resting. Chen Huan looked in the direction of Chang Yueqing's finger. Li Ting was resting in the rattan chair with his eyes closed. Chen Huan took a deep breath. She wanted to call him. Shouldn't they discuss this face to face? Did he need Chang Yueqing to represent him in getting a divorce?
Before Chen Huan could even bring up the division of property, Chang Yueqing spoke first. "You're right to move to Wenyin Street. That troublemaker Lin Jing posted two photos of Yunjingli Community online as soon as she was laid off. The security guards even stopped a few reporters a few days ago. But don't worry, this matter will settle down. We'll have her delete all those previous posts."
She said, "That girl is still naive. In the end, she didn't get paid much and still had to sign a confidentiality agreement with us. If she had quit earlier, she would have received more than ten times the salary, and I could have arranged a good job for her. But now her reputation is tarnished, which decent company would want her? The boss is willing, but the boss's wife isn't."
Chang Yueqing said this with a smile and a friendly attitude. This matter was half to solve the problem for Li Ting, and the other half was to save Shen Huan trouble, and Shen Huan was grateful.
Then Chang Yueqing asked casually and said with a smile: "You met Lao Meng when you went to the United States this time. I heard that he and Samuel Levin are going to set up a sub-fund in New York? It is said that they met with several leading private equity firms and raised a large sum of money. I think this is a bit outrageous. Shouldn't our headquarters be moved to the Empire State Building?" Chang Yueqing glanced at Li Ting before finishing her words.
Shen Huan knew that Li Ting could hear them talking, but she was not sure if it was Li Ting who asked this question. Shen Huan said that she had met Meng Zixuan, but had not heard about the sub-fund.
Chang Yueqing shifted her hips forward on the sofa, put down the teacup in her hand, and lowered her voice, as if she were speaking to Shen Huan in a private manner. "That's true. Old Meng is a very busy man now. Three or four time zones aren't enough for him. Many years ago, I told Old Li that the boy was capable, but he couldn't settle down. Do you think I was right?"
Shen Huan didn't respond.
Chang Yueqing turned to face Li Ting and said, "Just like that guy, Lao Li, what's his name?" Li Ting didn't say anything. Chang Yueqing slapped her forehead and remembered it, and said a name, something like Jianguo.
Shen Huan had never heard of this person.
Jin Tuo walked into the living room and said lunch was ready. Chang Yueqing and Shen Huan said they should chat while eating.
There were more than a dozen dishes on the table, just the two of them. Chang Yueqing ladled her a bowl of bamboo fungus and chicken soup and continued, "One of Lao Li's partners from his twenties fled to Switzerland for illegal fundraising, and his numerous mistresses followed him, crying and shouting. Don't even mention his work style; it's exactly like Lao Meng's. After Jianguo fled, I joked with Lao Li, saying it was a good thing he took a commercial flight; if he had taken a private jet, he would have had to hire a huge one to accommodate all his mistresses."
Chang Yueqing placed the chicken soup in front of Chen Huan with a smile. Chen Huan had no appetite, but she still picked up the spoon beside her. She didn't know who Chang Yueqing was mocking. Meng Zixian had never had any scandals in recent years, but Li Tingjin had been hooking up with others.
But Chang Yueqing's words were like a very fine embroidery needle, piercing the most sensitive part of Shen Huan's heart. She could tolerate the presence of Yao Li or Lin Jing beside Li Ting, whether covered in the quilt or spread out on the table, she could slowly digest it. But Meng Zixian couldn't do that, she couldn't stand it at all. She didn't think this kind of harshness was absurd or far-fetched. Li Ting only needed her to be a quiet and sensible wife. He never asked Shen Huan to dissect every inch of softness and vulnerability in her bones to prove her attachment and submission like Meng Zixian did. She did all this, she knelt at his feet, but Meng Zixian still abandoned her.
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