Fu Shenxing carried her out, stunning the entire room of people. Xiao Wu's eyes widened and he dropped the cigarette he had just put in his mouth. He reached over to grab Baldy and asked, "Baldy, is it my eyes playing tricks on me?"
Baldy ignored him, just staring blankly. He had intended to reach for the girl's hand in his arms, but somehow his hand ended up on Xiao Wu's thigh, moving up and down unconsciously. Xiaobaiyang noticed first and couldn't help but pause, quickly lifting his hand and placing it on her own thigh. Before Baldy could react, he saw Xiaobaiyang motioning towards Xiao Wu, and then he understood. He gratefully smiled at her and subtly shifted his position, distancing himself from Xiao Wu.
In the crowd, someone else was also watching Fu Shenxing and He Yan's figures intently - it was Yu Jia. His eyes held astonishment, envy, jealousy, and unwillingness.
Fu Shenxing ignored the various looks from the crowd, carrying He Yan upstairs directly into the bedroom's bathroom and setting her down. He said, "Take a bath. I'll have Jiang send you back."
She looked up at him, her voice tense, and asked, "Do we still need to do it here?"
Fu Shenxing squinted slightly at her, observing her strained posture, shivering body, and the hand that had to prop itself against the sink. He shook his head. "I'm not interested anymore."
She seemed to relax a bit, but her voice still had a chilly tone. "Then could you leave, please?"
Fu Shenxing looked at her deeply, smiled, and then turned and left. As the door closed, she suddenly felt drained of all her strength, slowly crouching down for a while before being able to stand up again. She took off her clothes and entered the shower. The water was hot, and she stood under the shower, wishing she could shed a layer of skin.
Finally, they had reached this point. Even though she had been prepared beforehand, at this moment, she still felt like life was not worth living.
When she came out of the shower, Fu Shenxing was not in the bedroom. She went downstairs, and Jiang was waiting at the staircase as usual. The large house was still bustling, but she glanced around and then lowered her eyes, walking out alone. The car was waiting outside, and Jiang, having replaced the driver, personally drove her home through an unfamiliar small street.
Arriving downstairs, He Yan looked up at the windows of her house. They were brightly lit, much brighter than the surrounding houses, very eye-catching. She took a deep breath and then went upstairs, took out her keys, opened the door, and was hit by a strong smell of smoke. Liang Yuanze didn't smoke, but there were at least a dozen cigarette butts on the floor at the moment. He sat on the sofa, looked up at her, and hoarsely asked, "You're back?"
She nodded lightly, closed the door, took off her coat, hung it up, and then looked at the ceiling where all the lights were on, asking him casually, "Why are there so many lights on?" As she spoke, she reached out to turn off a few, but as soon as her hand touched the switch, she heard Liang Yuanze say, "Don't turn them off."
She stopped and turned to look at him.
A bitter smile appeared at the corner of his lips. Slowly, he said in a low voice, "Yan Yan, I need to keep the lights on to help you find your way home."
He Yan closed her eyes slowly, feeling that she must be unable to hold back her tears this time. But unexpectedly, her dry eyes showed no sign of moisture, still parched. She walked slowly to Liang Yuanze, squatted down, placed her hand on his knee, raised her head to look at him, and called his name, "Yuanze?"
Her hair was still damp from the shower she had just taken after being intimate with another man. Liang Yuanze's eyes were red, and his voice trembled uncontrollably. He asked her, "You want a divorce, don't you?"
She put in great effort to nod, "Yes, let's get a divorce."
The corners of his lips lifted a bit higher. He asked her, "You've fallen in love with someone else, haven't you? Look at me, He Yan, look at me and answer, have you fallen in love with someone else?"
She looked up at him, struggling, and that "yes" felt like a thousand pounds on her tongue. She could not bring herself to say it. She lowered her head until it finally rested on his knee, and in a hoarse voice, she said, "Don't ask anymore. Please, don't ask anymore, okay? Yuanze, let's take a break. If possible, we can be together again in the future, okay?"
Her response made his eyes light up. It seemed like he saw some hope. He held her shoulders with both hands, forced her to look up, and asked, "Do you still love me, He Yan? Tell me, do you still love me! Tell me, who is the man who led you astray for a moment? Who is the man who called my phone?"
He Yan couldn't answer. She couldn't. Earlier tonight, in her hopelessness and pain, she had thought of telling Liang Yuanze everything and sharing all the suffering with him. But as her mind gradually calmed down, she became timid again. She was afraid, afraid that Liang Yuanze would be in danger, afraid that he couldn't bear it and would seek vengeance against Fu Shenxing.
No husband could tolerate such insult to their wife. None.
But she couldn't ask him to fight so desperately, his life was so important, a hundred, a thousand times more important than hers. She wanted him to live, to live well, even if he hated her, even if he fell in love with another woman, as long as he lived, lived in the light, healthy.
It seemed like Liang Yuanze had sensed her internal struggle, he grabbed her tightly again, and said in a deep voice, "Heyan, we've promised to trust each other. I have always trusted you, but do you still trust me?"
"Divorce, I just want a divorce," she said softly, the words light and mechanical, devoid of any emotion, "I don't love you anymore, Yuanze. You said if I didn't love you anymore, you would let me go."
He stared at her, then laughed bitterly after a while, murmuring, "So that's it. When you asked me that question, were you already preparing for this moment?" He let go of her hand, gently pushed her aside, stood up, looked down at her from a higher position, "Alright, Heyan, I'll let you go."
The door opened, then closed behind him, Heyan still knelt in front of the sofa, head down, motionless like a sculpture.
The next three days were New Year's Day holidays. On the afternoon of the third, Liang Yuanze returned home from outside, a little thinner but in good spirits, looking neat. When he came back, Heyan was cooking soup in the kitchen, and for a moment, she felt that the days were no different from the past, stable in the present and peaceful in time.
He leaned against the kitchen door, watching her until she stopped her work, then asked her softly, "Decided, eh?"
Heyan stood still for a moment, then replied, "Yes, I've decided."
He paused, then asked, "No regrets, right?"
"Yeah, no regrets," she answered, turning her head to smile at him.
He also smiled faintly at her, "Then come out, let's sign the divorce agreement."
"Okay," she slowly took off her apron, followed him out to the living room. He took out a divorce agreement from his bag and asked her, "Look, is there anything you don't agree with?"
The thin piece of paper, with only a few short lines of text, he didn't ask for anything, except for the car he owned, the rest was left to her. Heyan read slowly, as if reading slowly could wake her up from this nightmare. But no matter how slow, there was a time to finish reading, she took a deep breath, picked up the pen to sign her name, but Liang Yuanze suddenly snatched the paper away.