Chapter 52: Let the One Who Stands in My Way Die p3
The person who came was in a suit, neatly ironed, and was carrying a black square leather bag. As soon as he came in, he walked straight to Yang Yijun, extended his hand politely, and called out, “Ms. Yang.”
The person looked familiar to Yang Yijun. After a closer look, she frowned. “It’s you, Mr. Yue.” The person before her was a lawyer from the famous Hongshan Law Firm in Yunhai City. He had been introduced to Yang Yijun by an acquaintance, who had said that this person was good at handling divorce disputes and had some reputation.
“What are you doing here?” Yang Yijun’s face was ashen. She vaguely knew the purpose of his visit.
Mr. Yue put his leather bag on the table to the side, opened it, took out a document, and handed it to Yang Yijun with a smile. “Ms. Yang, I have been entrusted by President Zhou to handle the divorce matters between him and his wife, Yun Lan. President Zhou said that his wife is not feeling well and has been staying here recently, so I came over, hoping to hand over the divorce documents to her in person.”
Yang Yijun sat down on the sofa with a thud.
“I’ll take you up,” Zhou Wanfeng said, coming down from the stairs. Yun Jingya, on the other hand, ran to Yang Yijun’s side with a worried look on her face.
Mr. Yue followed Zhou Wanfeng up to the second floor. At the door of the second-floor bedroom, Zhou Wanfeng opened the door but blocked him from entering, and said coldly, “She’s inside. Speak a little louder. Who are you to Zhou Zhiru, and what are you here to handle?”
Mr. Yue just thought that strangers were not allowed in the bedroom, so he could only stick his head in and shout, “Ms. Yun Lan, are you in there? I’m Yue Jun from the Hongshan Law Firm. President Zhou Zhiru has entrusted me to handle the divorce matters between you and him. I’m here today to deliver the divorce documents to you.”
After three meters, it was as if the sound of things falling came from the bathroom.
Zhou Wanfeng snatched the divorce documents from the lawyer’s hand. “You can go back now. I’ll help you hand them over. I’ll also notify you to come and get them after they’re signed.”
Mr. Yue nodded and said “okay,” then went downstairs and left.
The sound of the car starting gradually faded away.
Zhou Wanfeng walked into the bedroom and found Yun Lan in the restroom. She was slumped on the floor, her hair neatly combed, her makeup also very exquisite, but her eyes were blurry with tears.
“He has rejected the proposal to transfer the property to Chengbin and has adopted the first one, choosing to divorce you. He loves you, but he’s not willing to leave his assets to your common son? He won’t even give you the half you gave up? Isn’t that a little heartless? He’s forty. He might remarry, or he might find a younger, twenty-year-old, simple, kind, and beautiful person to marry. There are a lot of people who want to marry a rich man these days. Zhou Zhiru is not old, and he’s quite good-looking. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to have another son.”
Zhou Wanfeng took out the documents and put them in Yun Lan’s lap. “Sign them. After you get them notarized, you’ll be divorced.”
Yun Lan screamed and tore the documents to pieces, hugging her head and curling up, as if she still couldn’t accept the fact that Zhou Zhiru wanted to divorce her.
Zhou Wanfeng pulled her up from the ground and looked at her with a cold gaze. “You can continue to deceive yourself. If you tear it, another one will appear. I’ve said it before. For other people, a divorce is a matter between two people. But for you and him, you’re being unilaterally disposed of by him. Look, he didn’t even come himself. He just sent a lawyer to inform you. He doesn’t love you, and he doesn’t love the son you gave birth to. The fact that you tore it is the best evidence. Your father and your mother are no match for him. They’re old. There’s nothing they can do. There’s no way to get justice for you.”
Yun Lan’s eyes trembled. She looked left and right, not daring to look at Zhou Wanfeng’s icy eyes. She was afraid, and her face was as white as a sheet of paper.
Zhou Wanfeng sneered and took Yun Lan downstairs.
Yun Lan’s legs were weak. She was being dragged down by Zhou Wanfeng. The moment she saw Yang Yijun, it was as if her soul had returned to her body. She cried and hugged the stunned Yang Yijun. “Mom, what should I do? What should I do? Zhiru wants to divorce me! Is he angry with me? Can I apologize to him…”
Yun Lan was crying and shouting, but she was pushed away by Yang Yijun, who glared at her and fell to the ground.
“Can’t you see his true colors even now? What does he love about you? Wake up! He doesn’t love you! I’ve been giving in again and again, but he’s been pushing me step by step! You apologize? He just wants to get rid of you! You fool! Can’t you use your brain? For the sake of Jingya and Chengbin, use your brain!” Yang Yijun gritted her teeth.
Yun Haisheng helped the crying Yun Lan up from the ground. She was his own daughter, after all. He couldn’t bear it. He could only try to persuade her. “Yun Lan, Zhou Zhiru is not good. You have to face the facts now. He has so many things. He could have used any of them to make a deal with your mother. He’s not giving up a single cent of his property. He’s just using you as a bargaining chip. What does that mean? It means you’re not important to him at all. Silly child, what are you still apologizing for? He just wants to divorce you, and he’s been planning it for a long time.”
“Mom, you and Dad should get a divorce. Can’t we just live here together?”
Zhou Wanfeng went up to the attic to get some air, leaving the family below to tell Yun Lan the cruel and terrible truth: Zhou Zhiru did not love her.
For a person who valued love so much, who lived for love, to be told by everyone that the person she loved so deeply did not love her at all, and had even used and deceived her, was tantamount to killing her.
Especially the words of her family, which were like sharp swords piercing her heart.
Zhou Wanfeng didn’t know if Yun Lan could take it.
Even on the attic, she could hear the hysterical cries and curses from the first-floor hall.
“Mom, is it true? If you hide the dirt on him, can I not get a divorce?” Yun Lan knelt before Yang Yijun, trying to use her brain. “As long as we’re not divorced, I’m still Zhiru’s wife. That way, we’re legal, and his company’s property will still be our Chengbin’s, right?”
Smack. A fierce slap landed heavily on Yun Lan’s face.
Yang Yijun’s eyes were bloodshot, and she was trembling with anger. She pointed at Yun Lan and said through gritted teeth, “Are you that cheap? Zhou Zhiru doesn’t even want you, and you’re still clinging to him. Is this how I taught you since you were a child? With your brain, you’ll just continue to be used by him. I gave birth to you, I raised you, and this is how you repay me?”
Yang Yijun pulled over the crying Yun Jingya. “Have you forgotten that you’re the mother of two children? You only think of yourself! You don’t care about Jingya? The higher he climbs, the more he cares about the thing in my hand! If it weren’t for you, for Chengbin, I would have sent it to the Public Security Bureau long ago!”
“You’re clearly just after Zhiru’s money! You just want money, and he didn’t give it to you, so you’re taking it out on me! What did I do wrong? Didn’t you raise Jingya? Then you can continue to raise her! Why are you saying it’s my responsibility now? Why are you blaming me for everything, waaah?”
Yang Yijun’s eyes were like she was staring at an enemy as she looked at Yun Lan. Her raised hand was trembling. After a long while, she closed her eyes tightly, and two lines of tears fell. Smack. She slapped herself hard.
“Grandma, what are you doing? Don’t hit yourself!” Yun Jingya said, pulling on Yang Yijun with one hand and the stunned Yun Lan with the other, crying and shouting, “Mom, please listen to Grandma!”
Yang Yijun was crying as she held Jingya’s hand tightly. “Divorce. This marriage must be divorced. It doesn’t matter if you want to or not. My condition is a divorce.”
Yun Lan wiped her tears and stood up, walking towards the door. “I’m going to find Zhiru. I’m going to talk to him. There must be a misunderstanding. He can’t possibly divorce me. He promised me before that he would be with me forever.”
“Mom, where are you going?” Jingya was about to get up. Yang Yijun looked at the running Yun Lan, her face suddenly turning pale, her eyelids rolling back, her lips trembling. “Don’t… don’t mind her. Let… let her go. Whether she dies outside or faces the facts…”
Yang Yijun had had some health problems before. She was too worried, and now she was emotional. She couldn’t control herself and fainted.
Zhou Wanfeng sat quietly on the third-floor stairs, watching the chaos below as they rushed to the hospital.
At nearly ten o’clock that night, as she had expected, Yun Lan came back, looking lost. She had a man’s suit jacket draped over her shoulders.
Old Chen got out of the car and opened the door for her, then drove back.
Yun Lan walked up the stairs shakily, her eyes red from crying. The light in her eyes was gone, and there was only a deadness.
Yang Yijun was on an IV at the hospital. Yun Haisheng and Yun Jingya were both at the hospital. Yun Chengbin was already asleep in his room.
Zhou Wanfeng followed Yun Lan into the bedroom.
The lights in the bedroom were not on. There was only an unknown light from a distance that dispelled a little of the darkness in the room.
Yun Lan leaned against the wall, curled up and crying.
In the darkness, Zhou Wanfeng leaned against the wall, her whole body hidden in the shadows, so that her current expression could not be seen.
Only her words could be heard, as cold as the icicles under the eaves, so cold that just hearing them was like being pierced.
“You can only hide in your parents’ house and cry when you’re wronged. Your mother was angered by you and is in the hospital. Because of your hysterical shouting and crying, Chengbin was so scared that he locked himself in his room. You’re a useless mother. You can’t protect your child’s property, and you’ve also been deceived. So I ask you, what’s the use of you being alive?”
Her voice became low, with a dark glint. “If I were you, I would never cry uselessly here. I would dress myself up beautifully, wear his favorite clothes, and use the gentlest voice to act coquettishly to him. When he still has a trace of reluctance or guilt, I would hug him tightly, whisper all the sweet nothings in the world, and when he is least on guard, I would stab him fiercely in the abdomen.”
“Watching him clutch his wound, his face filled with disbelief as he falls to the ground, you can vent all your hatred and anger, and scold him loudly… Watching his terrified expression, as he reaches out to you… ‘Yun Lan… save me…’ Hahahaha, isn’t that exciting?”
Zhou Wanfeng took two steps forward and squatted in front of Yun Lan. “At this moment, the blood on the ground is red, like the color of the most beautiful roses…”
“I want to tell you, whoever hurts you, you should get your revenge back, not by using your tears to hurt your family.”
“Zhou Zhiru just doesn’t love you.”
Tap, tap, tap. Footsteps left the bedroom and went up the stairs to the rooftop terrace. In Zhou Wanfeng’s past life, there was a girl under her command who had run away from home for a man. She had stolen her family’s household registration book and bank card, wanting to elope with the man.
But in just a few months, the money was gone. The girl was scolded and beaten by the man, and even forced to sell her body…
The girl had stabbed him with a knife. It was a shallow wound, and he hadn’t died.
Later, the two of them had a drink. She had said, a little tipsy, “I can endure hardship with him, but I can’t accept the fact that he doesn’t love me… If he doesn’t love me, I’ll stab him to death…”
The wind on the rooftop was very strong. The hair on Zhou Wanfeng’s forehead was a little long, and the wind was blowing it into her eyes. She had asked Yun Jingya before about the major she wanted to study for the college entrance exam. It was a good thing it wasn’t a stable job.
The next day, Yun Jingya and Zhou Wanfeng returned to school. They had to go back. The homeroom teacher, Xu Lei, had already called.
But Yang Yijun was still on an IV at the hospital, and Yun Lan had locked herself in her room. Yun Jingya was worried.
When they returned to school, Yun Jingya would call home every other day, and would occasionally tell Zhou Wanfeng about the current progress at home.
That lawyer had come to the house a few more times, and had brought the divorce documents several times, but they had all been torn up by Yun Lan. But he still brought them again and again.
On Friday at noon, a rare smile appeared on Yun Jingya’s face. It wasn’t until the way home from evening self-study that she couldn’t help but tell Zhou Wanfeng, “I called home at noon today. Grandma said that Mom has finally come to her senses and has verbally agreed to a divorce.”
Yun Jingya let out a sharp breath of relief, as if a heavy stone had finally been lifted from her heart.
Zhou Wanfeng walked quietly in front, not saying a word. She had her hands in her pockets and was looking up at the half-moon in the sky, which was like a person’s smiling mouth.
Yun Lan was a coward. She didn’t even dare to hold a knife. She would cry and have someone blow on her finger if she cut it a little while peeling fruit. She didn’t dare to stab anyone, and she couldn’t see her beloved lying on a bed of beautiful roses.
But she dared to close her eyes and step on the gas.
She imagined the rain falling like roses, just like when the two of them had first met, huddled in a public phone booth, watching the curtain of heavy rain outside.