Qin Ya slowly turned around, realizing that her legs were terribly stiff, from her hours of standing vigil. She leaned down to rub her aching kneecaps. Noting the action, Su Zhan hurried over to her side and glanced at her legs. “Are your legs bothering you?”
She ignored him.
He reached out to help her rub her legs, only for her to swat his hand away.
“I don’t need your help.”
Straightening up, he tried to explain himself, “I have to talk to you. Last night, I-”
“Was with Liu Feifei.” She had uttered it as though it had been statement, rather than a question.
The man’s eyes widened as he gasped out, “How did you know?”
She smiled grimly. “How did your reunion with your old lover go? Must have been intense, right?”
Unease welled in Su Zhan and he hastened to clarify, “Don’t misunderstand. Nothing went on between us. She had only wanted me to keep her company for the night…”
“I know.” She pointed at the lipstick mark on his neck. She’s merely your ex-girlfriend, isn’t she? It’s just one night, right? I don’t care about that, was what she had wanted to say proudly.
However, she was not as magnanimous as she had thought. She absolutely could not accept him cheating on her like this!
“I can clearly see the evidence of what you have done. Did you ever think of my feelings at all? Are you deliberately doing this to spite me?”
Confused, Su Zhan raised a hand to his neck and felt his fingers touch something sticky. Now that he had thought back on it, Liu Feifei had clung to him before he left, refusing to let him go. I thought I felt her brush her lips against my neck. She must have left her mark then!
“Please listen to me; I can explain myself. There’s nothing between me and her anymore. She just kept pestering me! I’ve already made things clear with her…”
“Su Zhan!” Qin Ya cut off his rambling. She bowed her head, unwilling to let the tears gathering in her eyes fall down. “Let’s just part ways peacefully. Thankfully, we did not actually get a marriage certificate yet. Let’s just forget about that farce in Baicheng, okay? I’ve already packed up all of my things.”
She took out the card that Grandma Su had given her a while back, and set it down on the bed, admitting, “I shouldn’t have even accepted this back then. Now that I’m leaving, it doesn’t make sense for me to bring it with me. You can keep it or give it back to Grandma. It’s all up to you. I don’t want to kick up a huge fuss about our breakup.”
Turning to stare at Su Zhan, it took all of her courage to squeeze a smile on her lips. It probably ended up looking more like a grimace. “I’ve said all that I’d wanted to. Finally, I would like to wish you a happy and blissful life with her.”
With that, she grabbed her suitcase and headed for the room door. Su Zhan was quick to snatch the suitcase from her hands.
“I’m not letting you go! Who gave you the right to end this just like that? Who gave you the right to say that this is all a farce? You put on a wedding dress and we got married right before my closest relatives and friends! Now you’re going to leave just because…? Let me tell you this, Qin Ya. That will never happen!”
Qin Ya wiped away the tears sparkling at the corners of her eyes. “Su Zhan, you’re a grown man now. Stop being so childish!”
“In what way am I being childish?” he retorted, while he drew closer to her.
She instinctively took a step back. While she could admit that she still liked him, she simply could not accept his disloyalty. Instead of enduring this silently, she would rather give up on him.
In a firm tone, she stated, “What you’re doing now is very immature. If you won’t talk about this like an adult, we can settle this matter in court.”
Su Zhan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he gulped. W-what did she just say? She wants to settle this in court?
“What do you mean by that?”
Clenching her fists, she struggled to maintain her resolve. “We don’t have a marriage certificate, which means that we’re not actually married in the eyes of the law. You’ve cheated on me so I have the right to cut all ties with you. In other words, you’re not allowed to bother me in the future.”
“I didn’t cheat on you!” he emphasized. “I’ve already told you this. Nothing has happened between us!”
“You didn’t come back for an entire night and there’s a lipstick stain on your neck. Tell me, does that seem like nothing has happened? Do you seriously think that I’m a three-year-old kid?”
“Why won’t you believe me? She had wanted me to keep her company for the night and she’d promised me not to bother us after that!”
Qin Ya burst into laughter at his words, while her tears finally spilled over. Her hand darted up to swipe the salty liquid away furiously. “Su Zhan, do you actually care for me?”
“Of course.”
“Do you think of me as family?”
“Of course! We share the same bed, don’t we? Of course you’re my closest kin.”
“Then are you hiding anything from me?”
At this, he fell silent.
Yes, I am. But it has nothing to do with Liu Feifei! It’s about my parents. That’s not really a big deal, is it?
“Doesn’t everybody have secrets that they wouldn’t want to tell anyone?”
“You told your ex-girlfriend but not me. Yet, you say that I’m your closest kin? Why does it appear that you’re closer to her than you are to me? You share your secrets with her but I don’t even get to know a single thing!”
Fed up with this argument, she decided that it was a waste of her time and energy to continue like such. Sucking in a deep breath, she tried to calm herself. “Give me back my suitcase.”
Now was not the time to place the blame on him.
Since she had decided to leave him, there was no point in fighting over who was in the right anymore.
Dragging this on would only serve to bring her more heartache. It was better to make this a quick, clean cut.
“No,” Su Zhan refused.
“Fine. It’s not like there’s anything important in there.” Giving up on her suitcase was not a hard decision to make.
She opened the room door, intent on leaving.
“I don’t agree to this divorce!” He wrapped his arms around her from behind, in hopes of stopping her.
“I’ve already said that our marriage is invalid so technically, I’m not divorcing you. Can’t you just leave me with one last good impression before I leave?”
“No!” Su Zhan was growing desperate at how serious she had seemed. Her words and actions… She’s really set on leaving me!
“I swear that nothing has happened between me and her! She was drunk and she’d tricked me into going over-”
“What are you two doing?” Grandma Su had heard a commotion going on outside her room. Upon listening closely, it sounded like Su Zhan and Qin Ya were arguing. In her hurry to see what was going on, she had only put on a robe before exiting her room.
Oh no, they’re really having a spat!
Noticing the suitcase behind Su Zhan, the old woman was dumbfounded. “W-what… What’s going on here?”
Her growing panic had her pointing an accusing finger at her grandson. “You did something that made Ya angry, didn’t you?”
Su Zhan released Qin Ya and moved over to reassure the old woman, “It’s nothing. You should go back and rest some more.”
“How am I supposed to rest when you two are acting like this?” the elderly woman berated loudly before giving his back a hard smack. Then, feeling guilty for hitting her beloved grandson, she added, “You’re already a grown man, yet why do you still make me worry so much?”
“I was wrong,” he immediately admitted, not wanting her to get angrier.
“Tell that to Ya, not me.” She shoved him aside and walked over to grab Qin Ya’s hand. “Ya, if he makes a mistake, just hit him. Why are you leaving when you’ve just gotten married? Can you forgive him this once? For me?”
While Qin Ya did not want to hurt the old woman, she was even more reluctant to continue fighting with Su Zhan. “Grandma, this is not a matter of either of us being wrong or right. Our personalities are just too different. That’s why I thought that us breaking up would be the best option for both of us. I’m sure that he’ll find a candidate that’s even more suitable-”
“What’s this nonsense about ‘an even more suitable candidate’!” the older woman interrupted. “Last night, you’d made dinner for me and had washed my feet before I slept. You were already planning to leave then, weren’t you?”
Her eyes were red-rimmed as she tightened her hold on Qin Ya’s hand. “If there’s anything about him that you’re unhappy about, you can tell me. I’ll help you to teach him a lesson! Promise me that you won’t leave, please?”
Qin Ya lowered her head, the tears trailing down her cheeks like beads on a string. “I’m so sorry, Grandma.”
In response, the older woman’s body swayed slightly. Her voice came out faint, “You’re still insisting on leaving?”
Right then, the doorbell rang.
