Divorce Application - Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Wild Talk
“You hated this marriage so much, didn’t you?” Wu Haoxue remembered how Li Jinping had forced her back then. “You didn’t want to get married, and she said that only if you married her would she bring you back to China. You were so angry you were grinding your teeth.”
Liu Sinan naturally remembered these things. She lowered her head and took another sip of wine, whispering, “But these past few days, I keep wondering, did I really not want to? If it had been anyone else, I would have died in America before marrying them.”
What Zhao Qiran did to Liu Sinan in the car, besides making her feel embarrassed and humiliated, also made her realize something belatedly. She had thought her initial marriage to Li Jinping was just a transactional exchange, a forced relationship with no emotional foundation.
But why did she feel so disgusted when Zhao Qiran touched her and offered her resources and connections?
“Then why don’t you go and tell her that!” Wu Haoxue’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Could it be that your marriage broke down not because you didn’t want it, but because… Li Jinping cheated!?”
Based on Wu Haoxue’s straightforward thinking, if Liu Sinan had even a little bit of affection for Li Jinping, the two of them, with their mutual affection, would have been inseparable, deeply in love, and would never have gotten divorced.
The only reason she could think of for the divorce was that Liu Sinan didn’t want it and Li Jinping finally let go.
But listening to Liu Sinan, she was clearly hurting and hadn’t moved on. So what caused their marriage to break down?
If it wasn’t Liu Sinan’s fault, then… Li Jinping? Did she cheat? Did the wealthy elite finally revert to their old ways of having multiple partners, lovers everywhere, and living a life of endless romance?
Liu Sinan was about to refute her, but as she opened her mouth, she remembered the voice on the phone.
Soft, sweet, and claiming to be Li Jinping’s private assistant.
Li Jinping’s private phone was never answered by anyone else, and to make matters worse, that assistant knew about Li Jinping’s recent schedule, saying that “President Li doesn’t have any time recently.”
She couldn’t reach Li Jinping, and the assistant was the one who answered the phone. But all she had done was leave a message, and Li Jinping had called her back.
It would be a lie to say Liu Sinan wasn’t jealous.
As the words lingered on her tongue, Wu Haoxue could naturally understand Liu Sinan’s hesitation and said with a look of shock, “She really cheated?”
“I don’t know, maybe not,” Liu Sinan gulped down a big mouthful of red wine, her face looking terrible. “But I can feel that she has been neglecting me a lot.”
“The signs started about a year ago.”
Wu Haoxue, adopting a gossip-hungry pose, immediately filled Liu Sinan’s glass with more red wine. “And then what? Did you find another woman’s perfume on her collar, or another woman’s hair in her car?”
“Stop watching those trashy romance novels,” Liu Sinan scoffed. “My lady is a clean freak; she doesn’t like anyone getting too close to her.”
“Then if you saw some little vixen nestled in Li Jinping’s arms, would you go crazy?” Wu Haoxue pouted. “Stop being so vague. What really happened between you two?”
It was impossible for Liu Sinan to bring up what had happened three months ago again, but she chose to talk about what she could. “Last year, a photo of me having a private dinner with a director was taken. The photo was taken at an angle. I was toasting her, but she didn’t want to accept it, so I had to bend over to apologize to her. It looked as if I was kissing her.”
Wu Haoxue thought about it and nodded. “I saw that photo. It caused a big stir at the time, and everyone was saying you cheated on Li Jinping. The photo did look very deceiving at first glance, but that director wasn’t very good-looking. She had short hair and was a little chubby; she was just a very normal person. How could a face-lover like you possibly kiss her?”
People who were familiar with Liu Sinan would naturally think the photo was fake, but Li Jinping was too worried to think clearly, and she took it seriously.
Liu Sinan only belatedly realized that Li Jinping was angry two months later. She noticed that Li Jinping wasn’t coming home, was always on business trips, and when she did come home, she would sleep in the guest room, using the excuse of not wanting to disturb her sleep. She just wouldn’t touch her.
“Is it just because of my love for a beautiful face?” Liu Sinan said, a little dejected. “Besides that ridiculous-sounding reason, it seems there’s nothing else to exonerate me.”
Wu Haoxue frowned. “Of course there is. You’re not the type of person to mess around. Furthermore, you were already married to Li Jinping at the time. With your personality, there’s no way you would cheat.”
Liu Sinan took another gulp of wine. Her eyes were already a little tipsy, and she stared at the lipstick stain on the wine glass, pouting with a sense of injustice. “But my lady didn’t believe me. Before that, no matter how the media twisted and made up rumors, she always believed me. Starting with this incident, she stopped believing me.”
The more Liu Sinan thought about it, the angrier she got. As her anger flared, her head started to ache with a buzzing sound.
She didn’t want to be angry at Li Jinping. Her anger had nowhere to go, and she suddenly thought of the instigator—that director.
That director was unhappy with her from the very beginning, thinking that she had gotten the role through Li Jinping’s connections and money. But in reality, the director’s funding chain had broken, and she was the one who went to Li Jinping. Li Jinping, of course, wouldn’t just give money away for free, so she chose a role that was suitable for Liu Sinan and had her act in it.
Most importantly, to ease the tension between the director and Li Jinping, Liu Sinan was extremely cautious and tried to please both sides on set. She didn’t want Li Jinping to stand up for her, nor did she want the director to think she was ruining the show. She was exhausted every day.
She knew how rich and powerful Li Jinping was, so she tried her best to soften Li Jinping’s dominance within her own means. After all, that director was very talented and worth Li Jinping’s investment.
In the end, the director accepted Liu Sinan’s presence and even acknowledged her acting skills, becoming good friends with her.
Liu Sinan opened the director’s WeChat, pressed the voice message button, and sent a long string of curses.
“You’re so damn good, I’ll toast you with another bottle of baijiu, and you have to finish it!”
“As if you could finish it!”
“I’ll blow your grandma’s three-legged kick and your grandpa’s big lantern away!”
Wu Haoxue quickly held her down. “Who are you talking to?”
“Me? What did I say?” Liu Sinan’s eyes cleared for a moment. Her watery gaze fell on the WeChat interface, which showed a question mark from the director and a fifty-plus-second voice message.
Liu Sinan didn’t want to reply. Just a few seconds after sobering up, she was drunk again and shouted, “I’m so… sad.”
She sat on the floor like a child, her face expressionless, repeating over and over, “I’m so sad.”
Seeing her in this state, Wu Haoxue suggested, “I don’t think this is a good way for you to continue. Forget about whether Li Jinping believed you or cheated. She raised you for seven years; you’d develop feelings for anything you raised. If you really can’t let go, try to win her back.”
Liu Sinan was unmoved by Wu Haoxue’s earlier words. It wasn’t until she heard “win her back” that her ears perked up, and she adopted a serious listening pose.
“But, my lady said she doesn’t love me anymore.” Liu Sinan had just been energized for a moment, but then her spirit deflated again.
Wu Haoxue cheered her on. “What if she was just saying it out of anger? Even if she doesn’t love you now, she can fall in love with you again.”
“I’ll say just one thing. If you like her, try to win her back. Don’t worry about your pride and dignity. You’re already divorced. If you remain indifferent, you will lose Li Jinping completely.”
Perhaps the last sentence was too heavy. Liu Sinan’s whole body trembled, and she quickly grabbed her phone.
She was completely drunk now and couldn’t see the words on the screen. Wu Haoxue was worried that she would send something strange to Li Jinping, so she helped her make a voice call.
It was night, and Li Jinping was slow to answer the phone.
“Hello?” Li Jinping’s voice, carrying a bit of static from a bad connection, rang out in the dark night.