Divorce Is An Absolute Must! - Chapter 47

Chapter 47: A Sincere Heart

◎Don’t create a gimmick.◎

Li Lan’s tone was very low and serious. It seemed she had never spoken to Zhu Qing like this before.

Zhu Qing was stunned and her eyes fell on Li Lan’s hand. She was gripping her wrist with a considerable amount of force, and the warmth of her palm was slowly seeping into her skin. Zhu Qing felt a tingling sensation start from where they touched, spreading like fireworks up her nerves.

“Honey,” Zhu Qing took a breath. “This is a reality dating show. You’re my wife. Your question… isn’t very clever.”

The next second, Zhu Qing flipped her wrist, grabbed Li Lan’s hand, and pulled it over to gently rub against her cheek. “Well? Are you going to do it?” Zhu Qing’s voice was soft, and her breath was fragrant like orchids. “I bribed the cameraman. He won’t film this part.”

Li Lan sat upright as before, with only her slightly reddened ears betraying her feelings.

“If you don’t say anything, I’ll take it as a ‘yes’.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhu Qing pulled hard, and Li Lan was forced to lean forward. “Hey…”

Her lips touched something soft and warm. Li Lan blinked very slowly. She could hear her own heartbeat, one, two, three…

Three seconds were up!

Zhu Qing looked at her with a sly smile, like a cat that had just stolen a fish. She slowly pulled back, her rosy tongue darting across her lips. She looked refreshed and proud.

Li Lan’s lips were slightly pressed together, the warmth of Zhu Qing’s lips still lingering. Zhu Qing’s lips were fuller, especially the Cupid’s bow, which would become plump and flushed after being kissed for a long time. At that time, Zhu Qing’s lips would be even redder and more seductive.

Zhu Qing always complained that she wasn’t close to her and that her desires weren’t satisfied. Sometimes, Li Lan would also feel a sense of absurdity. The one who wasn’t satisfied should be herself. She, the plaintiff, had become the defendant and had to constantly restrain herself.

Zhu Qing had to take some responsibility.

Li Lan suddenly stood up.

Zhu Qing instinctively stood up too. She thought Li Lan was uncomfortable and was going to storm out, so she was about to say something to coax her. Instead, she saw Li Lan suddenly reach out, wrap her arm around the back of Zhu Qing’s head, and pull her forward forcefully.

The distance between them was back to zero. Or rather, a negative number.

Li Lan was using a lot of force, and Zhu Qing had no room to refuse. As soon as she slightly opened her mouth, all her breaths were captured by her.

There was a burst of good-natured laughter from the surroundings. In her peripheral vision, the waiter was smiling happily. Li Lan’s pleasant perfume filled her nostrils. The iced tea she had just drunk had made her lips cool, but her tongue was fiery.

This time, Li Lan was more aggressive than before. It was as if she was in a hurry, or didn’t want others to pry, but was just domineeringly biting down to satisfy her thirst. It was over quickly, maybe three or five seconds, and Li Lan let go of Zhu Qing.

Zhu Qing fell back into her seat, completely speechless.

The waiter walked over with a smile and gave them the dessert discount. Li Lan lifted her chin slightly, her voice completely unchanged. “Give it to her. She wanted it.”

Zhu Qing stared at the plate in front of her without saying a word. Her face and neck had turned completely red. She nodded and accepted the change, then chugged a large glass of ice water. Just as she was about to recover from that state, Li Lan’s elegant and cool voice rang out again.

“I filmed it. This is great footage,” Li Lan said. “I’ll give it to the production crew tonight.”

Zhu Qing’s head snapped up so fast that her neck made a cracking sound. “What? You can’t release it!”

Li Lan said calmly, “Why not? You liked it, didn’t you?”

Zhu Qing said, embarrassed and annoyed, “Why are you so petty? I was just teasing you. Was it necessary to retaliate on the spot like that?”

Li Lan glanced at her impassively. “I thought you weren’t the type to be shy.”

Although they were in a corner and there were curtains blocking them, and not everyone could see them, it was still a public place. Zhu Qing glared at her. “This kind of thing… I, you… you…” Li Lan had gone even further. “How can it be the same!”

Li Lan said, “A corrupt official setting a fire. Didn’t I tell you not to tease me before?”

Zhu Qing’s momentum instantly weakened. “…”

Li Lan didn’t feel like she had won. Zhu Qing could be satisfied with just a hug or a kiss, but she had a memory of their normal life as a couple, not just in her mind, but in her body too. Every time Zhu Qing came close, Li Lan made a note of it, and now her little notebook was completely covered in tallies.

Li Lan calmly stood up and patted Zhu Qing’s head, who was acting like a quail. “Go with your heart. Let’s go home.”

Zhu Qing slowly followed her out the door and only came to her senses halfway there. “Go with your heart” was a pun on the Chinese phrase for “coward.”

Zhu Qing: …

“It’s necessary to emphasize,” Zhu Qing immediately found her courage and caught up to Li Lan. “Last time you were the one who was a coward. That’s why you ‘went with your heart.’ Li, the one who ‘went with her heart.’ Li, the coward.”

Li Lan sneered. “What makes you think you won’t be a coward after I say yes?”

Zhu Qing found it inconceivable. “I’m the one who’s asking. Why would I be a coward?”

Li Lan looked at Zhu Qing for a long time, the meaning in her eyes was very rich and hard to describe. “…Fine. You’d better remember that.”

“Okay. Then you’d better not forget that you promised me you’d give me an answer when the show ends.”

Li Lan sighed. “You remind me eight hundred times a day. I won’t forget.”

Zhu Qing showed her the countdown again. “Don’t worry. Even if you forget, I won’t.”

Li Lan: …

The two of them stood on the street looking at each other in silence. The fact that their thought processes were so different made them want to laugh, but at the same time, they were a little angry because of it. They didn’t know who to be angry at, so they just stared at each other.

At this moment, a little girl walked over from the sidewalk. “Do you want some flowers?” She was a little flower girl.

“Are these firethorn, jacaranda, and red jasmine?” Zhu Qing’s eyes lit up.

Li Lan looked around and took out her wallet to pay. “I’ll take them all.”

Zhu Qing said, “Hey, are you buying so many?”

Li Lan said, “Don’t you like flowers? We don’t have these at home. If you like them, buy more and put them on the bedside table in the hotel.”

Zhu Qing’s heart warmed. She said sweetly, “Thank you, Teacher Li. You’re so good to me, my dear. I like you so much.”

Li Lan glanced at her nonchalantly. “You’re so sweet now.”

Zhu Qing: “Hehe.”

The currency Li Lan took out was the Kenyan Shilling, the common currency in Nairobi. One Chinese yuan is about eighteen shillings, so it’s not worth much. That’s why Li Lan had the highest denomination, a thousand shillings, with the pattern of an African elephant on it.

The little girl’s eyes immediately locked onto the stack of “African elephants.” Li Lan asked her in English how much the flowers were. The little girl said a number.

Li Lan narrowed her eyes. She happened to have eight shillings in her hand. A small bouquet of flowers, eight thousand shillings?

The little girl’s eyes were fixed on the stack of money. Zhu Qing felt that something was wrong and tugged on Li Lan’s hand. “Maybe we should buy them somewhere else?”

The little girl suddenly moved. She pounced forward, shoved the flowers into Zhu Qing’s arms, and used her other hand to quickly snatch the money from Li Lan’s hand. Her dirty fingers were very strong. Before Li Lan could react, she had already grabbed half of the money.

“Give it to me!” The little girl’s voice was hoarse, and a viciousness that didn’t match her age flashed in her eyes, like a small animal pushed into a corner. When she saw Li Lan didn’t let go, she opened her mouth to bite her.

When Li Lan’s eyes met the little girl’s, she seemed to remember something. She let go of the money just as the bodyguard behind her lunged forward. The little girl staggered back two steps, clutching the wrinkled money in her hand, and ran away as if her life depended on it.

Zhu Qing was a second late in rushing forward. She said in a shocked voice, “Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”

Li Lan looked at the little girl’s back and gently shook her head.

Zhu Qing held up the bouquet of flowers and made a motion as if she was going to throw it on the ground. “How could she bite you!?”

Li Lan quickly grabbed her. “It’s okay. Don’t throw it. It cost a lot of money.”

Zhu Qing’s eyes turned red with anger and she almost cried. “How can we run into someone like this? It’s not like you weren’t going to give her money. Why did she have to snatch it…”

“Don’t be angry. I’m fine,” Li Lan said. She glanced at something in her peripheral vision and turned her head. “Look.”

The little girl, clutching a stack of coins, ran away quickly, but before she could run out of the intersection, she was surrounded by a group of people who rushed up to her. They were all men, teenagers who seemed to have seen the whole thing and were just waiting for her to run over with the money. The little girl let out a loud, frantic scream. Zhu Qing, who was more than ten meters away, could hear it clearly, and her heart trembled.

Soon, those people snatched the money from her. The crowd appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared just as quickly, leaving only the little girl who had fallen to the ground and was crying hysterically.

Li Lan sighed. “Let’s go.”

Zhu Qing, holding the flowers, got into the car with her head down and her spirits low.

On the way back, Zhu Qing couldn’t stop thinking about the way the little girl had fallen to the ground. On the way here, she saw a four or five-year-old girl sitting on the ground eating dirty bread. On the way back, she saw a little girl in her teens selling flowers and snatching money to make a living, only to have it snatched away by others.

In the streets of a poor area, this kind of thing seemed to be commonplace.

“When we get back, I want to go to Xiyuan Orphanage,” Zhu Qing suddenly said.

Li Lan looked at her quietly. “Why do you suddenly want to go there?”

“I just want to see it,” Zhu Qing looked up, her round eyes fixed on Li Lan without blinking. She said in a low voice, “I want to know how you grew up.”

Li Lan was silent.

Zhu Qing could be sensitive and thoughtful at times. She was standing next to Li Lan and witnessed the change in her expression when she was being robbed. The big guy’s reaction speed was very fast. The moment the little girl reached for the money, he made a move. If Li Lan had let go a second later, she would have been picked up and thrown away by the bodyguard. The big guy was more than twice Zhu Qing’s size, not to mention the skinny little girl, who he could have handled like a little chick.

But Li Lan let go.

Ten thousand shillings was only a few hundred yuan to her. The flowers weren’t worth it, but Li Lan didn’t want to argue about it. Li Lan had seen countless girls like this who had no one to rely on.

“It’s harder for girls than for boys,” Li Lan said. “But it’s okay. In the orphanage… neither boys nor girls are taken seriously. If you want to go, you have to promise me one thing first.”

Zhu Qing’s eyes were wet. “What?”

“Just look and learn, and don’t take it to heart,” Li Lan said calmly. “All of that is in the past. I don’t care.”

“But I do. I want to understand you, and that means understanding all of you. I want to know where you came from and where you’re going,” Zhu Qing said softly in Li Lan’s ear, in a voice only they could hear. “And then I’ll walk with you.”

Li Lan’s breathing hitched slightly. A faint light seemed to appear in her eyes, but it was quickly hidden by her lowered lashes. Her throat moved slightly, as if she was about to say something.

Zhu Qing squeezed Li Lan’s hand. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Li Lan turned her face to the side. The light cast a faint shadow on the bridge of her nose. All her emotions were hidden in that shadow, remaining perfectly calm.

“Okay,” Li Lan’s voice held a smile. “Walk with me, curious little one.”

Zhu Qing’s nose wrinkled. “You’re the one who brought up age this time.”

Li Lan smiled faintly. “Of course. Only I can say that.”

Zhu Qing mumbled softly, “You’re the real corrupt official.”

Zhu Qing held the flowers and went back to the production crew. She and Li Lan brought back a bunch of souvenirs, some leftover ostrich bones, Maasai bracelets, and other small, worthless items. Hu Xu and Liu Yini brought back more down-to-earth things. It seemed they could blend in with ordinary people wherever they went. Many of the things they brought back could only be found in local homes.

Xu Yuzhi also worked very hard so she wouldn’t have to eat bugs. It was clear that she had been to all the markets. The things she brought back were colorful and the most in quantity.

Only Yu Ling and Qi Yao’s team was left. Everyone waited for them to return, and they waited until the sun set.

Zhu Qing was already prepared to be last. She had spent the afternoon eating and playing with Li Lan. The two teams before them had either found things that were more down-to-earth or had more in quantity. When she saw Yu Ling and Qi Yao, Zhu Qing let out a big sigh of relief.

They came back with a basket of “junk” and poured it out in front of everyone. Zhu Qing whispered to Li Lan to celebrate, “We don’t have to eat bugs now.”

Li Lan stared at the pile of things and frowned slightly. “Not necessarily.”

Zhu Qing was surprised. “Why? These are all just torn rags and broken rocks.”

Before Li Lan could speak, the two of them started to introduce their items to the camera. They hadn’t gone to the Maasai Market but to the slums, where they used the money they had to buy a large amount of food and distributed it to the hungry children on the streets. They only had one request: for each child to find something to bring to them, whether it was a broken piece of pottery from home, a rag, a straw hat, a rock they picked up, or even a leaf they found on the side of the road, as long as it was something they liked.

So this basket was filled with things the children had brought, and if you looked closely, you could see a very round small rock, a perfectly symmetrical palm-sized leaf, a balloon with a smiley face drawn on it… These things looked insignificant at first glance, and everyone thought they were junk, but they were full of the rare innocence of children and a sense of poverty and sadness.

Hu Xu said slowly, “They’re definitely going to be first.”

There was something called “positioning.” This afternoon’s filming was a temporary addition because of yesterday’s incident. Probably no one expected Yu Ling and Qi Yao to come up with such a way to complete the task.

The production crew clapped their hands. “Okay, after the overall ranking, the team with the lowest score is…”

The director looked at Li Lan and Zhu Qing. Both of them looked resigned, as if they had no objections. The director was about to announce the results when a cameraman quickly whispered something in his ear.

The director was stunned. He asked, “Really?”

The cameraman nodded.

The director looked at the bouquet of flowers in Zhu Qing’s hand. After a moment of thought, he asked, “Does the youth team need to add another item?”

Zhu Qing followed his gaze to the flowers in her hand and smiled. “No. I want to keep this bouquet for myself.”

“If you want to take any of these things home after we’ve filmed, you can pick some,” the director emphasized. “You can also take this bouquet back. Do you want to reconsider?”

Zhu Qing hesitated. “I can take it back? Then let’s add it…”

Li Lan interrupted her. “Director Liu, you can’t add it.”

The director was stunned. Li Lan looked at the camera and hinted, “You can’t add this to the footage. Even in other countries, this is not appropriate.”

This time, the director was stunned for a longer time, but it was only for half a minute. He suddenly came to his senses. Filming the poverty and chaos of another country was not the original intention of the reality show. They came to see the animal migration to showcase the beauty of nature. The cooperation with the local government was based on a negotiation to “boost tourism revenue,” not to film their poverty.

If they were to broadcast the incident of Li Lan’s money being snatched, the audience would definitely focus on the chaotic side of Kenya, not to mention the fact that the money the little girl snatched was quickly taken away by another group of people. Children on the streets, disorder, barbarism, desolation—these were all negative images. If the audience saw this side of Kenya, the Kenyan side would definitely be unhappy. And would they, who were still in Kenya, be safe?

This content was definitely not suitable to be used as a gimmick.

The director broke out in a cold sweat. He quickly said to the staff next to him, “Cut this entire segment.”

After he said that, he went back to the previous topic and was about to announce the winner of the day but stopped again. If Li Lan’s robbery couldn’t be broadcast, then by the same logic, was it also inappropriate to broadcast Yu Ling and Qi Yao’s trip to the slums to distribute food?

The director fell into silence and waved his hand to stop the filming.

Yu Ling and Qi Yao looked at each other and whispered, “Why did they suddenly stop?”

Yu Ling said, “The things we brought are definitely more valuable.”

Qi Yao was worried. “Then why haven’t they announced the winner yet?”

Yu Ling quickly glanced at Li Lan and sneered. “Maybe someone doesn’t want to eat bugs. But it’s not up to them. Even if the crew doesn’t announce them as the losers, when the episode airs, our segment will definitely be more talked about. The audience’s eyes are sharp.”

Qi Yao nodded in agreement. “Right. Only we went to do something good. They just spent money, especially Li Lan and Zhu Qing. It’s clear they didn’t prepare well.”

The next moment, the director came out of the tent and gave them a meaningful look.

“The last place team is the youth team.”

Yu Ling and Qi Yao’s eyes widened. They couldn’t believe it. “What!?”