How About A Divorce? - Chapter 33
Chapter 33: The Non-Marital Agreement [VIP]
One week’s time, not long, not short, but enough for a storm to rage and then subside.
Wen Yu’s car was parked outside a gate. She turned off the engine. The car window was rolled down a crack, and the dry, hot evening wind with a hint of dust blew in. Her fingertips tapped unconsciously on the steering wheel, her gaze calmly fixed on the inside of the gate.
There was a path there. Lin Yanqing should be walking from there.
The thought had just crossed her mind when the woman appeared in her line of sight. From a moderate distance, Wen Yu gave her a rough once-over.
Her clothes were clean and neat, she looked a bit thinner, and her posture was normal. She seemed calm and collected.
The gate opened, and Lin Yanqing took her phone and other belongings from a window to the side and walked out.
Wen Yu honked the horn.
Lin Yanqing squinted, seeing only an unfamiliar license plate number. She didn’t open the car door when she got closer, but just tapped on the car window.
The window rolled down, revealing Wen Yu’s face.
Only then did Lin Yanqing get in the car.
She asked, “Is this your sister’s car?”
Wen Yu nodded. “Otherwise, would I have the right to park here and wait for you?”
Those armed guards would have shot her full of holes long ago.
Lin Yanqing chuckled. “Did you come specifically to pick me up?”
Wen Yu: “To pick up a dog.”
Lin Yanqing: “Do I need to woof?”
Wen Yu: “If you keep talking nonsense, get out of the car.”
“I can’t. My account is maxed out. I can’t even get a taxi.” Lin Yanqing took a deep breath, and her shoulders finally relaxed. The relaxed demeanor she had outside disappeared completely. Her eyelids drooped, merging with the dark circles under her eyes.
Wen Yu smelled a faint scent of disinfectant on her.
“Didn’t you sleep well?”
“Mhm,” Lin Yanqing nodded. “I barely slept.”
Wen Yu was silent for a moment. “Was it that bad?”
Lin Yanqing: “A lot of funds were involved. A huge sum of money was related to politics, so my treatment wasn’t great.”
Normally, “economic criminals” like them wouldn’t be subjected to any severe torture. Their movements would just be restricted. There would be people to handle the investigation, and her testimony or defense wouldn’t have much value.
Someone with Lin Yanqing’s complex identity would be treated even better. She could order what she wanted to eat, and they would find whatever she wanted to play. If she wanted to get some fresh air, she could be let out within a limited area.
In theory, she shouldn’t have suffered much.
But this time, Chen Liangsheng had gone all out.
The authorities traced a shell company involved in cross-border capital transfers to an American foundation, and a potential espionage charge was immediately levied, catching everyone off guard.
Although Lin Yanqing didn’t suffer any physical harm, the mental pressure was not small.
The big lights in the room were a normal operation. The white light from all angles pierced a person’s eyes and wouldn’t be turned off at night.
Seven days, with a handful of hours of sleep, was enough to push a person to the brink of a mental breakdown.
In the end, nothing substantial was found. Or rather, the faction that Lin Jiao stood with had temporarily beaten Chen Liangsheng’s faction in this round. The details were complicated, and Lin Yanqing couldn’t say much.
Wen Yu didn’t start the car. She turned her head, her gaze falling on Lin Yanqing’s profile, looking at her carefully. Her gaze was heavy and held a hint of a quiet sadness.
Her voice had no fluctuation. “What’s the situation now?”
Lin Yanqing’s eyes were still closed, but a very faint smile appeared on her lips. “I won’t die. The investigation is over. For now, they haven’t found any major issues, but I’ll have to cooperate with the follow-up investigation.”
She paused, opened her eyes, and met Wen Yu’s gaze, leaning forward slightly. “What about you? Did you miss me?”
“Miss your head,” Wen Yu turned her head, scoffing. “You caused me such a big headache.”
“So you did miss me,” Lin Yanqing was satisfied. She closed her eyes and leaned back again.
“Zero One’s PR team is working overtime. The storm hasn’t completely passed, but the most dangerous wave has been avoided for now,” Wen Yu started the car and drove steadily past two armed guard posts, merging into the evening traffic. “White Ant suspended a lot of people. There’s been no news from your mom’s side.”
“Mhm,” Lin Yanqing said. “It has nothing to do with me anymore.”
“How much money can you access now?”
Lin Yanqing: “My WeChat balance is 2.8 yuan.”
Wen Yu: “Oh.”
Lin Yanqing: “I’m lying. I don’t even have 2.8 yuan.”
After saying that, she laughed at herself. Wen Yu, however, twitched her mouth and cursed, “Are you sick?”
Lin Yanqing turned her head to look at her. “Isn’t it funny?”
Wen Yu: “What’s funny about it?”
As she said this, there was no smile on Wen Yu’s face. Lin Yanqing keenly caught the unusual tone in Wen Yu’s voice.
Ever since she got in the car, Wen Yu’s demeanor had been very calm. There were no questions. The intentional disgust from before had faded a lot… It was like a lake after a storm, seemingly calm but bottomless.
This was the familiar Wen Yu.
The car fell into a brief silence, with only the buzzing of the air conditioner. Lin Yanqing leaned back against the seat, her gaze a little unfocused as she watched the rapidly retreating streetscape outside the window.
A week of isolation felt like a lifetime. So much had happened. She was mentally and physically exhausted and didn’t want to think too much. On the side, Wen Yu occupied her entire mind. A thorn, pricking her taut nerves.
The car drove into the familiar underground garage and stopped at a designated spot. She unbuckled her seatbelt.
Wen Yu: “Get out. Let’s go up and talk.”
Lin Yanqing didn’t move. She raised her eyebrows. “Talk about what? The divorce?”
Wen Yu: “You’ll know in a minute.”
She met Lin Yanqing’s gaze. Her expression was unreadable. “Don’t waste time.”
Lin Yanqing’s breath stopped for a second.
She suddenly leaned over, wrapped her arms around Wen Yu’s shoulders and back, and urgently, as if to confirm something, held her in her arms, about to cover the latter’s lips.
The next moment, a cool hand firmly pressed against her shoulder, pushing her away with an undeniable force.
Wen Yu’s emotions were very stable. “Lin Yanqing, stop being crazy.”
This stability was more like she had something more important to do later, so all the friction and arguments before it weren’t worth her attention. In the past, Wen Yu would have at least symbolically bristled.
Lin Yanqing held her waist tightly and wouldn’t let go. “Wen Yu, are you going to divorce me?”
Other than that, she couldn’t think of what Wen Yu wanted to talk to her about. Wen Yu already had this idea, and so much had happened in the past few days… This person wasn’t going to talk to her about the economic situation. Wen Yu never cared about that.
Wen Yu raised an eyebrow in surprise. “What are you thinking about?”
Hearing that, the heart that had been in Lin Yanqing’s throat dropped. She forced a smile. “As long as it’s not that, anything else is fine.”
Wen Yu nodded. “We’re not talking about divorce.”
“Good.”
Lin Yanqing exhaled and buried her head in the neck of the person in her arms, her cheek against the pulsing vein, when she suddenly heard Wen Yu say, “Because we’re already divorced.”
Lin Yanqing froze.
The sudden shift was so abrupt that she couldn’t react. Her expression awkwardly switched, stuck between crying and laughing. She felt like her brain was tied in a knot and she couldn’t understand human words.
After a long silence, Lin Yanqing finally said, “What?”
Wen Yu repeated, “We’re already divorced.”
She reached out, took Lin Yanqing’s phone, unlocked it, pulled up the official divorce statement, and handed it to her. “Take a look… Hurry and let go. My back is getting sore in this position.”
Lin Yanqing, with Wen Yu’s hand still holding the phone, quickly read through the statement. Her expression grew more and more wooden as she read.
“It’s written in black and white in the prenuptial agreement,” Wen Yu’s tone was calm, stating objective facts. “In the event one party is suspected of a major economic crime or is under a related investigation, causing a significant impact on the other party’s reputation or property, the other party has the right to unilaterally dissolve the marriage without the other party’s consent.”
Lin Yanqing’s voice was hoarse. “You…”
Wen Yu nodded. “The day you were taken away, I signed it.”
Lin Yanqing let go and fell back into her seat.
She rubbed her face, looking more exhausted than she had in the past seven days. After a long time, she said, “We’re already divorced, and you still came to pick me up?”
Wen Yu was calm. “An ex-wife is still a wife.”
Lin Yanqing was amused by her absurd words, but her smile was a little strained.
“Get out,” Wen Yu said. “Let’s go home first.”
“Home?” Lin Yanqing sounded like she had heard a joke. “Which home?”
“Are you blind?” Wen Yu said. “You don’t recognize the underground garage? Seven days of being locked up must have fried your brain.”
Lin Yanqing: “…”
She sighed. “You know that’s not what I mean.”
Wen Yu: “I don’t care what you mean. Get out of the car.”
The two of them walked toward the elevator.
Wen Yu pressed the up button. The metal door reflected their blurred figures. The atmosphere in the small space was stagnant.
Lin Yanqing spoke. “All the assets in my name, including Zero One’s shares, real estate, savings, and investments… should all be frozen now. After the liquidation and division, the available portions will be prioritized to be transferred to your name as compensation.”
“I didn’t come here to talk about that,” Wen Yu said. “The lawyers are handling that. I don’t need to trouble myself with it.”
Lin Yanqing hummed. “So you brought me here to pack my things and to tell me to get out of your house?”
Before Wen Yu could answer, Lin Yanqing said in a low voice, “Then can you be merciful and let me stay for one night? I’ll pack tomorrow. I’m very tired and want to get a good night’s sleep.”
She sounded so pitiful.
The elevator “dinged” as it reached their floor. Wen Yu walked out first and opened the door with her fingerprint.
“Where else were you going to stay?” Wen Yu said. “You can’t even use 2.8 yuan, and no one would dare to take you in. Your mom probably left you some cash, but what can that money do? It’s only enough for you to stay in a few budget hotels… You should know that Lin Jiao, to stabilize the situation, immediately released a statement cutting ties with you.”
She opened the door and stepped aside to let Lin Yanqing in. “You can also live here from now on.”
Lin Yanqing was a little surprised. “Thank you… Will it be a bother?”
The curtains in the house were all drawn. The main lights were off, and only a warm, yellow wall lamp in the entryway cast long shadows of the two of them.
“Lin,” Wen Yu closed the door, not in a hurry to walk inside. Instead, she took a thin folder from the book stand by the entryway and handed it to Lin Yanqing. “There are conditions for me allowing you to stay here. Take a look at this first.”
Wen Yu’s voice was exceptionally clear in the quiet entryway.
Lin Yanqing took it and opened it under the dim light. On the first page, the bold, black letters instantly took her breath away—
[Non-Marital Relationship Living and Financial Support Agreement]
This agreement… it was as if the words “sugar daddy” were written in the title.