Zhuo Jian watched their car drive away before turning and walking briskly into the wind.
Calling her own husband "brother-in-law," huh!
Just give up! He will never fall in love with you!
She murmured a warning to herself, "Zhuo Jian, once you give up, never look back!"
Even if you still love him.
——
Meanwhile, at the same time, Fu Yanye took Ruxiang back to the hospital and then headed to the teahouse.
It was the place where their group of childhood friends often gathered, complete with their own set of teaware.
After he sat down, the other three young masters scrutinized him for a while before asking as he lit up a cigarette, "Did you really take our little sister Jianjian to meet Ruxiang?"
Fu Yanye exhaled a plume of silvery smoke, "Mmm!"
"Ha! For Ruxiang's sake, you really did Jianjian dirty by sticking the knife in and twisting it, huh!" The handsome guy in the floral shirt scoffed in amusement.
Yanye's phoenix eyes hid all emotion behind the veil of smoke, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
"You brought up divorce with Zhuo Jian didn't you? How did she react? She didn't cry, did she?"
Someone else asked, curious.
"You still think of her as the three-year-old child from back then?"
Crying?
Fu Yanye remembered last night. She hadn't cried at all; in fact, she had signed the papers with surprising calm and composure.
"That's right! She's all grown up now. Hey, you should've brought her to meet up with the guys; it's been over three years, right? If not as a married couple, at least as brother and sister!"
The one who said this was Su Bai, the young master who had played Zhuo Jian's protector since childhood.
"Husband and wife, brother and sister, why do I get a vibe of chaos—of something forbidden?" Another handsome guy remarked, licking his lips with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
Fu Yanye sighed, "She just returned to the country; don't go bothering her!"
Upon hearing this, the three fell silent for a moment before reverting back to the previous topic, "So did she agree?"
"She has already signed the divorce agreement," Fu Yanye said flatly.
The three were incredulous, "She just signed it like that? Without demanding an equal split of the marital assets?"
"Mmm!"
Fu Yanye suddenly thought of the demanding and willful girl from the past.
"Did that brat suddenly grow so sensible? But she's not important; what's important is, are you really going to marry Ruxiang?"
Su Bai asked him again.
"Probably!"
Fu Yanye felt an inexplicable annoyance and started smoking again.
That evening, he returned to the family mansion to find Zhuo Jian laughing along with the old lady and her mother as they watched a melodramatic romance drama, both of them criticizing the home-wrecking mistress non-stop while she merely sat there with a foolish smile.
She said she was twenty-three?
Why was she still so clueless?
Without a hint of the maturity one would expect from a young woman!
As he walked towards the sofa, the image of her with her body wet from the night before suddenly flashed through his mind, and his dark eyes momentarily fixated on the region of her heart.
"The young master is back!"
At that moment, an auntie came out with a tray of fruit and greeted him.
"Mmm!"
Fu Yanye walked over and sat down nearby, his eyes shining with a certain light as they rested on Zhuo Jian.
Zhuo Jian, for once, was demurely dressed in a floral dress, her delicate and pretty legs exposed as she sat between his mother and grandmother.
Zhuo Jian had always been the darling between these two, outshining both him and his sister.
"Oh my! How does our family's eldest young master have the time to come back?"
"Mom, are we hallucinating? Jianjian darling, take a look, is that really your husband?"
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law duo bantered, and Zhuo Jian, caught between politeness and embarrassment, smiled, "Mom, grandma, it really is him!"
She could never bring herself to call him 'husband,' and he wouldn't allow it.
Fu Yanye tugged at his tie, feeling somehow that the air in the house was too thin; what was going on?
"Who is he?"
Grandma asked again.
"Ah? Your grandson, Grandma!"
Zhuo Jian blushed from being teased.
"My grandson? And who might my grandson be?"
Grandma continued looking at Fu Yanye while asking Zhuo Jian.
Zhuo Jian's ears also turned red, she knew what the old lady wanted her to say, and to prevent further questioning, she could only lower her voice and mumble not so clearly, "My hus! Band!"
The old lady, although not quite satisfied upon hearing this, didn't give her a hard time either, "That's more like it! Isn't this your dead husband!"
"Grandma!"
Upon being referred to as a dead person, Fu Yanye was displeased.
"What's the matter? Did I say something wrong? Three years of marriage and our Jianjian darling is still flat-bellied. Is this something a living person would do?"
The old lady pressed on with her questioning.
Fu Yanye felt even more upset, he exhaled deeply and stopped talking.
Zhuo Jian was also embarrassed and lowered her head in silence.
"You little scoundrel, don't think I don't know what you're thinking. I'm telling you, as long as I'm here, that woman won't have a chance to enter our house. Anyway, she can't outlast me!"
His mother saw that he was staying silent and grew unhappy, directly warning him.
Fu Yanye was furious, knowing returning home would be vexing.
He looked at the girl who was thriving between grandma and his mother and felt increasingly depressed.
Her soft voice calling him, "Brother-in-law," had been lingering in his ears all afternoon!
Ruxiang's phone call suddenly came through, breaking his train of thought, but he held his phone and looked at the screen without answering.
His mother, sitting close by, saw this and couldn't help urging him, "I've been wanting to ask you, Fu Yanye, if she's dying and clinging to you, are you going to follow her to the grave?"
Fu Yanye suddenly looked up at his mother after hearing this, "What are you talking about?"
"Leave, our family doesn't need an unfilial son like you!"
His mother suddenly felt so aggrieved that she was about to cry.
Fu Yanye, fearing that staying any longer would lead to a quarrel, stood up and left.
However, Grandma showed some reluctance and gently gripped Zhuo Jian's hand, "Go send him off!"
Zhuo Jian was reluctant, but remembering the pending divorce, she chased after him.
"Mom, I think this boy is beyond hope!"
"That woman won't live much longer, our darling Jianjian is so wonderful, he'll figure it out."
Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law continued talking and started to look outside through the glass screen.
The warm breeze outside was blowing gently as he finished his call and turned his head to see her.
Her skirt was lifted by the wind, as was her hair, making his heart flutter!
"Did Grandma tell you to come out?"
Fu Yanye opened the car door and asked her before getting in.
Zhuo Jian placed her hands behind her back, nodding, "Yes! But I also wanted to come out myself!"
Hearing this, Fu Yanye looked up at her.
"I wanted to ask when are we going to deal with our divorce?"
Zhuo Jian gathered her courage and managed to ask the question.
She thought she understood everything within and expected to be composed.
But after speaking, she realized she was feeling a pang in her heart.
Fu Yanye stared at her intensely, "Soon, I guess!"
"Oh!"
Zhuo Jian mused over these four words, head down.
"Anything else?"
Fu Yanye asked again.
Zhuo Jian looked up at him, thought she saw disgust in his gaze, shook her head, but before he got into the car, she couldn't help asking, "Which day, soon?"
"You seem more anxious than me. What, do you really have a boyfriend who's pressuring you?"
Fu Yanye stepped in front of her!