Chapter 574: The Secret About the Past (192)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“I’m on leave today, so I came back.” An Xiaoning tried to keep her tone normal, but her expression had already betrayed her. She could not bring herself to smile at all.
Jin Qingyan looked at her, then turned to Fan Shixin, who was standing by the door. “Bring the agreement.”
An Xiaoning’s heart sank.
“What agreement?”
“You’ll know when you see it.” His tone was icy cold, as if the woman seated opposite him was not the woman he loved most but an ordinary person, a mere stranger.
An Xiaoning stared at him anxiously. “Qingyan, we can talk things out clearly. I’ve never done you any wrong.”
“Really?” His tone was overflowing with sarcasm.
“Yes.”
An Xiaoning’s eyes watered as she spoke. “I thought that in this world, anyone can misunderstand me but you. You love me so much that you definitely won’t misunderstand me. I thought you were the one who understands me most in this world — my character, my principles, my values, and who I am as a person. But it turns out, you’re not. You aren’t even willing to listen to the explanation of the truth that I want to tell you and came to such a conclusion by yourself. Qingyan, you’re not only being irresponsible to yourself but to me as well!”
“Don’t you think your explanation is too weak?”
He spoke as if all the evil forces in him were acting up. “If I didn’t see and hear it myself, how long more were you going to deceive me? You think I wouldn’t hear about you and Tuoba Gucheng living in one room? What do you treat me as? Am I so cheap as to love a woman like you who deserves to die?!”
An Xiaoning choked on her tears as she cried out, “But… it isn’t like that. Nothing happened between us, he’s just my half-brother. The child was yours. I only shared a room with him because I was possessed by his favorite dog’s spirit during the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. Why won’t you believe me?”
“That’s just it. Because he’s your half-brother, the fact that both of you actually… actually slept together makes me disgusted. I don’t believe a man and a woman can sleep in one room without anything happening when he said something like that to you.”
Fan Shixin entered and placed the agreement on the table.
It was evident that the agreement had been prepared in advance.
An Xiaoning gazed at the words printed on the piece of paper.
She suddenly felt that she would never be able to clear her name.
Getting up, she went around the coffee table and sat beside him. As she was about to wrap her arms around his arm, he pushed her away.
Alarmed, An Xiaoning whimpered, “Qingyan…”
“Take a look at the agreement and sign it as soon as possible.”
An Xiaoning felt like she was given a good slap in the face. She picked up the agreement.
As she browsed through the contents, she felt like her heart was being pierced through by a knife.
The child’s custody would go to him.
She was not allowed to visit at all in the future.
She would also not get a single asset of his, but her assets will still remain hers.
She was also to report about the divorce to the media.
To her, every single term listed was fatal.
This was her third marriage.
She never thought that, after collecting her marriage certificate in April, she would be signing a divorce agreement in July.
It seemed that their marriage never manages to last for more than two years.
Their first marriage was that way, and this one was even shorter.
Was it wrong of her to have gone to the Autumn Palace to find her mother?
Or was it that their marriage itself was never strong to begin with?
It seemed that the trust between them was not firmly built at all.
That was why it only took a single incident to completely destroy it.
She looked at him with reddened eyes. “Must we really get a divorce?”
“Yes, we must.”
His words were like a heavy bomb that weighted down in her heart.
Fan Shixin watched as An Xiaoning sat there. She was on the verge of collapsing any moment, a state where he had never seen her in before.
But thinking of what she had done, he pushed away all his thoughts and feelings of sympathy for her.
An Xiaoning did not want to sign the agreement.
But on the other hand, she could not produce any physical evidence to prove that she was innocent.
What lay in between them was the biggest taboo in marriage.
“I haven’t done anything wrong. Qingyan, you can’t do this to me. I don’t want us to let each other slip away because of this misunderstanding. We love each other and have a child together. Can you calm down and think through this properly?”
“Please sign this as soon as possible, then get out of my sight!” His veins were popping in his forehead as he went on furiously, “I don’t want to see you at all anymore.”
The tears brimming in An Xiaoning’s eyes were suppressed firmly to protect the last inch of her dignity.
She stood up and raised her head as she looked at him. “Jin Qingyan, I won’t give up my child’s custody.”
“I’ll just press charges if you won’t give up. I can even reveal the surveillance camera footage as evidence. I believe the court will make the best judgment!”
“You…”
An Xiaoning’s hands were trembling non-stop and her heart was already filled with holes from being pierced through. There was not a portion of it still intact.
Everything was pressing down in her head.
And they were becoming particularly difficult to handle.
Especially because she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong, she was not as decisive in getting a divorce as she was the previous time.
As she was carrying a blame that should not be carried by her, it made her want to salvage this marriage even more.
Because she loved him, she did not want them to part because of an incident that seemed ridiculous in her eyes.
Because of all of these reasons above, she wanted to do something to change the situation, but she was powerless to do so.
She picked up the pen and was about to sign the agreement when she added, “I hope you’ll really be like what you said and have no regrets in the future. I’m someone who loves and hates outright. If something’s not mine, I won’t force it.”
With that, she signed her name on both copies of the agreement.
After signing, she looked at the hanging wall clock in the living room. “The timing’s just perfect. Let’s head to the Civil Administrations Bureau to get the divorce officially done. How lucky am I, to be able to divorce you twice.”
As she finished speaking, it was as if she had rapidly regained her energy. She glanced at Fan Shixin. “I’m sure my things have already been packed up. Get them out for me, I’ll get someone to take them away.”
She then went to the landline and gave Gu Beicheng a call.
When the line went through, she still sounded calm as she spoke. “Drive here to Wei Ni Estate now.”
Without waiting for Gu Beicheng to answer, she put down the phone.
When Fan Shixin dragged out her things, An Xiaoning remarked, “When Beicheng comes, get him to bring these back to the Gu residence for me. Mr. Jin, let’s get the divorce documents done. I have no comments about your agreement.”
After she finished speaking, she headed out of the house first.
Jin Qingyan followed her out as well, a cold look on his face.
The two arrived at the Civil Administrations Bureau.
They had just opened for the day.
Thus, there were not many people in sight.
The two got the process done swiftly. After they handed in the divorce agreement, household register, and personal identification cards, their divorce certificate was produced very soon.
Despite being recognized by the workers there, the two remained calm.
In reality, they were both feeling upset.
Jin Qingyan’s inner state was far from his composed appearance on the surface.
When he was signing the document, it took a few tries for him to sign his name right.
Because his hand could not grip onto the pen properly.
When they left the front entrance of the Civil Administrations Bureau, An Xiaoning’s heart was completely broken.
They sat together in the car during the drive back to Wei Ni Estate. When the car arrived at their front gate, Gu Beicheng stood leaning by his car, wearing a pair of sunglasses.
The blue diamond on his ear was sparkling brightly.
It had been some time since he had seen both of them.
When he heard the absurd reason for their divorce from Fan Shixin, there was rage boiling up within him, waiting to burst out like volcano lava.