Chapter 1: Let's Get Divorced

"What are you hiding?"

The man lowered his head and brushed his lips against Meng Shutang's, his force restrained yet fierce, "Weren't you pretty bold just now when you kissed my Adam's apple?"

Meng Shutang's evenly proportioned, fair legs beneath her long skirt were pressed tightly against the man's body.

She trembled slightly, her moist clear eyes fixed on the angular, otherworldly handsome man before her.

"No... not here..."

Her weak hand pressed against his chest, as if resisting, yet as if inviting.

He looked at her and said nothing.

His long fingers slipped through her smooth hair, clamping tightly on the back of her head, wildly snatching her breath as if to crush her within a breath.

Inside the cramped, shaking car, reason had long been tossed far beyond the clouds.

A brief flash of red light flickered, illuminating her tightly shut eyes and the near‑mad, reckless expression on his face.

It was like three years ago at her engagement banquet with Gu Jin Xing, when he, dressed in black, strode in amid a sea of roses and hostility, ignoring everyone's gazes, kissed her lips, and then, pausing between each word, said to Gu Jin Xing, "I never fight with you over anything, but her—she's an exception."

Inside the car.

After the intense entanglement, Meng Shutang was drenched in fragrant sweat.

She nestled in Gu Yunci's arms, held tightly by him.

She was about to melt, turned and embraced him back.

"Yunci, I have something to tell you."

They had been married for three years, and aside from his greater enthusiasm in the bedroom, Gu Yunci was usually cold and indifferent toward her.

She wanted to tell him that she wanted to have a child with him, that they could live normally like an ordinary couple.

"I also have something to tell you."

"You go first."

The man pushed her away and took a document from the car console.

"Once the Gu Zhu Wenlüxiaozhen project collaboration ends, let's get divorced!"

Caught off guard, Meng Shutang struggled to steady herself, "Did I do something wrong?"

Gu Yunci gave a wry smile, reaching to touch the dark‑hued, faintly patterned Gu Zhu necklace around her neck.

He had seen this necklace before in Gu Jin Xing's room.

He bought her countless sky‑high‑price jewels and unique global pieces, which she dismissed, yet he was unusually fond of this modest, unremarkable necklace.

And every time she tangled with him she kept her eyes shut, because in her heart she was still holding onto his brother, reminiscing about the past.

The man put on a suit.

The Rolls‑Royce door was opened from outside, and his polished leather shoes under the trousers fell onto the road.

In the night, the thin rain threads were illuminated by streetlights, showing a slanted arc.

The tall, lanky man stepped out of the car, rain mist settling on his crisp haute‑couture suit, creating a veil of misty light.

Special assistant Qin Zheng lifted a black umbrella, its canopy precisely covering the man in front, letting not a single raindrop through.

"Move to the upstairs guest room, don't make Bai Cixian uncomfortable."

Meng Shutang fought back tears, stuck her head out of the car window, about to plead.

A red Porsche slowly approached, its hazy face behind the rain‑filled glass bearing a familiar look that etched itself into Meng Shutang's pupils.

"Bai Cixian."

Bai Cixian was Gu Yunci's ex‑girlfriend, his "white moonlight."

The maid Li Sao had mentioned that she parachuted into the Gu Clan, could bypass managers and report directly to Gu Yunci.

She watched helplessly as Gu Yunci walked toward Bai Cixian, then bent and got into her car; Meng Shutang could no longer hold back and burst into tears.

Her heart in knots and stomach churning, she braced the car window, barely managing to stand steady.

Cold rain slanted down; her fingertips clutched the car's icy metal paint, her slender body trembling in the rain like a fallen leaf.

Tears mixed with rain fell, splashing into the ground and scattering into tiny droplets.

"Young lady, let's go back!"

Driver Lao Zhang watched with concern.

In the past, Meng Shutang had been kind to him.

Meng Shutang wiped away a tear and gave a wry smile.

She bent and got into the car, "Uncle Zhang, let's go."

Rain pattered on the car window, resonating with the dull ache in her chest.

She sank into deep pain, and the phone in her bag suddenly rang.

She reached for the phone, and after seeing the incoming call notification, her brows softened, suppressing the hoarse voice from crying, "Grandma."

On the other end, the elderly woman's gentle voice said, "Tangtang, did you get Yunci?"

Meng Shutang paused, "Got it."

Li Xiuyun said, "As long as you got it, you told me yesterday that Yunci would be back tonight, so I went to the market early this morning and bought a lot of seafood, even ordered king crab, which cost me a whole month's pension!"

"When you have time, come to my house for dinner."

Meng Shutang listened, her eyes suddenly reddening, "No need to buy, he doesn't care."

Li Xiuyun laughed, "Having a spat? Whether he cares is his business; my preparation is my own sentiment."

Meng Shutang sniffed, changing the subject, "Grandma, how have you been lately?"

Grandma paused briefly, then smiled, "I'm fine, nothing much with me."

Meng Shutang, "What about my mother?"

Li Xiuyun was silent for a long moment. "Tangtang, I took it upon myself to transfer your mother from the intensive care unit to a regular ward. That place costs nearly ten thousand a day, and I also stopped the imported special wake-promoting medication.

All these years, even though Yunci has been helping with the bulk of the expenses, we can't keep counting on him!

You've poured the restoration fees you earned from the studio into it, and I've taken out my own pension money too. We can't hold on much longer.

Transferring your mother to a regular ward... she won't have to suffer so much for much longer."

Her grandmother's words landed like a boulder in Meng Shutang's heart, and a terrifying thought leapt up: Could it be... Gu Yunci was stopping the payments?

When they married, she and Gu Yunci had signed an agreement.

It was a blatantly one-sided "unequal treaty."

The agreement stipulated: during the marriage, Meng Shutang's mother's medical expenses would be fully borne by the Gu Clan.

But Meng Shutang and Li Xiuyun felt uneasy about it, and only had Assistant Qin pay the treatment fees on time every month.

Various miscellaneous expenses, they had never mentioned.

In addition, the agreement also stipulated: Gu Yunci had the right to terminate the agreement at any time, but if Meng Shutang initiated a divorce, she would need to pay a penalty of one billion.

One billion — to Gu Yunci it was a drizzle, but to Meng Shutang it was an astronomical figure.

Facing such an unequal marriage agreement, she had written down her name without hesitation.

She loved him. To be able to marry the lofty flower she had looked up to in her youth was, for her, a fortune that shattered starlight across the sky, her eyes filled with the joy of rushing toward him.

She never expected that it would now become a shackle.

A thump sounded from the phone, pulling Meng Shutang's thoughts back.

"Tangtang, the wind blew open the window and the rain is blowing in. I'm going to collect the laundry. You and Yunci behave yourselves, don't always worry about me."

After her instructions, Li Xiuyun hastily hung up the phone.

Looking at the darkened phone screen, Meng Shutang's fingers gripping the phone suddenly tightened.

Gu Yunci had cut off her mother's medical fees without a word.

Then again, they were about to divorce. Naturally, he wouldn't concern himself with an unrelated outsider.

She reopened her phone, scrolled to Gu Yunci's WeChat, and faintly replied with a single word: "Okay."

In fifty days, the Gu Clan's Wenlüxiaozhen project collaboration would end.

By then, they would have no relationship left at all.