Chapter 14: Divorce Countdown: 41 Days

"Zhang Ma, Zhang Ma," Gu Yunci shouted while changing shoes.

He shouted for a long time without anyone coming, and only then noticed Meng Shutang standing in the living room.

The living room had only one wall lamp on, and the dim yellow light stretched her shadow, slender and graceful, thin and tall.

He was stunned for a moment.

Zhang Ma's son is back today; she took a day off.

Meng Shutang looked at him and explained slowly.

Gu Yunci shifted his gaze from her to the cake beside it.

His Adam's apple bobbed, and he floated over with unsteady steps, sitting by the table, "How long have you been waiting?"

"Not long," Meng Shutang said, and in the lamp light she saw the lipstick stain on his shirt again.

That splash of red was truly glaring; for a moment, her heart felt clutched by something, both suffocating and sour.

In her mind, the scene of his birthday celebration for her in the first year after their marriage floated up.

He deliberately cleared all his work and took her to Jeju Island.

There, using a drone and fireworks to celebrate her birthday before a crowd, he shouted loudly, "My girl has grown another year."

After speaking, he placed a one‑of‑a‑kind diamond necklace around her neck, hugged her, and spun around.

That day he was drunk, repeatedly telling her, "This year is the first year I have reached for the moon."

But now?

He forgot her birthday and came back bearing traces of another woman.

"It's getting late, go take a photo for grandma and send it over," Gu Yunci said, seeing her standing there dazed, turning his gaze slightly and calling her.

It turned out he remembered everything, but... he no longer loved her.

Meng Shutang walked over, sat down facing the cold dishes and the chilled cake, and just before Gu Yunci pressed the shutter, she turned toward him and, from a distance, gave him a playful kiss.

Gu Yunci, stunned, turned his head to look at her.

Meng Shutang smiled lightly, "For Grandma's happiness."

Grandma Gu was so perceptive; as soon as Gu Yunci mentioned divorce, she already got the news.

If we aren't close, we probably can't get away with it.

The pain from the rising drunkenness hit his temples; his bony fingers pressed his eye corner, his brow furrowed into a knot, looking wilted and stripped of any former vigor.

The act was over; Meng Shutang had intended to carry something upstairs.

But seeing him like that, she stopped in her tracks.

She had heard as a child that someone who drank to the point of a hangover, with no one to give water or care, was found dead the next morning.

So she set the thing down and said, "Come, I'll help you upstairs."

Gu Yunci gave no objection; under her support, he shuffled back to the bedroom, stepping unevenly.

She laid him on the bed, intending to change his clothes, but seeing the lipstick stain again, she let it be.

"Stay here; I'll brew a sobering soup for you."

The sobering soup was taught to her by Zhang Ma; at that time her whole heart and eyes were on Gu Yunci, and she learned it earnestly.

It was a cut above Zhang Ma's, even better.

Ten minutes later, she carried a bowl of kudzu flower sobering soup upstairs; Gu Yunci took it, drank a sip, and set it down.

He leaned there and fell into a deep sleep.

Meng Shutang stared at his face, barely scented with alcohol, which she had once thought so gentle it could drown a person.

Even now, at some moment, she still felt that Gu Yunci must have loved her.

It was precisely because she had been loved so passionately that, even knowing he treated her merely as a tool for revenge, she still harbored that illusion.

She wanted to walk over, yank Gu Yunci, and ask him why he was being so cruel to her.

He only took one sip of the sobering soup, just like his attitude toward her.

Meng Shutang thought that he had always been a fickle person, and that single sip of enthusiasm was only because she was useful to him.

She had nothing special; the ending could only be one thing—being poured away!

She poured another glass of water onto the nightstand and said, "Gu Yunci."

The man slowly opened his eyes, did not answer, and simply stared quietly at her.

His clear eyes were bright and pure, light as if soaked in cool autumn water, just like her—lush yet clean, making one feel the world at peace.

And her gaze toward him was gentle and lingering, filled with deep attachment.

She hadn't looked at him with that kind of gaze for a while.

Or perhaps she had never used that gaze on him at all.

She was reluctant to remove the antique bead necklace around her neck, and there was not a trace of him in the studio.

The sweet‑pet male lead he cared about was never him.

Yet seeing that gaze, the indifferent tip of his heart still flickered with an indefinable glimmer.

"Looking at me so affectionately, is there something you want to tell me?"

"I'm leaving."

Before turning to leave, Meng Shutang gave a faint smile; the smile held no real meaning, just politeness and dignity.

Watching her, Gu Yunci's smile on his face faded a little into indifference, and he stared at the spot where she vanished for a long time, meaning unclear.

He didn't know when he had fallen asleep; Gu Yunci was awakened by thirst.

He sat up, lifted the water from the nightstand and drank it all in one gulp, then tried to call Zhang Ma, but remembering she wasn't there, he called out twice to Li Sao.

Li Sao gave no response, so he struggled to get up himself and went downstairs to fetch water.

The house was terrifyingly quiet, as if his mother had rolled down the stairs at that moment, and all he could hear was his own heartbeat.

After finishing the water and returning, when he went to the bathroom to shower, he only then saw the lipstick mark on his shirt collar.

He grabbed it and threw it straight into the trash can.

Upstairs, Meng Shutang took out a small desk calendar from the bedside table.

Every page had the past days crossed out with a gold‑yellow marker.

On today's page, beside it was written: "Countdown to divorce: 41 days."

The next day.

Meng Shutang got up to make breakfast.

Gu Yunci heard the noise and also came downstairs.

He walked over from the morning light, his whole person wrapped in a clear yet aloof aura.

After a night's rest he showed no trace of fatigue, handsome and spirited, with an outstanding bone structure, his beauty extremely distinctive,

He sat down opposite Meng Shutang, saying, "Last night I went out to play with Shen Duan and the others; I accidentally brushed something against my collar, it was too crowded and chaotic for me to notice."

Meng Shutang didn't look at him, "What kind of person… would brush against your collar?"

Gu Yunci was at a loss for words, but forced a reply, "It was just an accident; don't overthink it."

Having said that, he hastily changed the subject, "Aunt Zhang has gone home; where's Aunt Li? Why isn't she around?"

"I fired her!"

"Why?"

Meng Shutang lifted her gaze to him, "She's careless in her work, an eyesore, so I dismissed her."

If you have any objections, wait until the divorce paperwork is finished, then you can call her back."

Aunt Li had only come to Qian Shui Wan in the past six months.

When she came to Qian Shui Wan, the timing coincided exactly with Bai Cixian's return to the country.

It was also from that time that Gu Yunci began to treat her coldly.

Over the past six months, Aunt Li has openly and covertly sneered at her, and she doesn't believe Gu Yunci knows nothing about it.

Including recently, Aunt Li has called Bai Cixian several times to gossip, and she doesn't believe Gu Yunci is completely unaware.

How he treats her, she has endured it out of consideration for the many years he has paid her mother's high medical expenses.

But a servant trying to put on airs—she can't tolerate that.

Gu Yunci listened, saying nothing.

Soon after, he rose and said, "I've finished eating."

Having said that, he turned and walked out.

Meng Shutang left the house only a while after he had gone out.

The central garden of the street.

Aunt Li waited until she thought Bai Cixian should have gotten up before daring to call and say she had been fired.

Bai Cixian, upon hearing it, really wanted to scold her as a fool, unable to handle even this small matter.

"Did you say anything when you left?"

Aunt Li knew what she was asking, "Rest assured, Miss Bai, I didn't say anything; she truly doesn't know it was you who sent me."

Bai Cixian, "I'm not asking that; I mean, does Brother Yunci know you're my person?"

Aunt Li, "I don't; every time I call you, I deliberately avoid President Gu."

Bai Cixian, "All right, I'll give you the money later; go somewhere else for now, and I'll contact you again if needed."

Aunt Li, "Okay, thank you, Miss Bai."

After hanging up, Bai Cixian turned around and saw Bai Lianyue standing behind her, startled, "Mom, when did you come over?"

Bai Lianyue, "You're being far too careless—your father is still at home, and you go calling that woman by her full name?"