Chapter 38: I Need to See My Mother's Doctor, and Also... Get a Divorce

Imperial Banquet Palace.

Gu Yunci had two buttons of his shirt collar undone, the collar slightly open, as he lazily sank into the leather sofa.

The hand resting on the sofa armrest was long and elegant, while the other casually held a cigarette.

Someone leaned in, "Yunci, I always said Meng Shutang's belly was barren land!

Look — the moment he switched women, it happened right away..."

"What can you expect from a hen that won't lay eggs? Three years, and her belly didn't make the slightest peep."

"But her figure really is top-notch, otherwise would our President Gu have held on for three years without letting go?"

……

Smack — Gu Yunci grabbed the beer bottle beside him and slammed it on the table, the bottle's base cracking, "Keep your mouth clean."

The buddy froze, "What's wrong? You guys are getting divorced anyway — can't a buddy crack a joke?"

The man gripped the bottle hard, knuckles whitening, his voice low, "She's my woman. It's not your place to talk about her.

One more filthy word from your mouth, and I guarantee you'll regret knowing me."

Shen Duan saw the situation and immediately came over to smooth things over, "Yunci, don't be angry, he's had too much to drink."

Gu Yunci sat a while longer, absentmindedly listening to them tease the young woman nearby. His head was full of what had just happened in the car — Meng Shutang must have heard about Bai Cixian's pregnancy. Why didn't she lose her temper, didn't question him, but stayed silent, as if she hadn't heard a thing?

Lost in thought, he picked up the drink on the table and downed it in one gulp.

The woman in a miniskirt beside him saw him brooding and came over to cheer him up.

The man dunked the cigarette in his hand straight into the glass, grabbed his jacket, and stood up.

Shen Duan, nearby, saw this, "Leaving now?"

Gu Yunci looked utterly disinterested, "I still have documents to approve. You guys have fun."

After he left, the miniskirt woman stood up, "How good is President Gu's wife's figure?"

The childhood friend who'd just been scolded was incorrigible, "Let me put it this way — you girls' figures are great, right? But all of you stacked together don't add up to a ten-thousandth of hers.

And it's not just her figure — the key is her innocent face. Every man who's seen her has fantasized about her.

Right, Brother Duan..."

Shen Duan slammed the table with a bang, "Are you deaf? Didn't you see Yunci was angry just now?

From now on, if any of you dare gossip about our sister-in-law behind her back, I'm not letting it go."

Actually, Shen Duan couldn't figure it out either — weren't they getting divorced? Why was Gu Yunci so protective?

Could it be — he still loved her?!

Gu Yunci returned home. The villa's lights were off.

He changed shoes at the entryway. Auntie Zhang came over in the dark, "President Gu, the young madam has left."

The man's body went stiff.

The old lady's words — "You two be good, don't get divorced" — still rang in his ears, and Meng Shutang had just left without a word?

He hung his head, "When will she come back?"

Auntie Zhang choked up, "She packed her things and left pulling a suitcase."

A tremendous sense of loss struck him, instantly filling his entire body.

His mind was full of nineteen years ago — Gu Jin Xing grabbing Chu Fu's leg, but Chu Fu still lost control and tumbled down the spiral staircase.

He just stood at the doorway, screaming "Mama" out of control, running over desperately. Chu Fu rolled to his feet.

She didn't even have time to say a complete sentence before she let go of this world.

Just like Meng Shutang leaving today without a sound.

His Adam's apple rolled hard, swallowing the tears that had welled at the corners of his eyes.

Whether it was because the lights were off and he couldn't see clearly, or he missed the cabinet, his tall frame pitched forward.

Auntie Zhang steadied him, "President Gu, have you eaten? Shall I make you a bowl of noodles?"

Gu Yunci shook his head and shuffled in slippers toward the stairs, "Auntie Zhang, go to sleep!"

He reached the attic and flicked on the light with a snap.

The room was empty — the warm corner that once held Meng Shutang had reverted to an empty room with only the old shadows of Chu Fu.

His fingertips lightly traced the faint mark on the terrace, left by a flower pot his mother had set down while tending flowers years ago.

After his mother passed away, the room sat empty for several years, until he moved in.

But he never kept flowers; this spot had always been bare.

Until Meng Shutang moved in and planted chrysanthemums here.

The autumn wind blew chill, the chrysanthemums bloomed alone against the frost, their faint fragrance drifting through the cold night.

He suddenly recalled a line — his mother Chu Fu's favorite, once written on the title page of her poetry collection: "With warmth and softness in the heart, the years flow peaceful."

His well-defined hand suddenly stopped, and his heart felt as if stung by something.

Before, he'd always felt this attic was a warmth that belonged only to him and his mother — a forbidden ground no one else could touch.

But in the days since Meng Shutang moved in, she would sit quietly at the vintage carved wooden desk, restoring antique beads, designing ornaments.

She'd actually brought life back to this attic that had been silent for nineteen years.

He'd always thought he was the one allowing her to stay here. Only now did it strike him.

It was Meng Shutang's warmth that had quietly filled the emptiness of this attic.

And he, with his own hands, had pushed that warmth away.

The man's fingers clenched tight, his thin lips still set in their usual cold hardness.

His heart felt somewhat hollow, as if the wind had swept something away — he couldn't say.

Even his bone-deep memories of his mother blurred along with it.

He was afraid of this feeling. He turned and walked out of the pavilion, and with a click behind him, locked the pavilion door.

That night, the light in the second-floor study stayed on until dawn, and the ashtray was piled full of cigarette butts.

This was the first time he had stayed awake all night since accepting his mother's passing.

……

Meng Shutang knocked on the door. Li Xiuyun saw her standing at the entrance laden with bags large and small, covered in the dust of travel.

"What… happened to you?"

Meng Shutang entered the room first and no longer kept it from the old woman. "A month ago, Gu Yunci asked me for a divorce."

Saying that, she hung her bag on the coat rack, then opened her suitcase, took out her slippers, and changed into them. "His white moonlight is pregnant. His father announced it in the family group chat."

Li Xiuyun's blood surged with anger. "No, I'm going to go settle accounts with him."

"Grandma," Meng Shutang held her back. "The Gu family paid three years of treatment fees for my mother. That's their confidence in throwing me out."

Li Xiuyun looked at Meng Shutang through tear-blurred eyes. She had sensed it long ago, but had never imagined her granddaughter had suffered such great injustice.

"It's my incompetence. I should have moved your mother to an ordinary ward sooner, or three years ago, I shouldn't have sent her to the ICU.

You are her only daughter, and she certainly wouldn't want to see you suffer so much injustice for her sake."

Meng Shutang closed the door and casually locked it. "I don't feel wronged."

She crouched down and began to unpack. "But I won't resign myself to fate. I'm going to get my mother treated, and also… get a divorce."

Meng Shutang felt that after moving out of Qian Shui Wan, she shouldn't have to see Gu Yunci again.

Chen Man was overseeing the wrap-up work at Wenlüxiaozhen, and the provenance cataloging of the collection at the Cangpinge in the west of the city had been handed over to Ruan An. She was now pouring all her energy into the collaboration on a national-level intangible cultural heritage project.

If this project won the bid.

Not only could they receive millions in special intangible heritage subsidies every year, but in the future they could also lead the setting of industry standards for authenticating ancient beads.

This was her mother's wish, and hers as well.

She was only waiting for the divorce cooling-off period to pass, for Gu Yunci to call her, and to go to the civil affairs bureau to get the divorce certificate.

But the next second, she saw him at Jiangcheng Yiyuan.