Ch 3: Parting Ways

Zhuang Lingyun glanced back at Xiao Yao, lowered his fist, and walked behind her.

He sat down on a chair, removed a small shard of porcelain plate embedded in his ankle. Blood flowed freely, but his face remained impassive. He casually took two napkins from the dining table and wiped the blood away.

Shen Mingzhe angrily threw his chopsticks on the floor, glared at Xiao Yao, and said viciously, “You don’t want a good life, do you? I haven’t agreed to the breakup, and you bring a man home to spend the night? I never knew you were such a loose woman. I feel sick just looking at you.”

“Don’t flatter me. In terms of being disgusting, I’m not even one-tenth as bad as you,” Xiao Yao walked up to Shen Mingzhe, took the keys from his hand, and said, “You came all the way here early in the morning just to return the keys? You’re dismissed. You can leave.”

Shen Mingzhe snatched the keys back, “Don’t think I want to stay here. This house isn’t just yours. Give me the two hundred thousand yuan for the renovations, and let’s part ways amicably!”

He strode towards the bedroom, pulled out a suitcase from the cabinet, and started packing.

Xiao Yao followed, watching Shen Mingzhe pack two watch boxes into the suitcase. Her anger surged.

“Since you want to settle accounts, let’s start with the money my mother spent on you. The name brand suits, the name brand watches, and the car are all in your name.

There’s also the medical expenses paid for your mother, and the money you spent every month using my credit card—probably over five hundred thousand yuan. Let’s round it up. If you have no objections, return everything, and then we can part ways amicably.”

Shen Mingzhe roughly pulled clothes from the cabinet, stuffing them haphazardly into the suitcase, as if he didn’t want to say another word to her.

“What’s the meaning of your silence? Are you planning to default? Being a freeloader is already not manly enough; don’t make me look down on you even more.”

Shen Mingzhe threw the suitcase to the ground. The clothes scattered. “Why are you so nagging? No wonder you’ve been on dozens of blind dates and no one wants you. I’m the blind one for wanting to marry a sow like you!”

“What did you say? Sow?”

Xiao Yao couldn’t believe her ears. She only weighed 130 jin （approximately 130 pounds）, which wasn’t considered overweight for her height of 175 centimeters （approximately 5’9″）. It’s just that she had a little belly.

She’s a belly dance instructor; how could she teach belly dancing without a belly?

She was never the delicate type to begin with, and to be so bluntly called fat like a pig, Xiao Yao’s teeth ached with anger. Suddenly, she felt incredibly fortunate to have escaped before the wedding, seeing his hypocritical true face.

Shen Mingzhe continued relentlessly, “Look in the mirror! You’re disheveled and careless about your appearance. If it weren’t for the fact that you took care of my mother, do you think I would marry you? Just thinking about sleeping in the same bed with you after marriage… it’s like being immersed in greasy oil, so sickening…”

Before Shen Mingzhe could finish, a tall figure suddenly rushed into the bedroom and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Before he could react, Zhuang Lingyun grabbed him by the collar, pressed him against the wall, and punched him again.

The quarrel in the room had attracted neighbors peering in from the doorway. Xiao Yao didn’t want to make a scene, so she stopped Zhuang Lingyun, “Forget it, let him go.”

Zhuang Lingyun frowned, “He insulted you.”

“If a dog bites you, would you bite it back?”

Zhuang Lingyun found this reasonable and threw Shen Mingzhe to the ground.

Shen Mingzhe got up, clutching his face, his eyes filled with shock and anger as he looked at the two of them, then he scurried away.

Xiao Yao closed the bedroom door and sat back at the dining table. She turned to look at her reflection in the glass window—disheveled hair, a sturdy figure—suddenly feeling no appetite.

She wasn’t always like this.

Xiao Yao used to be a perfect nine-headed beauty, the kind who turned heads wherever she went.

She had won the campus belle title for two consecutive years, with countless admirers, and even frequent approaches from talent scouts, showing how glamorous and dazzling she had been.

However, the truth that everything eventually declines remains unchanged throughout history.

After an accident at the age of 19, Xiao Yao’s life began to decline.

In the car accident, she suffered multiple fractures, head injuries, and severe abdominal trauma that resulted in uterine damage.

To treat her, doctors used a large amount of hormone medication, causing her body to rapidly gain weight and become swollen. After her recovery, she was determined to lose weight and never gave up.

Perhaps, she wasn’t harsh enough on herself, which led to her being ridiculed today.

Zhuang Lingyun sat opposite Xiao Yao and said, “You’re not fat.”

“No need to comfort me,” Xiao Yao shrugged indifferently, “Thank you for standing up for me just now!”

“Any man wouldn’t have tolerated it, let alone…” He didn’t finish the sentence. “Let’s eat; the food’s getting cold.”

“You eat. Leave after you’re done,” Xiao Yao stood up, leaving that sentence behind as she entered the bedroom.

Zhuang Lingyun looked at the closed bedroom door, then at the dishes on the table, his eyes deep and sharp, seemingly lost in thought.

After Xiao Yao woke up, she found that Zhuang Lingyun was gone. The dining table and stove were sparkling clean, and the bowls and chopsticks had been washed and put away in the cabinet.

Xiao Yao went back to her parents’ house in the afternoon.

When she arrived, she found no one home. The coffee table was piled high with large bags of candy and melon seeds, newly bought balloons and paper decorations, and two large red gift registry books.

Her parents were still eagerly preparing for her wedding.

A short while later, Xiao Yao’s parents returned from their exercise. The elderly couple, wearing matching red couple’s windbreakers, were bundled up warmly. They entered the house, removed their hats, and looked radiant, with steam rising from their heads.

They were startled to find Xiao Yao sitting on the sofa, smiling at them.

“Yaoyao, why are you back?”

Xiao Yao’s father asked in surprise, “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t be back for a week? It’s only the third day; why did you come back?”

Xiao Yao’s mother noticed her daughter’s poor complexion and worriedly asked, “What happened? Did you quarrel with Mingzhe?”

Xiao Yao looked at her parents, her nose sour. “I just missed you. Thinking about starting a new family makes me feel sad.”

“I thought something serious happened. Everyone gets married eventually; it’s a necessary part of growing up.”

“Yaoyao, this is your home too. It’s not like the old days where a married daughter is like spilled water. We only have one precious daughter like you. Wherever we are, it will always be your home.”

Xiao Yao put her arms around their necks, “I know, I just suddenly feel sad, and I miss you both so much.”

The elderly couple exchanged glances, both noticing something was wrong.

Before coming, Xiao Yao had planned to tell her parents everything, to completely sever ties with the scumbag.

But seeing how meticulously they had prepared everything, their hearts filled with anticipation for their daughter’s wedding, their lives already worn out for her, Xiao Yao suddenly didn’t know how to speak.

Her parents both have heart conditions, and they are also very proud. If they knew what Shen Mingzhe had done, Xiao Yao was afraid they would both suffer heart attacks from anger. And her father would definitely go to find Shen Mingzhe to settle the score!

She hesitated. Maybe she should just get married?

It doesn’t matter who she marries, right? After marriage, they could just live separate lives, saving her parents from worrying about her marriage, and she could avoid constant blind dates.

But then again, with Shen Mingzhe’s character, wouldn’t he drain her parents dry?

If she really married him, she would be harming more than just herself.

After dinner at her parents’ house, she forced a smile. When she left their home, her mouth drooped as if weighed down by a thousand pounds, her face full of gloom.

Xiao Yao wandered home like a lost soul. When she got out of the elevator, she suddenly found someone standing at her door.

Xiao Yao’s heart skipped a beat. Why is this person here again?

Sure enough, she shouldn’t have brought a strange man home casually. He’s like a persistent adhesive, impossible to shake off.

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