The reply on the other end came quickly,
【Zhao Jiaping: Sure, President Lu, who is the divorce agreement for?】
【Lu Huaiqian: Me. Shi Yi and I are planning to divorce. Could you please have the drafted divorce agreement ready for me in five days.】
Five days from now was his thirtieth birthday.
He could give Shi Yi a gift on that day.
Every gift he’d given before, Shi Yi hadn’t liked. This time, he thought, Shi Yi would surely like this one.
Being with him made Shi Yi unhappy, so after they separated, Shi Yi should be happy then, shouldn’t he?
Since that was so, then let them separate.
Put an end to this mistake that shouldn’t have started in the first place.
Lu Huaiqian didn’t wait for Zhao Jiaping’s reply. He turned off his phone, turned his head to glance at the tightly shut door behind him, raised the corners of his mouth gently and reluctantly, and softly, longingly, called out Shi Yi’s name.
Then, no longer holding onto the wall to stand, he made his way downstairs unsteadily to make dinner for Shi Yi.
Shi Yi’s stomach wasn’t good, and he couldn’t go hungry, or he’d be in discomfort again later.
Let him make Shi Yi a few more meals, one last time, after this there wouldn’t be a chance anymore.
On the dining table, the dishes from the five-star restaurant Shi Yi had ordered had already gone cold, along with the ironic, out-of-place flowers and candles.
Lu Huaiqian couldn’t decide whether to leave them or not, he didn’t know if Shi Yi would get angry seeing them when he came down to eat.
After some back and forth, he ended up clearing away the flowers and balloons.
The rest of the dinner didn’t need remaking, just a quick reheat would do.
An hour later, the romantic, mood-lit living room had lost its color and returned to its ordinary state.
Lu Huaiqian set the reheated dishes out on the table one by one, then went upstairs to coax Shi Yi into coming down to eat.
Actually, on ordinary days Shi Yi was fairly cooperative and didn’t need coaxing for every single meal, but today he’d made Shi Yi angry, so it would surely take a good while of coaxing.
When Lu Huaiqian knocked on the door again, Shi Yi was in the middle of the climax of a match in his game.
He hadn’t wanted to bother with it at first, but suddenly remembering what had happened the last time Lu Huaiqian knocked, he couldn’t help but turn his face toward the door and curse harshly, “Get lost! Get the hell away from here, you damn pervert!”
The villa had decent soundproofing, but Shi Yi’s voice was loud, and Lu Huaiqian, standing at the door, heard every word clearly.
Still, it wasn’t worth minding.
A few more days and he and Shi Yi would both be free of this.
Lu Huaiqian knocked on the door again, gently coaxing him to come out and eat.
Shi Yi heard it but didn’t want to bother with him.
Not until deep into the night, when Shi Yi had worn himself out playing and his stomach began protesting, did he impatiently put his phone away and get ready to go downstairs to find something to eat.
Before opening the door, Shi Yi specifically checked the time, it was already two in the morning.
At this hour, going by a normal schedule, Lu Huaiqian should already be asleep, and he wasn’t likely to run into him again.
He didn’t want to see that disgusting man right now.
Thinking back to what had happened earlier, he wished he could land a few punches right on Lu Huaiqian’s face, just to see if he’d still dare to act out of line with him after that!
The hallway had motion-sensor lights.
Shi Yi scrolled through funny videos, chuckling to himself, and shuffled downstairs in his slippers with soft footsteps.
Only after going down to the second floor landing did he notice the living room downstairs still had its lights on.
Lu Huaiqian was leaning in a single-seat sofa, eyes lowered, staring blankly ahead at nothing, the whole of him lifeless, as if lost in thought about something.
Seeing this, Shi Yi’s relaxed brows knit together at once, and he thought about turning back.
But right at that moment, Lu Huaiqian, hearing the sound, looked up toward Shi Yi.
Their eyes met in midair.
The gloom in Lu Huaiqian’s eyes instantly gave way to warmth. He got up at once and smiled at Shi Yi, “Are you hungry? I knew if you skipped dinner you’d get hungry in the middle of the night. Come here, I’ll heat up some food for you.”
Shi Yi frowned deeply and glared coldly at Lu Huaiqian, saying nothing, not moving.
Lu Huaiqian stayed where he was too, not moving either, but kept coaxing him all the same, “Come and eat, all right? It’s so late, eat early and go to sleep early. Staying up like this all the time isn’t good for you. You shouldn’t stay up so late so often, it’s bad for your health.”
“What does it have to do with you whether I stay up or not? Who do you think you are to me, to be managing me?” Shi Yi said coldly, his face dark, shuffling down the stairs.
He’d lived here for three years too, why should he be the one to go back up?
Even if someone should go back up, it should be Lu Huaiqian who wasn’t allowed in his sight, not him avoiding Lu Huaiqian.
He wanted to eat, so what of it?
If Lu Huaiqian dared to act shameless with him again, he’d bite that bastard to death.
Seeing him move, Lu Huaiqian smiled, “I’m not managing you. It’s just that you always stay up like this, and it’s not good, you should take better care of yourself from now on. As for what I am to you, weren’t we classmates before?”
What kind of nonsense was that?
Shi Yi shot Lu Huaiqian a disgusted look, muttered a low “You’re sick,” then walked straight past him to the dining room.
Lu Huaiqian watched his back gently, and followed behind him, walking together toward the kitchen.
Top-tier dish after dish was reheated again and again, and only then did it finally end up in Shi Yi’s stomach.
Over the next few days, Shi Yi started on his plans to move out.
He first spent a day looking into the various properties under Lu Huaiqian’s name, and among the villas, duplex penthouses, and small apartments of different layouts, he picked a penthouse overlooking three large lakes.
But since it had gone unlived-in for years, it had only the building itself, no furniture.
After picking the place, Shi Yi went on to find people to clean it and furnish it, and it wasn’t until the fifth day that the house finally started to look like somewhere a person actually lived.
“You’re moving out?” Hearing him say this, Ji Jinwei’s eyes went wide with shock, and she even stopped drinking from the cup in her hand. “Wait, something this big, did you even discuss it with Lu Huaiqian?”
Shi Yi’s arched brows and eyes were flushed with drink, and he leaned crookedly against Ji Jinwei, his tone displeased, “It’s my, own business. Why would, I need to discuss it, with him?”
Ji Jinwei was still stunned, “No, but if you say you’re moving out, would he even let you go?”
“Why wouldn’t he let me go? My legs are my own, I want, to leave, I’ll, leave!” Shi Yi hadn’t kept himself in check today and had drunk a bit too much. With the alcohol going to his head, his temper kept rising along with it, “That lunatic, that, sicko, actually, dared, dared to hug me, if I stay there, who knows what, he’ll do to me next?”
“I’m, not gay, either. I don’t, like him.”
“Right, right, right, you don’t like him. But you,, sigh…”
Having heard today what Shi Yi had done to Lu Huaiqian a few days before, Ji Jinwei’s feelings were genuinely complicated. Shi Yi was her friend, no doubt, but she truly felt sorry for Lu Huaiqian too.
Shi Yi really knew how to stick a knife right into someone’s heart.
Going out of his way to find a stand-in to give to Lu Huaiqian, this was practically an insult to Lu Huaiqian’s feelings for Shi Yi. Shi Yi could dislike Lu Huaiqian all he wanted, but humiliating him like that was really going too far.
If it were her being tormented like this, someone taking a knife and driving it into her chest again and again like that, even the deepest feelings would be worn down to nothing.
No, the moment the person she liked called her a freak and looked at her with disgust, she’d already have no way of holding onto her feelings for him.
Ji Jinwei thought it over, and still couldn’t help but speak up, “Xiao Yi, I really think what you’ve been doing to Lu Huaiqian has gone a bit too far. If you truly feel you can’t accept him, why not consider…”
Ji Jinwei paused, then finally finished the last sentence, “Divorce him.”