"Have you two reconsidered? Are you sure about the divorce?"
Looking at the uniformed staff member across from him, Xiao Ran’s tone was resolute. "We are!"
The woman in front of him, the one carrying a Hermès bag, was his wife, Yan Li.
Xiao Ran couldn’t help but sigh. ’People really do change. Everything changes.’
To think, they had been together for seven years.
In those seven years, he had been utterly devoted to Yan Li.
Xiao Ran was actually a web author. He loved to write, to be a storyteller.
He was very talented and had made some money in his line of work.
Yan Li had first fallen for him after reading one of his books.
She was amazed by his talent and smitten with his looks. One thing led to another, and the two of them got together.
Yan Li was beautiful and very smart.
Later on, after they graduated, it was only natural that they got married.
Yan Li said she wanted to stay in Shanghai, so Xiao Ran used all his royalties to buy a duplex apartment.
Six months into their marriage, Yan Li started a small company.
She had a real knack for business, turning five hundred thousand into three million in the first year.
As she earned more and more money, the company grew larger and larger.
Many people envied Xiao Ran, saying he was lucky to have married such a wife.
Xiao Ran thought so, too.
So he always did his best to take care of her in their daily life.
He was even willing to be the man behind the scenes, all to take better care of her.
Cooking, cleaning the house—his care was meticulous in every way.
But as Yan Li’s business grew, her attitude toward him became worse and worse.
She was always busy with work, leaving early and coming home late. The things she said to him most often were, "Don’t bother me," "I’m really busy," and "I’m so tired."
Until yesterday, when she finally uttered that one word: divorce.
Xiao Ran didn’t refuse.
In truth, you don’t reach the end of a marriage without some premonition.
You can always feel whether there’s love or not.
’Since the love is gone, why force it?’
"Have you two settled the division of assets?" the clerk asked.
Yan Li glanced at Xiao Ran, her expression unreadable, but her tone was filled with an undisguised coldness.
"The house is yours. I’ll also give you ten million as compensation, on the condition that you don’t bother me. Let’s have a clean break."
Xiao Ran gave a bitter smile. "No need. I’ll take the house, but I don’t want a single cent of your money."
’If we’re going to separate, it should be a clean cut. I don’t want anything that belongs to her.’
Hearing this, a flash of disgust crossed Yan Li’s face.
"Suit yourself!"
After saying that, she didn’t look at him again.
’The truth was, she hadn’t had feelings for him in a long time.’
’It had gotten to the point where every time she looked at him, her disgust grew involuntarily.’
’He was just a good-for-nothing, a nerd who only knew how to frantically pound on a keyboard. The pittance he earned in a year wasn’t even equal to her weekly revenue.’
’Over time, the admiration she once had for him had long since vanished.’
’Plenty of capable and talented men were pursuing her; there was really no need to waste time on him.’
STAMP! STAMP! A red seal was pressed onto each of the two little red booklets.
The clerk handed over the divorce certificates.
’The system of trading a red booklet for another red booklet isn’t so bad.’
’Getting married and getting divorced are both good things, really.’
’Marriage is the start of a new life, and so is divorce.’
Yan Li tucked the divorce certificate into her Hermès bag and tossed out, "I have something to do, I’m leaving."
She left without a backward glance.
Throughout the entire process, she hadn’t looked at Xiao Ran once.
Standing at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau, breathing in the fresh morning air, Xiao Ran’s mind was flooded with a thousand thoughts.
’How am I going to tell Mom and Dad?’
’They’ll definitely be heartbroken when they find out.’
’Good thing the two of them don’t have a grandchild yet. Otherwise, it would be even harder to explain.’
...
It was nine-thirty when he got home. The house was as quiet as ever. Looking at the empty stairwell, Xiao Ran sighed.
’Yan Xici... she must be gone by now, right?’
’Yan Li probably told her sister to move out long ago.’
’That must be it.’
With that thought, Xiao Ran turned and went into the bathroom.
He turned the shower to full blast.
As the warm water beat down on him, his mind raced.
They say divorce is a kind of rebirth.
’Since this is a rebirth, I have to start a new life.’
Xiao Ran set a small goal for himself: work hard, make money, and move out of this house as soon as possible!
He didn’t want to live here anymore.
After all, this was once her home too. Now that they were no longer together, it was better to be thorough—best not to leave even a single memory behind.
The lesson from his experience with Yan Li had made one thing clear to Xiao Ran.
If you fall behind, you get left behind.
It wasn’t just true in work and life, but in love as well.
Xiao Ran wasn’t just an author; he also had a day job as a librarian at the university.
His monthly salary was forty-five hundred, and with his royalties, his total income was around fifteen or sixteen thousand—a white-collar salary.
But even with a salary like that, in Yan Li’s eyes, it was still worthless.
There was nothing to be done; the gap was just too wide.
When he was about done with his shower, he wiped the water from his face and gave his hair a quick towel-dry.
Standing in front of the mirror, Xiao Ran habitually admired his own eight-pack abs.
He wrapped a towel around his waist, picked up his dirty clothes, and walked out of the bathroom.
However, the moment he stepped out, he saw a young woman standing at the dining table, drinking water.
Yan Xici, his own sister-in-law!
The girl was wearing a white loungewear top and matching white shorts, her soft, long hair draped over her shoulders.
She had a pair of beautiful, long, straight legs—not the stick-thin "chopstick legs," but gorgeous "manga legs," as if she had stepped right out of a 2D world.
Xiao Ran instinctively used his dirty clothes to cover himself, his face a mask of surprise.
"I just divorced your sister, why are you still here?"
’If he had known she was home, he wouldn’t have come out like this for anything in the world!’
At his words, the young woman turned around. Her long eyelashes fluttered as she blinked her drowsy, sleepy eyes.
After a moment, with a GULP, she swallowed the liquid in her mouth.
"You did? So early in the morning? What’s the big rush to get divorced..."
In truth, she had seen everything that had happened over the years.
The cracks in her sister and brother-in-law’s relationship had appeared a long time ago.
This past year had been nothing but arguments and cold wars. Although she saw it all and had even talked to her sister about it...
...each time, the conversation between the sisters ended unpleasantly.
She always felt they would quietly get a divorce one day.
She just hadn’t expected it to actually happen.
’It was probably for the best. At least they wouldn’t have to torture each other until they grew to despise one another.’
Yan Xici was Yan Li’s younger sister. She was twenty years old, a junior at Jiaotong University.
The girl was very beautiful, with a delicate, oval-shaped face.
She had lovely, arching brows, a pair of expressive almond eyes, and lashes so thick and long they looked like two tiny brushes.
Her nose was delicate and well-defined, and she was born with "smiling lips" that, perhaps from just having had a drink of water, looked plump and dewy.
Her figure was excellent as well. Although she was only 165 cm tall, her long legs and slender frame made her look at least 170 cm.
They say a girl is a budding flower at eighteen.
At twenty, Yan Xici was in full bloom, every part of her radiating the beauty of youth.
Xiao Ran was so exasperated he had to laugh. "What, is there a morning rush hour for divorces now? Should I have scheduled it for off-peak hours?"
To be honest, he had taken meticulous care of his sister-in-law for the past three years. After all, she was his wife’s sister, and he truly treated her like his own.
"Your sister didn’t tell you?" Xiao Ran asked again.
The girl across from him blinked, her lashes dipping down, looking utterly innocent. She gave a slight shrug of her pretty, straight shoulders. "Nope."
’Her sister had gotten busier and busier over the years as her career took off.’
’They exchanged fewer than ten sentences a month.’
’Come to think of it, it felt like they hadn’t spoken in a very long time.’
’She probably got busy and forgot.’
The girl had barely finished speaking when her dewy eyes landed on Xiao Ran’s abs.
’Wow~’
’I never knew my brother-in-law actually had abs.’
’His waistline looks really toned, too.’
’It’s been three years, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen my brother-in-law without a shirt on.’
The girl gulped, a blush creeping unconsciously onto her pretty face.
Noticing Yan Xici’s shy gaze, Xiao Ran held the dirty clothes tighter against his body.
"What are you looking at? Don’t go staring at things you shouldn’t at your age!"
Hearing that, Yan Xici pouted indignantly and muttered under her breath, "I’m twenty years old, okay! Besides, who wants to look at you!"
’My brother-in-law always treats me like a kid, but I’m an adult now, you know.’
Xiao Ran said, "Even if you’re twenty, you need to go find your sister. Go call her. Otherwise, you’ll just have to go rent a place."
At his words, the girl’s face was instantly filled with reluctance, and she couldn’t stop her delicate little nose from wrinkling.
Honestly, she didn’t want to leave.
Her brother-in-law had been the one taking care of her all these years, never missing a single one of her three daily meals, and even comforting her when she was down.
But her sister? She was never even around. On the rare occasions they did sit down together, all she did was find fault, telling her she was wrong about this or that.
She didn’t want to go to her sister’s, and she certainly didn’t want to rent an apartment.
She wanted to stay here!
’Whoever wants to leave can leave. I’m not going, anyway.’
"I’m not leaving! I’m absolutely not leaving!" Hearing him tell her to go, the girl immediately grabbed the doorframe, looking at him nervously.
She looked as if Xiao Ran was really about to shoo her out.