This time, she started a screen recording: a video of Jing Muhan sitting with her child while the little one received an IV drip.
In the video, Jing Muhan held the child tenderly, gently soothing him. “Lanlan, don’t be afraid. Daddy’s here.”
As expected, Qin Yuexin soon unsent the video.
Fortunately, she had recorded it. It should serve as evidence in the divorce.
She sent the video and the prenuptial agreement she had signed to Huo Jiuxiao.
【Brother, I want to get divorced as soon as possible. I don’t mind getting none of the assets.】
Bound by the prenuptial agreement and mindful of the Jing family’s influence, she didn’t dare covet anything that wasn’t hers.
Huo Jiuxiao didn’t reply. He didn’t send the divorce agreement until the early hours of the morning.
Bai Shujun replied: 【Thank you!】
She read the terms carefully. As stipulated in the prenuptial agreement, she would leave with nothing. It seemed her brother understood that she wouldn’t get anything in the divorce.
It didn’t matter if she got nothing. This marriage had been a transaction from the start.
Bai Shujun got up to print the agreement. Tears silently fell as she murmured, “Goodbye, Jing Muhan!”
She didn’t sleep a wink, waiting for Jing Muhan to come home.
But he never came back that night.
Bai Shujun got up at six and put the divorce agreement in a document folder, intending to give it to Jing Muhan when he came home. But he still hadn’t returned by ten that morning.
Bai Shujun gave a bitter laugh, left the folder on the dining table, took a photo, and sent it to Jing Muhan.
【We’re getting divorced. The agreement is ready. Come home and look it over. If there’s a problem, tell me. Let’s part on good terms instead of making an ugly scene in court.】
Jing Muhan never replied to her WeChat message. When Bai Shujun called him, he hung up.
She tried messaging him again, only to discover he had blocked her.
Bai Shujun laughed bitterly and left with her packed suitcase. The man she had loved for more than three years had thrown her away like trash.
She rented a one-bedroom apartment in Zhongguancun and moved in. The most important thing now was to go to work and get her life back on track.
Her marriage was over, her mother had died, but life had to go on.
She still had to support her Maternal Grandmother, who was in a nursing home.
Huo Jiuxiao called to ask, “What did Jing Muhan say?”
Bai Shujun rubbed her temples and said, “He blocked me on WeChat and won’t answer my calls. Find someone to sue him!”
“All right!”
Just as she finished unpacking, her close friend Wen Xi invited her to dinner and gently comforted her. “I know you’re unhappy. Come out and unwind.”
“Mm.”
As soon as she reached the restaurant entrance, Bai Shujun saw Jing Muhan and his family of three. He was carrying his son in one arm, chatting and laughing as they headed inside.
Qin Yuexin saw her and, as if to provoke her, linked arms with Jing Muhan. He hesitated for a moment but didn’t pull away.
They walked in side by side, and Bai Shujun’s heart gave a sharp pang.
Seeing it with her own eyes was even more devastating: the child’s face was a carbon copy of Jing Muhan’s.
Wen Xi was stunned. “Your husband has an illegitimate son?”
Three years earlier, Bai Shujun had given up a job paying a million yuan a year, and Wen Xi hadn’t understood why. Then she’d discovered the secret of Bai Shujun’s marriage on her phone. At the time, Wen Xi had even congratulated her on marrying into a wealthy family.
Later, after seeing how Bai Shujun lived in the Jing family’s home, she had sighed, “So the wealthy really are a scourge!”
Bai Shujun felt as if she’d been struck in the head. Her vision blurred at once. She sighed and replied, “Mm. This marriage was a transaction from the beginning. It can finally end.”
For three years, she had never managed to warm his heart.
From the looks of it, he had given his heart to another woman long ago.
Let it all fade away with the wind!
Wen Xi cursed, “That scumbag Jing! He finally recovered from brain cancer, and now he pulls this crap just to upset you. Why not post your marriage certificate and slap them in the face? Just seeing that shameless Qin Yuexin makes my blood boil.”
For nearly a month, ever since Jing Muhan had recovered, Qin Yuexin had kept showing up now and then to provoke Bai Shujun. Bai Shujun had never given her a warm welcome.
If she posted the marriage certificate, the internet would go wild, given Jing Muhan’s status as CEO and chairman of Dingshang Capital.
But they had a prenuptial agreement. It clearly stated that they couldn’t make their marriage public on social media. If either of them violated that clause, the compensation would be one hundred million yuan!
Bai Shujun might have been good at studying, but she was terrible at public spats. Besides, Jing Muhan had treated her as nothing more than a nanny throughout their three-year marriage. Bai Shujun no longer expected him to return her love.
An orphan with neither father nor mother, what right did she have to challenge Qin Yuexin, the heiress of Tanyue Technology?
She was nothing but a tool the Jing family had married to bring good fortune to Jing Muhan.
Back then, Jing Muhan had been gravely ill, with only three months to live. The Jing family had chosen Bai Shujun, who had just earned her doctorate.
At the time, her mother was in the ICU. Bai Shujun had just graduated and couldn’t afford the exorbitant medical bills, so she chose to marry Jing Muhan to save her mother.
Tears glistened in Bai Shujun’s eyes, but the corners of her mouth lifted slightly. “Forget it. He doesn’t love me. He and Qin Yuexin have been seeing each other for a while. Now that he’s recovered, I can finally be free.”
She spoke breezily, but she couldn’t help feeling heartbroken.
She didn’t have many people in her life. After devoting herself to caring for Jing Muhan for three years, she had hoped to be treated with tenderness, too.
Unfortunately, they had never belonged to the same world.
Wen Xi exclaimed anxiously, “You stayed by his side when he was at death’s door, while that shameless woman kept coming around to rub it in your face. Jing Muhan would have to be brainless to entertain her. Three years have passed. Surely it’s your turn to enjoy the good life!”
Tears still slid down Bai Shujun’s cheeks. “I was never meant to enjoy the good life.”
Her father had died when she was eight. Her grandmother and uncle called her and her mother jinxes, drove them out, and seized her father’s business.
Her mother sued them, but even after spending all her savings, she still couldn’t get the company back.
Her Maternal Grandmother was old and had little in the way of a pension. Bai Shujun had scraped by until college on scholarships and her mother’s meager salary.
She was clever and beautiful, and had entered Tsinghua University’s direct doctoral program through the Young Gifted Program.
Before she graduated, she had already received an offer from a major tech company. She thought her life was finally looking up, but then her mother’s health collapsed. A cerebral hemorrhage put her in the ICU.
Her Maternal Grandmother fainted from the shock. While Bai Shujun searched everywhere for money, she came upon this marriage arrangement.
She and Jing Muhan had already been intimate. Without hesitation, Bai Shujun sold herself to the Jing family.
And she was sold for three years.
On their wedding night, Jing Muhan took revenge on her by dismissing all the nannies and making her take care of his every need by herself.
Bai Shujun accepted this life in a daze. She managed the huge house, inside and out, all by herself, and catered to Jing Muhan’s almost pathological demands for cleanliness.
Being tired was fine, as long as there was money and access to resources to treat her mother.
Besides, Jing Muhan had only had three months to live. Bai Shujun had simply thought of it as caring for a gravely ill man.
Three months later, Jing Muhan was still alive.
Her senior, Cen Yunxiao, asked her to come to work, but Jing Muhan wouldn’t allow it.
He said coldly, “Bai Shujun, the Jing family paid ten million yuan for you. Your job is to take care of me.”
Bai Shujun had begged him, but he remained unmoved. She resigned herself to becoming a nanny.
Fate never let her go.
Fortunately, she hadn’t abandoned her field of expertise. After finishing the endless housework, she studied every night.
She occasionally took on projects, too, and had kept her professional skills sharp over the years. She knew that her only means of making a living was her expertise. The man on her marriage certificate was not someone she could rely on.
She had stayed by Jing Muhan through the development of the new brain cancer drug and through his worst three years, until every last cancer cell had been eliminated.
She thought her hardships were finally over, only to discover that he already had an illegitimate son.
Wen Xi fell silent. She knew how hard Bai Shujun’s life had been.
Bai Shujun smiled bitterly. “Fate has never favored me. I’m used to it.”