Tang Rong was so shocked by what she’d heard that she didn’t react in time and slammed on the brakes.
“Uh, Ningning, what did you say? Don’t do anything rash!”
Zheng Wanning hadn’t been paying attention. The sudden stop threw her forward, and she hit the window head-on.
Thud!
“Ow!”
She rubbed her forehead.
She thought that before she could even get divorced from Shen Yanqing, Tang Rong might accidentally send her to an early grave.
Tang Rong looked apologetic. “Ningning, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Rongrong, just be careful when you drive.”
“I’m only this anxious because I’m worried about you!” Tang Rong said. “Did something upset you at the Shen Residence today? What did that old woman say to you this time? Why do you suddenly want a divorce?”
The barrage of questions left Zheng Wanning at a loss for how to answer.
Tang Rong and Zheng Wanning had been roommates and best friends since college.
She knew how much pressure Zheng Wanning had been under when she started dating Shen Yanqing, and how, step by step, she’d ended up marrying that bastard.
She knew Zheng Wanning truly loved him.
Otherwise, when Shen Yanqing went abroad to pursue his career and stayed away for three years, any woman with a temper would have left him long ago.
“Ningning, listen. Shen Yanqing may be a real bastard, but there are plenty of women in North City who’d love to get into his doghouse. If you divorce him, won’t all those years you spent on that bastard have gone to waste?”
“And those online interviews even said that if a husband gives his wife a hundred thousand a month for household expenses, he doesn’t have to come home—and the wives would even look after their husbands’ mistresses. Shen Yanqing must give you at least ten million a month, right?”
Good grief. In Tang Rong’s comparison, Shen Yanqing was a doghouse—and right now, she was the one occupying it!
So did that make her the dog?
Zheng Wanning had no energy to comment. She kept rubbing her reddened forehead.
“I was just saying.”
“I’m telling you, that old woman is dying for you to get divorced. Don’t give her what she wants.”
“All she ever does is bully and lecture you. If she’s got a problem, she should take it up with her son.”
Zheng Wanning mocked herself inwardly.
Huang Yumei had only lectured her before. But now that she couldn’t have children, there was no way Huang Yumei would tolerate her.
When they returned to Ningyun Mountain Villa, Zheng Wanning could see from a distance that the lights inside were still on.
That was unusual.
After saying goodbye to Tang Rong, she reminded her to drive safely and to message her once she got home so she’d know she was safe.
She opened the front door and saw Nanny Li slumped over the table, nodding off.
At the sound of the door, Nanny Li jolted upright.
She was unusually warm and welcoming.
“Madam, you’re back. Did the Young Master come home with you?”
She peered past Zheng Wanning a few times, but there was no sign of anyone else.
Then she asked, “Madam, are you hungry? I can make you something to eat.”
“Is there anything you’d like?”
“I made sure to wait up for you tonight. I was afraid you hadn’t had dinner.”
Zheng Wanning gave her a cool glance.
All she wanted was to go upstairs and take a shower. She left Nanny Li with a brief “No, thanks,” and went straight upstairs.
Watching Zheng Wanning walk away just like that, Nanny Li tilted her head, her face drooping like a bitter melon.
Sigh. Had she done something wrong again?
It was wrong to make too little effort, but wrong to try too hard, too. What was she supposed to do?
Over the next few days, Shen Yanqing never came back to Ningyun Mountain Villa.
Zheng Wanning didn’t pay it any mind. She buried herself in work and had grown used to him treating Ningyun Mountain like a hotel.
Besides, Shen Yanqing had more money than he could spend in several lifetimes, and houses all over the world. Who knew which one he was staying in?
After Huang Yumei had come to see her that day, she, too, went quiet.
In her spare time, Zheng Wanning wondered if Huang Yumei might as well just let Shen Yanqing make the decision.
If Shen Yanqing decided to divorce her, Zheng Wanning could finally give up hope and let go of the feelings she’d held for their four years of marriage.
Instead, the two of them were stuck in this awkward relationship, impossible to sever and impossible to untangle.
But she knew that was unlikely.
Ever since she’d married into the Shen family, Shen Yanqing had treated Huang Yumei almost like a stranger. For a while, Zheng Wanning had even thought Huang Yumei wasn’t his real mother.
But not only was she his real mother, Shen Yanqing was also her only son and the sole heir to Shen Group.
By all rights, Shen Yanqing was supposed to inherit Shen Group when he grew up.
But he refused. With his brilliant business sense, he founded Wanshi Private Equity Fund at a very young age.
In the three years he spent in the United States, he developed it into the world’s largest multinational private equity fund.
Its assets had already surpassed those of the top five on the Forbes list. If you worked it out carefully, its assets might even be twice as much as Shen Group’s.
There were so many stories in wealthy families. After four years of marriage into the Shen family, she still didn’t understand them at all. In the end, she was an outsider.