The Jinsheng Manor was brightly lit.
Lu Yanjiang looked coldly at the divorce agreement on the table, though his expression remained largely unchanged.
“Finally figured it out?” In the dim, warm light, it was impossible to read his emotions. “You’ve stubbornly refused to divorce me all these years. What is it? Found someone new?”
Shen Ruxia wasn’t angered by his harsh words. Right now, she had no choice but to humble herself before Lu Yanjiang; after all, she was the one asking for a favor.
“I agree to the divorce,” Shen Ruxia said, her mind made up. “I just hope President Lu can help my father’s company. Please.”
“President Lu?” Lu Yanjiang was almost too angry to laugh. “You roll those two words off your tongue quite easily! Sensible and timely, aren’t you?”
He couldn’t even explain why he was suddenly so furious. Even though Shen Ruxia had always addressed him by his full name with zero warmth over the years, there was something about that excessively detached title—”President Lu”—that somehow struck a raw nerve.
“President Lu is the undisputed king of Haishi now, and the Lu Group is at the height of its power. No one in Haishi dares to cross you; calling you President Lu is only fitting,” Shen Ruxia said, watching his expression darken further. Yet she had no choice. She had already opened her mouth, and she had to see it through, no matter how thick-skinned she had to be. “Me divorcing you can also be considered fulfilling one of your long-held wishes, so I earnestly ask President Lu to help my dad. As for the company…”
“Shen Ruxia, you really are good at scheming. You even manage to turn a divorce into a transaction! Ten years have passed, and you haven’t changed at all—just as vicious and despicable as the very beginning.”
Lu Yanjiang glared at her with fierce resentment. He had hated this woman, yet even through that hatred, they had remained entangled for a decade.
“At least this divorce gives you freedom too. I know An Songya is back, so let me give you my early blessings.”
“You really have the nerve to say that!”
Lu Yanjiang sneered. Leaning slightly forward, he grabbed a pen and scrawled his signature onto the divorce agreement. The moment he finished, he violently flung the pen aside. Using too much force, the carbon-ink pen bounced right off the mahogany tabletop and clattered onto the floor.
Shen Ruxia couldn’t shake the feeling that Lu Yanjiang was acting a bit like a petulant child in this moment, though she quickly dismissed it as her overactive imagination. After ten years of marriage, she realized she didn’t understand him at all.
Looking at their two names on the agreement, pressed so close together, Shen Ruxia knew that from this moment on, she and Lu Yanjiang truly had nothing left to do with each other.
“Even though we’re divorced, I’m not a petty person. Whether it’s written in the agreement or not, everything that should be yours will be given to you down to the last cent.”
Lu Yanjiang glanced briefly over the terms. The document had been drafted by Shen Ruxia, and she had requested nothing—opting to leave with zero assets.
“No, thank you. Everything you have today is the result of your own hard work. I never contributed anything, and since you’re willing to rescue my dad’s company, I’m already deeply grateful.”
Shen Ruxia wasn’t a greedy person. Ending their marriage this way was, to her, the most dignified conclusion possible.
“Now you want to put on airs of noble detachment? Since you’re so noble, why did you use such cheap tricks back then to force me into marriage? What’s the point of a scheming, vicious woman pretending to be pure now?” The angrier Lu Yanjiang got, the more bloodshot his eyes suddenly became.
Shen Ruxia gripped the fabric of her skirt tightly. At that moment, she couldn’t find a single word to defend herself.
She had felt guilty for ten years, living with a guilty conscience for a decade. Even now, with Lu Yanjiang dragging up the past, she didn’t even have the courage to meet his eyes.
“Speak!” Seeing her remain silent for so long, Lu Yanjiang raised his voice, clearly furious today.
Shen Ruxia had assumed that coming here to agree to a divorce would make him happy.
“Don’t worry, no matter how vicious I am, I won’t be able to hurt you anymore. I won’t ever show up in front of you again. President Lu’s bright future will definitely not include Shen Ruxia anywhere in it.”
With that, Shen Ruxia let out a breath. It was getting late, and since the divorce business was settled, it was time for her to leave.
“At least you have some self-awareness,” Lu Yanjiang said coldly.
Shen Ruxia didn’t reply. She nodded at him and turned to head for the door.
Just as she reached the threshold, as if remembering something, she lingered with her hand resting on the door handle for a long moment before turning back to look at Lu Yanjiang with a solemn expression.
“There’s something I still need to tell you. I’ve always wanted to say this.” Shen Ruxia raised her hand slightly, the corners of her eyes turning red. “I’m sorry. For wasting so many of your years.”
Lu Yanjiang froze, but when he looked up, Shen Ruxia was already gone.
The living room fell back into silence.
Wasted? Was it really a waste?
Lu Yanjiang had gone from being a passionate twenty-two-year-old youth to a successful, thirty-two-year-old tycoon and the richest man in Haishi.
When he was twenty-two, a penniless nobody, he had married the daughter of the Shen family—instantly achieving financial freedom. And now, at thirty-two, when he was successful, universally respected, and his first love had just returned from abroad, he was single again, regaining the freedom to live however he pleased.
What exactly had she wasted of his?
Lu Yanjiang stared at the divorce agreement on the table, unable to untangle his own emotions.
Ten years.
A mundane yet tangled decade.
Lu Yanjiang had grown exhausted trying to navigate these years, but now that everything was finally settled, he didn’t feel the relief he had expected.
His phone rang.
It was a call from An Songya.
“Songya?”
“Brother Yanjiang, a friend gave me a really nice bottle of red wine tonight. Would you like to come over to my place so we can have a drink together?”
An Songya’s voice was sweet and clear. Red wine, night-time, and a beauty—it was an unmistakable invitation. Yet Lu Yanjiang felt completely indifferent.
“It’s too late. Looks like it’s going to rain tonight, too, so I won’t head over. Get some rest early.”
Without waiting for the disappointment on the other end, Lu Yanjiang hung up first.
Outside, the wind began to pick up, and the curtains scraped against the glass with a faint, rustling sound.
A rainstorm was coming.
Lu Yanjiang poured himself a glass of red wine and took a sip, finding it completely tasteless. He turned and walked back to the bedroom to rest.
Shen Ruxia had moved her things out a couple of days ago, but at that exact moment, Lu Yanjiang felt the bedroom was even emptier than usual.
He sat down on the edge of the bed, and his gaze drifted to the wedding photo of him and Shen Ruxia resting on the nightstand.
They had destroyed or discarded almost everything that connected them, yet somehow, this wedding photo had survived.
They had taken it back when he hated Shen Ruxia the most, which was why his expression in the photo was cold and harsh, while Shen Ruxia’s body was stiff as she leaned against him, a forced smile pasted on her face.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a thoroughly failed wedding picture.
Yet once left there, it had remained for ten years.