Wen Su looked at him, stunned for two seconds, then spoke: "I'm a bit tired tonight."
Shen Fei'an's handsome brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, then he threw back the covers and left the large bed.
"Alright, get some rest early." The man walked away from her side, a wisp of woody fragrance carried by the breeze.
Wen Su's heart, at this moment, felt as if it had been shattered by a hammer.
She tilted her head back, eyes squeezed shut—this was the first time she had actively refused his advances.
The next morning, Wen Su rose early, changed into a set of athletic wear, ran two laps, and returned to the living room to see Shen Fei'an sitting on the sofa drinking coffee. Qingqing had already changed her clothes and was playing with building blocks beside him.
Morning sunlight streamed in, and the quiet scene of father and daughter together seemed warm and cozy.
"Mommy!" Shen Siqing ran over happily, circling around Wen Su.
Wen Su took a cup and sipped some warm water, asking softly: "At noon, I'm taking you out to have lunch with Auntie Yimin."
"Yay, I want to go!" Shen Siqing cheered joyfully, her eyes sparkling.
Shen Fei'an glanced up at Wen Su.
Wen Su didn't say anything to him. She went upstairs, changed into a skirt, and came back down. Her figure was well-proportioned, slender and graceful, and wearing this plaid dress, she looked gentle and elegant.
"Mommy is so pretty!" Shen Siqing gave her full emotional support: "I want to wear a little dress to go out too."
Wen Su laughed: "So young and already so fond of beauty?"
"I want to!" Shen Siqing pouted.
Wen Su changed her into an adorable dress as well. Shen Siqing ran to Shen Fei'an and spun around in front of him: "Daddy, does my new dress look pretty?"
Shen Fei'an praised her gently: "Pretty. Qingqing looks good in anything."
Hearing such a doting tone from him, Wen Su felt a bitter taste in her heart. Thinking of the iron-fisted tactics he had used to protect Lu Qingyun, Wen Su felt that even the tenderness on his face carried a hint of hypocrisy.
At noon, Wen Su took her daughter to meet her best friend, Qin Yimin, for lunch.
Qin Yimin was the chief designer of a women's fashion brand. Half of Wen Su's wardrobe consisted of her designs. Qin Yimin would also send her a new set every so often, and Wen Su would gift her self-developed private skincare products in return.
When Wen Su arrived with Qingqing, Qin Yimin was already there, seated in a booth by the window.
She was looking down at design sketches on her tablet. Her shoulder-length hair was styled in soft waves, and she wore a purple shirt dress with a unique cut—intelligent and striking, exuding the aura of a leading lady.
"Susu, baby Qingqing." Seeing the mother and daughter, Qin Yimin immediately opened her arms to hug Qingqing.
"I've already ordered a set meal for you." Qin Yimin held the soft, cuddly Shen Siqing, in an especially good mood.
Qingqing also adored this auntie who smelled so nice, nuzzling her little face against her.
Then she was drawn to the animal-shaped rice balls placed beside her, studying them intently before scooping them into her little mouth with a small spoon.
The two chatted briefly about recent happenings, and the conversation soon turned to their personal lives.
"Getting a divorce is so hard." Qin Yimin leaned back in her seat, pressing her temple: "I suspect he's deliberately wasting my time. I've been wrangling with him for so long, and he still won't sign. What's worse, at some point he used one of his holding companies to invest in my studio, dragging me into an economic dispute. He's truly calculating."
Wen Su's heart ached for her friend—it had already been a year, and her marriage still hadn't been dissolved.
"Do you need me to recommend a better lawyer?" Wen Su asked with concern.
"There's no point in finding anyone. All I can do now is wait." Qin Yimin gritted her teeth while cutting into her steak, venting: "Going through all this, I've come to understand completely—some men aren't evil, they're just selfish. If you go along with them, everything's fine. But the moment you resist, it's like you've stabbed them in the back, and they'll use every trick to force you to bow your head."
Wen Su's fingers, holding the salad fork, paused.
"Hmph, they're used to controlling everything. Once you try to fight for what you deserve, or refuse to play along with their act of a harmonious family, they accuse you of being unreasonable and unappreciative."
These words made Wen Su's expression freeze.
Wasn't Shen Fei'an's defense of Lu Qingyun remarkably similar to what Qin Yimin had described?
"I'm grateful that I didn't have children to pursue my career. Otherwise, with a child as a tie, it would be even harder to end things cleanly. There's a saying that goes: you can never wake someone who's pretending to sleep, and you can never warm a heart that's already turned away."
Wen Su's gaze fell on her daughter, who was clumsily picking up rice balls with chopsticks, her little face carefree and innocent.
This meal, Wen Su ate somewhat absentmindedly.
In the past, she would only advise her friends to stay calm and take it easy.
But today, every word Qin Yimin shared about her divorce experience—how to gather evidence, how to find a reliable lawyer, how to protect herself financially, and how to adjust her mindset in the face of others' stares and criticism—Wen Su took it all in.
Monday morning!
Inside the Hengsheng Biotech building, the atmosphere was once again tense and bustling.
The HR department had spread a rumor—nothing was confirmed yet, but someone had seen Lu Qingyun go to HR and fill out a resignation form.
Dr. Lu had come in early that morning and submitted her resignation?
This, combined with the earlier incident of Wen Su aggressively taking over projects, inevitably made people suspect that Wen Su had done something excessive behind the scenes, forcing the now-unsupported Lu Qingyun to be unable to stay at the company.
After dropping off her daughter, Wen Su arrived at the office right on time. Her assistant, Liu Yumei, had heard the rumors circulating outside and had already gotten into heated arguments with several people over the matter.
Liu Yumei, who had been with Wen Su for five years, knew her personality best.
She had been following every project as well—calling it "taking over" was utterly ridiculous. It was simply how things had turned out. But some people, unwilling to step forward and admit the truth, could only sulk in the shadows and use resignation to play the victim. That was what was truly shameless.
Wen Su noticed Liu Yumei's red-rimmed eyes as she set the documents on the desk and asked with concern, "Yumei, why are your eyes so red?"
Receiving that concern only made Liu Yumei angrier. "Dr. Wen, Dr. Lu went to HR this morning to apply for resignation, and everyone outside is saying you forced her to leave. Those people are just awful—accusing you without a shred of evidence. I argued with a few of them, but they only got worse…"
"What did they say?" Wen Su's pretty face had already turned cold.
"They said… said…" Liu Yumei simply couldn't bear to repeat those gut-wrenching words to Wen Su.
"It's fine. Whatever you heard, just say it. I can take it." Wen Su's tone softened.
Liu Yumei let out a frustrated sigh. "They said Dr. Lu is like a half-daughter to the Shen family, and that President Shen raised her as a little sister since childhood, so she's family to the Shens. You're just a daughter-in-law the Shens married in, and there's an old saying that a daughter-in-law is always an outsider…"
"They also said… said President Shen married you as a fallback, not out of genuine love or anything like that…"
Wen Su: "Anything else?"
Liu Yumei squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists. "They said Dr. Wen is just too vicious and can't tolerate anyone, which is why she gave birth to a child with a heart defect…"