A Guide to Divorce for Middle-Aged Lesbian Couples - Chapter 5

“This is a WeChat call. I’ve added myself and Bona as your friends. In the future, if you need anything, you can notify us using this.”

“Mhm. Okay.” Responding absentmindedly, Shen Xingchuan used her fingerprint to open the front door.

The house was lit with a warm glow, and the air held a pleasant scent, causing her heartstrings—which had been frayed by tons of documents all day—to suddenly loosen.

“Drive carefully. You’ve been tired all day, yet you still have to pick me up and drop me off. Tomorrow, have the company arrange…”

The moment Shen Xingchuan changed her shoes and turned around, she heard a tender child’s voice whistling toward her from far to near: “Old Shen!”

It was like being hit by a small cannonball. Her non-slip cane nearly flew out of her hand as Shen Xingchuan slammed hard against the door, her phone slipping from her grasp.

“President Shen! Are you alright!” Bona’s anxious voice came repeatedly from the phone lying on the floor.

Shen Xingchuan regained her composure and looked at the little girl who was clinging to her neck and refusing to let go.

A fair little face, sparkling eyes. A pink, dreamy tutu dress, and slightly curly, fluffy hair tied into two small ponytails that swung in the air.

“Old Shen! I missed you so much! Where’s Mommy? Is she not back yet?” The little girl’s long eyelashes fluttered like stars in the sky.

You? Mommy?! Shen Xingchuan’s brain instantly crashed. If she hadn’t checked the house number before entering and confirmed her fingerprint could open the lock, she would have thought she had walked into the wrong house.

The little girl tilted her head, her face scrunched up in a piteous expression: “Is it really appropriate to look at your child with such cold, heartless eyes, as if I’m a stranger? Am I no longer your favorite baby?”

Wait! This drama queen persona! This theatrical tone! This—this child! Could it be! Not only was she wearing a green hat, but she had also conveniently helped someone raise a child! No! The world twenty years later is too surreal! Sixteen-year-old me really shouldn’t have to endure this!

“President Shen! President Shen! What happened to you!” The doorbell rang urgently several times! Fearing that something had happened to Shen Xingchuan, the two dedicated lieutenants had returned and were hammering the doorbell.

“It’s always like this. Can’t you act a little more surprised? How boring!” Seeing that Shen Xingchuan had no reaction, the little girl shook her head habitually and jumped off her.

Shen Xingchuan’s brain finally managed to reboot. She dragged her heavy steps and opened the door just before it was forcibly breached.

“President Shen! You…”

“Uncle Bona! Sister Annie! Good evening!”

Looking at the little ancestor poking her head out from behind Shen Xingchuan, and then at their boss’s somewhat vacant face, Bona and Annie swallowed the rest of their sentences.

The two couldn’t help but recall a team-building event in Hawaii years ago. Avril, one of the company’s veterans, after chugging half a bottle of wine at a male stripper party, draped her arms over their shoulders and spoke earnestly while facing the sea.

“The background of this little ancestor is an absolute taboo that must never be touched! Do you want to know?”

“We don’t!” The two covered their ears, trying to escape their fate!

“Fine! No spirit of gossip at all!” Avril adjusted her dark green wide-brimmed sun hat and walked away gracefully, leaving behind two weak and helpless figures who clearly hadn’t heard anything, yet felt like they knew everything.

The two exchanged a glance. Given the situation, it was impossible for things to be fine. They could only hope the boss would be brave enough to face the cruelty of reality!

The little girl tugged Shen Xingchuan’s hand, swaying it back and forth: “I’m hungry!”

“Did… didn’t the auntie cook?” Shen Xingchuan tried her best not to make her tone sound so stiff. The play had to go on, she couldn’t let this child see through her.

“Nope! Go buy something. Do you have the heart to watch such a cute child starve to death?”

Staring into the little girl’s starry eyes, Shen Xingchuan nodded blankly: “Okay. What do you want to eat?”

The little girl handed her the phone she had picked up from the floor at some point, revealing a mischievous smile: “Even if I told you, you wouldn’t remember. I’ll send you a WeChat! Sister Dahua said you changed your number, I just added you.”

“WeChat? You have a phone?”

The little girl raised her wrist, showing off a Little Fairy watch.

“Is this a sting operation? I’m not falling for it! We elementary students all use Little Fairy watches!”

It wasn’t until she was sitting in the car that Shen Xingchuan finally snapped out of it. She opened WeChat, and a third avatar appeared in her lonely friend list. A Winnie the Pooh bear hugging a honey jar, with the name “Sunny and Cheerful Little Girl.”

Recalling how affectionate the child had been with her, it seemed that over all these years, she at least hadn’t had a falling out with Su Sixian over this matter. Shen Xingchuan breathed a sigh of relief. At least the special family hadn’t given the child any bad childhood shadows.

Wait! Shen Xingchuan’s brow furrowed. Upon closer thought, she sensed something wrong.

She’s elementary school age, so she must have been born during the marriage. But looking at Baidu Baike, Su Sixian has been either filming or on the way to filming all these years.

The Movie Queen followed a tight schedule, had a painless birth, and yet there was no word of it. Either the paparazzi had regressed, or the entertainment industry had evolved to the point where they could create babies out of thin air!

Shen Xingchuan rubbed her cane. The information Bona prepared for her didn’t contain any information about her family. The true identity of this child would have to wait until she could ask Su Sixian in detail.

Buzz! You received a WeChat message.

The car was deathly silent. Bona and Annie in the front seats sat bolt upright, heads facing forward, not daring to look at the rearview mirror in the center.

“Which one of you…” The Demon King in the rearview mirror issued a death warning to them. The two took a deep breath.

“Bona has been with the company longer than me.”

“Annie handles more of your private affairs.”

The duo in the front row exchanged intense glares, their “better you die than me” eyes sparking enough to fry an egg. After all, no one was thick-skulled enough to tell the boss the news that they had been cuckolded.

“Do you know ‘Shuiyunjian’?”

“We don’t know!” The two replied reflexively.

Shen Xingchuan’s finger accidentally touched the voice message sent by the child: “Remember, you must go to Shuiyunjian!”

Hearing this, Bona immediately pulled a u-turn. “But the GPS knows!”

Annie smoothly opened the app. “Destination: Shuiyunjian. Deed Maps is navigating for you,” echoed in the car.

Bona stepped on the gas with lingering fear, exchanging a side-eye with Annie. Being a worker, life is more bitter than a bitter melon!

Shen Xingchuan gave the two a suspicious look, then lowered her head to unskillfully type on the keyboard: “Okay. What do you want to eat?”

Sunny and Cheerful Little Girl: “Eggplant, green pepper, seaweed, carrot, cilantro.”

Shen Xingchuan: “Okay.”

Beep beep beep! Her phone went crazy for some reason, vibrating incessantly. Shen Xingchuan looked at the various app notifications popping up and felt frustrated, reaching out to turn off the internet. Sure enough, without the internet, the world instantly became clear.

Sunny and Cheerful Little Girl: “Report! Report! Target A is en route!”

Looking at the message from her little boss, Wang Dahua, inside the Shuiyunjian private room, gave a guilty glance at Su Sixian sitting next to her and secretly typed under the table: “Change of plans.”

“Hmm? Who are you messaging?” Su Sixian looked at her suspiciously.

“A business partner.” Wang Dahua immediately put her phone away. In her heart, she prayed: Little boss, you must stop President Shen! Otherwise, tonight’s Shuiyunjian will be a scene of carnage with no survivors!

Who knew a perfectly fine dinner would suddenly involve so many people!

Tonight was originally a dinner set up by President Zhao of Su Sixian’s old agency, Star Entertainment. He intended to invite Tingman and Lu Bai, who had rarely returned to the country, for a simple meal, and specifically called Su Sixian to accompany them. As it turned out, those two Great Gods had gone home to handle internal conflicts.

Upholding the principle of making the most of everything, the stingy-to-the-bone President Zhao took the opportunity to invite two investor daddies, and then called in several new rising starlets and heartthrobs, filling the table to capacity.

After three rounds of drinks, President Zhao raised a toast: “Many of the movies produced by Star Entertainment last year relied on President Wu to act as a bridge!”

President Wu of the Whisper planning department was in his early fifties, dressed in a suit and tie, with a head of hair wax so slick a fly would do a split on it. Many big pies of Whisper’s gaming department IP film adaptations were held in his hands; thus, facing this group of filmmakers from the downstream industry, he held the air of a successful man.

“Not at all, not at all. We still have to rely heavily on our colleagues in the film and television industry to jointly create better works and bring better development for everyone.”

“Oh, President Wu, let me toast you!” A starlet toasted President Wu. President Wu only took a shallow sip. He didn’t like this delicate type. Instead, he was more interested in conquering a mature, “lofty flower” like Su Sixian.

“I wonder if I have the honor of sharing a drink with Ms. Su?”

Although socializing was a normal part of a celebrity’s job, hearing the threat lacing his tone, Su Sixian felt extremely uncomfortable.

“I’m not very good at drinking.”

President Wu narrowed his eyes and said pointedly, “We are currently in contact with Teacher Lu Bai. I’m sure Ms. Su would be interested in her script.”

Waiting for Lu Bai’s labor-intensive script is less likely than expecting modern technology to allow two women to have a baby.

“Is that so?” Seeing through it but not saying it, Su Sixian put on a perfect commercial fake smile, appearing quite interested.

President Sun, sitting next to President Wu, had been fed quite a bit of alcohol through flattery and was currently feeling a bit buzzed. His salty pig hand unconsciously reached toward the hand of Fu Yanmian, who was sitting beside him.

“A few days ago, Ms. Fu was at the top of the Weibo vote for ‘Game Goddess’.”

Fu Yanmian carefully withdrew her hand: “President Sun, you’ve had too much to drink.”

President Sun leaned in, his breath reeking of alcohol onto Fu Yanmian’s face: “I haven’t had too much; I’m perfectly sober. Come, have a drink with me.”

Fu Yanmian pushed away the glass held to her mouth, and the wine spilled all over President Sun’s hand.

President Sun slammed the table and stood up, pointing at Fu Yanmian’s nose and cursing: “Don’t know the rules of the industry, do you! Believe it or not, I can make sure you never get a role again!”

President Zhao quickly stood up, his face full of fawning smiles: “President Sun, calm down.”

President Sun gave a cold laugh with his nostrils flared toward the sky: “Yo! So arrogant! You have someone backing you? Who?”

President Wu, who had been relentless with Su Sixian, stood up and patted President Sun’s shoulder, saying pointedly: “This one’s endorsement was personally decided by the person above me.”

Above him, aside from the major shareholders, there was only the helmsman, Shen Xingchuan. But such a small matter as a subordinate department choosing a spokesperson shouldn’t require the attention of a busy CEO like Shen Xingchuan. The gazes of everyone present fell on Fu Yanmian. They wondered what kind of luck she had to actually catch President Shen’s eye.

Fair-skinned, beautiful, with a furrowed brow looking piteously lovely. She indeed had the image that could stir a gamer’s protective desire to level up and raid dungeons for her all night long.

A cold sneer curled at the corner of Su Sixian’s mouth. So she likes this type.