After the Divorce, My Wife Is Impossible to Coax - Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Captain An’s words plunged the other two into a heavy silence.

The socially anxious Fu Xinglan, currently pinned under An Zhaoyu’s unfriendly gaze, felt her entire body go stiff. Her mind was filled with nothing but awkwardness and a desperate urge to flee; she wanted to escape this situation immediately. Outwardly, however, her defense mechanism kicked in, leaving her with pressed lips and a cold, aloof expression.

Hmph, acting all cold and indifferent, An Zhaoyu thought. Your heart must be taking a massive hit because your attempt to hook up with Lu Shen failed, right? An Zhaoyu noticed that Fu Xinglan’s hand had frozen mid-air before she pulled it back. Still pretending not to care?

Finally unable to endure it, Fu Xinglan lightly kicked Lu Shen under the table. An Zhaoyu’s sharp eyes caught the movement instantly. Just as she was about to teach this Alpha a lesson for being so handsy with Lu Shen, Lu Shen spoke up.

“Professor Fu, she is the Captain of Flight Section Two,” Lu Shen said, then looked up at An Zhaoyu. “This is Professor Fu Xinglan, my doctoral supervisor and current colleague.”

Supervisor? An Zhaoyu fumed. Does being a supervisor give you the right to touch people under the table?

“Captain An, would you like to join us for dinner?” Fu Xinglan asked. If one listened closely, her voice was trembling slightly—she had clearly been startled by the earlier confrontation.

An Zhaoyu wanted to snap back, “Join your head,” but she stole a careful glance at Lu Shen. Her Beta wife seemed intent on continuing her meal, so An Zhaoyu sat down obediently.

“Sure.” She stood by Lu Shen’s side, belatedly starting to feel a bit guilty.

She and Lu Shen had already submitted their divorce papers to the Civil Affairs Bureau. That “cooling-off period” was essentially a joke; Lu Shen was technically free. Even if she started dating someone else, An Zhaoyu had no right to interfere—it would technically just serve as evidence of a broken relationship. Interrupting Lu Shen’s date like this felt… a bit rude.

Lu Shen and Fu Xinglan were sitting at a four-person table by the window, both on the outside seats. Since Lu Shen didn’t immediately stand up to let her in, An Zhaoyu couldn’t sit.

Fu Xinglan quietly observed this SSS-rank Omega. Wasn’t her aura overwhelming just a second ago? Why is she acting so humble now, looking at Lu Shen like a pitiful little puppy?

Eventually, Lu Shen stood up to let her in and asked the waiter for a new set of utensils.

“Do you want to change the soup base?”

“Anything is fine,” An Zhaoyu said softly, adding an excuse for her presence. “I was just passing by.”

An Zhaoyu preferred spicy food, while Lu Shen and Fu Xinglan had mild palates. They had ordered a “Three Delicacies” pot—milky white, fragrant, and not spicy at all. Lu Shen changed it to a “Yuan-Yang” pot, half clear broth and half red chili oil, and told An Zhaoyu to order a few more dishes.

So she’s just a little cat after all, Fu Xinglan thought. Seeing that the person who had been flaunting her power a moment ago had retracted her claws, Fu Xinglan’s social anxiety eased, and her heart rate returned to normal.

Unexpectedly, she felt a sharp pain under the table.

While Lu Shen was communicating with the waiter, Captain An had stepped firmly on her foot. Fu Xinglan looked over, only to be met with a warning glare.

She has completely misunderstood, Fu Xinglan thought, enduring the stomp without saying a word.

An Zhaoyu assumed her presence would kill the mood and that Lu Shen and Fu Xinglan wouldn’t talk much. She sat there leisurely ordering food while secretly texting her mother that she’d be home late.

— Are you out fooling around at a bar again? He Nanchun’s reply was clearly displeased.

— No, I’m fighting off a love rival and chasing Dr. Lu.

After replying, An Zhaoyu tucked her phone away, intending to seriously observe this Alpha rival. One nose, one mouth, two eyes—An Zhaoyu didn’t think she was anything special. She couldn’t fathom what Lu Shen saw in her.

Once the “uninvited guest” was settled, Lu Shen and Fu Xinglan resumed their conversation. They talked exclusively about inhibitors—targets, signal transduction, and things An Zhaoyu didn’t understand. None of it had to do with daily life, let alone romance. If it weren’t for the food, An Zhaoyu would have fallen asleep listening to them.

After a while, she realized she couldn’t see any ulterior motives from Fu Xinglan toward Lu Shen. They were so focused on work that they practically forgot she was even there. Lu Shen did most of the talking, as the ideas for improving the inhibitor had come from her. However, An Zhaoyu caught a key piece of information: Lu Shen would have to meet and negotiate with various people until the new inhibitor found a suitable company.

Sending Lu Shen to negotiate? An Zhaoyu swished a piece of beef tripe in the spicy oil, her heart sinking.

Lu Shen’s personality wasn’t suited for the business world. Like Lu Ming, she was a genius in research—high IQ, but likely to struggle in the world of human relations and corporate interests. To those “business foxes,” Lu Shen would be a sheep walking into a lion’s den, destined to be eaten alive.

“Why doesn’t Professor Fu handle the negotiations herself?” An Zhaoyu asked suddenly during a lull in their meal.

“…” Fu Xinglan might be socially anxious, but she wasn’t dense. She finally realized Captain An was drowning in jealousy.

“Professor Fu has social anxiety disorder,” Lu Shen said calmly.

An Zhaoyu choked on her words. She has social anxiety? You’re not exactly a social butterfly yourself! Of course, she only thought this; she didn’t dare say it. She recalled the photo Wei Jinlin had sent—it must have been a scene where a negotiation went poorly for Lu Shen. She began to worry. While Lu Shen wasn’t a master negotiator, there were plenty of people who would have “designs” on her.

On the way back, Lu Shen drove Fu Xinglan home. Fu Xinglan only went home once every two weeks, so it was a rare trip. Captain An, of course, followed in her own car. Despite the misunderstanding, An Zhaoyu followed gloomily. Where did this alien professor come from? She can’t even drive a car and needs Lu Shen to drop her off?

“Are you two really getting a divorce?” Once alone with Lu Shen, Fu Xinglan finally spoke up. After all, they had known each other for years. Even through the car windows, Fu Xinglan could feel the resentment radiating from the pilot behind them. She’s quite fierce.

“Yes,” Lu Shen said, instinctively checking the rearview mirror. An Zhaoyu’s car was following steadily.

“The reason?”

“Incompatibility.”

An Zhaoyu was much more lively after the divorce than she had been during the marriage, though she had also become quite strange. Lu Shen still hadn’t figured out her goal.

“She looks like she likes you very much,” Fu Xinglan said bluntly, glancing down at the clear footprint on her white sneakers. “How could she agree to divorce you?”

?

Lu Shen was speechless at this baseless speculation. This was likely the first time Professor Fu had reached a conclusion based on “looks like” rather than objective evidence. As expected of someone with social anxiety—she gets confused as soon as she meets a stranger.

“You’re overthinking it.”

“…”

Fu Xinglan was equally speechless. She was just socially anxious; Lu Shen was just dense. A perfect teacher-student duo. We should rename the lab ‘The Eternal Loners Group.’

Fu Xinglan’s home and the An family home were in different directions. After Lu Shen arrived at the medical center, she turned in the opposite direction, with An Zhaoyu’s car following right behind them.

“Why is she following us?” Fu Xinglan asked. “Aren’t you divorced?”

“Maybe she plans to pick up Xiao Zhou with me,” Lu Shen didn’t see a problem with it. Since the divorce, An Zhaoyu usually followed her in the car, and the two of them would go to the An family home together to pick up the baby. It was the same in the morning; An Zhaoyu’s schedule had changed, and Lu Shen would always encounter her car as soon as she left her house. They often drove into the medical center one after the other.

Lu Shen’s residence was on the only path from S-City to the medical center.

Fine, Fu Xinglan thought, she was the only “eternal loner” here.

It was very late by the time they picked up Xiao Zhou from the An family home. He Nanchun looked at An Zhaoyu with a deep, meaningful gaze. “How did it go?”

“It was alright,” An Zhaoyu took the baby, her mood a bit low. Thinking about Lu Shen having to negotiate with all sorts of “sly foxes” in the future made her feel dejected. How is that any different from a blind date? However, when she remembered that the baby would be going to Lu Shen’s in two weeks, she felt a tiny bit comforted. She would have a reason to go to Lu Shen’s place then.

That afternoon, Captain An took a nap in the duty room. Perhaps because she was preoccupied with thoughts during the day, she had an erotic dream. She hadn’t been intimate with Lu Shen for a long time.

In the dream, she and Lu Shen were on a trainer aircraft. Just the two of them, in the front and back seats. An Zhaoyu set the flight to autopilot and then boldly went to the back seat to find Lu Shen. Being a dream, she did whatever she wanted, completely unconcerned about safety.

“What do you want to do?” Lu Shen discovered her approach and stepped back bit by bit. Her retreat felt like an irresistible trap. Even knowing it was a trap, An Zhaoyu couldn’t help but be lured closer, step by step.

There was no running away. Whether it was the hunter or the prey didn’t matter anymore; what mattered was that neither was going anywhere.

“Lu Shen, whenever you see me wearing this flight uniform officially, don’t you have any thoughts about me?” She felt like she was back on the day of the competition; near the finish line, the “flavor” of Dr. Lu had popped into her mind.

The “seven days and seven nights” they agreed upon hadn’t been implemented yet.

In the dream, Lu Shen was indifferent, her expression bland and her gaze calm, like a monk in deep meditation. An Zhaoyu insisted on provoking her. She seized Lu Shen’s slender hand and placed it on her own chest, while wrapping her own hand around Lu Shen’s waist.

“When I’m wearing my uniform, I have plenty of thoughts. What I think about most is when you’ll personally help me take it off,” she said clearly into Lu Shen’s ear.

She had said many similar things to Lu Shen, mostly in bed. Lu Shen was more concerned with “face” than her; even in bed, she would blush upon hearing such things and sometimes even cover An Zhaoyu’s mouth.

But at this moment, she didn’t see Lu Shen’s face turn red as expected. Instead, Lu Shen appeared before her eyes, also wearing a pilot’s uniform. With the helmet on, Dr. Lu’s expression couldn’t be seen at all, and she remained silent.

A mute!!!

An Zhaoyu snapped her eyes open. After nearly a month, she finally clearly recalled that mysterious team member who had annoyed her for so long. It must have been because she was too busy—divorce, leading two teams on missions, and taking care of the baby.

Actually, it wasn’t that she hadn’t thought of that “mute” before. Sometimes she would remember when she saw Lu Shen, but never on the training ground, and certainly not at such a critical moment.

She had been a hair’s breadth away from kissing Lu Shen.

Immediately, Captain An angrily pushed open the door of the duty room and summoned all the members of Section Two to the training ground.

“New arrivals, all of you, step forward!”

Pilot selection happened once a quarter. Currently, it was about a month and a half since this season’s selection. New pilots didn’t go on missions directly with the Captain; they had to complete six months of training on the ground under senior members. Only after passing the assessment would they become official members. Therefore, to An Zhaoyu, the faces of the new members were still unfamiliar.

About a dozen new members stepped out, looking at each other in confusion, not daring to breathe. The veteran members squatted nearby to watch the show, wondering which unlucky soul had offended Captain An.

“If you have a conscience, step out yourself,” An Zhaoyu walked past them, her gaze scanning each of them.

That mute should be trembling now, she thought. Even without her saying it, that person should know who she was talking about. They must have been quite anxious lately, right? Just as they were about to let their guard down, she remembered.

And it had ruined her beautiful dream.

Today, she would settle all accounts, old and new. Several punishment schemes had already popped into An Zhaoyu’s head.

Step out for what? The new members were collectively baffled.

Out of these ten people, eight were Betas, five were women, and only two were similar to her in height. But as An Zhaoyu scrutinized them, she felt none of them looked like that “mute.”

Just by her staring at them, they were terrified, their eyes darting away. How could any of them be the person who turned off her radio on the plane that day?

“Are all the newcomers here?” An Zhaoyu asked Wen Yuncheng, who was watching nearby; he had been leading this batch of new members.

“They’re all here, no one is missing.” Wen Yuncheng also couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do.

What the hell? She stopped in front of those two female Betas, her aura imposing.

“Captain… what’s wrong?” one of the members asked, her legs a bit weak and her voice trembling.

They had long heard that this Omega captain had a hot temper and was strict with training. Experiencing it now, while they still felt admiration, the fear was very real.

“We haven’t done anything wrong.” The other member wasn’t faring any better; within a few minutes, she was drenched in a cold sweat.

Both of them could speak. An Zhaoyu, of course, didn’t believe that person was truly a mute. This was strange. Could it be that too much time had passed and her memory was distorted?

Impossible. An Zhaoyu had an excellent memory; she never made mistakes regarding flight. She was confident she could pick that “mute” out of these ten people.

If that “mute” was among them.

“No, Captain, this is completely nonsensical. What exactly are you trying to do?” Wen Yuncheng couldn’t stand it anymore. He thought this batch of newcomers was quite easy to lead, with no troublemakers.

“During the competition that day, who was the person who boarded the plane with me?”

The scene fell into a dead silence. None of the new members stepped forward to admit it because none of them had boarded the plane. The veteran members thought she was being extremely weird. Wasn’t the person who boarded the plane with her that day Dr. Lu?

“Captain, there’s really no need to show off your love like this,” Wen Yuncheng said crossly, having finally “understood.”

He had never seen someone who was divorced still come to show off their love in front of their subordinates. What, is having a wife that great?

“What ‘showing off’?” An Zhaoyu felt something was wrong. She looked over the ten people several more times, certain the “mute” wasn’t among them.

Good grief, still playing dumb, Wen Yuncheng said angrily.

“The person who boarded the plane with you that day… wasn’t it Dr. Lu?”

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