Did My Ex-Wife Agree to Remarry Me Today? - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: The Drunkard

By shifting her perspective back to her true form, Li Zhou could see exactly what was happening inside Chi Yun’s home. However, as soon as she moved her vision there, the view became strange—as if covered by a film, blurry and indistinct.

Adjusting her focus to her branches, Li Zhou finally saw clearly: a ring of objects stood around her main trunk. Since the lights in the yard weren’t on, she couldn’t distinguish what they were for. Setting that aside for a moment, she looked for Chi Yun.

She spotted her immediately.

The woman was standing at the entrance—right in the middle of the iron gate leading into the yard. The gate was already open, and the intoxicated woman had her arms spread, propping herself against the edges of the frame to steady her body. She lifted her left foot, then her right, struggling in a dither over which foot should take the first step inside. It seemed she had been back for a while but was stuck on this particular obstacle at her feet.

While keeping an eye on Chi Yun’s every move, Li Zhou called Pei Pei back. “I found her. She’s in her yard.”

Pei Pei said joyfully, “That’s wonderful!” Then she fell into hesitation: “Then… should I go in and check? Will President Chi be unable to make it upstairs and just lie in the yard all night?” If she froze all night, she’d surely have another cold tomorrow.

“No need,” Li Zhou said. “I’ll go there.”

“If you’re going, that’s even better!” Pei Pei was finally at ease. “Then I’ll head back first?” Since Chi Yun hadn’t driven to the office today, she had used Pei Pei’s car; Pei Pei could simply drive it home.

Li Zhou: “Mm, go ahead.”

After hanging up, just as Li Zhou was about to tell Li Hang to divert to Huijing Mansion, the person in her other perspective made a major move, drawing her attention back.

As if suddenly reaching a firm resolution, Chi Yun stopped lingering at the gate. Her hands let go of the iron bars, and she stroded toward the path in the yard. Unfortunately, she led with the wrong foot; realizing her mistake as she stepped out, she tried to pull it back, and tripped herself.

Seeing her stumble and start to fall straight toward the ground, Li Zhou lowered a branch, swiftly hooked Chi Yun’s collar, and pulled upward with force.

With her body at a thirty-degree angle to the ground, Chi Yun was lifted by a mysterious force. This force, combined with the alcohol, made her body sway like a marionette. Unable to steady herself, and carrying “something” on her back, she swayed in a circle before mumbling dizzily, “Who’s grabbing me… who is grabbing me…”

Li Zhou hadn’t known what the objects surrounding her main trunk were, but she knew now: it was a ring of iron fencing with sharp spikes. As Chi Yun wobbled and leaned toward it, Li Zhou adjusted the tension in the branch, jerking Chi Yun to the side.

Li Zhou thought that side would be safe, but there were things on the ground there, too. A water channel? Why was there a water channel here? Li Zhou didn’t know what Chi Yun had done around her true form during the time her perspective was away. In the pitch black, she couldn’t tell what these things were for.

She couldn’t let Chi Yun fall onto the spikes, nor could she let her step into the channel, so she tightened the grip of the branches, forcing Chi Yun to stand in place, crookedly but held fast.

“Sister, what’s wrong? What’s wrong with your hand?” Li Hang, who had pulled over as instructed, was stunned. She had seen everything that happened in the last minute. Suddenly, her sister’s hand had reached into the empty air of the car, grabbed something, pulled upward, and then remained in a posture of firmly holding something to keep it from running away.

Ignoring Li Hang’s shocked expression, Li Zhou’s hand remained suspended in mid-air, still pulling at the air with force as she said, “Turn around and go to Huijing Mansion. Fast.”

“Huijing Mansion? It…” Li Hang was reluctant. She knew what Huijing Mansion was and who her sister was going there to find, but…

“Hurry up,” Li Zhou urged in a low, stern voice.

Li Hang had never successfully won an argument against Li Zhou, so she obediently started the car and drove toward Huijing Mansion.

Chi Yun was very restless. Feeling something grabbing her from behind, she tried to reach back and catch it. “What is grabbing me… why are you grabbing me…”

How could a drunkard’s movements be accurate? Whether she raised her left or right hand, it just smashed into her own forehead, while her body swayed back and forth as her center of gravity shifted. Li Zhou had to split off two small twigs to bind Chi Yun’s hands, preventing her from reaching back any further.

Even a delirious drunkard feels discomfort when their physical instincts are resisted. Chi Yun whimpered softly, “Wuuu… A-Li, save me…”

“Can you drive any faster?” Back in the rapidly moving car, Li Zhou told Li Hang to speed up.

“The limit is 100, I’m about to speed,” Li Hang argued.

“Hit 100 first before you talk,” Li Zhou said, knowing exactly what the speed was without looking at the dashboard. “Faster, I’m in a hurry,” she urged again.

They arrived at Huijing Mansion twenty minutes later. During that time, Chi Yun had been quiet for a while—so quiet Li Zhou thought she had fallen asleep—but before long, her lips moved, and she said in a tearful voice, “I’m being bullied, A-Li… they’re all bullying me…”

Initially, Li Zhou thought the “thing” bullying her was herself, but she didn’t realize the truth until she arrived on the scene.

The security naturally let Li Zhou into Huijing Mansion, but she didn’t let Li Hang drive in. Instead, she told Li Hang to turn left ahead and drive straight back to Wuzhou, while she got out alone.

“Sister, aren’t you coming back?” Li Hang asked.

“A bit later,” Li Zhou said.

But Li Hang was stubborn: “Then I’ll wait for you at the gate. I’ll drive you back once you’re done.”

Li Zhou didn’t know when she’d be finished. She used a tone that brooked no argument: “No need. Go back first.” With that, she opened the door and got out. Li Hang tried to follow, but the security stopped her at the gate. She got back in the car, waited for a while, and seeing the road empty and the residents’ lights turning off one by one, she gave up and drove back to Wuzhou.

After entering the house, Li Zhou turned on the yard lights. The sudden burst of light stimulated Chi Yun’s drooping eyelids; she opened them slightly, peering forward through the haze. A figure was approaching in the shadows.

The force that had been holding her for so long gave one final tug upward and then withdrew. Li Zhou stepped forward, catching the swaying Chi Yun—or rather, embracing her, as Chi Yun couldn’t keep her balance at all.

Her chin resting on Li Zhou’s shoulder, Chi Yun’s arms automatically wrapped around Li Zhou’s waist. It was as if she recognized her, yet she seemed to be talking in her sleep, mumbling with her eyes closed, “A-Li, they’re all bullying me, they’re all bullying me…”

Only then did Li Zhou realize that the subject Chi Yun was mentioning was plural. She asked, “Who bullied you?”

“Lots of people…” Chi Yun’s words were slurred. “They… wine… kept pouring me wine, and, and they wouldn’t let me leave…”

“I have to… I have to go to the airport to pick up… pick up my wife…”

Li Zhou remembered Pei Pei mentioning that Chi Yun had been targeted by partners and pressured to drink in rounds. She asked, “Have you offended someone recently?”

Chi Yun began to sob pitifully. “Wuuu… I want to pick up my wife…”

Li Zhou was helpless. Chi Yun was truly drunk, and very much so. “Stand up straight. I can’t get you into the house if you hold me like this,” Li Zhou tried to communicate with the drunkard.

Chi Yun’s center of gravity was entirely on her, and her hands were like pincers, firmly gripping her waist. Forget about moving Chi Yun—Li Zhou had trouble moving herself. But the drunkard seemed unable to hear her, immersed entirely in her own sorrow. “My wife must be mad at me again, she’s going to put me on the blacklist again… wuu, I don’t want to be on the blacklist…”

Li Zhou remained speechless. She decided to force Chi Yun into the house. Chi Yun had a ticklish spot on the back of her neck; if pinched, she would instinctively shrink her neck. Li Zhou took advantage of that moment when Chi Yun shrunk her neck and loosened her grip to change her posture, leading her into the house.

Chi Yun didn’t walk straight and had too many ideas, leaning in one direction and then another, making Li Zhou stumble along with her. It took them half an hour just to get inside and another half hour to get upstairs. At the bedroom door, she refused to go in, insisting her room was next door.

The room next door wasn’t hers; it was Li Zhou’s room from after they began sleeping separately. Seeing time about to cross another half-hour mark, Li Zhou compromised and brought the drunkard into her own room.

The room was exactly as it was when she left; everything was placed neatly in its original spot. Li Zhou saw that at a glance. Once on the bed, the drunkard hugged her quilt, usurped her pillow, and wrinkled her sheets.

Li Zhou had taken off Chi Yun’s coat; her shoes had been kicked off on the stairs. Now, she was curled up in Li Zhou’s covers, lying on her side with clear, bright eyes, watching Li Zhou as she sat on the edge of the bed to rest. Dealing with a drunkard for two hours was more exhausting than working a month straight.

There was no extra furniture in Li Zhou’s room—just a simple bed and a wardrobe. She couldn’t very well sit in the wardrobe to rest, so she sat on the head of the bed on the side Chi Yun hadn’t occupied.

It seemed being on a bed made a drunkard a bit clearer than when standing. Li Zhou heard clearly articulated words from Chi Yun.

She said, “This is my wife’s bed.”

Li Zhou didn’t care whose bed it was.

“You’re sitting here,” she added. “Are you my wife?”

Li Zhou looked down at Chi Yun and gave a cold denial: “I used to be. I’m not anymore.”

Chi Yun’s gaze dropped. She thought for a moment, then looked up again. “Then you will be in the future, right?” Her eyes were very bright, searching Li Zhou’s face with an expectant look.

Li Zhou gave a negative answer again: “That’s not necessarily certain.”

It wasn’t a total denial, but it wasn’t an affirmation either. Those eyes began to fill with the grief of being struck by a blow. “I like you so much, but if you won’t marry me, won’t I be very sad?”

Li Zhou asked her softly, “Then, what do you like about me?”

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