Fell Deeply In Love With My Ex-Husband's Fiancé - Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Divorce Certificate – Mistaking the Small Leopard for a Kitten

Lu Feiran zipped up his bag and walked over to Lance.

The man’s tall frame completely blocked the doorway. Lu Feiran had no easy way to get past him from any angle.

The eyes fixed on him were impossible to shake off, dense and suffocating, like a spiderweb woven inside the doorway, tightly trapping the exit for any small animal attempting to escape the cave.

“Are you… not letting me leave?” Lu Feiran asked.

He could also pretend to be innocent and misunderstand the subtext. He knew Lance wanted him to stay, but he had already said they were breaking up. What Lance thought had nothing to do with him, did it?

“The breakup compensation is what you refused, so you can’t blame me. You didn’t really think there’d be a tomorrow, did you?” Seeing Lance start to show emotion, Lu Feiran continued to stab him, “Who can handle you changing your mood every day? You’re like a madman.”

He bumped Lance’s chest hard with his shoulder, and a string of cruel words followed: “If you had been like this the first time we met, I would have avoided you.”

“Someone like you, wanting me to love you, is a dream.” You use me as a tool, but you don’t look at who I am.

Lance had seen countless expressions and looks from Lu Feiran, but never the look of contempt reserved for garbage.

The intense adoration was gone, replaced by unconcealed annoyance in his eyes. Lance also began to feel that Lu Feiran was a stranger.

Lance believed he had done everything right. No matter what Lu Feiran intentionally did to provoke him, he had endured it.

Tolerance, generosity, and care are the foundations of a romantic relationship, and he had scored full marks on all of them. He couldn’t understand the reason for Lu Feiran’s transformation; he had exhausted every method to win him back.

“Why?” Lance felt a splitting headache, caused not only by the crushing sense of defeat but also by a fear that crept up his spine like a maggot in the bone.

He was clearly the one in control at the beginning. Lu Feiran, ignorant and naive, fell into his trap by following the path he had arranged. He had thought everything would go smoothly, but the closer things developed toward his expected goal, the more control he lost over Lu Feiran.

Lance felt that perhaps he had invested too much emotion, allowing sentiment to override rational judgment and leading him to make many choices that were not optimal, which resulted in the current situation.

Lu Feiran seemed docile and ignorant, but he was never a prey to be slaughtered at will. Not only might he escape if not careful, but he could also bite the neck and tear the flesh until it bled profusely.

Mistaking the small leopard for a kitten was not the leopard’s fault.

Lance sincerely hoped Lu Feiran wouldn’t answer his question. He already knew the answer, but he didn’t want to hear it.

However, Lu Feiran gave him a look reserved for an idiot: “You’re a grown man, don’t act like a hothead talking about love for the first time. Break up means break up, be a little decisive.”

Lance froze. He was talking about love for the first time, so the problem lay here. Because it was his first time, there were still many areas where he hadn’t done well enough.

After much deliberation, he didn’t utter the words threatening Jin Zhan. Lance clearly knew this was the optimal solution, the only way to make Lu Feiran stay right now.

But he also knew that if he said those words, the gates of hell would be wide open. He couldn’t bear the consequences.

So, should he let Lu Feiran go?

Lu Feiran used action to squeeze out through the gap next to Lance. Without looking aside, he walked straight to the main door: putting on his shoes, unlocking, opening the door, closing the door, and the sound of his footsteps fading away—all in one smooth motion.

The entire house suddenly became empty. Lance was still standing at the bedroom door. It was late at night, the quietest time. The birds that should have returned to their nests had done so; even the smallest animals were sleeping curled up with their partners and children, while Lance stood like a wooden man in the doorway.

After a long time, he heard a faint bird song. The sun of the next day would soon rise.

Lance’s dusty, emerald-like eyes finally moved. He had a sudden idea to log into Noen’s WeChat and kick his obedient nephew off.

After waiting for a minute to sync the chat history, he scrolled through the contact list and saw a familiar profile picture at the very bottom.

The profile picture was a photo of Lu Feiran himself. Lance didn’t know who took it; he had previously guessed it was Zhou Zihua, but now he suspected Jin Zhan.

There was no nickname set, and clicking in showed no chat history. Not even the system-generated greeting message after adding the friend was there.

The chat box, which had clearly been manually emptied, blatantly told Lance that Noen had betrayed him a long time ago.

His clenched fists creaked. Lance restrained the urge to immediately go back, drag Noen out of bed, and interrogate him, patiently beginning to search the chat history.

The finger sliding through the records stopped. Lance saw two pictures in the chat history between Noen and his biological mother. They were red, and looked exactly like the item Lu Feiran had stuffed into his bag before leaving.

It was a divorce certificate.

The date on the divorce certificate was clearly October 20th, the day Lu Feiran returned with a large bouquet of roses, and also before the confession on Wuxia Mountain.

He hadn’t been told about it until now, nearly a month later.

So, Lu Feiran had been playing him since then? Otherwise, what reason did Lu Feiran have to intentionally hide it?

No, that’s not right, Lance analyzed calmly. Lu Feiran’s state on Wuxia Mountain was genuine and completely different from now; it couldn’t have been a fake confession.

The problem lay before Lu Feiran’s car accident. He had met Lu Xingli, and Lu Xingli had intercepted Noen’s car not long ago and learned his identity.

A clear and obvious flaw had always existed. It would be exposed as soon as the two of them were seen together. In fact, his impersonation of Noen could easily be exposed. He hadn’t intended to disguise the matter as anything seamless; he just planned to play around for a few days under Noen’s name and then leave.

But then he met Lu Feiran.

The person Lu Feiran knew was “Noen,” which meant the exposure of his true identity was no longer something trivial.

And so, at 5:30 in the morning, Noen was awakened by a phone call.

…

When Lu Feiran returned to Luyuan, Jin Zhan was still awake. The fireplace on the first floor was lit, and he was wrapped in a blanket, curled up on the sofa by the fireplace, sketching the flickering flames. He drew several drafts that weren’t what he wanted, and the wads of crumpled paper piled up by his feet, which he then tossed one by one into the fire to burn.

Hearing movement in the entryway, Jin Zhan jumped up, threw down his sketchbook, and ran to greet him.

This was not the time for him to come home. It would have been better if Lu Feiran hadn’t returned, but his return meant something had happened.

Lu Feiran came in carrying a bulky backpack, his face wooden and stiff. Like a walking corpse, he brought the bag in. Seeing Jin Zhan still waiting for him, he managed a strained smile as a greeting.

Jin Zhan nervously twisted his fingers, not daring to step forward or retreat, not daring to speak out, yet not daring to ask nothing at all.

His relationship with Lu Feiran was not yet close enough to pry into private matters.

When Zhou Zihua took Jin Zhan away from the bar, he had asked indirectly, but Zhou Zihua stammered and just told him not to worry, saying the matter was complicated and incomprehensible to a normal person.

Does that mean Lu Feiran, who is deeply involved, is not normal?

Jin Zhan was very worried. Lu Feiran’s look of despair was exactly the same as his own when he had learned that Zhai Qiance was married.

If Lu Feiran hadn’t come to his house then, he would have wandered in a daze for a while and then jumped off a bridge. If he met a kind person, he might end up on the news; if he was unlucky, he would simply be gone.

Jin Zhan went over and took Lu Feiran’s hand, finding it as cold as a piece of ice, and his whole body was trembling!

He immediately hugged Lu Feiran, wanting to pass on some of his warmth, but it was a drop in the bucket. Lu Feiran was cold all over, just like… just like being pulled out of a winter lake!

Lu Feiran patted Jin Zhan’s shoulder: “Thank you. Can you help me with this bag? I’m too tired and have no strength…”

“Of course!” Jin Zhan immediately took the backpack and quickly carried it to Lu Feiran’s room.

“Thank you. I won’t be eating tomorrow, please don’t wake me. I want to sleep for a while.”

The first ray of morning light shone in, and the hazy glow divided Lu Feiran’s face into two halves of light and shadow.

Jin Zhan saw Lu Feiran into the bedroom and looked at his face, thinking, Why would that person hurt Lu Feiran? Getting such a wonderful person and not cherishing them deserves divine retribution.

The blackout curtains were drawn, and the room returned to darkness. After the door closed, Lu Feiran fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.

…

The next day, Lu Feiran did not leave his room until almost dusk. Aunt Chen’s lunch, placed outside his door, had not been touched.

Jin Zhan was worried and didn’t know what to do, so he called Zhou Zihua over.

Zhou Zihua came and asked Jin Zhan how long Lu Feiran had slept.

Jin Zhan said about nine hours.

Zhou Zihua was then relieved and began to bang loudly on the door, forcing Lu Feiran to wake up. Looking at Lu Feiran’s face, which was a mixture of suppressed rage, he smiled, rubbed the back of his head, and squeezed inside.

“Spill it, did you break up for good?” Zhou Zihua instantly grasped the core issue. “No way, are you going to act like you’re dying just because you dumped a guy?”

The quiet room was Lu Feiran’s cocoon—warm but cold, made of high-quality natural materials, with no uncomfortable smells or other familiar scents. Because it was unfamiliar, it gave him peace.

He didn’t want to leave the cocoon. If he didn’t need to eat, he could stay for another three days and nights.

But if he didn’t open the door, Zhou Zihua would break it down. He didn’t want Zhou Zihua to ruin his newly decorated home, so he reluctantly opened the door and then burrowed back under the covers.

Lu Feiran originally wanted to curl up in the quilt and wallow a little longer, but Zhou Zihua’s challenge provoked him into sitting up and throwing a pillow out: “I’m not dying, I’m just too tired, can’t I want to sleep?”

Jin Zhan immediately blushed and apologized softly, saying he didn’t mean to disturb Lu Feiran’s sleep, he was just too worried.

Lu Feiran: “It’s okay, it’s not your fault.”

Zhou Zihua immediately raised his hand to interrupt their conversation, gently asked Jin Zhan to step out first, and then sat on the edge of Lu Feiran’s bed, whispering secretively, “Is it really over?”

Lu Feiran nodded: “Really.”

“Why the sudden change of heart?”

“Because he’s actually mentally ill!” Lu Feiran turned his back. “I was defrauded by him!”

After Lu Feiran finished recounting all the details, Zhou Zihua sighed with emotion, patting his thigh: “I warned you back then, and you didn’t listen to a single word!”

He looked at Lu Feiran with the exasperation of a mother hen fiercely protecting her chick.

Lu Feiran pointed to the door: “If you’re going to scold me, get out. No one is allowed to lecture me!”

Zhou Zihua immediately changed his expression, smiled sheepishly, and lay down on the bed: “I won’t scold you. Why don’t you come out and eat? Aunt Chen made dumplings. Don’t you like to eat dumplings when you’re in a bad mood? I specifically asked her to make them tonight.”

Having been messed with by Zhou Zihua, Lu Feiran’s solitary grieving process was interrupted. He couldn’t find the atmosphere to feel sad even if he wanted to crawl back into the covers, so he got out of bed and stormed out.

Jin Zhan, who was guarding the door, saw him come out, his gloomy expression completely gone, and smiled at him.

While eating dumplings, Lu Feiran saw that Zhou Zihua had brought a large bag, even his personal clothes, looking like he planned to stay for a few days.

He instantly felt that his sadness throughout the day was a fuss over nothing. Why be sad for someone not worth it? He still had so many people who cared about him.

The three of them stayed in Luyuan for five days and nights without leaving the house. They woke up and played games, completing several titles.

On the day Zhou Zihua left, Aunt Chen brought a document that had been delivered.

It was a notice for a shareholder meeting of Topway to be held fifteen days later. The core agenda was to dismiss the chairman and elect a new one.

He had to show up in person.