The Wife From the Contract Marriage Does Not Want to Get Divorced - Chapter 12

As night fell, the living room of the Lu family’s old European-style villa was enveloped in a warm, amber glow.

Upon entering the house, Lu Yanqing called out “Mom” and then fell into a heavy silence. It seemed that after three years apart, mother and daughter still had nothing to say to one another.

Her father, Lu Hongshen, was an archaeologist. In his youth, his work required him to travel all over the world; now, he served as a professor in the History Department at C University in Rongcheng.

Her mother, Shen Ruohua, was a diplomat. Their marriage had been nothing more than an arrangement orchestrated by their parents.

After marrying, the couple lived apart for many years. When Shen Ruohua discovered she was pregnant, she was at the height of her career advancement. Initially, she had wanted to terminate the pregnancy, but the doctor informed her that due to her unique physical constitution, an abortion would be severely detrimental to her health.

After weighing the pros and cons, Shen Ruohua agreed to give birth. However, once the child was born, she didn’t even bother with the traditional postpartum recovery month. Ignoring the pleas of her husband and in-laws, she resolutely abandoned her infant daughter and headed overseas alone to take up her post.

Meanwhile, Lu Hongshen was also preoccupied with his archaeological work and was forced to leave the child in the care of a nanny. At the age of two, due to the nanny’s negligence, Lu Yanqing ran a fever so high it led to convulsions; had she been sent to the hospital any later, the high heat might have left her permanently impaired.

It was the Old Master who couldn’t bear to watch any longer and took her in to raise her himself.

By the time Shen Ruohua had successfully earned her promotions and achieved professional success wishing then to make amends her eldest daughter had already stumbled through her early years to age five under the grandfather’s care.

Coincidentally, Shen Ruohua unexpectedly became pregnant with a second child at that time, leaving even less time to spare for her eldest daughter.

Later, as Lu Yanqing grew up, she no longer had much need for her mother. As for “companionship,” it wasn’t something she even dared to crave. After all, her very birth had been unwanted by her parents.

“Mom, I heard from Uncle Li that Sister was busy with a merger and acquisition case abroad for the past three years. It’s not that she intentionally avoided contacting us. Don’t keep such a long face; you’re scaring me.”

Lu Yanwei cautiously closed the velvet gift box and sat back down beside Ms. Shen. She naturally tucked her arm through her mother’s and spoke in a deliberately low voice. She didn’t want her sister and mother to keep fighting.

Ms. Shen gently patted her younger daughter’s hand. “I’m not angry. It’s just that your sister is too headstrong. She was the one who agreed to the strategic marriage in the first place, yet she’s also the one who went missing the day after they registered the marriage.”

“Even if she was busy with overseas mergers, when the Lu Group was facing a PR crisis and the stock price was plummeting when Siyu was being pointed at and criticized by everyone would it have been so hard for her to stand up and say a word or two to clarify things?”

Lu Yanqing sat on the sofa to Ms. Shen’s right. Xie Siyu sat close beside her; perhaps out of distraction, her hand was still being held tightly by Xie Siyu.

With her eyes downcast, Lu Yanqing listened to Ms. Shen’s lecture without uttering a single word. She seemed used to it.

However, when she heard that Xie Siyu had been criticized by outsiders, the expression in her eyes shifted. She said hoarsely, “I handled that matter poorly.”

Ms. Shen replied, “It’s good that you realize that.”

Xie Siyu squeezed Lu Yanqing’s fingertips, looked up at Ms. Shen, and explained softly, “Mom, it’s all in the past. There’s no point in dwelling on it further. Now that Qingqing is back, we will live well together from now on.”

Lu Yanqing released Xie Siyu’s hand at the appropriate moment. Knowing that Xie Siyu was only saying this to put Ms. Shen’s mind at ease, she naturally did not contradict her.

Only her curled eyelashes trembled slightly. Their “extended” marriage only had two years left.

Suddenly, a significant commotion came from the stairwell, and the group looked over in unison.

Lu Hongshen had finished his long-distance video call with his students and hurried downstairs, heading straight for the living room. He pulled Lu Yanqing up to look her over carefully, the heavy stone that had sat in his heart for years finally falling away. “So you finally know to come home?”

“Dad,” Lu Yanqing called out dully.

Her father, now over sixty, had more white hair at his temples, and his skin was dark a mark left by years of exposure to the wind and sun. She had to admit that her father was gradually growing old as well.

Lu Hongshen gave a heavy sigh, patted his eldest daughter on the shoulder, and said deeply, “It’s good that you’re back. It’s good that you’re back.”

Over the past three years, every time he went to the hospital to visit his own father, the Old Master had looked dejected. The doctors said it was a sickness of the heart.

“No matter how complicated the Group’s affairs are, you must look after your health. Don’t work yourself to death like Siyu. Last year, when she fainted during her speech at the annual meeting, she gave us quite a scare…”

“Dad.”

Xie Siyu suddenly cut off Lu Hongshen’s words. A helpless smile appeared on her face as she stood up, walked to Lu Yanqing’s side, tugged at her sleeve, and explained softly, “It wasn’t as serious as Dad makes it sound, really… it was just an accident.”

Xie Siyu fainted at last year’s annual meeting.

Lu Yanqing’s heart tightened again. She had heard Liu Yao mention it a few days ago, but now, even her father who was usually entirely focused on his archaeology remembered it vividly. This only proved that Xie Siyu must have been very seriously ill at the time.

After dinner.

Lu Yanqing declined her younger sister’s suggestion to stay over. If she and Xie Siyu stayed at the old villa, there was a high probability they would have to share a bed. She hadn’t forgotten that Xie Siyu had someone she secretly loved; their marriage was merely a contract.

Because she had eaten fermented rice dumplings (which contain a trace of alcohol), Xie Siyu drove the return trip. At just after nine o’clock in the evening, they arrived at Jianghai Lanyuan.

The Bentley pulled into a parking spot at the apartment complex. Xie Siyu pressed the seatbelt release, the crisp click breaking the silence inside the car. As she reached out, she brought with her a scent of orange blossoms.

Her fingertips pressed against Lu Yanqing’s watch strap. The blue light from the watch face reflected the panic in her eyes. “Lu Yanqing, there’s no need for you to be angry about things that have already passed…”

Lu Yanqing’s hand was still on the door handle, the door half-open. The cool night breeze blew in, dissipating the warmth inside the car. She turned back to look at Xie Siyu, the dome light casting shadows across her profile.

“Last Christmas Eve, the logistics system for the D-city branch collapsed.”

Xie Siyu unconsciously rubbed the leather texture of the steering wheel. “I spent three days straight coordinating cross-province freight and forgot to take my medicine… that’s why what happened next occurred.”

Thinking of the fluorescent lights on the emergency room ceiling that day, she found them just as piercing as the car’s dome light was now.

The night wind blew in, tossing the stray hairs around Xie Siyu’s ears. With a thud, Lu Yanqing slammed the door shut and sat back in the passenger seat. She raised an eyebrow, staring at the evergreen shrubs in the green belt ahead, her tone heavy. “Xie Siyu, why do you think I would be angry?”

“Anyone with a normal reaction would feel worried first upon hearing something like that, wouldn’t they?”

Lu Yanqing grabbed Xie Siyu’s slender wrist, her thumb pressing against the beating pulse. She said emphatically, syllable by syllable, “On my first day back in the office, I saw you taking medicine as if you were swallowing razor blades.”

Xie Siyu closed her eyes. “The situation back then was special…”

She tried to pull her hand away, but Lu Yanqing held her even tighter, so she eventually gave up. “Besides, it’s all in the past.”

Lu Yanqing suddenly leaned in close. The distant streetlights filtered through the right window, casting their overlapping shadows in a way that felt inexplicably intimate. “Special enough that you had to force yourself through a speech while suffering from a stomach hemorrhage?”

It’s in the past.

What a nonchalant three-word phrase.

An inexplicable flare of anger surged in Lu Yanqing’s chest. She didn’t know if she was angry at Xie Siyu or at herself.

Xie Siyu’s back pressed against the driver-side door. Lu Yanqing’s breath brushed against her collarbone. Not just her body, but the heart within her chest was trembling violently.

Suddenly, her breathing became labored. “I…”

“I certainly can’t compete with President Xie’s talent for trashing her own body.”

Lu Yanqing released Xie Siyu’s hand. Even without witnessing it firsthand, she could imagine the scene. “Liu Yao said your blood oxygen dropped to 80% during the emergency rescue…”

The end of her sentence faded into the sudden ringing of a phone.

Xie Siyu picked up her phone from the center console. After seeing the caller ID, she hung up immediately.

“At least I can still drive you home now.”

Xie Siyu took her car keys and bag and pushed open the door to get out. A faint smile played on the corners of her mouth. “So, it’s not too bad, is it?”

In the apartment building, the lights in the elevator lobby turned on in response to her approach.

Lu Yanqing stared at the swaying evergreens in the green belt, noticing the night dew condensing on the leaves just like the cold sweat on Xie Siyu’s smiling face in the annual meeting photo Liu Yao had shown her.

“Xie Siyu.”

Closing the car door heavily, Lu Yanqing watched Xie Siyu’s thin silhouette. “You really didn’t need to go that far.”

The air suddenly turned stagnant.

With her back to Lu Yanqing, Xie Siyu’s long lashes drooped, her eyes swirling with emotions that no one else could understand. She gripped the strap of her bag so hard her fingertips turned white.

After a long moment, she let out a light laugh. “We signed a contract, didn’t we? And the compensation President Lu gave me was very generous…”

The trembling end of her voice vanished into the cold wind. She really couldn’t keep up the act any longer.

Xie Siyu pressed the lock button on the car key three times in quick succession and, without waiting for Lu Yanqing, walked hurriedly toward the building entrance.

“Was it really just because of the contract?”

Watching Xie Siyu’s panicked, retreating figure, Lu Yanqing exhaled a heavy breath. To be honest, the few compensation clauses written into the agreement weren’t much at all. Xie Siyu had long since surpassed that value with the profits she brought to the Lu Group over the last three years.

Buzz, buzz.

Just as she reached the first-floor elevator lobby, a WeChat notification popped up on her screen. Lu Yanqing glanced at the elevator display where the numbers were jumping upward.

Did Xie Siyu go up without waiting for her?

She pressed the call button for the elevator again.

President Lu, ‘Twin Clouds Realm’ has 27 shopping malls nationwide. The ‘Elis’ clothing brand under the Xie family’s umbrella has entered 15 of them.] [As of the end of last December, one-third of the Elis stores have reached the criteria for closure. I have sent the relevant data to your work email.

One-third of the stores were facing the risk of closure?

Lu Yanqing caught the keyword, and her brows furrowed.

A moment later, the elevator doors opened. She instinctively stepped inside, but because she was looking down at the files on her phone, she didn’t notice someone else was already in the elevator. Nor did she see the rubber ball rolling toward her feet until a familiar voice sounded in her ear: “Lu Yanqing, watch where you’re going.”

Lu Yanqing kicked the round ball, stumbled, and pitched forward. Xie Siyu moved quickly to steady her.

The two were pressed tightly in an embrace.

Perfectly aligned, without a gap between them.

The phone hit the elevator floor with a dull thud. Lu Yanqing was wearing stiletto heels; how could she have expected a ball to be in the elevator?

Leaning on the strength in Xie Siyu’s arms to steady herself, her lips accidentally brushed against Xie Siyu’s soft earlobe as she turned her head. For a split second, she was stunned, and once she realized what had happened, she hurriedly backed away.

“Tha… thank you.”

Bending over to pick up her phone, Lu Yanqing stared at the ball in the corner, feeling utterly helpless. “Does some brat not know they dropped their toy?”

A sudden kiss.

Technically, it didn’t even qualify as a kiss.

Yet it left Xie Siyu’s heart racing like thunder.

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