She'd meant to blacklist his WeChat too, but in the end she held back—she had to keep one way to reach him to discuss the divorce.
Shen Wanci swore that the instant she got the certificate, the very first thing she'd do was blacklist that dog Bo Jingzhou and have nothing to do with him for the rest of her life.
Just then two colleagues nearby were gossiping: "That guy who came this morning to ask about Sister Zhao was so handsome. Wonder if he's married."
Shen Wanci gave a slight start. The man who'd come to the studio that morning was Chen Xu. She'd actually seen him, but at the time she'd accidentally spilled water and was mopping the floor, so when she spotted him she couldn't be bothered to deal with it and just turned and walked away.
And at that moment...
She thought back—Sister Zhao had happened to be cleaning her workstation.
The two colleagues were still teasing: "He asked Sister Zhao what position she held at our studio. Sister Zhao was wearing such an obvious cleaning uniform and mopping the floor—wasn't that perfectly clear?"
Shen Wanci realized the purpose of Chen Xu's visit. So that was it.
Knowing Bo Jingzhou had misunderstood, she didn't call to explain. There was no need to report this job of hers to him.
She'd assumed that after receiving the lawyer's letter Bo Jingzhou would quickly agree to the divorce, but a week passed and there was not the slightest reaction from his side.
Shen Wanci grew a bit anxious, but all she could do was wait.
That day after work, Qin Yuezhi invited her to dinner at a restaurant that had recently become wildly popular. Since her own hours were fairly flexible, she went ahead first to hold the table.
She'd barely sat down when the restaurant filled to capacity. Watching the long line forming outside, Shen Wanci was glad she'd arrived early.
She was bent over her phone texting Qin Yuezhi the table number when a not-quite-familiar voice came from above her: "Wanci, are you alone? Then could we share a table? I came a little late, and the waiter said it'd be at least a two-hour wait."
Shen Wanci looked up to see Jian Weining standing before her, dressed like a proper lady, wearing light makeup. Her features weren't especially exquisite, but together they made her quite pretty—just standing there she drew a great many eyes.
Shen Wanci refused outright: "It's not convenient..."
But Jian Weining sat down anyway, as if it were nothing.
Her face turned cold in an instant. "Does Miss Jian not understand plain speech?"
Jian Weining put on an apologetic look. "Do you still hate me? The night you and Jingzhou married, I didn't mean to call him—I never imagined he would..."
Shen Wanci didn't want to hear about the past anymore and cut her off: "It's not quite hate. I just plainly dislike a fake lotus flower."
Things had been said this bluntly already—to keep the topic going any longer would be truly shameless.
Jian Weining was silent for a few seconds, then looked at Shen Wanci with a complicated expression and asked tentatively, "I heard you've been going through a divorce with Jingzhou lately?"
Shen Wanci wasn't the least bit surprised she knew. But thinking of how Bo Jingzhou kept her dangling, refusing to divorce, while couldn't wait to share the matter with this woman, she couldn't help cursing this lovesick pair ten thousand times over in her heart!
Meeting Jian Weining's questioning gaze, Shen Wanci set down her phone and smiled mockingly. "That's right. But he won't agree, and clings to me like a piece of chewing gum I can't shake off no matter what—utterly infuriating! And here I'd thought that once I proposed divorce, he'd jump at it for Miss Jian's sake." She gave a snort and tossed out her conclusion offhandedly: "Turns out you're nothing more than this, after all."
Jian Weining's expression shifted again and again, growing uglier by the moment. Her hands, resting on her knees, clenched tight, her freshly done manicure digging into her flesh.
Seeing her like this, Shen Wanci's mood improved, and she lightly quirked the corner of her lips. "Could Miss Jian stop taking up the seat? You're rather ruining my appetite."
Jian Weining swallowed the anger and didn't fly into a rage. Instead, watching Shen Wanci ignore her and play with her phone, she asked, in a tone neither light nor heavy, "Is this divorce of yours a case of playing hard to get—or is it because... Nie Yucheng is back?"
Nie Yucheng... The expression on Shen Wanci's face froze. This name—she hadn't heard it once since she married, and to hear it now felt like a lifetime ago.
When had he come back?
Though she and he weren't part of the same circle, they did have a few mutual friends, and Bo Jingzhou and he were sworn brothers close enough to share a single pair of trousers—yet she hadn't received the slightest word.
Seeing Shen Wanci dazed, Jian Weining felt she'd clawed back a point. Much of the gloom in her brows dispersed, and she deliberately needled her further: "Why put on this innocent act? You and he have stayed in contact these past two years, haven't you? Have you secretly been carrying on behind closed doors? After all, you nearly climbed into his bed back then..."
"Slap—!"
The crisp sound of a slap rang out, stunning the people waiting outside the restaurant and cutting off Jian Weining's unfinished words.
Shen Wanci looked at Jian Weining before her, clutching her face, her expression shocked. In truth, even she herself hadn't expected she'd raise her hand and strike that blow.
The burning sting in her palm came through, a vivid reminder of just how hard that slap had been.
"Shen Wanci!" Three gloomy words came from behind her—this voice...
Before she could even turn around, Bo Jingzhou had stepped to Jian Weining's side. He looked down at her from above, his ferocity blanketing everything around them. "What are you doing?"
Bo Jingzhou's arrival made Jian Weining—her face still smarting from the slap—instantly redden at the eyes, as if she'd finally found someone to stand up for her.
Shen Wanci, however, wasn't the least bit cowed by the man's interrogation. She casually shook out her aching hand. "Didn't you see for yourself? Hitting someone."
"Jingzhou," Jian Weining pressed against the man, aggrieved, both hands wrapped around his waist, her voice a little hoarse. "I didn't mean to anger Miss Shen. I only mentioned Yucheng in passing, but I never thought she'd suddenly lash out... If I'd known Miss Shen still hasn't forgotten him to this day, I never would have brought him up."
Hearing the reason, Bo Jingzhou's brows and eyes darkened to the extreme, his thin lips curving into a mocking arc. So it seemed that even after all these years, she still hadn't forgotten that man.
He stared at Shen Wanci, every word domineering: "Apologize."
Though she'd long known this would be the outcome, his taking Jian Weining's side without even asking a single question—it would be impossible for her heart not to ache.
But Shen Wanci would not allow her own vulnerability to be seen by Bo Jingzhou. She lifted her face to meet his gaze, and abruptly she curved her lips, an unrestrained, wanton allure blooming across her features—and a naked provocation: "Don't even dream of it."
Ask her to apologize to Jian Weining? Not unless the world ended!
Bo Jingzhou's pupils contracted, the corners of his mouth turning down, his thin lips pressing into a displeased line.
"I said apologize. Don't make me say it a third time."
Anger ran through every word. Shen Wanci thought that to make Bo Jingzhou this furious, she really must be guilty of a monstrous crime—little did she know that the reason for the man's anger was not that she'd hit someone, but rather...
"And I'll say it once more too—not a chance!"
Having stated her position firmly, Shen Wanci had long since lost any appetite for dinner. She picked up her bag and turned to leave.
But before she'd taken two steps, her arm was seized in a brutal grip, followed at once by Bo Jingzhou's voice, furious to the extreme: "Stirring up all this trouble just to get a divorce, isn't it? Fine—I'll grant your wish. Nine o'clock tomorrow morning, see you at the Civil Affairs Bureau!"