Shen Wanci froze at the shout, momentarily caught off guard. She glanced at Jiang Yazhu, who lay on the hospital bed staring at her, then turned and walked out into the corridor.
“What are you talking about?”
Playing what game with him?
Bo Jingzhou's voice was low and deep: “Where are you right now?”
“The hospital…”
Mom's sick—the words hadn't even left her mouth before the man cut her off without the slightest courtesy: “Shen Wanci, if you're going to make up an excuse, at least make it a believable one. Just yesterday you couldn't wait to get divorced, and now, one night later, what kind of devastating illness has left you too weak even to get out of bed? Or was this whole scene never about divorce at all, but a game of playing hard to get?”
Shen Wanci knew she didn't have much of a reputation in Bo Jingzhou's eyes, but she'd never imagined it had sunk this low—he didn't even have the patience to let her finish before crudely passing judgment on her.
She drew a deep breath, forcing down the wave of bitterness rising in her chest. “It's not me. Mom's sick. A fever of forty degrees—she was just brought to the hospital.”
The man on the other end of the line suddenly fell silent.
“You didn't know, did you?” Now it was Shen Wanci's turn to sneer coldly. “Mom got sick, and the maid only thought to call me—never once considered notifying you. These three years, do you have any idea how many times I've fulfilled your filial duties for you?”
The most ironic part was that once, while she was at work, she'd received a call from Auntie Wang saying that Jiang Yazhu had gone into shock. At the time she was being made things difficult for by Bo Jingzhou, and HR, eager to curry favor with him, had deliberately kicked her while she was down and refused to approve her leave. The situation was urgent, so she'd simply skipped work and left.
Afterward, Bo Jingzhou, without bothering to sort out right from wrong, had reprimanded her in front of a whole crowd of people—
If you can't take the hardship, then crawl back home and play the pampered young miss. The Bo Group doesn't take garbage!
She'd been a fool. To save face for him, she hadn't uttered a single word in her own defense.
To this day, Shen Wanci still remembered the disdain and contempt in the eyes of the company's people when they looked at her…
Time seemed to stand still in that moment. After some unknown stretch, Bo Jingzhou's voice came through, faint: “Next time something like this happens, call me.”
Shen Wanci didn't catch the note of yielding in his words—and even if she had, she wouldn't have read into it. She'd already indulged in enough wishful thinking.
She didn't respond, simply hanging up the phone. Afraid Jiang Yazhu might notice something, she lingered in the corridor for a good while before going back in.
Bo Jingzhou arrived quickly. Shen Wanci glanced at Jiang Yazhu, who had fallen asleep again on the hospital bed. Every time she fell ill, she grew so frail it was as if she'd lost half her life.
“I have something to say to you.”
Bo Jingzhou assumed she was about to bring up the divorce again, and his brow furrowed with irritation. “Whatever it is, save it for later. Mom's lying there in this state, and I don't have time to play your games.”
Even now, he still thought she was only making a fuss with him?
Shen Wanci turned back, about to say something, but her gaze fell on a red mark on the man's neck.
That spot…
She couldn't help but sneer coldly. He really wasn't bothering to be discreet at all—not even divorced yet, and already sneaking around without wiping his mouth!
She said, “Then I'll just say it right here?”
Bo Jingzhou shot her a vicious glare, then turned and strode out of the ward.
In the corridor, Shen Wanci tucked both hands into her pockets and looked at the stark white wall across from her. “The doctor wants Mom to get a thorough examination.”
Bo Jingzhou frowned. “What's going on?”
“I don't know. The doctor said we won't know the specifics until the test results come back.”
When she'd finished, she lifted her wrist to check the time. “Mom just fell asleep; she won't wake for a while. We can leave a caregiver to watch her. There's still over an hour before the Civil Affairs Bureau breaks for lunch—we can still make it.”
At her words, Bo Jingzhou stared at her, his eyes dark and heavy…
Ever since Shen Wanci had started clamoring for a divorce, her attitude toward him had turned cold and barbed, leaving a knot of fire smoldering in his chest—one he could neither vent nor swallow, making everything he looked at infuriating.
“Mom's sick like this, and you're still thinking about the divorce? Shen Wanci, has a dog eaten your conscience?”
Her conscience?
It had been worn away little by little, through his repeated coldness and distance.
“If that's how you want to put it, then sure.”
Bo Jingzhou's eyes narrowed, provoked by her air of indifference, and he couldn't help recalling the men's bag she'd bought right in front of him last time.
He'd assumed Shen Wanci had bought it on a whim just to spite him, and that in a few days she'd bring it to him.
It wasn't as if this hadn't happened before—to make him jealous, she'd deliberately buy things that invited misunderstanding and claim she meant to give them to someone, only for them to end up in the wardrobe at home in the end.
But last night, at a banquet, he'd seen a man holding that very model of bag.
At first he'd thought it was merely the same style, but every luxury bag carried its own serial number. For some reason he couldn't name at the time, he'd taken it and glanced at it.
It was the very same one Shen Wanci had bought that day.
“So eager to be rid of me—have you latched onto some higher branch? That bag last time, was it bought to give to him? A man that old and ugly—what did you see in him, hmm?”
Shen Wanci couldn't make sense of whatever Bo Jingzhou was going on about now, but her patience had worn away too, and she frowned impatiently. “Aren't you tired of this? Doesn't all that talking exhaust you?”
“Heh,” the man sneered coldly. “The divorce can wait. Mom's still on an IV drip—she can't be left without someone to look after her.”
At that, Shen Wanci wouldn't have it. She kept feeling that a long night made for many dreams—the longer this dragged on, the more could go wrong.
“We can let the caregiver watch her for a little while. It won't take up too much of your time.”
Bo Jingzhou's expression darkened further, a shadow falling over his eyes. “I said, we'll set another time.”
Shen Wanci didn't catch the deeper meaning in his words. After thinking it over, she asked again, “Then how about this afternoon?”
She'd already taken the leave anyway, so she didn't mind an extra half a day.
Jiang Yazhu's medication wasn't much; the drip should finish by midday, and the Civil Affairs Bureau didn't close until five-thirty. No matter what, they could make it today.
But the moment her words fell, her jaw was suddenly seized by Bo Jingzhou, and his ill-tempered voice rang viciously by her ear: “A man can't stand being provoked. The more impatient you are, the less I want to give you what you want.”
His words carried a warning through and through—utterly malicious.
“Bo Jingzhou, only a beast would think that way, not a man.” Shen Wanci slapped his hand away without the slightest courtesy, turned, and walked off.
Watching the woman's figure disappear into the elevator, Bo Jingzhou was irritated—irritated enough to want a cigarette.
He stood there for a long while, then turned and walked into the ward. But the instant he stepped in, a pillow came flying straight at his stomach!
Jiang Yazhu was glaring at him, her face full of exasperation at his hopelessness. “You can't even coax your own wife—which trash can did you crawl out of? Since we're conveniently at the hospital, hurry up and go get a paternity test. There's absolutely no way your father and I could have produced a rotten thing like you!”
“…”
“You slept with someone last night, and today she wants a divorce from you. Tell me honestly—are you getting too old to perform?!”
At that, Bo Jingzhou's eyes turned cold, and his voice dropped several degrees: “Shen Wanci told you I slept with her last night? And that we're getting divorced?”