Shen Wanci hesitated for a few seconds, then halted her steps.
Nie Yucheng had drunk a little too much; the obvious haze of intoxication showed in his eyes and brow, and his shirt had picked up a few creases.
His voice was slightly hoarse as he said quietly, "About what happened back then... I'm sorry."
Shen Wanci's gaze went momentarily distant; she knew which matter he was referring to.
That audio recording of her proposing marriage to him...
Back then she had been buried under a mountain of debt, scrambling everywhere to raise money, and the sudden exposure of that recording had pushed her straight into an abyss from which there was no return!
At the time, the thing the world said to her most often was—
Since Miss Shen is already so willing to throw herself out there, why not just sleep with a few more men? A measly few hundred million in debt—surely she can scrape that together?
Even three years on, whenever Shen Wanci thought back on that period, it was all still vivid before her eyes, impossible to forget.
"What we discussed back then was marriage, but in the end it was nothing more than a transaction we both consented to," Shen Wanci said, her expression very calm—though that didn't mean she no longer cared.
"You could have refused outright. You could have said I was a toad lusting after swan's flesh, that I was delusional—mock and sneer at me however you liked, it would all have been fine. But why put the audio online and expose it? No matter how much you disliked me then, you shouldn't have done something like that. It was truly no act of a real man!"
By the time she finished, Shen Wanci had, after all, stirred her own emotions.
Nie Yucheng waited until she'd said all this, then suddenly let out a wry laugh: "You think I was the one who leaked the audio?"
Shen Wanci didn't answer, which amounted to tacit agreement.
In the recording there were only the two of them, and the place they'd talked was one Nie Yucheng had chosen—a teahouse with excellent privacy.
The audio was crisp and clear, plainly recorded at close range.
Apart from him, it couldn't possibly have been anyone else.
The gentle, mild smile on Nie Yucheng's face faded a little. He was silent for a moment, then said only three solemn words: "It wasn't me."
Beyond those three words, there wasn't a single line of further explanation.
As for whether Shen Wanci believed him—that was anyone's guess.
The woman lowered her head and glanced at her watch. She didn't want to say anything more; she only wanted to leave this place. But the atmosphere outside was running high, and the party wouldn't break up anytime soon.
She had come in Bo Jingzhou's car, and this whole area held only the one villa, Xishan Court. If she left now, she'd never manage to hail a cab outside.
The terrace wasn't small. Shen Wanci picked a spot neither too close to nor too far from Nie Yucheng and idly scrolled through her phone.
The quiet atmosphere lingered for a long while, until at last it was Nie Yucheng who broke it: "How have these past few years been for you?"
The hand swiping across Shen Wanci's phone screen paused. She knew he was asking about her marriage to Bo Jingzhou. She curved her lips and answered offhandedly, "Not great. I should have listened to you back then."
Sure enough, it was brothers who understood brothers best.
When the news of Shen Wanci and Bo Jingzhou's marriage got out, Nie Yucheng had tried to dissuade her: You and Jingzhou aren't suited to each other; there's always been someone in his heart. A marriage like this won't make you happy.
Back then Shen Wanci had been at the end of her rope—how could she care whether they were suited? To her, Bo Jingzhou had been her last lifeline. Thinking about it now, it had indeed been rash...
"Heh, listen to him?"
The cold voice that suddenly cut in startled Shen Wanci.
She turned around to see Bo Jingzhou walking in from outside. Even the noble air about him couldn't suppress the gloom in his eyes and brow. "Listen to him—go find those loan sharks, and get sold overseas to work as a whore?"
Seeing who had arrived, Nie Yucheng's brow furrowed tightly. For the first time, he sensed from his good brother a... hostility?
"Jingzhou, don't put it so crudely, and don't twist what she meant."
Bo Jingzhou swept him a glance and asked indifferently, "It's your party, you're the host—aren't you busy?"
Nie Yucheng rubbed his nose, abashed. This wasn't the moment for him to say much, so he picked up his wineglass and left the terrace.
Shen Wanci wanted to leave too. The state Bo Jingzhou was in, anyone could see he was looking for someone to vent his anger on—she'd have to be mad to stay and bear his sneers and jeers.
But the moment she stepped to his side, her arm was seized. The man's voice was icy and cutting: "Shen Wanci, don't forget—back when you were being held down under the water, who was it that paid off your debts for you? Nie Yucheng, back then, was off keeping some woman company, who knows which one!"
Shen Wanci didn't want to hear any more talk of the past. In that instant she chose silence, while a furious Bo Jingzhou gripped her wrist and led her straight out of Xishan Court.
The car had just turned onto the main road when Shen Wanci said, "Pull over. I'll take a cab back myself."
Bo Jingzhou only drove, not looking at her.
"We're going to the old residence tonight. Mom's been talking about you all day, asking whether I bullied you again."
"Are the test results out?" Hearing they were going to the old residence to see Jiang Yazhu, Shen Wanci dropped the idea of getting out of the car. She was indeed rather worried about Jiang Yazhu's health.
But Bo Jingzhou wasn't willing to say much. "A few items won't have results until tomorrow."
It was already very late when they got back, but Jiang Yazhu, knowing the two of them were coming, was still sitting in the living room waiting. The moment she saw Shen Wanci she pulled her by the hand, fussing over her: "Are you hungry? Auntie Wang stewed some bird's nest soup—it's keeping warm in the kitchen. I'll go bring you a bowl."
"Mom," Shen Wanci hurriedly stopped her, "I'll go get it myself."
Afraid Jiang Yazhu might catch on to something, she dished out a bowl for Bo Jingzhou too.
Watching this, Jiang Yazhu rolled her eyes. "Why are you giving him any? What a waste of my good bird's nest!"
She still remembered that red mark on Bo Jingzhou's neck—the one she didn't know whether some woman outside had left there...
Listening from the side, Bo Jingzhou laughed wryly: "Mom, you're playing favorites."
"The only reason I haven't beaten you to death is for the sake of us being mother and son!"
Later, unable to stay up late, Jiang Yazhu watched Shen Wanci finish the bird's nest soup before heading upstairs to sleep. As she left, she didn't forget to add: "Don't spoil him. A big pig's-trotter like that sometimes needs to be put down by force."
Other women didn't worry her, but Jian Weining, that white-lotus type... wasn't easy to deal with. She herself had seen firsthand the schemes that woman was capable of back in the day.
Hearing her own birth mother describe her son like this, Shen Wanci didn't know whether to laugh or cry—but inside, she felt truly warmed.
Her own mother had passed away early, and her father... was a piece of scum!
After marrying Bo Jingzhou, Jiang Yazhu had completely made up for what she'd lacked in family affection.
If she could, she would have wanted to go on being filial to Jiang Yazhu forever—but once divorced, they would no longer be family after all.
……
Back in the room, Shen Wanci washed up first. Then, while Bo Jingzhou was in the bathroom, she pulled a quilt from the wardrobe and tossed it onto the sofa.
The man came out wreathed in steam, looked at the quilt on the sofa, raised an eyebrow, and then went straight to the bed.
Lying on the bed, Shen Wanci knit her brows hard. "You go sleep on the sofa."
The two of them were getting divorced; there was no need to keep sharing a bed.
But Bo Jingzhou looked at her and suddenly smiled, his eyes coated with a thick layer of mockery. "I go sleep on the sofa, and then you divorce me on the grounds of being sexually unsatisfied?"
At that, Shen Wanci corrected him righteously: "It's not that I'm sexually unsatisfied—it's that you have erectile dysfunction and can't guarantee a basic married life. I still intend to marry again someday, so don't go pinning filthy labels on me and giving my future husband the wrong idea."
"Marry again?" Bo Jingzhou let out a cold laugh. "Marry who? Nie Yucheng?"