Whether she'd had enough of living was a question Shen Wanci had never given any thought to. All she knew was that, even if she had no choice now but to go back to Yuting Manor, she was not going to ride in the same car as him!
She hailed her own cab to Yuting Manor. Whether by accident or design, the two of them arrived almost back to back.
Shen Wanci ignored him, gave a little snort, and went up the steps.
Seeing her come home, Auntie Sun said happily, "Madam, you're finally back! These past few days you weren't here, the Master was in quite a mood. I didn't even dare make a sound while cleaning."
Shen Wanci had a gentle temperament, and Auntie Sun was someone she had hired herself back then, so Auntie Sun was fairly relaxed around her and chattered on without pause: "What couple doesn't quarrel? As the saying goes, a quarrel at the head of the bed is made up at the foot of it. The Master does care about you—"
Shen Wanci had no desire to hear a single good word about Bo Jingzhou, and absentmindedly shot back, "Auntie Sun, does your husband eat the food you order for him?"
Auntie Sun had no idea why Shen Wanci would suddenly ask such a thing, and answered honestly, "He does. My old man's not picky—whatever's ordered, he eats it; whatever I make, he eats that too."
Shen Wanci changed her shoes and walked inside, her tone flat: "But my husband never eats the food I order. And he certainly never eats what I make."
Auntie Sun was struck speechless in an instant. She quietly glanced at the man standing in the doorway, saw his darkened face, his thin lips pressed tight, the chill radiating off him almost frightening...
Shen Wanci went straight up to the second floor, opened the bedroom door, and a familiar scent washed over her.
Bo Jingzhou probably hadn't come back to stay this whole time. The room was arranged exactly as it had been when she left—even the little trinket she'd casually set on the nightstand was still there.
Having come back only to pack her things, Shen Wanci hadn't made any other preparations. There were only two thirty-inch suitcases in the house, and even stuffed full they wouldn't hold a quarter of the clothes in her walk-in closet.
The ones she'd bought herself she'd already taken with her; what remained were all gifts from Bo Jingzhou—the latest seasonal pieces from every major luxury brand, styles ordinary people would never get their hands on no matter how hard they tried, enough that she could wear a different one every day for two years without repeating.
In these three years of marriage, apart from not loving her, Bo Jingzhou had never shortchanged her materially—so much so that she often fell into the delusion that maybe he loved her too...
Bo Jingzhou came in from outside just in time to see Shen Wanci crouched on the floor, stuffing things into the suitcase nonstop. An indescribable restlessness stirred in his chest, and his face grew even darker. "So I didn't eat the food you ordered. Is that worth making a fuss over for so long?"
Shen Wanci flung the folded clothes in her hands into the suitcase, stood up, and met his eyes. "You think it's a small thing?"
Hearing that, Bo Jingzhou frowned and said impatiently, "I thought we both tacitly accepted this arrangement."
Sending her to work at the Bo Group as his personal assistant had been Jiang Yazhu's idea. He had arranged it, but that didn't mean he had to eat the meals she ordered. At the time he'd also told her that if she wanted to work in another department, she could apply for a transfer anytime.
It was Shen Wanci who hadn't wanted to.
Since she had no career ambitions and was content to do that kind of just-coasting-along job, he had nothing more to say about it—he simply wrote her off as a slacker.
Shen Wanci was so infuriated by his taking-it-for-granted attitude that she almost laughed. She really wanted to crack his head open with a hammer and see what was inside!
"Yes, we both tacitly accepted this arrangement, so my wanting to divorce you now was also agreed upon back when we married."
She no longer had the patience to sort through the clothes piece by piece, and crammed them into the suitcase in careless wads, zipping it shut. "I'll come back tomorrow for the rest. Monday we'll go get the papers—no point holding you up, or me either."
Hearing her still talking like this, Bo Jingzhou's patience ran out. As Shen Wanci dragged her suitcase past him, he grabbed her by the wrist, pinned her down onto the sofa, pulled out his phone, and tossed it to her—
"Order."
Shen Wanci frowned in irritation, not understanding what on earth he was after.
Then she heard Bo Jingzhou say, "You heard what the doctor said today too. Mom's body can't take any shocks right now. You're making a scene with me just because I didn't eat the food you ordered, aren't you? Order now, I'll eat now, and from now on don't bring up divorce again—at least not until Mom's condition is stable."
The crease between Shen Wanci's brows never smoothed out. She suspected Bo Jingzhou was doing it on purpose.
This was not at all about whether he ate or whether she made a scene. He knew perfectly well what the biggest problem in this marriage was, yet he insisted on dodging the heart of it and twisting her meaning.
Shen Wanci looked the man straight in the eye, unmoved. "The biggest concession I can make is to keep it from Mom for you, so she never finds out we're getting divorced. If you want to keep up appearances, I can play along anytime—on call twenty-four hours a day."
That said, whether she'd actually show up after the divorce was something Bo Jingzhou couldn't control. For now she just had to make it sound nice.
Seeing Bo Jingzhou's face turn as grim as it could possibly get, on the verge of erupting at any moment, Shen Wanci steeled herself and went straight for a hard blow: "Bo Jingzhou, men who won't take no for an answer are annoying."
She knew him too well. For a young aristocrat like Bo Jingzhou—of illustrious birth, living at the very top of the pyramid since childhood, accustomed to being fawned over—how could he possibly stand being described by her in such terms?
"Won't take no for an answer?" The man was indeed provoked, his voice laced with thick malice. Then he gave a scornful snort, the contempt unmistakable: "You? You think you're worthy?"
He stood up and looked down at her from above. "Tomorrow the lawyer will contact you to discuss the divorce details. Now get the hell out."
Shen Wanci scrambled up from the sofa, grabbed her luggage, and ran faster than a rabbit, terrified Bo Jingzhou would go back on his word. "The rest, I'll come pack tomorrow."
"No need. I'll have Auntie Sun just throw it all out."
Shen Wanci's departing footsteps didn't slow; her voice carried back from far away: "Fine, suit yourself!"
Watching the woman flee as if for her life, Bo Jingzhou's face was as cold as ice...