CHAPTER 81: 73. THAT NIGHT, SHE SUDDENLY UNDERSTOOD HER HUSBAND’S LIES (FIRST UPDATE)

The expressions of the other four people at the table changed.

Shi Nian took a deep breath, stood up, and walked towards the stairs: "Mr. Tang, could you come with me for a moment?"

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The two walked upstairs in silence. The master bedroom and the nursery were both inappropriate, so Shi Nian thought for a moment and walked into the study first.

"Mr. Tang, first, I’d like to thank you for the efforts you made to protect me. But you don’t seem to have the right to disclose my private life in this way."

Tang Yanqing leaned against the door, arms crossed, his defiant gaze resting on her face: "Ok, now it’s just you and me in this room. So answer me, have you signed a separation agreement with Xiang Yuan, hmm?"

Shi Nian bit her lip.

Tang Yanqing snorted: "Police protection 24 hours a day is also about rights and obligations. Since you’re accepting police protection, you must let the police know your situation entirely; otherwise, how can the police ensure your safety?"

"Alright, then I admit it. We have officially signed a legal separation agreement and have filed it."

He finally smiled: "Why did you keep it a secret from me all along, hmm?"

Shi Nian’s face flushed with heat, and she quickly defended herself: "When did I deliberately keep it a secret from you? Besides, is there any woman in the world who would go around shouting about such a private matter?"

His smile grew larger and larger, making Shi Nianxin even more uneasy. She couldn’t help but murmur again: "After all, you’re still a stranger to me!"

Tang Yanqing tried to maintain a stiff face, but he couldn’t. His posture with arms crossed became even more relaxed.

Shi Nian stared at his shoulders.

While crossing arms usually signifies "confrontation" or "resistance," his shoulders were completely relaxed, not aligned on the same level, thus entirely nullifying the meaning his arms attempted to convey.

For some reason, her heart relaxed as well.

It’s the traditional Chinese mindset, thinking that matters like separation and divorce are family shame, and it’s hard to open up to others about it; the best would be for no outsider to know, so there’s an effort to hide it. But once it’s said, it turns out to be not such a big deal.

He squinted and curled his lips: "What day was it?"

Shi Nian blushed and avoided his gaze: "...It was that night when you smashed my car window and took me to Doctor Du’s clinic."

Tang Yanqing’s face suddenly filled with joy: "It was actually that night?"

That night, he was worried she might get into trouble, so he stood guard outside her house. But he didn’t catch anything, as the lights in her home turned off...

That night, he couldn’t help but imagine various scenarios. Like her reconciling with Xiang Yuan, entering the bedroom with Xiang Yuan, or even—basically, that night he almost went crazy, almost rushing into her house without considering anything.

Who would have thought—not only did nothing happen between her and Xiang Yuan that night, but she actually signed the separation agreement with Xiang Yuan!

For him, it was a surprise within a surprise.

"Oh," Shi Nian responded, her face enveloped in gloom, not as thrilled as Tang Yanqing.

Tang Yanqing suppressed his excitement and carefully observed her expression.

"Hey, did this topic make you unhappy? Since we are to rely on each other from now on... if there’s anything bothering you, can you talk to me about it?"

Shi Nian looked at him in surprise: "Mr. Tang, please don’t make deep remarks while being shallow, alright? Do you think you’re my confidant? If I want to confide, Ye He is right downstairs, it’s not your turn."

Her little nose wrinkled inadvertently.

He then smiled, with a patient and gentle tone even surprising himself: "Talk to me; it’s for official purposes, truly. I need to identify all potential dangers around you. Conventional reasoning suggests a suddenly ended marriage could bring you changes."

Shi Nian could only sigh, but turned her back to him.

Tang Yanqing understood that her posture showed she was still unable to face the decision of separation. From her inner perspective, the decision of separation went against her own life view and values.

Like all Chinese girls, she had a pious hope for family and marriage, wishing to find a soulmate, never to part until old age; treating separation and divorce as blemishes on life’s trajectory, even personal moral records.

He resisted the desire to walk up and hold her shoulders, speaking as gently as possible: "Don’t rush, take your time. No matter how you choose to describe, I’ll be able to understand.

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Shi Nian took a deep breath, her shoulders tense.

That night she lay side by side with Xiang Yuan, and Xiang Yuan held her hand, telling her about a man’s needs.

Xiang Yuan’s point was very clear: he meant that because of her aversion to sex, he couldn’t fulfill a man’s normal needs. Under both physical and psychological needs, he didn’t want to hurt her, so he had to look elsewhere.

And Rosa was his work partner, a woman who could handle things without getting too attached, so after ensuring it wouldn’t disrupt the family or hurt her, they chose each other to satisfy their needs.

Xiang Yuan, being a lawyer, had excellent eloquence and persuasive power, and he handled the emotions of the whole narrative so well that it really made her feel like everything was her fault, and he was so innocent.

A husband who deeply loves his wife, unwilling to hurt her, so he goes out to find another woman — more importantly, even before satisfying his own needs, he first thought of his wife; ensuring not to disrupt the family and not to hurt her.

She took it in, deeply blaming herself for it, and at that moment, she couldn’t help but start crying.

The only thing that confused her was Xiang Yuan’s constant use of English for his statements, with some words that left her baffled. She then asked Xiang Yuan to switch to Chinese to make those words clearer to her, but Xiang Yuan refused.

What confused her more was Xiang Yuan turning off the light. Darkness made her nervous, always reminding her of that nightmare from four years ago, making it impossible for her to stay calm and think.

She then shouted ’stop’ loudly in her mind.

Just like someone about to fall into a dream, suddenly hitting their forehead against a wall, she abruptly interrupted the previous emotions, suddenly becoming clear-headed.

"A Yuan, please stop!" She suddenly shouted to stop Xiang Yuan.

Xiang Yuan was also stunned: "What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

"You did speak wrongly."

Her mind was a bit chaotic, filled with unfamiliar English words drifting and surging all around. Language problems had always troubled her, unable to clearly distinguish subtle differences between synonyms, causing her memories to entangle, often unable to sort out specific memories.

But this time, she didn’t give up trying. She closed her eyes, pressed her temples with her hands, forcing herself not to escape and to face the chaos in her mind directly.

"A Yuan, what you said contained two pairs of time and causation, with two A’s and two B’s. The two A’s are time conditions, the two B’s are causal. It’s like a matching question, A1 should connect with B1 and A2 with B2. But you didn’t do it that way."

"The two A’s and two B’s themselves are not wrong, but you deliberately made incorrect connections between them."

She simply turned on the light, grabbed pen and paper, and wrote on a piece of white paper:

A1: The first two years of our relationship; A2: The latter two years.

B1: Our relationship was great, and the marital life was sweet; B2: A Yuan got together with Rosa, and I started resisting.

After writing, she held that paper up in front of Xiang Yuan: "It should be connected like this: The first two years of our relationship — our relationship was great, I didn’t resist being intimate with you. In the later two years, when you were with Rosa, I started resisting."

She used pen and paper to sort out the logic, and her mind seemed to break through the tangled forest of English words, gradually becoming clearer.

"So A Yuan, you are swapping concepts just now. I resisted you, but it wasn’t without a premise — I just couldn’t accept sharing a bed with you only after you started staying out all night and being with Rosa."

She said, sliding off the bed, standing quietly while staring at Xiang Yuan: "So A Yuan, you put all the problems in our marriage on me, saying that my failure to fulfill a wife’s duties led to your cheating — this is unfair."

Her narrative was calm and clear, but the previously eloquent Xiang Yuan was now too shocked to speak.

She gently closed her eyes: "A Yuan, you are using my confusion with English vocabulary, aren’t you? You purposely used long discourses in English, with relatively unfamiliar words, just to make sure I can’t think clearly and recall accurately, aren’t you?"

"A Yuan, this is unfair to me. You have really disappointed me greatly."

She sorrowfully started to cry: "Don’t forget my dad lay on the hospital bed covered in blood, putting my hand into yours, asking you to swear you’ll take good care of me... A Yuan, you vowed to my dad, didn’t you say that! But is this how you fulfill your promise to my dad?"

"A Yuan, if you still have a conscience, don’t forget, my dad did all this to save you... A Yuan, don’t force me to hate you."

At that moment, Xiang Yuan’s face went ashen, kneeling before her: "Time, I haven’t forgotten."

That incident from four years ago was a nightmare she never wanted to recall, she hugged herself in grief and said: "A Yuan, let’s divorce. Since this marriage can no longer give you the happiness you want, nor can I find the peace of mind I want, let’s not continue troubling each other, let’s divorce."