The 99th Divorce

Shen Zhilie reached his hand out and knocked Ye Qianqian on her head, confident in the rightness of his reasoning. Afterward, he picked up his coat that had been hanging on the chair and said, “I’m going. Wait for me here.”

With that, he followed behind Yu Lili and left.

Yu Lili didn’t realize that she was being followed by Shen Zhilie. She stopped a taxi, got in, and went to the hotel that Ou Ming was at.

By the time she reached the hotel, it was around 5:30 p.m. When she entered, she saw Ou Ming seated in the meeting lounge at the left of the hotel lobby. He was thinly dressed in the same flimsy silk pajamas he had been wearing the day before.

Seated on the couch beside him was a middle-aged man with a radio placed on the table in front, broadcasting Chinese opera songs in a low volume.

When Yu Lili saw him, her heart, which had been beating with worry, finally calmed down. Her steps began to get heavier. Facing this vacant-eyed man in front of her, she was suddenly filled with a boiling anger. She resentfully took off her down jacket and threw it forcefully in his face.

When the middle-aged man at the side witnessed it, his eyes looked laughingly at Yu Lili. He asked, “Miss, you’re this young man’s other half?”

“Yes.”

Yu Lili hadn’t replied. It was Ou Ming who responded.

The middle-aged man stood up and brushed his hands on his thigh. He kept his radio on. In a fairly emotional tone, he said, “Then, I’ll take my leave. My wife is still waiting for me.”

“Thank you,” Ou Ming sincerely said.

Yu Lili saw that and smiled widely at the man, saying, “Thank you. Sorry for the trouble.”

The middle-aged man waved his hand and said, “A couple should talk things out properly. Your man can’t see. It was too much of you to abandon him in a hotel. You mustn’t do that again.”

Yu Lili was awash with humiliation when she heard that. She hastily tried to explain herself. “He’s not my man…” As she was speaking, she saw Shen Zhilie appear a small distance away from the middle-aged man.

Never in 10 lifetimes did she expect that Shen Zhilie would follow her all the way there. Looking at his steady steps as he walked over, her face began to heat up. As the heat spread, even she could guess how red her face looked.

Shen Zhilie saw that Yu Lili’s face had suddenly reddened and found it funny. With a twinkle in his eye, he gazed deeply at her and asked, “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

Yu Lili felt even more awkward than before. Before she could think of a reply, Shen Zhilie walked up and tugged on the down jacket that was covering Ou Ming’s body and commented, “How can you wear women’s clothes?”

Regardless of how he tugged, Shen Zhilie wasn’t able to remove the jacket from Ou Ming. Ou Ming held on tightly to that down jacket. His eyes continued staring ahead emptily, but his expression darkened considerably as he asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Why shouldn’t I be here?” Shen Zhilie’s eyes turned to ice. He snatched the jacket over.

Ou Ming didn’t have much strength, especially after going hungry for so long, and he was no match for Shen Zhilie’s brute force.

Shen Zhilie shoved the down jacket back at Yu Lili and took off his own down jacket. He tossed it gently over to Ou Ming and said, “Put this on.”