Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Zhou Yan didn’t come home that night.

Neither did I.

I checked into a hotel and read through the divorce agreement my lawyer had sent me from beginning to end.

I had paid the down payment on our marital home. I had been the one making the mortgage payments. The property was registered under my name. As for the car Zhou Yan drove, it had been assigned to him by the company, and ownership belonged to Xinglan. And the equity incentives he was always talking about? Since Xinglan had yet to meet the conditions for its third round of financing, they hadn’t officially vested.

He thought he had so much.

But once everything was calculated, all he had left was a pile of questionable reimbursements and approval records that could come back to haunt him.

At one in the morning, Zhou Yan called me.

I didn’t answer.

Then he sent a message: “Jianwei, I want to talk to you. I didn’t know about Nianchu. She lied to me.”

I replied, “Tomorrow at ten. With the lawyers present.”

He answered instantly: “Do we really have to be like this? We’re husband and wife.”

I stared at the screen and found the line oddly familiar.

Every time he did something wrong, he loved turning the issue into a matter of “husband and wife.”

When he had dinner with Xu Nianchu late at night, it was something husband and wife shouldn’t nitpick over.

When he used company money to buy her gifts, it was something husband and wife shouldn’t calculate too clearly.

When he slapped me in public, it was just a momentary impulse between husband and wife.

Now that he might lose his position and reputation, he finally remembered that we were husband and wife.

I didn’t reply again.

At ten the next morning, Zhou Yan arrived at the law firm on time.

He looked like he hadn’t slept all night. Stubble had sprouted along his jaw, and his suit was wrinkled.

“Jianwei.” His voice was hoarse. “I thought about it for a long time yesterday. These past few years, I really have neglected you.”

I opened the agreement. “Read the terms first.”

He pressed his hand down on the document. “Listen to me first.”

The lawyer looked at me.

I nodded.

Zhou Yan took a deep breath. “I admit I saw Nianchu through rose-colored glasses. Back then, she left without a word, and I always regretted it. But nothing physical ever happened between us.”

I asked, “You think that’s the issue?”

He froze.

I said, “Zhou Yan, you’re not disgusting because you did or didn’t sleep with her. You’re disgusting because you took the resources I gave you and treated them as your own ability. You took my support for granted. And the moment she cried, you didn’t hesitate to step on me to lift her up.”

The color drained from his face, bit by bit.

I continued, “That slap wasn’t some momentary impulse. You’d thought I was in your way for a long time. It was just that I used to still be useful.”

“No.” He grew anxious. “I never thought that.”

I pushed a set of reimbursement records toward him.

“Then explain this. Over the past year, you reimbursed seven hundred thirty thousand under the name of client maintenance. Why were four hundred sixty thousand of those expenses related to Xu Nianchu?”

Zhou Yan’s hand froze in midair.

The lawyer spoke at exactly the right moment. “Mr. Zhou, if you cannot provide a reasonable explanation, the company will pursue recovery through separate channels.”

Zhou Yan looked at me, and at last, he had nothing to say.