Chapter 3

Chapter 3

He tossed his suitcase aside carelessly.

“Pack a few summer outfits for me. I have to head out again next week.”

Smelling the unfamiliar scent clinging to him, I looked at him calmly. “Has this month’s salary been paid yet?”

His hand paused as he loosened his tie, and he frowned at me. “Are you ever going to stop? I just walked through the door, I haven’t even caught my breath, and all you care about is money, money, money?”

Seeing the blatant disgust on his face, the question that had rolled around in my mind a thousand times nearly burst out.

Then, Lu Chuan’s warning flashed through my head: “Stay calm until we have a complete chain of evidence.”

Seeing him put his jacket back on, I turned and brought a bowl of pork rib soup out from the kitchen.

“Dinner is ready. Do you want some?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. Ultimately, he hung his jacket back up.

“I told you, let the elders cover the costs for now. Once things clear up on my end, I’ll pay them back every cent.”

“Mm, I understand.”

I lowered my eyes and served myself a bowl. “I won’t bother you about the child’s matters anymore.”

He seemed satisfied with that answer. He picked up his chopsticks and moved the largest piece of rib into his own bowl.

From this moment on, I was going to defend my rights.

My target was the husband I had shared a bed with for five years.

Song Xiaoyu’s intuition had been correct.

Zhou Chen’s shrewdness and defensiveness far exceeded my imagination.

He had changed his phone passcode. I could only carefully use his fingerprint to unlock it while he was fast asleep.

His chat history was wiped clean.

There were no suspicious signals in his contacts.

His transfer records were as clean as a blank sheet of paper.

I tried every method I had learned online: checking food delivery addresses, hotel bookings, shared device login records… I found nothing.

I leaned against the wall, watching the silhouette of his sleeping form.

Our child was already two years old.

The family assets had long since been diluted to almost nothing by him, under the guise of failed investments, company pay cuts, and bank repayments.

My bride price, dowry, and all my pre-marital savings had also been squeezed dry.

Five years.

Over eighteen hundred days and nights.

What would your next target be?

“Did you take the photos?”

As dawn broke, a message from Lu Chuan popped up.

“I did, but he seems to be guarding against me. There isn’t a single bank card; even his ID card isn’t in his wallet. Can we still apply for an investigation order like this?”

The reply came quickly from the other side of the screen.

“An investigation order? That’s not what you should be thinking about right now. First, tell me what’s in the wallet.”

I sent over all the photos on my phone: a gas card, a supermarket gift card, several cake vouchers for different brands, and a credit card. Nothing else.

Looking at those empty card slots, that sense of helplessness washed over me again.

“Do I… have no chance?”

Almost as soon as the message was sent, his reply arrived.

There was no text, only a wide-grinning laughing emoji.

Following that were two lines of text:

“It’s in the bag. I guarantee you’ll win this round. But one thing-you have to find a way to make sure he comes home one more time in the next few days.”

“What do you mean? Is there a chance he won’t come home?”

“A very high chance. Youyou’s birthday is in two days. If I’m not mistaken, the first thing you’ll receive is his divorce agreement.”

“Divorce agreement?”

“Yes. I think his reason for coming home this time was to collect valuable documents. Go check the property deed and things like that; they should be gone already.”

My heart tightened, and I quickly opened the home safe.

Sure enough.

All the important documents were gone.

“Alright.”

His voice pulled me back to reality.

“Follow my instructions for every step from here on out. Buy back the cards you photographed on your phone, exactly as they appear in the pictures.”

I took a deep breath and rushed to the gas station.

Following the photo, I bought a 1,000-yuan gas card.

Next was the mall for a 2,000-yuan shopping card.

I also bought the 300-yuan stored-value card from the cake shop.

Watching my balance shrink instantly, my fingertips felt cold.

But I still took a deep breath and dialed Zhou Chen’s number.

“Hubby, it’s our daughter’s birthday tomorrow. Should we… invite the parents over for a meal?”

Silence lasted for several seconds on the other end.

“No need, Yaoyao.”

His voice was so calm it felt foreign.

“Let’s get a divorce.”