Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Pei Yuming brought this up now. On the one hand, he did feel this way, but more importantly, he was indirectly giving Su Jin closure. After knowing each other for so many years, he felt he owed Su Jin too much and had never done anything for her voluntarily. If this outcome could make her feel a little comforted, even if just for a few minutes, he wanted to try.
“Heh, divorce?” Bai Xue laughed, but her eyes were cold. “True, we should have divorced long ago. I’ve had enough of this life of scheming and deceiving each other. But you don’t need to take all the blame. I know what kind of person I am. I don’t need you to pretend to be magnanimous and forgive me. As for this family, I’ve done my best all these years. That’s it. Since everything is out in the open, apologies are useless. Pei Yuming, I don’t owe you anything.”
“Mm.” Pei Yuming nodded heavily. For some reason, he felt an unprecedented heartache.
“No, I disagree!” Pei Xianyu panicked when he saw the two of them settle the divorce matter just like that. “How did things get to the point of divorce? Xiao Xue made some mistakes, but didn’t you also with Xiao Su… Isn’t life just like that? Arguing, being at odds with each other, that’s all normal. Besides, the child is already so grown up. How can you just divorce on a whim?”
“Dad!” Pei Yuming said, a bit frustrated. “Things have already come to this. If we force ourselves to stay together, how will we face each other in the future? I know what you’re worried about. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you in your old age. Whatever Xiao Xue can do, I can do too.”
“What can you do?!” Pei Xianyu became anxious. “Can you cook for me or do the laundry? Do you know how to turn on the gas stove? How to use the washing machine? Easy for you to say. Are you planning to stop working? Without Xiao Xue, our whole family won’t even have a hot meal. If I rely on you, I’ll starve to death before dying of old age or illness!”
“Yeah, big brother, you’re oversimplifying things. Sister-in-law handles all these household matters, no less than what you do. You think you’re busy at work, but sister-in-law hasn’t been idle either. You’re just stuck in a rut,” Pei Yucheng said, glancing at Su Jin, who had been in a daze ever since hearing his big brother mention divorce. Feeling a bit bad, he added, “Besides, some things are in the past. Bringing them up now is too late. You’d better think more about the future.”
“Yucheng makes a valid point,” Lu Dong interjected, looking at Pei Yuming with some apology. “Lao Pei, I’ve let you down. Whether an apology helps or not, I still need to say sorry to you. But whether it’s you and… Bai Xue, or me and Su Jin, we’ve spent most of our lives together. It’s not easy to really separate. I admit I’m a bastard, but at our age, the people around us we can talk to, honestly, are all right here. Do you really want us to never see each other again until we die?”
Pei Yuming naturally understood what Lu Dong was plotting. He had reached his current position only after enormous effort, and no one knew how much thought he had put into flattering the right people. He couldn’t possibly give up his wealth and power just because Su Jin had an affair.
He glanced down at his watch. In less than two minutes, he would be back in that interrogation room. He couldn’t possibly change the fixed worldview of a forty-something man with just a few words in such a short time, especially since Lu Dong hadn’t been through what he had. Even if he had two more hours, or two days, he wouldn’t listen to a single word.
He finally sighed helplessly, “You’re all trying to persuade me. Why not ask Su Jin and Xiao Xue what they want? Whatever happens, I’ll respect their final decision.”
“Divorce.” Under Lu Dong’s shocked gaze, Su Jin stood up expressionlessly, walked slowly out of the dining room, changed her shoes at the door by herself, then opened the door and left without looking back, all in one smooth motion.
Lu Dong came to his senses and hurried to follow, but before leaving, he turned back to pat Pei Yuming on the shoulder, saying, “Lao Pei, don’t overthink it. What’s done is done. Just let it go. I’ll come find you in a couple of days. Wait for me!”
After saying this, he shot a glance at the still-stunned Lu Zixuan and left with the bewildered child.
Pei Yucheng, seeing his big brother hadn’t moved, cleared his throat lightly and said, “Then, I’ll go see… see them off!”
Saying this, he also hurried away.
Pei Xianyu let out a deep sigh, shook his head, found some plastic wrap in the kitchen, skillfully packed up two dishes he liked, and left silently.
Only their immediate family remained at the dining table. Pei Xiaobei had many questions, but after looking at her parents’ expressions, she ultimately didn’t dare speak.
“Xiao Xue…” Pei Yuming started to say something more, but was interrupted by Bai Xue.
“I want a divorce,” Bai Xue said. “Let’s get divorced, Pei Yuming.”
Although he had already said it once himself, hearing Bai Xue say it now still sent a sharp, unmistakable pain through his heart.
No matter what kind of parting it was, once the decision had been made, there would always be sorrow.
“Okay.” Pei Yuming wiped the corner of his eye. From the corner of his vision, he noticed the watch on his wrist. He glanced at it, then raised it closer as though he had not seen clearly and stared at it for so long that even Bai Xue noticed something was wrong.
“What is it?” Bai Xue frowned. “It’s already so late. Do you still have somewhere to be?”
Pei Yuming looked up at her. His expression was complicated, shock mixed with frustration and perhaps even a trace of regret.
Bai Xue said warily, “Then let’s file for divorce tomorrow.”
Pei Yuming remained silent for a long time before finally nodding.
As soon as the divorce was finalized, Bai Xue took Xiaobei back to her hometown.
Later, Su Jin left too. She and Lu Dong ultimately did not divorce, but Pei Yuming heard that she had taken Lu Zixuan with her. From beginning to end, she never said a word to him before leaving.
As for Lu Dong, he had said that day that he would come talk to Pei Yuming alone, but he never appeared again. It was as though the man had vanished completely from his life.
Someone Pei Yuming knew mentioned recently that Lu Dong still seemed to be living as comfortably and carefree as ever.
Sometimes Pei Yuming wondered whether he regretted saying those things. The truth was, he did not know.
Late one night, Pei Yuming dragged his exhausted body off the last subway. By the time he emerged from the station, the streets were almost deserted.
He remembered the message his father had sent that afternoon, asking him to pick up some bread and fruit on the way home for breakfast the next morning.
He looked around at the dark storefronts, all long since closed, and a profound sense of helplessness welled up inside him.
In the end, he settled on an inconvenient solution: he would set an early alarm before bed and go to the market in the morning.
When he was almost back at his residential complex, he spotted a chain convenience store still open in the distance and headed straight toward it.
As he approached, an SUV came up from behind and pulled over at the curb. Pei Yuming glanced at it instinctively and saw two familiar figures step out.
He hurried closer and realized that he really did know them.
“Officer Cao? Officer Gu?” he greeted them in pleasant surprise. “Did you two just get off work too?”
“Hmm?” Cao Lei narrowed his bloodshot eyes. “You are…?”
“It’s me, Pei Yuming!” he said.
Cao Lei furrowed his brow. Only after a long moment did recognition seem to dawn on him. “Oh, you. Hello.”
His cool response extinguished Pei Yuming’s enthusiasm. After exchanging a few awkward pleasantries, Pei Yuming left, no longer even in the mood to visit the convenience store.
Once he was gone, Gu Jie nudged Cao Lei with a finger. “Captain Cao, who was that? Do you know him?”
Cao Lei shook his head. “What, you don’t know him? I thought he was someone you knew.”
“Why would I know him? I thought he was your friend!”
…
While waiting for the elevator, Pei Yuming suddenly slapped his forehead and cursed himself for being an idiot. How could he have forgotten?
Perhaps because Su Jin had left early that day, he had not returned to the interrogation room when the time came as he usually did. The murders had never happened, which meant he had never met Cao Lei or Officer Gu. How could they possibly know him?
No wonder they had both looked so awkward.
Still, Pei Yuming felt he could hardly be blamed for not realizing it sooner.
Although two months had passed, whenever his mind was idle, he still felt as though he were living in a dream. Sometimes he woke in the middle of the night unable to tell whether the world around him was real.
Only when he sat down at the breakfast table with his elderly father and Ah Cheng did it truly sink in that he was now a divorced man.
Bai Xue had left and taken his old life with her. His job was the same and he was as busy as ever, yet something always seemed to be missing. The hollow feeling lingered and refused to fade, especially when he washed his face and looked in the mirror each morning. Seeing more and more gray in his hair sometimes gave him the strange sense that his life was already nearing its end.
He did not think he was depressed, yet an inexplicable pessimism had settled over him. It was as though all the loneliness he had escaped for most of his life had suddenly arrived at once.
Sometimes he woke in the middle of the night and instinctively reached to the other side of the bed, only to find a cold sheet. In those moments, he realized that he missed Bai Xue a little, as well as the family they had once been.
The End.