Ye Shuang led Chen Hai directly out of the ward, and the two of them walked to the end of the hallway, to a balcony area where people could rest.
The air and the view here were both pleasant—you could see the seaside and the trees.
Seeing that Chen Hai seemed to be in a bad mood, Ye Shuang patted his pocket and finally pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “Stop looking so down. Have one.”
“Already smoked half a pack,” Chen Hai said, finally speaking. He seemed a bit subdued, and he handed a cigarette to Ye Shuang. “Here, join me.”
“I’ll keep you company with one.” Ye Shuang took the cigarette Chen Hai offered, took a single drag, and then just held it between his fingers.
“Feng Shan is going to get an abortion?”
“Mm,” Chen Hai answered. “Let her. It’s not like I wanted it that much anyway. I’m sick of it.”
“Dad will kill you. Everyone’s counting on you to carry on the Chen family name,” Ye Shuang said, glancing at him. Clearly, Chen Hai was just saying the opposite of what he truly felt.
“Doesn’t matter. With you and Chen Qin passing down your excellent genes, they don’t need me,” Chen Hai said, letting out a cold laugh.
“Not having a kid is better.”
At that, Ye Shuang calmly asked, “Are you trying to pick a fight with me too?”
Chen Hai fell silent.
“I wasn’t being sarcastic,” Chen Hai said. “I’m sorry.”
“If it’s that painful, then get a divorce. But what about the child?” Ye Shuang asked.
“Abort it.”
“That’s irresponsible.”
“I don’t know,” Chen Hai said. After all, it was because of Qiaoqiao that he had kept putting off divorcing Feng Shan.
“I’ve thought it through. Life is only a few decades long. I don’t want to be trapped,” Chen Hai continued.
“I’m really exhausted. Especially these past days, I’ve been draining myself mentally every single day. You probably don’t know this, but I never actually got angry with Feng Shan—it’s always been her yelling and hitting me, one-sided. I think I’ve done pretty well on that front.”
“And what about Qiaoqiao?”
“I want to fight for custody of the child,” Chen Hai said, looking away. “Without the kid, it’ll be easier for her to remarry—or she doesn’t have to marry at all.”
“That’s a bit cruel,” Ye Shuang said, glancing at the cigarette in his hand, which had already gone out. He patted Chen Hai on the shoulder.
“Come on. Let’s all go in and talk.”
Ye Shuang brought Chen Hai back into the ward. By then, Feng Shan’s emotions had calmed down somewhat, but the moment she saw Chen Hai come in, she still wore a cold face and said nothing. Clearly, Chen Hai’s parents had already done their best to comfort their daughter-in-law.
“Dad, I want a divorce,” Chen Hai said the moment he walked in. Before he could even finish, his father boiled over.
“You damn fool! Say that again!”
“I want a divorce…”
No sooner had Chen Hai said it than his father started pounding on him, thud after thud.
“Dad, Dad, take it easy.” Ye Shuang quickly jumped in to hold his father back, while Chen’s mother scolded her son—how could a grown man come to this?
“I’m not like Ye Shuang. I can’t live up to his sense of responsibility. I’m really tired,” Chen Hai said. “No matter what it takes—even if I have to walk out of this house—I’m getting divorced.”
“Then get the hell out!” his father barked, more furious than he had ever been. “You fool around out there, and now you want a divorce? Which fox spirit has stolen your eyes?!”
Chen Hai was silent.
“There isn’t one.”
"Dad, I want a divorce too." Feng Shan spoke with a blank expression. "I've thought it over. We really aren't right for each other. All these years we've only been staying together for the kid's sake, and the novelty wore off years ago."
Chen's mother chimed in, "Oh, Xiaoshan, don't say things in anger. Let me teach Ahai a lesson."
"Mom, we're both serious. Let's just end it. With his perfect aim, you won't be short on grandchildren," Feng Shan said earnestly.
"..." Chen Hai looked at Feng Shan and only said one thing, "I'll compensate you. The money you've held onto all these years, you can take all of it."
"No need. I don't want anything," Feng Shan said with a faint smile. "But I'm taking Qiaoqiao with me. And the money I've saved up for you all these years, I'm returning every cent."
"Absolutely not."
"..."
Chen's father and mother felt their heads spin when they saw the two actually starting to talk about divorce.
"Dad, Mom, I've made up my mind."
It had really come to this. Watching the scene, Ye Shuang thought quietly to himself, he shouldn't get involved in something like this. Everyone was at fault, and debating who was more wrong now was completely pointless.
"Separate for a while and cool down first. Don't talk about divorce or not. Go stay with your parents for a bit," Chen's father said to Feng Shan, planning to take her home and talk some sense into her. Once she calmed down, she'd come around.
"No need."
Feng Shan seemed to have dug herself into a corner, and no one could talk her out of that stubborn streak. That was just the way she was.
...
An hour later —
"That's how it went down. Chen Hai is probably going to divorce Feng Shan." Sitting in the driver's seat, Ye Shuang was on the phone with Chen Qin, but he added, "Don't get angry."
"The way Chen Hai acted, I'm so annoyed with him I could scream," Chen Qin said irritably on the other end. "But honestly, the two of them aren't suited for marriage."
Chen Qin's reaction caught Ye Shuang off guard. "What do you mean?"
"Chen Hai has always been a dominating person. When he met Feng Shan, who's even more dominating than him, it was like two blades clashing — both end up wounded," Chen Qin said. "Someone with a gentler temperament would suit him better."
"True, no wonder Feng Shan fit Chen Hai's standards at first. A lot of Sichuan girls do seem pretty gentle at the start?" Ye Shuang said, starting to piece it together.
Maybe Feng Shan had never planned to marry Chen Hai either. It was just an unexpected pregnancy that bound two incompatible people together.
"Divorce is the only way out now," Chen Qin said. "Last time with Zhou Min, Feng Shan already couldn't accept it. Let alone this mess now."
"Yeah, looks like there's no turning back, especially after saying something like that."
The moment divorce was brought up, there was no going back in the relationship.
"Where's Chen Hai now?"
"Probably about to get beaten by Dad, like when they were kids — tied up to the window with a rope and whipped with a leather belt," Ye Shuang said.
"Hmph, serves him right."
After hanging up, Ye Shuang was still lost in thought —
"Crack crack crack crack crack... So marriage really is the grave of love?"
"Crack crack crack... Isn't being the mistress more appealing?"
"Crack crack... Yeah, makes sense."
Hearing the noise from behind, Ye Shuang turned around and noticed An Shiyu and Anshi Yi sitting there, shelling sunflower seeds.
"You two, when did you sneak in?"
"XX, XXXX?" Anshi Yi said.
"I don't understand." Ye Shuang was speechless.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
