Volume One, Chapter Three: Leave with Nothing but Yourself!

The dawn crept gently into the room.

Lu Jinnian woke shivering with cold.

He found himself lying on the sofa in the master bedroom. Not a single blanket covered him, and he was still dressed in yesterday’s clothes. When he glanced up, he saw his jacket and tie—thrown carelessly over the armrest the night before—crumpled underfoot, now as wrinkled as old rags.

With a scowl, Lu Jinnian sat up, noticing the bed had already been made. Sang Wan, acting as if she had taken the wrong medicine, had ignored him the entire night.

“Sang Wan?” he called out, raising his voice, but the familiar, prompt “Coming!” never arrived.

Lu Jinnian headed into the bathroom, catching the image of his angry face staring back from the mirror. He fumed as he showered, then grew even more irritated when he found the towel wasn’t within reach. And as he dressed, his anger mounted—Sang Wan hadn’t even prepared his clothes for the day.

He yanked open the wardrobe, confronted by a dizzying array of ties in every color and pattern.

Lu Jinnian descended the stairs, his face dark.

There, on the coffee table in the living room, sat a “Divorce Agreement.”

“Sang Wan, what on earth is wrong with you this early in the morning?” The anger that had been simmering all morning finally erupted as Lu Jinnian glared at Sang Wan, who sat calmly at the dining table, eating breakfast. “So I didn’t pick you up from the hospital—does it warrant this? I have to run the company and take care of our son. You think I live like you, lying in bed every day, with a nurse waiting on you hand and foot? Don’t forget, your hospital bills, the wages for the help—every penny comes from me! Without me, would you be living so comfortably?”

“Lu Jinnian, I was so ill I nearly died, and you…”

“But did you die?” he cut her off, blocking all her grievances with a single sentence.

Sang Wan fell silent.

Lu Jinnian glared at her, his expression irritable and brooding. “Sang Wan, what is it you’re trying to pull? You don’t work, you don’t socialize, you live in comfort every day—what more do you want? Don’t you realize how fortunate you are? Even being willful has its limits!”

So, in his eyes, she was simply being willful?

“I…” Sang Wan began.

At that moment, Lu Jinnian’s phone buzzed insistently. She caught a glimpse of the caller ID: “Zhao Zhao.” Sang Wan looked away.

Lu Jinnian answered, his demeanor instantly transformed, his voice turning gentle and warm as spring rain, “I see. I’ll be right there.”

Sang Wan swallowed the words she’d been about to say.

She knew explaining was pointless. He clearly had no patience for her explanations now.

Sang Wan drew a deep breath. “I’ve met Lin Zhao Zhao…”

“Why did you see Zhao Zhao? What did you say to her?” Lu Jinnian exploded, glaring at Sang Wan. “Sang Wan, are you out of your mind?”

Once, just a single remark like that would have left Sang Wan shocked and in tears. But now, she was unexpectedly calm, even managing a faint smile. “I only ran into her at the kindergarten gate when I was picking up Xiao Mu. That’s all. Lu Jinnian, what are you so anxious about?”

Lu Jinnian hesitated.

Sang Wan pushed the divorce papers across the table. “Sign it. It won’t take much of your time, and it won’t make you late for work.”

His gaze swept over Sang Wan’s face, so calm it could not be any more composed.

He was certain she was angry—angry that he’d left her alone and unattended at the hospital.

Lu Jinnian’s anger only deepened. He flipped through the thin divorce agreement with a rustle, his eyes pausing on the terms of the property division.

It seemed a joke of cosmic proportions to him, and mockery flashed in his eyes. “Marital assets? Fifty-fifty? Sang Wan, tell me, on what grounds?”

With a rip, he tore the papers to pieces, tossing them in her face.

Lu Jinnian spoke coldly, “Sang Wan, don’t forget who gave you the life you enjoy today.”

“Every meal you eat, every piece of clothing you wear, the handbags in your closet, the fresh flowers on your table each day—every cent comes from my hard work.”

“Marital assets? When you married me, you know perfectly well what your family’s situation was. Do you really have the nerve to talk to me about marital property?”

Sang Wan thought her heart was already dead, numb and unfeeling, that nothing Lu Jinnian or Lu Xiaomu did could hurt her anymore.

She was wrong.

A few words from Lu Jinnian cut deeper than the sharpest blade, effortlessly puncturing her heart with countless wounds.

A dull ache throbbed at the wound on her lower back. Sang Wan’s face turned pale. “Lu Jinnian, a person ought to have a conscience…”

Back in college, when he’d started a business and was swindled out of everything, not even having money for living expenses, and too ashamed to tell his family, it was she who gave him her own spending money.

She would buy him nutritious meals with meat and vegetables, telling him she’d already eaten. The steamed buns at the campus canteen cost fifty cents apiece; instead, she would walk an extra kilometer to the market where one yuan bought three buns—enough for two days.

Later, she took on several part-time jobs just to get through those hard times.

After graduation, when he proposed marriage, his mother refused to accept her and cut off his credit card. During that period, all he had to do was work, while she had to juggle her job and carefully budget their meager funds to make ends meet.

Not until his mother relented and allowed them to work at the family company did things improve.

He was appointed project director, while she remained an ordinary architect, unable to reveal her identity and relying solely on her ability to climb the ranks.

Finally, just as she started to make progress, she was diagnosed with pregnancy.

She wanted to keep working.

He told her only an incompetent man would let his pregnant wife toil and worry, that she should stay home, take care of herself and their baby so he could focus on his work.

After their son was born and weaned at one, she longed to return to the company.

He said, “Wanwan, I’ll provide for the family, and you just stay beautiful and charming. You wouldn’t want your husband to come home to a cold dinner, would you? Besides, if you leave our son with a nanny, won’t he grow distant from you?”

When their son started kindergarten at three, she brought it up again.

He said, “Just wait a little longer, Wanwan.”

Wait for what?

For his affections to waver.

For the young and beautiful Lin Zhao Zhao to appear.

For him to fall ill, and for her to willingly give him a kidney, leaving herself with no further use.

Then, she was supposed to devote her life to being his housekeeper.

Wasn’t that right?

Her once favorite pumpkin porridge now felt sickly and cloying.

Sang Wan drew a deep breath and slowly rose. “I’ll print the divorce papers again. Or, if you prefer, just let me know and we’ll sign at the Civil Affairs Bureau.”

His gaze swept over her stubborn yet serene face.

Lu Jinnian’s anger grew even fiercer.

“Divorce, is it? Fine.”

A fleeting sneer passed through his eyes. “Since you insist, Sang Wan, you’ll leave with nothing.”

Sang Wan was taken aback.

Lu Jinnian’s eyes were cold and ruthless. “The house, the car, our son—don’t even think about them! Aside from the salary you earned at Lu Corporation, I won’t give you a cent more!”

A decade to share a boat across the river.

A hundred years to share a pillow.

After all these years of sharing a bed, how blind had she been?

Before the bitterness in her heart could well up, Sang Wan nodded. “Very well.”

His ruthless expression faltered.

Lu Jinnian looked up.

Sang Wan met his gaze and said, “Nine o’clock tomorrow morning, at the Civil Affairs Bureau.”