Chapter 34: The Thorny Rose

When she opened the door, she deliberately stepped back half a pace, expecting him to come straight in. Instead, he stood in the doorway. His gaze brushed only once over the pale swell of her chest before settling on her face.

"This is the divorce agreement I drafted. Take a look and sign it if there’s no problem."

He handed her two sheets of paper.

She stared at him, speechless, and at the handwritten agreement in his hand.

Either he had gone mad, or he was joking with her. Only just now, they had begun to feel as though their hearts were turning toward each other...

"We’ll go to the Civil Affairs Bureau tomorrow morning and complete the手续. The house and the car are yours. As for the rest, I don’t really have anything else."

"What do you mean? I won’t sign. If you can get a marriage certificate without me showing up, then go and get the divorce certificate on your own. Anyway, it makes no difference whether I’m there or not. Whatever you do, however you do it, you don’t need to tell me."

She snatched the agreement from his hand, tore it to pieces, and hurled the scraps at his face. The bits of paper slid down from his cheeks, fluttering to the floor.

"I made several copies. I’ll give you another one. Tear up as many as you like; I can give you that many. This marriage is definitely ending. Believe me, once I make a decision, I don’t change it."

His expression remained calm and unmoved, as though he had long since expected this outburst.

"Bastard! Fine, divorce it is. Who cares about you? I want the house and the car too. They’re what I deserve."

After her fury and embarrassment had burned themselves out, sadness still rose in her chest despite everything. She had thought the twisted entanglement between her and Chen Bo had finally ripened into something real; instead, it was nothing but a mirage, a brief delight that vanished at once.

Chen Bo was truly despicable. His methods for toying with women were absurd beyond belief. He even used something as solemn as marriage and divorce as a weapon against a woman. As for her, the victim, she was nothing but a fool, foolishly believing he doted on her, loved her, and that the two of them had already reached some perfect union of body and soul...

Ha ha ha.

She wanted to laugh coldly, but tears rose in her eyes against her will. She took up the pen and signed her name with vicious force, so hard that the final stroke tore through the paper.

Hmph. A villa, a BMW—did she really care for such things?

Even in sleep, her face was full of grievance, and when she woke in the morning her eyes were swollen like walnuts. Chen Bo took the agreement, saw her signature, and handed it back to her.

She had thought that because the paper was torn, the bureau would refuse to process it. She told him to fetch another copy and sign it again. But when Chen Bo looked at her signature, his expression grew strangely odd.

"Since when have you ever used that name?"

Seeing the name she had just signed, Li Tian’er suddenly understood: she had become so immersed in the role that she had signed her own name.

"It’s my pen name."

In this era there was no internet yet; she almost blurted out that Li Tian’er was her online name.

Li Tiantian. She had to remember this name and this identity.

After they left the Civil Affairs Bureau, Chen Bo hailed a taxi and left. Li Tian’er held the BMW keys and could not bring herself to get in the car for a long time.

She had a feeling that from this day on, she might never see Chen Bo again. The thought left her hollow inside, as though some part of her soul had been taken away.

The growth of her popularity value began to slow. Aside from the daily plus one hundred from Kai Kai and plus ten from the nanny, there was only the unwavering plus nineteen from the nineteen workers at the garment factory.

Every time her phone rang, Li Tian’er hoped it was Chen Bo calling. But each time it was only a client about business. Her fruit and grain business grew steadily more stable, and the garment factory performed better and better.

On payday the next month, the workers received even higher wages than before, and every face was lit with a smile. Some of those who had been waiting on the sidelines also began asking Li Tian’er to let them come back to work at the factory.

From the day after wages were paid, Li Tian’er found that whenever she stepped into the factory, her popularity value shot up in a rush, ten times more than the day before.

Being busy was fine. But once she had nothing to do, she would sit staring at her phone. Several times she almost dialed Chen Bo’s number; just as the call was about to go through, she hung up instead. She was afraid of hearing his voice—afraid he might be with some other woman again.

Living in Chen Bo’s villa always made her feel as though she were a magpie occupying a cuckoo’s nest. After the new house had been aired out for three months, she moved in with Kai Kai and the nanny.

The villa gate was locked, and within half a month the lawn in the courtyard had burst into many weeds, some already more than a foot high, whipping in the north wind and giving off an air of desolation and decay.

Winter in the south was damp and cold. After two winter rains, the New Year was nearly upon them.

When she received the phone call and invitation letter from the city leaders inviting her to attend a forum for young entrepreneurs, the first thing she thought was that Chen Bo would surely be there. She hesitated over whether to go. When the municipal office secretary called again to confirm her attendance, she agreed.

At last she had a proper reason to call Chen Bo.

But the voice prompt in her ear said the number had expired.

Chen Bo had actually cancelled his mobile number just so he would not have to contact her.

Bastard!

Li Tian’er was furious all over again.

At first she had planned to attend the forum in a low-key manner. But the moment she put down the phone, she decided she would make a grand entrance. As grand as possible. She would dazzle the whole room. She would be a rose with thorns, driving those thorns straight into Chen Bo’s eyes and leaving them there.

Old Master Feng studied the fashion sketch Li Tian’er gave him all morning. At noon he even took the trouble to go over the details with her once more, so absorbed that he did not even have time for lunch before beginning to cut the patterns. When the work whistle rang, he was still utterly focused on his scissors.

Sister Liao called a few particularly skilled women workers to stay late with her, to sew the outfit Li Tian’er would wear tomorrow to the forum for young entrepreneurs.

At eleven that night, the three-piece suit was finished. Sister Liao hurried over with the clothes to Li Tian’er’s office so she could try them on.

"No need to try. It’ll fit perfectly. I’m treating everyone to a meal."

The workers had spent the whole day helping her, and Li Tian’er felt bad about it. After supper she treated them all to a late-night meal and gave each of them a generous red envelope.

Back home, she changed in front of the mirror into the bright yellow three-piece suit and felt as though she were putting on battle armor, ready to face a war the next day.

After signing in at the entrance to the conference hall, Li Tian’er adjusted the black satin bow at the collar of her white shirt. On ten-centimeter heels, she walked unhurriedly into the venue.

The conference room was already full.

Normally, she despised people who were not punctual. But today she had deliberately arrived one minute late.

As Li Tian’er entered, it seemed as though a beam of light had illuminated every corner of the hall. She smiled toward the host, then followed the guidance to the seat marked with her nameplate. The gentleman beside her hurriedly stood to pull out the chair. She nodded her thanks with grace, then sat down with composure and politely smiled at the guests around her.

She knew that her polished, international image had already conquered everyone present. Though her gaze had not yet found Chen Bo, she was certain that from the moment she had stepped inside, he had been watching her all along. His hawk-like eyes no longer posed any threat. She was no longer his prey; she and he were fellow young entrepreneurs standing on equal footing.

After the host began, the attention of the room finally shifted away from Li Tian’er to the moderator. Taking advantage of the moment, she swept her eyes over the crowd, and her heart lurched.

Chen Bo had not come.