Chapter Sixty-Nine Moving Out

A hollow, bloody emptiness opened up inside her, as if a knife had been driven in and mercilessly gouged out a gaping, jagged wound. The dizziness returned, making her body sway. She forced herself upright, searching desperately for something to steady herself. Through the blur, she saw Fu Chen sitting there, his posture straight, his gaze fixed on her as if she were a stranger to him.

In the end, she could no longer hold herself up and collapsed to the floor, a thin mist of tears shrouding her vision. She lifted her lips in a bitter smile.

"Is it because Lin Yiqing is pregnant with your child?" This question had tormented her endlessly these past days—a stubborn obsession she needed answered.

Fu Chen bent down. His cold hand gripped the back of Shen Huaiqing’s neck, pulling her head back so she was forced to meet his eyes. His gaze was as dark and deep as a pool hiding a deadly current.

"Of course, it’s not just that. Do you know whom I met in France?" Fu Chen’s voice dropped, carrying a dangerous edge.

Her hair was twisted in his fist, pain radiating across her scalp. She fought back tears, her throat aching with unshed sobs, her chest squeezed tight as if a pair of hands were crushing her ribs, making it almost impossible to breathe. Her brown eyes blurred with tears.

"Shen Huaiqing, isn’t it?"

Fu Chen regarded her as a hunter would his prey, his thin lips curling with icy disdain, his eyes sharp and full of rage.

"Yes, you really are alike. I thought you might be the Shen family’s illegitimate daughter or something, but it turns out you’re just a menial worker at the very bottom of society, with a mother who’s insane." As he spoke, Fu Chen’s hand slid from her neck to her throat, tightening gradually, lifting her off the ground, fury burning in his eyes. "I wasted so much time on you."

The air around Song Hui grew thin. She saw again the look Fu Chen had given her in his office that day—merciless, ruthless, stripped of all feeling.

The pain in her heart and body became too much. Tears spilled down her cheeks, leaving cold, wet trails. But this time, unlike before, Fu Chen quickly let her go, flinging her hard onto the floor, then reaching for a wet wipe from the table to clean his hands, his gaze full of revulsion.

Released so abruptly, Song Hui sucked in great gulps of air, her throat raw and burning as she coughed uncontrollably.

Stubbornly, she wiped the tears from her face, sat numbly on the floor, her bloodshot eyes fixed on Fu Chen, clinging to the last shred of hope as she questioned him.

"So everything you said the night before you left was a lie?"

"Should I call you clever, or just naive?"

"If I didn’t reassure you first, how could I have investigated abroad in peace?"

"Did you really think I could ever love you?"

Fu Chen's eyes were as deep and unfathomable as a midnight lake, his gaze sweeping Song Hui with contempt, his voice low, cold, and sharp.

Every word was a knife, cutting her open, leaving her insides a bloody ruin. Two tears clung to her lashes, slid down her pale, delicate face, and hung trembling at her small chin.

She forced herself upright, facing Fu Chen at eye level, her voice steady and calm.

"Fine. Let's get divorced."

Fu Chen froze for a moment; perhaps he hadn’t expected her to agree so easily.

"I’ll move out tomorrow. I have only one request: don’t make this public just yet." Song Hui looked at him with numb indifference, her voice hoarse as if torn from her throat.

"All right." Fu Chen did not argue, agreeing readily.

He watched her walk away—her small, frail figure seemed so lonely and desolate it evoked a strange kind of pain in his eyes.

Song Hui returned to the guest room, unwilling to think about anything. All she wanted was to sleep, but even so small a wish was now beyond her. She sat dazed by the window until the first pale light of dawn crept across the sky.

She could not say how much time had passed.

"Come out." Fu Chen’s message flashed across her phone.

Did he now find even a single word with her too much? Under the same roof, and yet he sent her a message. She smiled bitterly.

She drifted out of the room like a soulless shell. Aunt Feng hurried to support her, eyes full of worry, but unable to speak a word.

Fu Chen’s brow twitched, but he quickly masked it. "This is the divorce agreement." He slid the white papers in front of her.

She took them. Fu Chen had already scrawled his signature in bold strokes. Without reading the terms, she wrote the name Shen Huaiqing without hesitation.

Yes, she’d married as Shen Huaiqing—what did this marriage have to do with Song Hui? Yet her heart still ached as if it were being squeezed in someone else’s hand.

Fu Chen’s eyes lingered on her signing hand, his expression unreadable.

"There are thirty million in this account. Take it as compensation."

Song Hui glanced at the card, her cracked lips curling in a cold smile. "What compensation? For my soul, or for my body?"

"Whatever you want to think." Fu Chen’s brows drew together, his eyes dark as the night.

Song Hui made no protest. She slipped the card into her pocket. Life ahead would be impossible without money—she was not so proud as to refuse. In this world, without money, one could not take a single step.

"Aunt Feng, serve the food," Fu Chen called, seemingly satisfied that she had accepted the money.

"Enjoy your meal," she answered.

She did not want to linger for a moment longer. The sight of Fu Chen only reminded her how foolish she’d been—to believe someone could truly love her, to think someone might see through the armor of her feigned strength.

Of all people, she had trusted the one she never should have.

How hopelessly naïve she had been.

Back in her room, the first thing she did was call Yu Yunxi.

"Yunxi, can you help me find an apartment? I don’t have any particular requirements—just clean and tidy."

Yu Yunxi immediately sensed something was wrong. "Are those reporters still harassing you at the door? Moving out won’t solve the problem, you know."

Song Hui gave a cold laugh in her heart. Since Fu Chen had returned last night, not a single reporter had appeared at the door.

"It’s not that. Something happened here. I’d prefer to move in this afternoon if possible," she replied, trying to sound calm, though the hoarseness in her voice was unmistakable.

Yu Yunxi didn’t press her further. "All right, I’ll do it as soon as possible. I’ll let you know when I find something."

The call ended.

In the space of a single day and night, so many things had been turned upside down.

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PS: From this chapter on, the heroine will go by her original name. Please get used to it, and thank you!