C3 Finally She Was Free!

Chen Qingchuan was taken aback by Su Xue's reaction. He had expected her to be eager to grab the divorce papers. Instead, she simply muttered "You're sick," took off her shoes, and headed upstairs.

"I don't think you understood what I just said. Get the divorce agreement, I'll sign it, and we can get divorced," he said, stressing his words to ensure there was no misunderstanding this time. To his surprise, Su Xue looked irritated.

"I'm exhausted. I have important matters to attend to tomorrow. I need to go back to my room and rest. Could you please step aside?"

Of course, Chen Qingchuan couldn't. He wanted a divorce just as much!

When he made his stance clear, Su Xue reluctantly stopped. She turned around and sat back down on the sofa, facing Chen Qingchuan.

"Fine, I admit I wronged you today. I'm well aware that you weren't the one who drugged me. Despite your lack of ambition and roguish ways, you're not a bad person. You wouldn't stoop so low. It must have been Liu Zhen who did it."

"But I'm in a bind. The company is in trouble and urgently needs ten million yuan for a turnaround. Liu Zhen is the only one who can help me right now. He could persuade his father to lend me the money. So I can't afford to alienate him—I have to feign ignorance."

"I wronged you, and I'm willing to apologize. Here and now, I'm sorry," she said, rising to give Chen Qingchuan a sincere bow.

She went on, "If you're still not satisfied, let's even the score. You can slap me twice. Will that make you happy?"

Chen Qingchuan had an epiphany. Su Xue didn't want to avoid divorce; she thought he was being petty about the slap from earlier in the day.

As Su Xue made to leave once more, he stopped her, intending to clarify that his agreement to the divorce was genuine.

But Su Xue was having none of it and snapped, "Are we still on this? Are you even a man? How can you be so petty? It's pathetic!"

Brushing past Chen Qingchuan, who was in her way, Su Xue ascended the stairs and firmly shut her bedroom door behind her.

Chen Qingchuan, looking up at Su Xue's second-floor bedroom, was at a loss for words. He truly was ready to go through with the divorce...

Sitting on the living room sofa, Chen Qingchuan lit a cigarette. As the smoke swirled around him, he made up his mind to lend Su Xue a hand. They had shared a home for three years, during which she had stood by him unwaveringly and even secured him a job as a security guard to help pay the bills. It was time to return the favor.

He approached Su Xue's bedroom door and knocked.

"I'll cover the 10 million yuan shortfall in your company's funds. Out of respect for the three years we've spent together, let me give you one last piece of advice: Liu Zhen is bad news. Keep your distance from him. And another thing, your smarts won't get you far in the cutthroat world of business."

Chen Qingchuan offered his advice with the best of intentions. He had been exposed to the ruthless side of business from a young age, far more treacherous than anything Su Xue had encountered.

But Su Xue clearly misread his intentions. "So my intelligence is useless, but yours is? Don't think I'm oblivious to your scheming. You're just trying to sweet-talk me to keep Liu Zhen from stealing me away, aren't you?"

His self-assuredness left Chen Qingchuan feeling exasperated. "Trusting me once won't kill you, will it? It's not like I'm out to get you!"

No sooner had he spoken than Su Xue opened the door. In her pink nightgown, she extended her delicate hand towards Chen Qingchuan, palm up.

"You want me to trust you? Fine, hand over that 10 million now. I'll believe you once I have it!"

Chen Qingchuan hadn't anticipated this turn of events. It wasn't even midnight yet; the funds were still frozen, and he was broke...

"I don't have it right now. Wait until midnight. I'll transfer the 10 million to your bank account then."

"Midnight is the perfect time for dreaming, isn't it?"

After a scoff, the door slammed shut once more, and the unmistakable sound of it being locked echoed through the hallway.

Chen Qingchuan was left speechless, his only option was to trudge downstairs with his head hung low.

However, shortly after descending the stairs, Su Xue's brother arrived. Upon entering the living room, he bluntly inquired, "Idiot, where's my sister?"

'Idiot' was the derogatory nickname Su Jun had consistently used for Chen Qingchuan since their first encounter three years ago. To Su Jun, anyone without power, money, connections, or talent was nothing more than an idiot. In his eyes, only Liu Zhen was fit to be his brother-in-law.

Chen Qingchuan couldn't be bothered to engage with him and instead, settled onto the couch, lighting up another cigarette.

As he smoked, Su Jun approached, picking up the cigarette box on the table and asked with a sneer, "White Pagoda Mountain, is it 7 yuan or 7.50?"

Receiving no reply from Chen Qingchuan, Su Jun pulled out a pack of his own cigarettes and casually tossed it onto Chen Qingchuan.

"Idiot, I'm in a good mood today, so you might as well smoke some decent cigarettes with me!"

"But don't thank me. If anyone, thank my brother-in-law, Liu Zhen. He's the one who gave me these cigarettes—a whole box, worth a year of your salary! How about that? Isn't my brother-in-law far more generous than an idiot like you?"

"That's why I always say, you've got to know your place in life, recognize your own value. You're walking around with size 42 feet, trying to squeeze into my sister's size 36 crystal slippers? If you're not good enough for her, better to just scram. Who knows, maybe my brother-in-law will be so pleased he'll toss you a severance package of ten to eighty thousand!"

After a round of taunting Chen Qingchuan and seeing no reaction, Su Jun provocatively asked, "What's the matter, can't handle the truth?"

"Fine by me. If you can't accept it, just come at me with a million or eight hundred thousand yuan to knock me down. Heck, you wouldn't even need that much—just cough up a hundred thousand or eighty thousand, and I'd gladly call you 'brother-in-law.' I might even kneel and bow my head in apology!"

"Can you actually pull it off? If you can't, it's questionable whether you've ever seen that kind of money in your entire life..."

Chen Qingchuan was seething with frustration at the mockery. Ten thousand, eighty thousand – who were they kidding? The most extravagant meal he ever enjoyed cost him over ten million yuan; the custom, limited-edition car he ordered set him back two hundred million. And while he was still in college abroad, he had carved out a lucrative market for the Daming Group, raking in profits in the tens of billions to this day.

One hundred and eighty thousand? He wouldn't even bat an eye at such a sum, but the irony was that his assets were frozen, and he couldn't access a dime. That was the real source of his irritation!

Meanwhile, Su Jun ascended the stairs, first to Su Xue's bedroom, then to the computer room where he began to furiously tap away at a game. Su Xue herself stepped out from her bedroom for a late-night snack before retreating once more.

Throughout this entire time, the siblings didn't spare Chen Qingchuan a second glance. Clearly, they still saw him as nothing more than a worthless nobody, albeit one who had recently acquired the dubious talent of boasting.

Chen Qingchuan remained silent, glaring at the quartz clock on the wall as he simmered with indignation.

Finally, as time ticked away, the clock struck twelve. At that moment, Chen Qingchuan successfully logged into his long-neglected Daming Group private banking account.

Glancing at the one billion yuan in liquid assets, he gripped his phone tightly and made his way upstairs.

"One hundred and eighty thousand, is that it? You want to see me knocked down? Well, today I'll play the part of the spendthrift. Just watch how I bring you to your knees!"