Chapter 14: Never to Divorce

Today, Lu Mingqi came home from work right on time.

He’d made a reservation at a restaurant near the office.

Seeing me spend the entire meal propping up my chin and sighing every other minute, he finally asked with concern,

“Are you feeling sick?”

I nibbled at the fork in my hand, then decided not to torture the few remaining brain cells I had left and got straight to the point.

“What do you want for your birthday?”

Lu Mingqi seemed more than used to the way my mind jumped straight from A to Z. He remained so calm he didn’t even bother lifting his eyes.

“It’s still early.”

“How is it early? Your birthday is next month.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t you usually wait until the last minute and run to the bank to buy me gold bars?”

I felt a little guilty.

“This year, I want to give you something more special.”

“I don’t think you’ll find anything better than gold.”

I immediately pouted.

“You really have let money cloud your judgment.”

Lu Mingqi laughed.

“What I mean is, with how obsessed you are with money, I doubt you can think of anything more valuable than gold.”

Oh.

So he was making fun of me.

Come to think of it, it was strange.

I’d never gone without food or nice clothes growing up, so I had no idea why I’d developed such an intense obsession with money.

Just then, our steaks arrived.

Without thinking, Lu Mingqi cut my steak into bite-sized pieces and switched our plates.

A moment later, he suddenly said,

“Actually, there is something I really want.”

My eyes lit up instantly.

“What? Tell me!”

“I’ll tell you when we get home.”

He deliberately left me hanging, and it drove me crazy with curiosity.

I assumed he wanted something big.

Something important.

Instead, the moment we got home, he left me standing in the middle of the living room and walked straight into his study.

The door closed.

Then he locked it from the inside.

I squatted outside the door for less than five minutes before he came back out.

In his hand was a sheet of A4 paper.

Lu Mingqi had studied calligraphy seriously as a child, so his handwriting was beautiful. The short lines on the page were neat and forceful, looking more like an official legal document than a few handwritten sentences.

He handed the paper to me.

“Sign it.”

I took it and read.

In clear black ink, it said:

Party B promises never to divorce Party A.

Party B promises never to betray Party A.

Party B promises never to abandon Party A.

I stared at it, the corner of my mouth twitching.

Party A had already signed—Lu Mingqi.

And from top to bottom, the entire document consisted of obligations imposed on Party B.

Typical businessman.

He always knew how to make sure he came out ahead.

I looked up at him.

“You know this has absolutely no legal standing, right?”

“I know.”

He calmly slipped his fountain pen into my hand.

“But I trust that you’re not the kind of person who breaks her promises.”

I froze.

Wasn’t that exactly what I’d once said to Lu Mingxing to shut him up?

Now Lu Mingqi had thrown my own words right back at me.

For a moment, I couldn’t tell whether he was teasing me or quietly settling an old score.

Either way, if this was what he wanted, I didn’t mind.

I picked up the pen and signed my name without hesitation.

The moment I finished, Lu Mingqi snatched up the paper like he’d just found a priceless treasure.

He opened the safe, carefully placed it inside, and locked it.

I stood beside him, trying not to laugh.

“Are you in some kind of high school romance?”

Lu Mingqi shot me a glance.

His tone was as calm as if he were discussing the weather.

“That’s why I said you only see the value in gold.”

I burst out laughing.

“It’s just a piece of paper.”

But for some reason, watching him carefully tuck that piece of paper away in the safe made me feel…

Maybe, to him, that piece of paper was worth more than an actual bar of gold.

Lu Mingqi looked genuinely offended.

“You’re comparing my heartfelt feelings to a piece of scrap paper?”

I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him.

As long as he was happy, that was enough.

When his birthday finally came around, I still bought him ten solid gold bars and lined them up on his desk, just like I always did.

Apparently, that worthless piece of paper had worked wonders psychologically.

After that, he stopped obsessing over finding a therapist to treat me and rarely took me anywhere specifically to trigger old memories.

Once I knew for certain that Lu Mingqi wasn’t some lovesick second male lead still hung up on his old flame from the novel, I became completely comfortable putting effort into our relationship.

And our marriage grew closer by the day.

It was only natural, really.

We were exactly each other’s type.

As Lunar New Year approached, the two of us scheduled our annual physicals.

Since I was a married woman and my period was more than two weeks late, the doctor carefully asked me to take a pregnancy test first.

I’d gone through tests like this plenty of times before, so I didn’t think much of it.

But when the results came back, Lu Mingqi and I were both stunned with happiness.

I was pregnant.

The baby we’d been longing for over the past three years had finally decided to make a home inside me.

Lu Mingqi always said that having children or not didn’t matter to him, but in reality, he was over the moon.

That very afternoon, he proudly announced my pregnancy all over social media and told every relative and friend the good news.

Since the baby was still tiny, there was no visible bump yet.

Xiao Li had only moved back to the Lu family’s main residence a few months ago, but now she was transferred back to our villa.

She didn’t have much experience caring for pregnant women, so this time she was mainly there to keep an eye on the new nanny—and, of course, to keep me company so I wouldn’t get bored.

Lu Mingxing and Lian Rong even brought several baskets of nutritional supplements to visit me.

The spoiled rich kid he used to be had mellowed considerably now that his relationship was stable. Today, he was dressed in a sharp suit and tie, his hair neatly styled with gel. He actually looked quite mature.

Apparently, he’d completely forgotten about the time Lu Mingqi had beaten him within an inch of his life.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with me, he immediately dashed into the study to find his brother and strengthen their brotherly bond.

Lian Rong and Xiao Li stayed in the living room to keep me company.

Xiao Li leaned over and whispered that Lu Mingxing and Lian Rong were apparently expecting good news of their own, while things between Lu Mingli and his partner seemed to be going well too.

The Lu family had been drowning in happy news lately.

One celebration after another.

Lian Rong had heard about my memory disorder long ago, but she’d never had the chance to ask me about it.

Now that we were finally together, her curiosity got the better of her.

So I told her the whole story.

She and Xiao Li laughed so hard they nearly fell over.

“That’s unbelievably coincidental. The villainous female character in the novel has the exact same first and last name as you, and the heroine just happens to love lotus-seed mooncakes.”

“That’s not even the weirdest part.” I clicked my tongue and continued. “The heroine was tangled up with three brothers from a wealthy family at the beginning. She just happened to be the third brother’s ex-girlfriend, while the villainous female lead was the second brother’s wife.”

Lian Rong wiped tears from her eyes from laughing so hard.

“So that’s why you said all those harsh things to Lu Mingxing that day? You thought I’d never choose him in the end, so you figured you’d better convince him to let go before he got hurt?”

I rubbed my nose awkwardly.

“I just thought… if we were both supporting characters, there was no point making each other miserable. He looked like he was about to cry that day. He was so pathetic.”

The two brothers happened to walk out of the study right then and overheard us.

Whatever prejudice Lu Mingxing had once held against me had long since disappeared. He was now more than happy to strike up a conversation with me.

He sat down beside Lian Rong and complained dramatically,

“Second Sister-in-law, you really hurt my feelings that day when you said I was completely useless. I worked my ass off at the company for an entire year, finally started thinking maybe I wasn’t half bad after all, and then you poured a bucket of cold water over me. I started questioning my entire life.”

I had admittedly been pretty harsh that day, picking apart everything I could.

Feeling guilty, I said,

“I’m sorry. I really am.”

Standing behind me, Lu Mingqi gently massaged my shoulders and said,

“Why are you apologizing? He deserved every word.”

Lu Mingxing, who was now obedient as a puppy, immediately agreed with his brother.

“Exactly. I deserved it. I was a complete asshole back then. Second Sister-in-law was absolutely right to tear into me.”

His sudden transformation into such a well-behaved person gave me goosebumps.

I wasn’t used to it at all.

I turned to Lian Rong.

“Did you insist on joining Lu Corporation back then because of this idiot?”

Lian Rong nodded shyly.

“I was actually doing really well at another company. But my senior told me that after we broke up, Lu Mingxing completely fell apart. He was drinking and smoking all the time.

“I’ve lived this long without meeting many people who genuinely cared about me the way he did. I couldn’t stand by and watch him destroy himself.”

Hearing that, Lu Mingxing proudly lifted his chin.

“I knew you couldn’t bear to abandon me.”

Even now, I still found the whole thing incredible.

“In my dream, you had only just graduated from college this year. But when I read the novel afterward, the heroine was still in school.”

Lu Mingxing guessed,

“Maybe you saw it on her social media? Lian Rong was under a lot of pressure while preparing to graduate. I posted online every day to cheer her on.”

“You young people really have a bizarre way of showing affection.”

“I wasn’t trying to show off. I was just too happy to keep it to myself.”

“Your brother and I never show off like that.”

Lu Mingxing glanced at his brother and rolled his eyes.

“My second brother? He’s so afraid someone will steal you away that he’d rather hide you somewhere and keep you all to himself. You really expect him to go around broadcasting your love life to everyone?”

That part was definitely true.

I wasn’t exactly the type to put my relationship on display either.

After our guests left, Lu Mingqi gently helped me back to the bedroom for an afternoon nap.

Once bitten by a snake, twice shy.