Chapter Fourteen: Resorting to Violence Is Truly Uncivilized

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Zhou Chenyan’s face had never looked so terrible, and the handprint on his cheek made him look faintly ridiculous.

I pushed him away, and the moment I looked up, I saw a crowd standing at the door of the private room.

Every one of them wore a look of astonishment.

Zhou Zhizi gazed at Zhou Chenyan with concern. “Ayan, does it hurt?”

She reached out to touch his face, but Zhou Chenyan’s features twisted.

It hurt.

I watched coldly, without the slightest regret.

If anything, I felt I had hit him too lightly, though my hand was still tingling.

“How could you hit someone?” Zhou Zhizi reproached me. “I know you’ve always misunderstood Ayan and me because of me. I’ve told you so many times—we really are only brother and sister. Ayan hasn’t done anything wrong to you. No matter how many grievances you have, you can’t resort to violence.”

The group, who had been standing around in a daze, finally came to their senses and crowded around Zhou Chenyan, asking whether he was all right.

Unfortunately, the person receiving their concern did not spare them so much as a glance. He stared straight at me, his expression cold as if covered in frost.

“What’s wrong with you? Hitting someone is so uncivilized.”

“Can’t you talk things out properly? Has Brother Zhou not treated you well enough? Look at what you’ve done to his face. How is he supposed to go out and face people now?”

“People from small, insignificant families really have no upbringing.”

The Mu family could be considered respectable, though compared with the Zhou family, it was a class below.

But in the eyes of these heirs from prominent families, the Mu family was still nothing more than a small household.

I crossed my arms and said calmly, “A married couple is having a quarrel. What does that have to do with any of you?”

They had never liked me in my previous life, and I had never tried to curry favor with them. Now that I had already decided to divorce Zhou Chenyan, I certainly had no reason to start.

My policy was simple: go completely insane.

Let none of us have a good time.

Perhaps the impression I had left on them in the past was simply too deeply ingrained. I had treated Zhou Chenyan well, and by extension, I had always been polite and courteous to his friends, even though we were not particularly close.

Now, every one of them looked at me as though they had seen a ghost.

Zhou Zhizi bit her lip. “Sister Yanyan, you really have misunderstood Ayan. He truly cares about you. When you stayed out all night before, he was distracted and absent-minded. And when you left home for so long this time, Ayan was terribly worried about you.”

“She stayed out all night too?”

“Could there be someone else?”

I had no idea who said it, but those words instantly darkened Zhou Chenyan’s expression further.

He glared at me. “Go home.”

“That’s your home, not mine.”

I had no intention of going back. Why should I? To go back and endure more misery?

I turned and walked away.

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But Zhou Zhizi grabbed hold of me.

“Sister Yanyan, don’t be angry. If you’re upset with Ayan because of me, there’s really no need. You’re the one in his heart, and I’ve always thought of you as my sister-in-law—”

“Oh!”

She suddenly stumbled and fell toward the floor, but Zhou Chenyan caught her with lightning speed.

His voice turned icy. “You still dare to lay a hand on her?”

Zhou Zhizi clung to him, her eyes reddening. “Ayan, don’t blame Sister Yanyan. She didn’t do it on purpose. It was my own fault for losing my balance. I can’t hold my liquor…”

She seemed determined to stand on her own, yet her body swayed precariously, and Zhou Chenyan held her in his arms.

“Don’t move.”

At last, she obediently stopped struggling.

With the handprint still visible on his cheek, Zhou Chenyan looked at me coldly. “Are you going to keep this up forever? All this over a lousy bracelet?”

“A lousy bracelet…”

So what had brought the sky crashing down around me was nothing more than an unreasonable tantrum in his eyes.

I had known that all along, yet every time I witnessed it with my own eyes, I still couldn’t stop my heart from turning cold.

Their friends could no longer stand by and watch.

“You’re really going too far.”

“As a wife, you should be more understanding. Before marrying Old Zhou, didn’t you know he had a younger sister?”

“What are you making such a fuss about? Just because a man gets married, is he no longer allowed to treat his sister well?”

“You’re being unbelievably petty.”

“Were you raised without any manners? When you communicate with people, you use your hands instead of your mouth?”

Each word overwhelmed me like a tide.

Zhou Chenyan stood beside them, one hand still resting around Zhou Zhizi’s waist.

I looked at the group of self-righteous men before me and laughed coldly.

“You’re all so very broad-minded.”

“Then I hope your future partners will also have someone of the opposite sex this close by their side—someone they can embrace, comfort, and even—”

“Mu Yan!”

Zhou Chenyan realized what I was about to say and cut me off just in time.

“You don’t want me to say it because you feel guilty?” He didn’t want to hear it, but I insisted on continuing. “I’ve always wondered: if the two of you are so close, why don’t you simply get married? Why drag innocent people into this?”

Silence descended over the room.

Zhou Zhizi’s face went white.

That was how she had always been—keeping Zhou Chenyan hooked, stringing him along, yet unwilling to let anyone know the nature of their relationship. She did not want to bear the disgrace that would come with it.

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So she needed me to exist, yet hated me for existing.

“Now I actually feel sorry for your future husband. Imagine having a wife whose side is occupied by an unrelated man she’s inseparable from—someone she can embrace and confide in. Anyone who married you would have to be extremely broad-minded, or he’d be angered to death sooner or later.”

Most of the people present were men. They had been unable to put themselves in my position, but once the genders were reversed, the feeling was different.

Those who had just been speaking so shamelessly fell silent as mice.

Zhou Zhizi’s lips trembled, and tears glimmered in her eyes. “Sister Yanyan, you’ve misunderstood me…”

“Stop. I don’t want to hear any more of it.” I looked at the two of them clinging to each other. Compared with them, I seemed more like an outsider.

“If you two are so eager, don’t do it here. What if someone comes out and sees you? How embarrassing. After all, you’re still brother and sister for now.”

Zhou Chenyan enunciated my name through clenched teeth. “Mu. Yan.”

The angrier he became, the brighter my smile grew.

“You don’t like hearing it? Fine, I’ll stop. I’m leaving. Have a wonderful time.”

This time, no one tried to stop me.

I supposed I had frightened them. It didn’t matter. They were all a bunch of scumbags. The more frightened they were, the better.

When I returned to the private room, Qian Yushu was still reciting love letters. Even though he was alone in the room, his voice was quiet, though his emotions were remarkably full.

He read with impassioned intensity.

My entrance made him stumble over his words.

“How did the practice go?”

My expression remained calm, and he soon composed himself as well. “I’ve read through all these love letters and tried writing one myself. Would you like to see it?”

Oh, he knew how to draw inferences.

I became interested. “Just read it to me. It’ll give me a chance to hear whether your emotions are sufficiently heartfelt.”

In truth, I was simply too lazy to read it myself.

I sat down on the sofa while Qian Yushu stood stiffly before me with his phone in hand. He nervously drew a deep breath.

“From the first time we met, I fell deeply in love with you. Every chance encounter, every time we brushed past each other, every moment when you failed to notice me—my gaze was irresistibly drawn to you…”

The door to the private room was kicked open.

The thunderous bang made Qian Yushu flinch, and even I jumped.

Zhou Chenyan stood in the doorway, his face dark and grim, his teeth nearly ground to pieces.

“Mu Yan, well done.”