Free Web NovelChapter 23: Chapter 23: Writing a Divorce Letter
In her previous life, three years after Tang Mo went missing, Tang Yuanxiao married Qin Shanshan. Su Li didn’t know how the two of them got together, but she eventually heard the story through the grapevine.
After marrying Tang Yuanxiao, Qin Shanshan couldn’t stay faithful. In just the second year of their marriage, she had an affair—a real one. She even got pregnant with another man’s child, making Tang Yuanxiao the greenest cuckold imaginable.
The two of them later divorced. Word was that Tang Yuanxiao grew completely disheartened and never remarried. His reputation took a nosedive, too. All three of his wives had met with misfortune—one died in childbirth and two cheated on him. All sorts of rumors circulated: that he was a jinx on his wives, that he abused them, that he was impotent.
Su Li heard about these things bit by bit later on. At the time, she was constantly searching for Tang Mo, and so was Tang Yuanxiao. Their paths inevitably crossed during their searches, so she picked up some information. ƒreewebɳovel.com
By the time she heard about all this, it was long in the past. All she could do was sneer, feeling it was all karmic retribution. He had wrongly accused her of being eager to cuckold him, and in the end, he truly got cuckolded himself. It was as if his dream of wearing a green hat had finally come true!
Recalling all this now, Su Li stared at the green yarn in her hands, and an image of Tang Yuanxiao with a green sweater on his head flashed through her mind.
"You dare wear a sweater I made? I’ll drown you in green!" Su Li seethed. "A divorce. I want a divorce. I can’t wait another second."
The thought that Tang Yuanxiao had once been married to Qin Shanshan, that he was destined to be her property in the future, made Su Li feel even more disgusted. Without another word, she pulled out some stationery.
She was going to write a letter to Tang Yuanxiao and demand a divorce!
So much for her original plan. The decision she’d just made would have to be scrapped—she couldn’t wait to ask for a divorce in person. She was going to do it by letter!
This time, Mrs. Tang had finally succeeded in pushing Su Li to her limit.
Su Li’s pen flew across the paper, the strokes fast and heavy. She finished the entire letter in a single, furious burst.
Perhaps because Su Li had been thinking about it for days, the letter demanding a divorce was fluently written, with exquisite wording and not a single typo.
Su Li read it over once. Seeing that she had written everything she wanted to say, she swiftly sealed it in an envelope. The next day, at the crack of dawn, Su Li had someone help her mail it.
She only hoped the letter would arrive with the sweater, or even before it, to prevent Tang Yuanxiao from getting the wrong idea!
Mrs. Tang knew Su Li had added another letter for Tang Yuanxiao, but she had no idea it was a letter demanding a divorce. She just assumed Su Li had shyly added a little note and was smiling from ear to ear.
After writing the letter, Su Li’s anger slowly dissipated.
Now that she had put the divorce into words, she breathed a sigh of relief. The next step was to wait for Tang Yuanxiao’s response.
’Given his personality, their marriage will probably end quickly.’
After sending the letter, Su Li temporarily put the matter aside and focused on her studies again.
Two days passed like this, and then it was Little New Year’s Eve.
On the morning of Little New Year’s Eve, Su Li woke up to her eyelids twitching—both of them at the same time.
"Wealth and woe all at once?" Su Li mumbled, rubbing her eyes. Not two minutes after she said this, someone arrived at the house with a letter for her.
The letter, of course, was from Tang Yuanxiao.
Su Li thanked the fellow villager who had brought the letter, pursed her lips at the neat, blocky handwriting on the envelope, and casually tossed it aside.
In the year since she had married him, Tang Yuanxiao wrote home with the same frequency as before. It was neither too often nor too rarely, averaging about one letter a month. He’d ask about how things were at home and how everyone’s health was. Occasionally, he’d mention a few things about his situation that he was allowed to share.
Though the wording varied, the content of each letter was essentially the same.
Even after becoming his wife, Su Li and he were still strangers. They didn’t understand each other, had nothing in common, and shared no real affection. Consequently, any mention of Su Li in his letters was brief, usually just a few lines acknowledging how hard it must be for her to care for the elder and the child at home alone.
That kind of tender, affectionate letter was a world away from anything Tang Yuanxiao would write.
Initially, Su Li hadn’t seen anything wrong with his letters. She had actually been quite happy to receive them, since Tang Yuanxiao reliably sent money home every month.
But after she became close friends with Qin Shanshan, her attitude changed. It happened after Qin Shanshan saw one of the letters and, with a few subtle, manipulative words, sowed seeds of discontent in Su Li’s mind.
She started to feel resentful, believing Tang Yuanxiao didn’t value her at all. He never bothered to write a few extra lines to her, acting as if she wasn’t even his wife. She even followed Qin Shanshan’s advice, giving perfunctory replies to that "heartless scoundrel" Tang Yuanxiao, or sometimes refusing to write back at all.
Tang Yuanxiao eventually asked why she hadn’t written back. He even called and asked someone to check on the family. Cornered, she scribbled a hasty reply claiming she was too busy.
After that, Tang Yuanxiao continued to send one letter a month like clockwork. She, however, hadn’t replied in several months... aside from the divorce demand she’d sent two days ago.
Mrs. Tang returned, saw the letter that had been tossed aside, and picked it up as if it were a treasure. Since she was illiterate, she asked Su Li to read it to her.
This was their usual routine, so Su Li wasn’t surprised. She nonchalantly opened the letter and skimmed it. The content was more or less the same, and it said he wouldn’t be able to come home for the New Year again this year.
The money Tang Yuanxiao sent this month was double the usual amount, and he told them to have a good New Year. But Mrs. Tang wasn’t very happy to hear this; she was just sad that Tang Yuanxiao couldn’t come home for the family reunion.
"...In a couple of days, you should go and withdraw the money Tangyuan sent. It’s time to buy things for the New Year. I’ll go to the market with you then..."
Mrs. Tang said this while wiping away tears, carefully stroking the envelope in her hand. Su Li stood by in silence.
"Alright, you can put the letter away now." Mrs. Tang carefully handed the letter to Su Li. Su Li took it and stood up, about to put it away in her room, but when she turned, she saw two people standing silently behind her.
"Ah!" Su Li cried out in fright. Seeing who it was, she clutched her chest, absolutely furious. "Do you two walk without making a sound?"
Su Li’s tone was sharp, and her expression was incredibly grim.
Because the two people standing before her were Su Li’s mother, Miao Fenghua, and her older brother, Su Dan.
From the moment she was reborn, Su Li knew that sooner or later she would have to face these two people—the two people she wanted to face the least.
Rebirth offered a chance to make up for regrets, to start everything anew; it was full of hope.
But rebirth also brought with it the inner demons she had to face: her hatred, her pain, the poisonous tumor in her heart.
Miao Fenghua and Su Dan were that most poisonous tumor. They were her closest family, and also the people she hated most.
Back when she was abandoned by the entire world, they not only abandoned her along with everyone else, but they also kicked her while she was down, saying they would expel her from the Su Family, sever all ties, and have nothing to do with her ever again.
Seeing them again, Su Li’s eyes were filled with not only coldness, but also rejection, disgust, and pain.
The look in Su Li’s eyes was indescribably complex, but unfortunately, the two people facing her didn’t notice at all.
Quick as a flash, Su Dan snatched the letter from Su Li’s hand. "Brother-in-law wrote again?"
