Chapter 2.2: Setting the tone

Ye Sibei replied with a word and quickly left. After she left, Chen Xiaoyang leaned against the partition of his desk, watching the direction she disappeared, and curiously asked Tao Jie, who was counting money next to him, “Tao Jie, did Ye Jie have a fight with her husband recently? Her husband used to come every day.”

“It’s not just a fight; they might even get divorced.”

Tao Jie pressed the calculator. “Zhao Chuchu is dating her younger brother Ye Nianwen. They’re getting married now, and the Ye family needs to buy a house. But Ye Nianwen just graduated this year, so where does he have the money to buy a house? The Ye family’s parents squeezed Ye Sibei to take out a credit loan of fifty thousand. A few days ago, they even got a salary certificate from Fan’s office and explicitly instructed not to tell anyone, especially Zhao Chuchu.”

“At that time, Mr. Fan said,” Tao Jie glanced at Chen Xiaoyang with some disdain, “Ye Sibei has a problem in her head, she’s the kind of person who won’t say ‘no’ to others, and she’ll ruin herself sooner or later.”

It seemed like the rain was falling again.

Spring was bidding farewell to these heartless people who were about to welcome summer in the most detestable way.

Ye Sibei dragged her tired body, holding an umbrella, and got on the bus to go home.

It wasn’t peak hours anymore, and she found a seat by the window in the last row, which made her somewhat happy.

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

Ms byhl y ckv sq zwnj kd vbl nsxrzlmkvu sq zkql xyel bla qllz nsdvldv.

Nlydkdt ytykdpv vbl okdeso, pbl zssjle yv vbl czwaale osaze swvpkel, ldhlzsrle kd vbl oyax tzso sq pvallvzktbvp, xkdtzkdt okvb caktbv nya zktbvp yde nszsaqwz ckzzcsyaep, xyjkdt vbl obszl osaze zssj eyggzkdt.

Fbl oyvnble rlsrzl sd vbl asyepkel olyakdt aykdnsyvp, nyaaukdt nbkzeald, yde akekdt xsvsanunzlp, gssxkdt rypv.

Fbl oyvnble rlsrzl awddkdt rypv okvb vblka cytp nshlakdt vblka blyep.

Fbl oyp zkjl y prlnvyvsa kd vbl osaze, lhlauvbkdt wdalzyvle vs bla. Fbl eyale dsv vbkdj ycswv vbl nsxrzknyvle xyvvlap kd vbkp xsxldv sq vaydiwkzkvu, lhld vbswtb pbl jdlo vblal olal xydu vbkdtp vbyv dllele bla yvvldvksd. Jwv kd vbkp ayal rlynlqwz vkxl, pbl eked’v oydv vs cl ekpvwacle yv yzz.

Jwv yzyp, vbl blyhldp bye svbla rzydp. Tla rbsdl cwggle zktbvzu, yde pbl zssjle yv kv vs qkde y xlppytl qasx psxlsdl dyxle “Ckd Lyd”.

“Usxl cynj zyvla.”

Mbyv’p bso bl kdqsaxle bla.

Ye Sibei, exhausted, responded, “Okay.”

Actually, she should have asked him if he had eaten, if he was wearing enough clothes, to show her virtue as a wife.

But at that moment, she didn’t want to.

At this moment, she would clearly realize that she didn’t love her husband, nor was she happy in her marriage.

Even when she tried to convince herself that marriage wasn’t so bad, she would find it difficult to even outline in her mind what kind of person Qin Nan was.

They were not familiar.

They only knew each other for six months before marriage, those six months were just meeting once a week on weekends, having a meal. After marriage, they had been together for a year, both coming and going early, he was busy with work, often lying down on the bed as soon as he came back.

He didn’t like to talk, and she wasn’t good at words, and she was a little afraid of him, so after a year of marriage, all her knowledge of Qin Nan was only surface-level.

Twenty-eight years old, the only child from the countryside, his parents went out to work early, raised by his grandfather, his father died in a work accident when he was seventeen, his mother eloped with another man with the money. So he dropped out of high school, wandered outside, learned some car repair skills, and opened a small shop in Nan City after returning, his grandfather passed away two years ago, leaving him alone.

His shop was called “Snowflake Auto Shop,” she guessed because he liked to drink Snow beer.

He didn’t like to talk, liked boxing, smoking, would take the initiative to do housework, didn’t like Ye’s family.

Other than that, she knew nothing about him.

And she didn’t want to know.

Actually, all she needed was this marriage.

—To avoid being an abnormal marriage.

She didn’t know what the other party was thinking, but in all likelihood, it was the same.

After all, in the cycle of time, the more free people are, the more numb they become.

When love is rare, people will desperately yearn for it, like Liang Zhu turning into butterflies, or Romeo and Juliet.

But when love has no obstacles and is easily obtained, it returns to its original state.

It was always the most extravagant and useless of all emotions. Even without any obstacles, few people truly possess it.

Ye Sibei felt that they were just at an age where they reluctantly patched things together.

Their forced relationship was visible to the naked eye, so much so that even arguments were rare, with hardly any words exchanged.

Every time they argued, it was her saying sorry, and him saying he needed some time alone, then he’d sit on the balcony for the whole night, smoking two packs of cigarettes.

And this time, the argument stemmed from her financial support for Ye Nianwen’s marriage. She quietly applied for a fifty-thousand credit loan to help Ye Nianwen buy a house.

After Qin Nan found out about this, he finally lost his temper. He grabbed his coat, clenched his fists, and stared at her.

“Ye Sibei, do you think this is how your life will be, so you’re not willing to plan for yourself?” he questioned.

She still repeated, “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t respond, but for a moment, she felt like he almost wanted to hit her.

Afraid, she took a step back, and he seemed to be provoked by this gesture. He turned his head, kicked over a chair, stormed out of the house, and didn’t come back until today, when he messaged her, saying he would come home at night.

As the bus arrived at the station, Ye Sibei got off the bus, dragging her tired body into the community, thinking about what to do tonight to salvage her marriage.

Their home was in an old suburb, a rectangular block of flats stood on a concrete ground, eight units in a row, without an elevator, only a corridor on the right-hand side, serving as the path to each unit.

For Ye Sibei, the most difficult part of every day was climbing this stretch of road.

She climbed to the fifth floor step by step in high heels, finally arriving at her door, taking out her keys to unlock it, and briskly turning on the lights.

The light filled the room, a 70-square-meter two-bedroom apartment, with no one else in the room. Ye Sibei put down her bag, changed her clothes in the bedroom, then went to the kitchen to cook, taking out vegetables from the fridge and starting to chop.

A tomato and egg stir-fry, cucumber with sliced pork, and seaweed egg drop soup.

They were all simple dishes, and she didn’t know how to cook anything too complicated.

After finishing cooking, she put the food on the table and began to wait in boredom.

If the food got cold, she would reheat it, if there was nothing to do, she would clean the room.

By eleven thirty, she was almost falling asleep on the dining table, when she heard the door creak.

She woke up abruptly and saw a man standing at the door.

He looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, tall and well-built, with handsome features. He was wearing a military green T-shirt stained with oil, muddy jeans, a jacket draped over his arm, and a muddy briefcase in his hand, as if he had just crawled back from somewhere.

Ye Sibei stared at him blankly, and his gaze fell on the dining table, also blank. After a moment of silence, he spoke first, “I got a last-minute job, went to the suburbs to help someone change a tire. There’s a lot going on in the rain, if I didn’t help them, they’d have to stay there overnight.”

“Oh,” Ye Sibei came back to her senses and quickly got up, “Have you eaten? Let me heat it up for you.”

With that, Ye Sibei picked up the dishes and went to the kitchen.

The man hesitated at the door for a moment, then took off his clothes, took out a document from his bag, and placed it on the chair by the table, before barefootedly walking into the bathroom.

After heating up the food and adding rice, Ye Sibei waited at the table.

After a while, the man finished changing and sat opposite her.

He was wearing his usual clothes, a blue T-shirt and white casual pants, his half-dried hair glistening with water droplets, slipping down along his bronze skin, giving him a somewhat sexy appearance.

Ye Sibei sensed something was wrong, so she pretended to be fine and smiled, “You’re back home, why not change into your pajamas?”

Qin Nan didn’t respond to her, but calmly said as he looked at the food in front of him, “Let’s eat first.”

Ye Sibei didn’t argue, and the two of them ate in silence. Throughout the meal, there was only the sound of chewing and occasionally the clinking of dishes, with no communication whatsoever.

After they finished eating, she stood up to clear the tableware, “You should go to bed first, I’ll clean up.”

“Wait a moment,” the man’s voice was very calm, “There are some things I need to tell you.”

Ye Sibei paused, and he emphasized again, “Please, sit down.”

Ye Sibei didn’t say anything, but she had a vague sense of foreboding. After a long time, she turned around slowly and sat down.

As she settled down, the man remained silent. In the seemingly endless silence, it was eventually Qin Nan who spoke first.

“Ye Sibei,” his voice was low, “Let’s get a divorce.”