Chapter 127: Love Brain

Chapter 127: Chapter 127: Love Brain

Now that his head was clear, all those little actions took on a new meaning.

He realized she had been fed up with him for a long time.

Thankfully, he had already figured out where he stood, so her look of disgust didn’t sting as much as it could have.

Yao Yuzhen’s face was tense, her gaze as sharp as a dagger, but Shen Zhenwu just asked softly.

"Can we talk?"

The moment the words left his mouth, she walked toward the sofa without looking back.

Shen Zhenwu stepped inside and pulled the door closed behind him.

He glanced around the apartment. It was much smaller than the Shen Family’s large villa.

But with three rooms and a living room, it was more than enough for her and Shen Shuangshuang.

Yao Yuzhen sat down on the sofa and crossed her legs.

Shen Zhenwu turned, grabbed an old wooden chair, placed it firmly across from her, and sat down.

The moment the chair’s legs touched the floor, he spoke first.

"Are you and Shuangshuang doing okay here?"

Yao Yuzhen shot him a sidelong glance and sneered.

"Shen Zhenwu, putting on an act again?"

"Are you afraid I’ll pack up with Shuangshuang and run off? Or are you worried we’ll starve on the streets?"

Her mind was already in a whirlwind.

’The first time I left, you were sick in bed, your face flushed with fever.’

’And this time?’

’You’re perfectly fine, and we’ve been gone for three days without a single phone call!’

’Then, you run into your precious daughter yesterday, and today you show up knocking on my door.’

’Even a fool could smell something’s off, and you’re still pretending you just want to talk?’

’You’ve barely even been here. What is there to talk about?’

’Are we going to talk about how your mother curses me out?’

’Or about how your daughter thinks I’m a nuisance?’

Shen Zhenwu shook his head.

"That’s not why I’m here today."

"I knew you were staying here as soon as you moved out. I knew you were safe, but I was afraid I’d only annoy you more, so... I stayed away."

"What’s the point of saying all this?"

Yao Yuzhen cut him off.

"Didn’t your daughter and your mother just get done bad-mouthing me to you, and now you’re here to back them up?"

"That’s right, I’m the one who gave her the money. I told her to hurry up and get lost, go back to Ning City, and go wherever the hell she wants! If you’re looking for a fight, then bring it on. Go on, try me."

The faint, polite smile on Shen Zhenwu’s face instantly vanished.

She wasn’t finished. She scoffed.

"Kick me out? I’m not even living in your Shen Family’s house anymore!"

With that arrogant air, she was still treating him like the same spineless weakling from before who wouldn’t dare say a word.

But to her surprise, Shen Zhenwu just watched her quietly and then suddenly spoke.

"Yu Zhen, I came today to let you go."

The sneer on Yao Yuzhen’s face froze.

He continued.

"If you had told me back then that you didn’t want to marry me, I definitely would have agreed. I would never have dragged it out."

Her eyelashes trembled, and her throat went dry.

"Wh-what did you say?"

Shen Zhenwu didn’t blink.

"Let’s... get a divorce."

"This marriage was a mistake from the start. Now, it’s time to end it."

She stared hard at his calm face, her voice suddenly rising.

"Divorce?"

Shen Zhenwu nodded.

Yao Yuzhen’s eyes went wide as she stared fixedly at Shen Zhenwu.

’Divorce?’

She hadn’t wanted to continue this marriage for a long time.

’But why should *he* be the one to say it’s over first?’

’She couldn’t swallow her pride on this!’

"On what grounds are you divorcing me?"

As the words left her mouth, she shot up from the sofa.

"Shen Zhenwu, where do you get the nerve to be the first to say that word? You never even had a proper marriage with me, so what right do you have to open your mouth now and talk about divorce?"

Shen Zhenwu froze, his mind reeling.

’Could it be that she’s just furious?’

’Maybe she actually...’

’Maybe she actually still has feelings for me?’

But in the next second, Yao Yuzhen let out a cold laugh, shattering that little fantasy to pieces.

"I haven’t even said anything yet, and you think it’s your place to call it quits? I should be the one dumping you! It’s me, Yao Yuzhen, who doesn’t want you anymore!"

"And you have the audacity to ask me on what grounds?"

"What do you even have, Shen Zhenwu?"

She pointed a finger right at him, the tip almost touching his nose.

"You got lucky with the times, snagged yourself a position in the army. Besides that, what else? What can you even do?"

"Your family has been nothing but farmers for generations. You’re uneducated. Is there room for anything in that brain of yours besides sex? And you want to talk to me about feelings?"

"The sight of you makes me sick, like I’ve swallowed a bowl of rotten soup. I feel like throwing up at every meal. When I open my eyes in the morning and see you lying there, I have to cover my mouth and run to the bathroom to dry heave."

"I wish I were blind! Out of sight, out of mind! At least I wouldn’t have to feel disgusted every single day!"

Her words were like tiny knives, scraping away at Shen Zhenwu’s heart.

The last of his composure shattered, leaving only sorrow on his face.

After a long moment, his voice trembling, he asked hoarsely.

"...So that’s... how rotten I am in your eyes?"

He forced a smile that looked worse than a grimace.

"I’m sorry... I really didn’t know."

"I thought... I thought you were still willing to live this life with me."

Hearing this, Yao Yuzhen immediately slapped her chest and yelled.

"That’s right! I agreed! How could I not? My family needed to use your family as an insurance policy to survive! If I didn’t cling to your family’s ’big tree’, my entire family would have had to pack up and go back to the countryside to feed pigs the very next month!"

Shen Zhenwu quickly cut in.

"No! That’s not what I thought at all! I married you because I liked you for you! That day, at the entrance of the clinic, you were squatting down to change a wounded man’s dressing. Beads of sweat were trickling down your neck, and you wiped them away, looked up, and smiled at me. In that single moment, my whole heart was thrown off-kilter!"

Yao Yuzhen immediately rolled her eyes.

"Liked me for me?"

"You mean you liked this face, right?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Shen Zhenwu didn’t hesitate. He nodded.

"Yes. The first time I saw you, I thought you were really beautiful."

Yao Yuzhen let out a scornful laugh.

"You only cared about my face, yet you’re stubborn enough to say you liked me for me? Shen Zhenwu, you can say that without even blushing. You’re really something else!"

As soon as the words were out, she was the one who couldn’t hold it together. The rims of her eyes reddened, and she raised a hand to wipe them messily.

"Calling you a fake? Maybe that’s a little unfair. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s your lack of education. You fundamentally can’t tell the difference between liking a person and liking a pretty face! They’re two completely different things!"

She was jabbing at his lack of education again, but this time, Shen Zhenwu didn’t get angry.

He hadn’t had good timing growing up. His family had no connections, and at sixteen, he had joined the army.

He had learned to read and write stroke by stroke under the light of a kerosene lamp in the barracks.

So, when she called him uneducated, he accepted the label without protest.

But...

He had been honest from their very first meeting that he hadn’t had many years of proper schooling.

He was just a common man, and it wasn’t as if Yao Yuzhen was some brilliant academic herself.

She had only finished the eighth grade before joining her family’s textile business.

"I laid my cards on the table about my background the first time we met."

After saying this, Shen Zhenwu didn’t even wait for her to give him a nasty look before he continued.

"What’s the point of dredging all this up again and again? Does it do any good, other than making us both more miserable?"

"You’re miserable, so let’s just go our separate ways."

"Yu Zhen, life is long. If splitting up will truly help you find some peace, then this is for the best."

Yao Yuzhen had expected him to get flustered, but his voice was so steady it was like a deep well, leaving her speechless.

Shen Zhenwu continued.

"You’ll get what’s owed to you. Not a penny less. You’ve been the one managing everything, inside and outside the house, all these years."

Yao Yuzhen stared at him intently.

"The savings are mine. The properties, except for the one you’re living in now, the other three are mine."

The moment she finished speaking, Shen Zhenwu’s brow furrowed.

Yao Yuzhen immediately sneered.

"Putting on a show of being so generous? How fake!"