Chapter 4 Divorce – Part 2

Seeing Yan Jiyue hesitate to press his handprint, Su Mu suddenly felt a bit anxious.

Could it be that this guy doesn’t want to divorce like in her past life?

So she deliberately smiled lightly to provoke him: “What’s wrong, Young Master Yan can’t bear to part with me?”

“Who would miss you?” Yan Jiyue was indeed angered by her words. He closed his eyes, discarding the scattered chaos in his mind, and pressed down hard.

The divorce was successful.

Su Mu smiled happily, her smile as bright and dazzling as the midsummer sun.

She quickly put away the divorce papers and tucked them into her bosom, then began to pack up her few belongings.

Seeing her so eager, Yan Jiyue suddenly felt a sense of humiliation, as if his face had been slapped.

He asked, “You don’t even want to spend one night in the Yan residence? Are you in such a hurry to move out?”

While packing her clothes, Su Mu replied lightly with a smile, “Now that I am no longer the young master’s married-in wife, nor a servant of the Yan family, naturally there is no reason for me to stay here.”

“Then where will you go? It’s already dark outside, are you going to stay at an inn?” Yan Jiyue frowned, hesitated for a moment and said, “I won’t rush to drive you out, you can make do here for one night.”

“The young master need not worry, I have my own place to stay.” Su Mu packed up her belongings and politely declined Yan Jiyue’s kindness.

To be honest, Su Mu did have some resentment towards Yan Jiyue, not because he didn’t like her – it was reasonable to dislike a wife from an arranged marriage.

She was just angry that although they were both victims, she was forced to bear all the blame.

While the real perpetrator was well protected by him.

Married for ten years, they had so many opportunities to divorce, yet he stubbornly clung to her. On one hand, he felt wronged by marrying her and constantly complained in front of her; on the other hand, he refused to let her go, and even actively proposed to have children with her.

It was truly absurd.

They had tormented each other in this marriage for ten years.

Looking back now, Su Mu couldn’t even think of a single memory with Yan Jiyue that could be called happy, not even one, just a mess of troubles.

But now, facing the Yan Jiyue who had just married her for half a month, she didn’t want to impose this resentment on the young Yan Jiyue.

After all, at this moment, he truly wanted to divorce her.

What wrong had he done? Nothing at all.

: If you like this novel,

He was like a sharp blade, cleanly cutting off their exhausting marriage.

From now on, he could freely love whomever he wanted, whether it was the Second Young Lady Shen or anyone else, they owed each other nothing.

That night, Su Mu packed her belongings and left the Yan residence.

Dark clouds pressed against the horizon, and the next moment, a light rain began to fall. Raindrops fell on the green moss-covered tiles of the small southern town, on her hair, wetting her hair ends and eyelashes, clinging to her white clothes and red jacket.

Relying on memory, she traversed the dark alleys fragrant with grass, arriving at a familiar small courtyard.

She pushed the door, which wasn’t latched from inside, and easily walked in.

A dim light was on in the room, and hearing movement, a shadow passed by the window.

Xie Yi hurriedly ran out, not even having time to put on shoes, his bare feet stepping on the mossy floor tiles, his dark green eyes more vibrant than the rivers and mountains in an ink painting.

“Su Mu.” He stood still in the misty rain, softly calling her name.

“Why are you running out barefoot? Quickly go inside.” Su Mu took his hand.

Once inside, Su Mu took off her outer garment, changed into clean clothes, gathered her wet long hair, and tied it up with a plain hairpin.

When she opened the door, Xie Yi was already waiting outside with a cup of hot, strong tea.

Seeing Su Mu come out, Xie Yi’s eyes curved into a smile, his deep green eyes like a rice field brushed by the wind as he smiled.

He pushed the tea forward slightly, saying in the few words of the Central Plains language he had learned: “Drink.”

Su Mu smiled and accepted the tea, taking a sip, a comforting warmth spreading throughout her body.

Outside, the rain pattered softly; inside, it was warm and dry. Having traversed ten years, no longer needing to scheme in the business world, no longer entangled in a confusing marriage, Su Mu felt peace in her heart for the first time.

She stretched her hand out from under the eaves, raindrops hitting her palm, splashing water droplets into Xie Yi’s eyes, wetting the green rice fields. Xie Yi instinctively closed his eyes, his thick foreign eyelashes drooping wetly at the corners when dampened.

Su Mu chuckled softly, pointing outside the window, saying: “Rain.”

Xie Yi wiped the water from the corners of his eyes, his wet gaze looking at her.

Su Mu took his hand, stretching it out from under the eaves as she had done earlier. This time, Xie Yi didn’t resist or reject like before.

Xie Yi quietly felt the dampness of the rain, listening to Su Mu’s gentle tone beside his ear, as misty as water vapor: “Rain.”

He suddenly understood that the woman before him was teaching him the language of the Central Plains.

The human trafficker who had abducted him before had also tried to teach him, to please potential buyers.

The scholar had also tried to teach him, to appear cultured.

Although Xie Yi didn’t understand the Central Plains language, he wasn’t stupid. He could sense from the women’s ambiguous gazes that the vocabulary they taught carried the condescension of those in power, making him look up to them humbly, pleasing them lowly, wagging his tail like a dog begging for mercy, satisfying their sense of superiority.

And they were impatient for quick results. If he couldn’t learn in a short time, he would surely suffer to learn his lesson.

But Su Mu seemed different from them.

Her teaching was aimless, sometimes pointing at the lingering fine rain, sometimes at the weeds in the corner, wildflowers in bloom, falling leaves. She didn’t mention a word of those phrases to please women.

If he learned, she would smile at him gently, as if encouraging, also praising.

If he couldn’t learn, she wasn’t angry, but smiled even more deeply, calmly repeating it again, correcting his pronunciation until he learned.

She wouldn’t scold him, nor hit him. She was just like this misty, damp drizzle, gently nourishing the earth.

Xie Yi’s scarred fingers curled slightly, touching his empty palm. He suddenly wanted to eat another honey-coated sunflower seed.

“It’s getting late, you should rest early.” Su Mu pointed to the small room beside them, making a sleeping gesture.

Xie Yi understood her words and went into the room.

Lying on the bed, Xie Yi tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Everything that happened today felt like a dream.

His previous two owners had such bad tempers that he found it hard to adapt to suddenly meeting someone as gentle as Su Mu, making it difficult for him to fall asleep as he turned over restlessly.

Suddenly, he laughed self-mockingly and cursed: “Cheap bone.”

What was there to get used to meeting a gentle owner? Did he want to meet another owner like the scholar’s husband and have another scar burned on his chest?

Xie Yi’s Central Plains language was halting, but thanks to the scholar’s husband, he had a belly full of vulgar words to curse men, able to curse for a whole morning without repeating himself.

But he couldn’t say those in front of Su Mu.

This woman was very kind to him; dirty words shouldn’t be said to her, it would be too offensive.

And it was also hard for him to imagine what it would be like for such a gentle Su Mu, who spoke softly and slowly, softer than the June breeze, to curse on the streets.

Such a Su Mu probably wouldn’t like him saying dirty words either. A man should be soft and gentle in front of a woman, speaking slowly and gracefully, even covering his mouth with a handkerchief when smiling.

No woman could resist a fragile man. Wasn’t it because Su Mu saw him being tortured by the scholar’s husband that she took pity and saved him?

Since she liked his weak, innocent, and obedient appearance, he might as well continue pretending. It wasn’t difficult anyway.

Just as Xie Yi had settled on his future persona, he suddenly sat up in bed, because he realized that the light in Su Mu’s room was still on.

He was a slave, how could he sleep before the master?

He had truly been blinded by Su Mu’s gentle nature, almost forgetting his own status.

Xie Yi reminded himself over and over in his heart that he was now a slave bought by Su Mu. Even if she tore up the slave contract, he couldn’t survive without her. He must please Su Mu to survive, then find a chance to save money and escape back to the desert.

After mentally repeating “please Su Mu” three times, Xie Yi put on his clothes and came to Su Mu’s room.

When Su Mu left the Yan residence, she took the writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone with her.

These were all bought with her own money, so of course she had to take them when she left.

Before transmigrating, Su Mu had studied liberal arts. Except for mathematics, she ranked in the top ten in her grade for everything else, considered an excellent student.

The female-dominated world also had distinctions between scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, with merchants ranked at the lowest level.

In her past life, Su Mu had originally planned to save some money and take the exams. She didn’t aspire to be a top scholar, even passing as a xiucai would mean escaping from the lowly status and no longer having to be a servant.

Unfortunately, later because the Yan family’s finances were drained, she was forced by Yan Zhujun’s leveraging of gratitude to take the path of business.

In the female-dominated world, no matter how much a merchant studied, they could not participate in the imperial examinations in the future, and the daughters of merchants also could not participate in the examinations.

Besides these, being an official in the female-dominated world was everything. They could openly ask merchants for money. Even when Su Mu eventually became the richest person in Juancheng, she still had to spend a lot of money every year to maintain good relations.

At the end of the year, when the county magistrate wanted to expand and renovate her mansion, she asked Su Mu for a thousand taels of silver. Su Mu was short on cash and couldn’t produce it, so the county magistrate gave her no end of trouble. This was the top of the food chain in Juancheng.

Living a second life, Su Mu didn’t want to walk the old path of being bullied everywhere, and prepared to pick up her initial goal of taking the imperial examinations.

Although she hadn’t attended school in the female-dominated world, she had lived in that world for ten years in her past life, and influenced by modern education, she persisted in lifelong learning, so she had some understanding of the ‘Four Books and Five Classics’ of the female-dominated world.

With a new goal to strive for, Su Mu began to burn the midnight oil, suddenly feeling like she was back in late-night self-study sessions in her second year of high school.

See, even after transmigrating, one still needs to study hard.

Sometimes Su Mu wondered if she had transmigrated because she dozed off in math class, so heaven was punishing her.

Just as Su Mu’s mind wandered, the candle burned to its end, the flame flickering, dazzling her eyes.

Su Mu’s eyes couldn’t open from the glare, and she was about to stand up to change the candle when someone had already replaced it for her. The bright candlelight relit, illuminating a pair of deep, dark green eyes.

“Why aren’t you asleep?” Su Mu was a bit surprised. He had suffered abuse from the scholar’s husband today and should have been asleep resting by all rights.

Xie Yi didn’t understand her words, he just smiled at her. His smile had a kind of natural infectiousness, like an obedient and well-behaved younger brother.

Due to his mixed blood, Xie Yi’s bone structure had the depth and definition of Western regions, but his appearance was extremely Eastern and classical. His eyebrows were dark without being drawn, his lips red without being colored, as if all the beauty of East and West were concentrated in him alone.

Su Mu pointed to his room and said again: “Go to sleep.”

Xie Yi shook his head, his fingers covered with tiny wounds carefully touching her sleeve. His dark green eyes glanced at her tentatively, and after confirming she wasn’t displeased, he hooked his finger on her sleeve and uttered two words: “Accompany you.”

Su Mu lowered her eyes and chuckled softly.

The Xie Yi before her seemed to merge with the Xie Yi from her past life.

In her past life, when she was in business, she often had to calculate accounts until late at night, and Xie Yi would stay by her side.

In the hot summer weather, he would stand behind her and fan her, chasing away annoying mosquitoes. If she was in a bad mood, he would go to the pond to catch fireflies to cheer her up.

The Yan residence was a deep, secluded mansion, as if there were always hands choking her neck, making it hard for her to breathe.

Xie Yi was the only person from whom she felt warmth in this strange world.

But even so, Yan Jiyue didn’t seem to want to indulge her.

She remembered it was the fifth year after their marriage, that year her relationship with Yan Jiyue had somewhat eased.

In the scorching summer heat, Xie Yi went to the pond to pick lotus flowers for her, wanting her to feel some coolness.

But as soon as he reached the edge of the pond, Yan Jiyue pushed him in. If she hadn’t jumped into the water to save him in time, Xie Yi might have been lost.

Su Mu was truly angry then, for the first time disregarding the young master’s face, criticizing him in front of the servants. This also marked the beginning of her relationship with Yan Jiyue taking a sharp turn for the worse.

Yan Jiyue was the most face-conscious person, how could he swallow this silently? He had a big argument with her, and looking at Xie Yi who had been fished out of the water, he spat out the words “green tea.”