Chapter 84: Worn Out by the Renovation

After sending it, Zhang Xiluo shut off her phone and went to sleep. She meant to make Zhou Yao spend the entire night unable to rest.

If she refused to strike back, did they think she was easy to bully? One squeeze was not enough for them—they had to keep squeezing her again and again.

Zhang Xiluo slept well enough. When she woke, Xu Xinyi had already prepared a loving breakfast for her. Only after eating did she turn on her phone.

The text message inbox showed more than ninety-nine unread messages, and her WeChat friend requests were also over ninety-nine. It looked as though Zhou Yao had not slept all night.

Then a call came in. Zhang Xiluo hung up directly, but the same number called again a second later.

“Sis, you finally picked up,” Zhou Yao said sweetly through the receiver. “Is there some misunderstanding? That recording is fake.”

“You’ve got people around you, and you’re still putting on an act?” Zhang Xiluo gave a cold laugh. “Zhou Yao, this is just a warning. If you keep jumping around in front of me, I won’t stop at sending it only to you. Don’t provoke me again. If you behave, we can all keep the peace.”

After saying that, Zhang Xiluo ended the call. Zhou Yao did not call back.

Xu Xinyi and Jiang Xueting were baffled. Zhang Xiluo briefly explained the recording.

“Why didn’t you release everything?” Jiang Xueting felt that if they were going to deal with that homewrecker Zhou, they should crush her completely and ruin her reputation for good. There was no room for mercy.

“This little bit isn’t enough,” Xu Xinyi said. She was the more perceptive one and had reached the same conclusion as Zhang Xiluo. Releasing the recording alone would not achieve the result they wanted. They needed more evidence.

Zhang Xiluo nodded. “Exactly, so I still need to gather more. No rush. I have to deal with them one by one.”

“You’re going to turn into a revenge heroine,” Jiang Xueting said, her eyes shining with excitement. “I support you. I’ll be your sidekick.”

Even though Zhang Xiluo kept insisting she was fine, they still would not feel at ease and insisted on staying with her. The three of them remained at home, eating, chatting, and napping, as if they had suddenly gone back to their school days.

In the evening, Xu Xinyi received a call from the hospital and hurried back for an emergency surgery.

Jiang Xueting was also urged by Zhao Chengyi to go to his place, leaving Zhang Xiluo alone.

She held her phone, torn over whether she should ask Li Mingye and clear things up.

Then her phone suddenly rang. Seeing that number engraved deep into her bones, Zhang Xiluo’s breath tightened.

“Where are you?” Li Mingye’s voice sounded very wrong. “I know you’re back.”

“Coincidentally, I have something to ask you too. Tell me a place, and I’ll come to you.”

Zhang Xiluo could not let him come to Qinyuan. She did not want to upset her parents again.

“Come back to the villa,” Li Mingye said after a moment, his voice low and heavy.

Zhang Xiluo froze. She had intended to refuse.

“I’ll be here, waiting for you to return,” Li Mingye said, and then hung up, giving her no chance to decline.

Zhang Xiluo changed clothes and called Xiao Zhao to pick her up.

“Madam, you’ve lost a lot of weight.”

“From now on, call me Miss Zhang. I’m divorced from Li Mingye. As for whether you stay or go, that’s your own decision,” Zhang Xiluo said with a faint curl of her lips. Xiao Zhao was her driver, but he had been hired by the Li family.

“Madam.” Xiao Zhao hurriedly corrected himself. “Miss Zhang, it’s always been you who paid my salary. If you don’t dislike me, I’ll drive for you for the rest of my life.”

“All right. Take me to the villa.”

Zhang Xiluo sat in the back seat and turned to look out the window.

She knew this road very well, but the scenery outside seemed to have changed.

She had once loved watching the views along the way, and every trip back to the villa filled her with anticipation. She looked forward to seeing the figure she loved waiting at home, looked forward to becoming Li Mingye’s true wife.

She used to travel this road quickly, and it had always looked beautiful.

Now she felt that rushing only made everything blur, and the scenery was just ordinary.

When her state of mind changed, what she wanted changed too, and so the world before her eyes became different.

Zhang Xiluo withdrew her gaze, gathered her emotions, and thought through the questions she wanted to ask. She kept reminding herself that this meeting was for business only, with no personal feelings attached.

If anything, the feeling she carried was hatred. She ought to have hidden a knife and, the moment Li Mingye let down his guard, ended his damned life with one strike.

“Miss Zhang, we’re here,” Xiao Zhao reminded her softly, drawing her thoughts back.

The villa gate stood wide open, and Li Mingye’s car was parked in the middle of the courtyard. She had Xiao Zhao park outside and turn around to wait for her.

After getting out, Zhang Xiluo adjusted her hair and clothes, took a deep breath, and walked inside. Nothing outside had changed, but everything within had long since become unrecognizable.

She felt a little relieved that she had once changed the decor of the living room; otherwise, she would not have known how to face it now that she had come back through the door.

When Zhang Xiluo stepped into the living room, she stared in shock, frozen in place.

The decor had been restored to its original state. Everywhere she looked were wedding photos of her and Li Mingye.

All the decorations had been changed back to the ones she had personally chosen, and the paintings she had done herself were hung on a separate wall.

Li Mingye sat on the sofa, holding a cigarette between his fingers. Several empty cigarette packs lay beside his feet, and the whole living room was thick with smoke.

Hearing footsteps, he turned his head.

The moment their eyes met, both of them fell silent. It was as if there were a thousand things to say, yet neither knew where to begin.

This had been their bridal home, the house where Zhang Xiluo had lived for two years, the place Li Mingye had never wanted to set foot in. Now that they met again, they were no longer husband and wife, and she no longer kept watch over this place.

Suppressing the shock in her heart, Zhang Xiluo maintained her composure and looked back at him.

Li Mingye looked haggard. Bruises shadowed his eyes, stubble had darkened his lips and chin, and his eyes were bloodshot.

Zhang Xiluo had never seen him like this before. A trace of doubt rose in her heart. Had Zhou Yao dumped him?

She quickly dismissed the thought. Impossible. Otherwise Zhou Yao would not have been so panicked that she had not slept all night.

Since the news of their divorce had been made public, Li Mingye ought to be very happy. So was this ghostly state because he had been exhausted by the renovation? Instead of rushing off to enjoy sweet bliss with Zhou Yao, he had hidden himself here to refurbish the house.

Zhang Xiluo found him increasingly incomprehensible. Or perhaps she had never understood him at all.

“Luo Luo, come here.” He extended a hand and called to her.

Zhang Xiluo did not move. She stared straight at him. “No.”

Li Mingye did not withdraw his hand. He called again, “Come here, Luo Luo.”

Zhang Xiluo frowned. His tone was intimate and gentle, as though the renovation had worn his brain out.

Thinking of why she had come, she asked directly, “Li Mingye, I want to ask you this: why did you choose this moment to make our divorce public?”

“What did my uncle ever do to offend you? Why did you have to drag him down? And my parents— they were never stingy with you. Why did you have to drive us all to our deaths?”

Zhang Xiluo was agitated. Her whole body trembled as memories from her past life surfaced before her eyes.

She had watched her relatives meet with disaster with her own eyes. The Zhang family had fallen. Her parents had taken their own lives in front of her.

All the things she feared most were now unfolding step by step before her.

“We’re already divorced. I never once thought of stopping you from being with Zhou Yao. I ask myself honestly whether I ever wronged you. Why are you trying to kill us all and leave no one standing?”