Chapter 100: 79. If you don’t cherish it, you deserve to have it taken by me.
Tang Yanqing finished speaking, put his hands in his pockets, and walked upstairs slowly. Xiang Yuan knew that even if he chased after him now and asked, the young master wouldn’t bother to answer him with another word.
Recalling his father’s previous reminder, telling him not to offend the Tang father and son directly... he could only hold it in.
He turned around and walked towards the sofa, tugging off his tie irritably.
The bottle of drunk razor clams was empty, the cap left off, emitting a scent mixed with yellow wine and fishiness lingering in the air. Xiang Yuan forced himself to endure it, grabbed it close to his nose... forced himself to get used to that smell, but in the end, he couldn’t take it, disgustedly grabbed the cap and covered it, then tossed the whole thing into the trash.
He slumped down on the sofa.
The TV was still on, and the soap operas inside were still sobbing and whining. The light above shone down brightly, stinging his eyes. And the fishy smell of the razor clams still lingered in his nose.
He reached out to cover his eyes, frowning as he closed his eyelids.
.
His father came to find him today and bluntly started discussing his separation from Shi Nian, like a blow to the head, catching him off guard.
The father who always had high expectations for him, at that moment, every line on his face was serious: "What have you done, why is Shi Nian separating from you? Xiang Yuan, let me emphasize once again, even though we are in M Country, it doesn’t mean the Xiang Family can casually create a divorce scandal."
"Especially you," his father’s stern gaze pierced through the dim lights of the restaurant: "Your recent work mainly focuses on handling divorce cases. If a divorce lawyer gets divorced himself, it’s not good for you; it would make your clients doubt your ability, questioning whether you can handle marital issues yourself."
Without waiting for him to respond, his father snorted: "Most of your clients are Chinese, or Asian. To put it bluntly, they tend to have more traditional views on marriage like Eastern people. In the end, there’s no one in the Eastern mindset that can take divorce lightly. For both public and private reasons, I forbid you to go as far as divorce with Shi Nian."
Xiang Yuan felt utterly humiliated.
His father has always been a strict disciplinarian; he grew up under his father’s almost harsh demands. All grades had to be the best, clothing, speech, taste, and image had to be the most outstanding among the circle of kids. If he didn’t do any of these well, his father would even punish him with family rules...
Maybe no one would believe it, but until middle school, just because he made a mistake on a test and didn’t get a full score, his father punished him to kneel in front of the ancestral tablets for the entire night.
He was afraid of his father to the bones, so whenever his father talked, he would always listen quietly, not daring to interrupt.
Finally, his father finished speaking, nodded to signal that he could speak, and he embarrassingly asked, "Dad, how did you find out about this? There are specific clauses in the separation agreement with Shi Nian, stating that neither of us can disclose this matter without the other’s consent."
.
Xiang Jingsheng frowned: "Overheard it by coincidence."
Xiang Yuan was also a smart person, thinking of the five people that day, he tentatively asked: "Could it be that, it was that young lady from the Tang Family."
Xiang Jingsheng nodded.
Xiang Yuan couldn’t help but continue asking: "Did she mention it to you?"
"No." Xiang Jingsheng frowned: "She told Shen Wan, and I happened to go to Shen Wan for something, and overheard."
Xiang Yuan’s eyes shifted.
Xiang Jingsheng stared at his son’s reaction: "Don’t think that because you’ve grown up and have your own ideas, you can ignore what I say! Xiang Yuan, I’ll say it again: Do not divorce Shi Nian!"
Xiang Yuan nodded obediently: "Don’t worry, Dad, I also won’t let her go. Signing the legal separation agreement with her, your son was also forced to. That night she was too calm and too persistent, if I didn’t take a step back, she might have gone all out and directly filed in court."
Xiang Yuan spoke and then glanced at Xiang Jingsheng: "After all, she is now a ’Deep Throat’ reporter, has experienced a lot, and seen more of the world, she is no longer the young girl from four years ago who just arrived in M Country who had to hold my hand just to buy a towel..."
Xiang Jingsheng frowned: "Hmm, I understand."
Only then did Xiang Yuan quietly breathe a sigh of relief: "Separation is ultimately a buffer zone. I agreed to separate, and when she saw my agreement, her attitude softened. I was then able to make many stipulations in the separation agreement: such as not allowing her to unilaterally publicize our separation, requiring her to continue to act as my wife in front of outsiders, and making sure outsiders don’t notice."