Mr.CEO, Please Sign the Divorce Agreement
Chapter 296: Lingering On

Chapter 296: Chapter 296: Lingering On

Su Mu met Fu Shinian at a hotel wedding venue. At that time, Su Mu was at the entrance of the banquet hall, staying with Jiang Bei who was about to enter. Because of the crowd, Jiang Bei’s wedding dress was a bit messy. As Su Mu was squatting down to fix it, she accidentally bumped into someone walking behind her. When she looked up to apologize, she saw Fu Shinian.

He was not alone, a pair of delicate jade hands rested in his arm. Su Mu stood up and politely apologized:

"Sorry, I was just looking at the wedding dress and didn’t see you coming."

Fu Shinian’s gaze lingered on her face for less than a second, as if she were a stranger he had met for the first time, and he responded indifferently:

"It’s okay."

After saying this, Fu Shinian entered the banquet hall with his female companion, while Su Mu continued to squat and arrange the wedding dress, seemingly unaffected by the encounter.

The rest of that day was very calm, so calm that when Su Mu and Fu Shinian coincidentally met outside an unoccupied restroom, they did not speak a word to each other. They passed by each other as if they were the most unfamiliar strangers.

If the news Wen Han heard was correct and if Fu Shinian truly had fallen severely ill, then he must have already been sick at that time, for a year already. But perhaps because Su Mu spent such brief moments with him that day, she did not notice any signs of illness.

Or rather, even if she had noticed anything, she wouldn’t have pursued the matter.

But why?

Why, upon hearing this news tonight, was her heart unable to control its rhythm? Was it all because Qiqi might have a chance of suffering from the same disease? Or was she also worried about Fu Shinian, who was already ill?

Fu Shinian had been absent from the public eye for nearly two years, and Fu Corporation was managed by his mother, Shi Lihua, in his stead. No one outside knew where he had gone, but only those around him knew that he had not gone anywhere; he was simply ill, and had not recovered, spending nearly all his time in the old house with the elderly lady.

The elderly lady, since waking up three years ago, had started to experience some confusion in her memory. Often, she only retained vague impressions of most things. Sometimes she would mistake Fu Shinian for her husband, sometimes for her son, but most of the time, she knew he was just Fu Shinian, and she only listened to him.

At seven o’clock, Fu Shinian opened his eyes. He silently stared at the ceiling for a while. He could barely remember what it felt like to live a busy life filled with endless work. Every day, he dragged his sickly body around, barely clinging to life.

At 7:30, after washing up, he slowly went downstairs. Auntie Wang was setting up breakfast on the dining table. Seeing him come down, she smiled and greeted:

"How are you feeling today?"

Fu Shinian nodded slightly:

"Not too bad."

After greeting Auntie Wang, Fu Shinian walked to the elderly lady’s room. The elderly lady’s biological clock was a bit earlier than Fu Shinian’s, and at that moment, she was sitting on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window, intently looking at a photograph. Fu Shinian closed the door and walked over; his gaze momentarily startled when it touched the photo. He then squatted down and cooed:

"Grandma, do you recognize me today?"

The elderly lady’s gaze rested on Fu Shinian’s face:

"Shinian."

Fu Shinian smiled softly, his gaze falling on the elderly lady’s face: "What are you looking at?"

"Your wife."

The photo in the elderly lady’s hands was a joint portrait of Fu Shinian and Su Mu, taken by Su Mu during the Spring Festival three years prior. Later, she had it developed at a shop but did not pick it up before they got divorced. Since Su Mu left the old house’s address, the shop eventually delivered it to their home. Fu Shinian remembered burning those pictures; he couldn’t understand how the elderly lady still had one?

Occasionally, even Fu Shinian could be mistaken by the elderly lady, yet she surprisingly remembered that the person in the photo was his wife.

In the photo, Fu Shinian’s gaze lingered lovingly on Su Mu’s face, while Su Mu looked slightly smiling at the camera, making anyone looking at it feel like the years were peacefully serene.

Fu Shinian took the photo from the old lady’s hands, looked at it carefully, his expression filled with longing and regret, but ultimately, he kept the photo and did not return it to the old lady:

"Grandma, I will keep the photo safe for you."

The old lady looked at him, puzzled, "Why?"

"Because I’m afraid that if someone else sees it, they will steal my wife away."

The old lady laughed upon hearing this:

"She loves you so much, how could she go with someone else? You miss her, that’s why you’re taking it from Grandma, right?"

Fu Shinian smiled, gave his grandmother a gentle hug, and whispered in her ear:

"Grandma, don’t mention my wife to anyone. Otherwise, I won’t be able to win her back."

Though the old lady did not understand why Fu Shinian would say that, she nodded anyway.

After leaving the old lady’s room, Fu Shinian went straight outside. Three years had changed a lot; even An Le no longer ran excitedly towards him as before, but merely ambled over and lay down at his feet. Fu Shinian looked down for a while, then took out a lighter and set the photo he had taken from the old lady on fire.

He watched as the photo gradually destroyed in the flames, and something deep inside him felt as if it were being scorched by fierce fires, but now was a crucial time, and he could not relax at all.

When footsteps sounded behind him, only a corner of the photo remained. Only when the flame burned to his fingertips did Fu Shinian let go, watching the specks of flame fall on the grass and finally extinguish.

"Why are you standing out here so early in the morning? Aren’t you afraid of feeling unwell again?"

When Xu Yansu stood beside him, Fu Shinian shifted his gaze from the ashes on the grass and slowly looked at An Le walking away, he smiled faintly, some people don’t even like animals, let alone people who are richer in emotion.

That’s how Fu Shinian felt about Xu Yansu, but for various reasons, he had to keep her by his side; hearing her words now, though his heart felt annoyance, he still responded lightly:

"It’s nothing."

Xu Yansu looked at the ground by his feet and asked:

"What were you burning?"

"Paper."

"You could have just thrown it in the trash. Why bother burning it?"

Finally, Fu Shinian’s gaze rested on her face, his smile gradually fading away, "Any objections?"

Xu Yansu’s smile stiffened slightly, yet she still smiled:

"Shinian, can’t you be a bit gentler with me? Whatever I do or say, it’s all out of concern for you."

"What about you? Can’t you be less involved in my life? I just find you very noisy."