They continued their meal in silence until both heard footsteps coming their way. "Is it true? Our Ying is here?" A feminine voice could be heard from the hallway.
"Yes, Madam. She"s currently having lunch with Master Yuren," they heard a servant answer her question.
The woman went straight to the dining room where they were in. Her face instantly lit up upon seeing her niece dining with her husband.
"Ying! There you are. I haven"t seen you in weeks, darling." Zheng Yue gave Li Yuren a quick peck on his cheek before taking the seat next to him.
"You"re early today. Didn"t you say that your shoot for the film will end late?" Li Yuren asked his wife, clearly surprised that she hadn"t called him to pick her up from the set location.
He and Zheng Yue had been married for almost fifteen years now and had a son of their own. Zheng Yue was still signed under Griffin Entertainment and was previously known in the s...o...b..z world as a film empress.
His question made the smile on her beautiful face disappear. She was reminded of what transpired earlier while waiting in her dressing room.
"Dear, I found something today." she started and gave Li Xiuying a worried look. "The script was changed. It seemed like the producer wanted to give Lin Meirong more lines compared to our female lead."
Even though Zheng Yue had long retired from the industry, she recently accepted the offer for the film "To You With Love" as she was impressed with the storyline. However, what she didn"t expect was Lin Meirong"s partic.i.p.ation as the second female lead of the film.
The actress for the female lead was recently scouted by Griffin Entertainment and didn"t have enough backing yet. While the Tang family saw great potential in Lan Jinyao, she still needed a lot of experience to prove she was worthy of their time and attention.
Zheng Yue tried to be professional and not cast her disgust over the woman who seduced her niece"s husband. At the set, she pretended that she didn"t know Lin Meirong and treated her nicely when in fact she couldn"t wait to wait for the scene they"ll both be taking so she could unleash her anger on Lin Meirong.
Lin Meirong and Mu Jianyu had been oblivious to the fact that Li Xiuying and the whole Li family, except for Li Chuntao, were aware of their affair. Did they really think they could hide everything from them?
"Not only that, but I also heard that your husband invested in Redux Entertainment to support Lin Meirong"s growing popularity," she told her husband whose face suddenly darkened at the mention of Mu Jianyu"s insolence towards their family.
Trying to uplift his mistress" career by using the wealth of the Li family? Mu Jianyu was really courting death this time.
Li Xiuying clenched her fist hard under the table, her face betraying her efforts to keep calm. His lies continued to be uncovered, each stabbing her with unbearable pain.
Mu Jianyu never cared for her, as if he had forgotten the woman he"d claimed to love and married. Whatever happened to the man who promised to take care of her, the man who swore would never leave her alone?
"Xiuying…" Zheng Yue was getting worried about her niece. Li Xiuying was pregnant without her husband knowing and he abandoned her at the moment she needed him the most.
"Don"t worry, Auntie. I"ll fix this problem. You and Lan Jinyao won"t need to worry about Lin Meirong." Li Xiuying promised her.
—-
Li Xiuying didn"t feel like going home and stayed at the Li Mansion. She went back to her old bedroom and laid down on the bed, mulling over her marriage that had fallen apart. Closing her eyes, she knew that there wouldn"t be a chance that her husband would return to her and her child.
He must be spending his time with his new lover, celebrating their upcoming divorce but would she let them?
The sudden ring on her phone brought her back to reality. Pulling it from the handbag that she"d tossed on her bed, she wasn"t surprised to see Shen Zichen"s name on the screen.
"Ying, are you home? I"m down here, at your apartment complex," he said at the other end of the line.
"Sorry, Dr. Shen. I"m staying with my uncle tonight. I won"t be able to come home anytime soon." She stared blankly at her ceiling, hoping that the pain she was feeling will turn her numb. She didn"t want to shed another tear for Mu Jianyu. The man wasn"t worth crying over.
"Really? What happened this time?" Shen Zichen asked. Li Xiuying could sense the hint of worry in his voice.
"Jianyu wants us to divorce." she laughed to herself. She should have seen it coming when Mu Jianyu refused to part with Lin Meirong.
For the past three months, she trailed her own husband with Shen Zichen by her side. The man, a childhood friend of hers and Chuntao"s, was the first one to discover the affair between the two.
Being a surgeon, Shen Zichen had to meet several important people and attend endless meetings and seminars. It was during one of those seminars he attended in a five-star hotel away from the capital that he saw Mu Jianyu with a woman walking alongside him, who wasn"t Li Xiuying.
Shen Zichen had been bothered since then and it was only because he was drunk that he accidentally slipped and told Li Xiuying, shocking her with his confession. He initially thought that she wouldn"t believe him right then but her eyes lowered and she smiled at him as she was ready to burst into tears.
Li Xiuying must have suspected all along that Mu Jianyu was being unfaithful to her and the news that Shen Zichen saw him with another woman finally confirmed her a.s.sumptions regarding her husband.
"Then divorce him. What are you waiting for, Ying?"
Why indeed? She only needed to sign the divorce papers and she and Mu Jianyu would have to part ways. Why was she being scared?
"Not yet, Zichen," came her muddled response. Li Xiuying hated that Mu Jianyu had the power to hurt her, to ruin her.
The thought that Mu Jianyu didn"t need and love her pained her so much. A part of her refused to believe that they"ll end up this way.
Was it possible to love someone and hate them at the same time? Li Xiuying couldn"t understand the feelings she had for her husband anymore.
What had she done to deserve this pain?
The more she witnessed the adultery, the more his lies continued to feed her hatred. They slowly turned into roommates who lived separate lives outside their home.
Pretty soon he was hiding more and more things from her. Meeting and conversations became some sort of a top-secret. And while he thought she didn"t notice, it was obvious that he was looking forward to seeing Lin Meirong and spending time with her. He"d totally forgotten about his wife who"d been watching him all this time with undivided attention.
However, in the end, divorce was the sacrament of adultery and Li Xiuying knew that at some point she"ll get tired of this facade.