The 99th Divorce

Old Manor of the Li Family.

Li Jianyue chased Teeny Su around the house. The surroundings were new to the little puppy. It was extremely uncomfortable with the foreign environment. Whenever it saw Li Jianyue, it’d quickly run away.

After running for some time and still being unable to catch the puppy, the little kid slowly lost interest. Disgruntledly, she sat on the couch and turned on the TV to watch cartoons.

Li Mosen was reading by the side, but he was observant of Li Jianyue’s every action. When he saw that she was seated, he finally released a deep breath and asked, “Are you tired from running?”

Unexpectedly, Li Jianyue suddenly flung the remote control down. With an unhappy expression on her face, she asked, “Brother Mosen, why is my Older Brother not back yet?”

Brother Mosen. My Older Brother.

Both forms of address had the term brother in them. Perhaps it was because Ersu was still young that she didn’t realize the difference in both forms of address.

When Li Mosen heard it, his heart felt uneasy. He looked at Li Jianyue and replied, “Dasu has gone to the Capital. He won’t be back for a while.”

“Didn’t he go to the Capital to go to school? It’s now night! Why isn’t he back yet?” Li Jianyue was upset, very upset. She looked at Li Mosen and asked, “Brother Mosen, why do you not have to go to school in the Capital even though you’re a year older than Older Brother? Why does Older Brother have to go?”

“It’s because he’s going to stay at Grandpa and Grandma’s home,” Li Mosen said. “He’ll be going to school there and can only come home during the school holidays.”

“It’s not the school holiday period now?” Li Jianyue asked.

“No,” Li Mosen replied.

“How much longer until it’s the school holidays?” she asked.

“Perhaps a few more days,” Li Mosen said.

“How many days?” Li Jianyue asked.

“Maybe 10 to 20?” Li Mosen hesitantly replied.

“How many exactly?” Li Jianyue got closer and looked at Li Mosen. Her mouth was scrunched up in a frown. “Am I not going to be able to see Older Brother for this entire time?”

Li Mosen was at a loss for words and didn’t know how to respond. Li Jianyue saw that he wasn’t speaking and knew his silence was an implicit confirmation.

She opened her mouth and began wailing aloud. Her cries reverberated through the entire sitting room in the old manor. They were especially jarring to the ears.

Inside, Qin Shuhua heard the sound of the child’s cries and quickly came out. When she saw the child wailing away on the couch, her heart went out to her.

Li Jianyue held on to Qin Shuhua’s hand and cried as she faced her grandmother and asked, “Grandmother, why isn’t Older Brother back yet? I miss Older Brother. I don’t want Older Brother to go to school in the Capital. I want Older Brother to come home.”

Qin Shuhua couldn’t bear for Li Jianqian to leave either, but she had been unable to convince Li Sicheng and his wife to do otherwise. After some thought, she said, “Let’s give your Grandpa and Grandma a call, shall we? We’ll ask how they’re doing and when Old Brother is coming home.”

Li Jianyue’s cries finally softened. She climbed down from Qin Shuhua and ran to get the phone. With the phone in her hand, she turned to look at Qin Shuhua.

Qin Shuhua took the phone from her and dialed the number. The line quickly connected to the phone of the Rong residence in the Capital. The call was answered by Rong Xuan.

She sounded very happy as she greeted, “How do you do, In-Law?”

“Hello, hello,” Qin Shuhua said. “Hey, I’m guessing Qianci and Dasu have reached your place.”

“They have,” Rong Xuan said. “We just had dinner. Qianci and Sicheng had something to tend to. It’s just me and the child at home. Would you like to speak to him?”

They had something to tend to in the Capital? How could these two people just dump the kid in the house…

“Well, wasn’t it the girlfriend of Qianci’s brother-in-law who ran into some problems?” Rong Xuan asked. “They were in a hurry to go find out more.”

The girlfriend of Qianci’s brother-in-law had run into some problems?

Qin Shuhua thought of that demure and decent lady and asked, “What problems did she run into?”