The 99th Divorce

“I was doing my part-time shift that day,” Quan Jingyi said plainly.

“You work part-time?” Li Jianyue asked, looking surprised.

“Yeah,” Quan Jingyi said as he leaned forward indolently. His demeanor was in sharp contrast to his unwavering calmness at the office moments before. “I was selling some trinkets. You even bought them from me.”

“Oh!” Li Jianyue suddenly recalled it. “I bought them from the Kumamon Bear. Were you wearing a Kumamon Bear suit that day? Were you the one who sold me the bunny ears?”

Quan Jingyi bowed his head slightly as a gesture of admission.

“Whoa! I can’t believe it was you!” Li Jianyue was amazed. “So, why didn’t you tell me then? I can’t believe it! You’re remarkable!”

“Remarkable?”

“Yeah! You’re so remarkable!” Li Jianyue was oozing with admiration. “You’re studying while at the same working part-time. The weather was so hot that day, and you wore such a thick suit in a crowded place. I can’t even bear the thought of it. My grandfather used to say ‘no pain, no gain.’ I think it’s fantastic that you’ve already started training yourself.”

Quan Jingyi laughed when he heard Li Jianyue’s heartfelt words. “The only reason I work part-time is to earn money.”

“Earn money?” Li Jianyue looked at him and blinked her eyes. “Your father doesn’t give you any money?”

“Yeah,” Quan Jingyi walked on. “But it doesn’t matter. If he doesn’t want to give, he doesn’t have to. I can earn it on my own.”

“Why won’t your father give you any money?” Li Jianyue caught up with him. “I heard from the other students that you don’t have a good relationship with your father. Is it because you insisted on pursuing your art despite your father’s objections? Is that why your relationship soured?”

Li Jianyue sounded very puzzled. Her tone carried a certain endearing immaturity and innocence peculiar to her age.

Quan Jingyi turned his head to face her. He noticed straight away the doubt and curiosity on Li Jianyue’s pink face.

“That’s just part of the reason.”

“So, what’s the other part of the reason?”

Quan Jingyi paused for a second. It was then that he realized that Li Jianyue was relatively short.

As they stood next to each other, the top of her head barely reached his chin.

Li Jianyue mistook his pause for reluctance. “It’s fine if you don’t want to answer the question. I was just curious. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to,” she said quickly.

Quan Jingyi pursed his lips. “There’s nothing that can’t be said. You’ve probably heard it from the others. My biological mother died, and my father remarried. My stepmother gave birth to a son.”

“Uh, huh,” Li Jianyue nodded her head.

Li Jianyue had heard that Quan Jianyi’s father had remarried. But she was unaware that his stepmother had given birth to a little brother.

“During my stepmother’s confinement, I had a verbal conflict with her.”

Li Jianyue widened her eyes. “That was wrong of you. My mother told me that a woman should, at all costs, avoid getting angry during her confinement. If she were to get angry, the damaging effects on her body would last a lifetime.”

Li Jianyue had felt proud of her mother when she explained it to her.

Her mother had met a good man. And because of that, she was very well cared for after she had given birth twice.

Quan Jingyi lowered his eyes slightly and hummed in affirmation.

Li Jianyue noticed that Quan Jingyi seemed downcast. She became worried that she had made him unhappy. “But I believe that you wouldn’t have gotten into a conflict with her for no apparent reason. So, why did you?” she prodded further.

“Because she wanted to throw away a picture of my mother.”

Li Jianyue was shocked. “No way! If your mother’s picture was offensive to her, why didn’t you hide it?”

“I hid it in the drawer in my room.”