Belated Romance (Mu Tongrui)

It was two in the morning in Florence.
It was two in the morning in Florence.
Tongrui had been fidgeting with the pen for a long time. She mustered a lot of courage, yet she was unable to sign the papers.
In the divorce agreement, even the amount of alimony had been spelled out clearly. Lingye had really set his mind to divorce her.
It was inevitable.
In their relationship, she was always the passive one. However, it was Lingye who had taken the initiative to divorce her. There
was no way she could sit still and allow that to happen just like that.
Once this divorce was set in stone, her life would be a barren wasteland. There would be no Lingye to accompany her, and it
meant that the woman who stood beside him would be a new one.
Tongrui wiped her tears away and took her phone. She decided to make that call.
It was in the death of the night in Florence, but the sun would soon rise in North City.
...
At that moment, Fu Xiao, who had taken over Lingye’s body, saw the incoming call. He saw that it was a call made from
Florence. A terrible glint appeared in his eyes.
He immediately rejected the call.
...
Tongrui was trying her best to dry her tears while holding her phone. When she heard the line go dead because the other party
did not want to answer, a new wave of tears came to her eyes.
Lingye had rejected her call...
Was he angry at her for disappearing into thin air without saying goodbye?
Other than this, Tongrui did not dare to bring herself to entertain other possibilities–
Was he so heartless to the point that he did not even bother to talk to her after making up his mind about the divorce?

Even if their divorce was on the horizon, she still wanted to hear his voice.
If she were to sign the agreement now and fax it back to her father, she knew that this would set her fate in stone. Even if she did
not go back to North City, she knew full well that Lingye could make this divorce official with the power and connection he held in
North City.
Tonrui was always a dignified and sensitive person. She would never make a second call if her first one was rejected.
However... The person in question was none other than Lingye. She decided to turn a blind eye to her sensibility and call him
again. She tried to tell herself that the first rejection must be just a mistake, perhaps Lingye had slipped his fingers and
accidentally rejected the call, or perhaps he was wary of picking up a call from an unknown number.
She continued to convince herself as she sniffed hard. Then, she sent a text message.
The text message was short and concise–
“Lingye, it’s Rui.”
A few moments after the message was sent, she did not receive any call at all from him.
She could feel the dying embers in her heart that were about to go out.
In the past, whenever she left him without a reason, he would always come to find her until he finally saw her.
This time, he seemed to give up on her long ago. Even if he knew where she was right now, he would not even bother to ask her.
However, if one was madly in love with the other, she would not be able to think with a sensible mind.
Tongrui wanted to believe that since it was only nine in the morning in North City, Lingye must be still asleep. He must not have
seen her message or missed calls.
She continued to stare at the screen of her phone for another ten minutes.
In that ten minutes, it was as if she was transported back in time to her student days in high school. Different kinds of emotion
went through her as if she was checking the final result of her exam. She was agitated, disappointed, and wary, and at the same
time, she kept reassuring herself.
Lingye did not reply to her messages, and he did not return the call either.

She could not care about her dignity anymore. She picked up her phone and made a call to him again.
This time, when she was waiting... Her breathing inadvertently slowed down as well.
She was afraid that Lingye would reject her call again.
Just as she was going to lose all hope after the ringing persisted for a long time, the call finally connected, “Lingye, you’re finally
picking up my call! I have waited for so long here, I... I am in Florence, and I want to say sorry... because I did not tell you about
this before I was gone...”
Before she could fully apologize to him, his cold voice cut her off, “You don’t need to tell me that. Now that you’re gone, it’s a
good thing for me and the Fu family.”
Tongrui froze upon hearing that. She began to sob, “Lingye, I am sorry... Are you still angry at me? Even though we are related
by blood, I never want to leave you... I promise you, Dad’s arrangement is for me to avoid getting tangled up in the thick of
things... I am just wary of Xian spreading this matter, that’s why I came here... Divorce is never on my mind...”
At that moment, she could no longer care about losing faces. She just did not want... to lose Lingye, who was precious to her.
However, Fu Xiao, who had assumed Lingye’s identity, was not swayed by her sobbing. He cut her off curtly, “But if we don’t get
a divorce, Xian would disclose our relationship which would turn the world against us. They would even get rid of Siqi. An
unprecedented danger would befall the Fu family and the company. Do you really wish to see things go into ruins like that?”
“I...”
Tongrui was paralyzed. She never imagined that Lingye would fire back at her with those sensible questions.
Lingye was not selfish at all to say those things. In fact, he was far from it. Despite that, he still made it clear that their marriage
was the last thing on his mind when considering every facet of the matter.
He thought about the Fu family and the company, and he thought about Siqi as well. He even thought about himself... but not
her feelings.
It seemed that she was really abandoned by him, even though she was reluctant to acknowledge this fact.
Her tears began to trickle down her cheeks once again.

She clutched her phone until her knuckles turned white, “But you said... Even if it’s the end of the world, you will bring me to a
safe haven.”
His voice was very nonchalant, “Do you really believe me when I was in my feelings?”
He even sounded a little sarcastic.
Tongrui never thought that Lingye would throw such sarcasm at her. She sucked in a deep breath and asked, “Would you be
happy if I sign the papers?”
“If you sign them, we won’t get hurt in any way. I will make sure you are compensated well.”
Compensation? Was their relationship going to be defined by money now?
Lingye sounded like he was trying to dismiss her like a beggar.
“Lingye, I am not a saint. I can be a moron in front of you, but right now... I begin to hate you.”
He replied, “You hate me? Because I am compensating you?”
Tongrui shook her head while her eyes were bloodshot, “Not that. It seems that I think too highly of myself in your heart, but in
the end, it’s just a delusion on my part.”
It seemed that Lingye was not in the mood to continue this nonsense. He was clear and concise, “Whatever you want, just tell
me. This divorce will do us more good than harm. You believed my lovey-dovey words because I am Lingye, but if I am no longer
a part of the Fu family, and I am no longer the mighty Lingye, you would never take me seriously. If I lose everything that I have
now, where can I bring you to?”
Tongrui covered her mouth, and she was pressing on it hard. She did not want Lingye to hear her incessant sobbing.
She was such an embarrassment.
She could not say another word anymore. She hurriedly hung up.
She looked at her own reflection in a teacup and saw that her face was stricken with tears. She tried to smile at her reflection,
but a smile that looked sarcastic.

It turned out that her love for him was just her selfish thoughts.
For Lingye, nothing was more important than his family. She was the last of his priorities.
She really naively thought that Lingye would be so nervous if she escaped North City and came to Florence. She really thought
that he would lose sleep over it, and he would miss her very much...
Now, she knew that Lingye would love to see her leave North City forever.