Chapter 47. Prosecution

     Zheng Xuan divorced her husband Sun Fen.

     There are many reasons why Zheng Xuan decided to divorce:

     After returning from Xingzhou Island, she picked up her hobbies and “dripping glue” at home, preparing to preserve the beautiful memory of the “sea fire” she saw on Xingzhou Island that night in a physical way.

     Sun Fen said that “dripping glue” is toxic and was worried that she would harm the fetus, so he didn’t let her play.

     Even if she explained that the toxicity of “dripping glue” would not affect the fetus, Sun Fen’s family would not listen. She could only watch them throw away the “dripping glue”.

     If she doesn’t want to play with “dripping glue”, then don’t play. It’s okay for her to buy mud and make models, right?

     No.

     Sun Fen’s father thought that she couldn’t find a job and would only play with the mud when she was idle at home.

     In order to keep her from being idle, she was asked to work as a cashier in Uncle Sun Fen’s wholesale supermarket in the town: “It’s a supermarket owned by my family, so I just need to sit and collect money, and it’s not tiring.”

     Sun Fen’s mother complained to her, saying that the lychee market was not good this year, and they didn’t make much money. The promised gift of 38,000 yuan was reduced to 18,000 yuan, and asked her to be considerate of their family.

     As for Sun Fen’s attitude, he was already in a cold war with Zheng Xuan, and he didn’t want to deal with it, waiting for Zheng Xuan to compromise.

     Zheng Xuan originally wanted to tell them, she wants to set up a studio to sell cultural and creative products authorized by Xingzhou Island, but after seeing their attitude, she suddenly lost all desire to share joy.

     Thinking that everything she wanted to do was rejected, she felt like a bird trapped in a cage, and gradually felt suffocated.

     She was disappointed with Sun Fen and filed for divorce. This matter immediately became a big mess. The Sun family used both soft and hard tactics. 

     On the one hand, they thought that she asked for a divorce because the betrothal gift was reduced, so they restored the original betrothal gift. On the other hand, they threatened her openly and secretly, saying that she had a child from the Sun family, and it would not be good for her even if she divorced.

     Sun Fen was really panicked, and he coaxed her humbly, hoping that she would change her mind.

     Originally, Zheng Xuan softened her heart because of his show of weakness, but she unexpectedly discovered the chat records between him and his group of good brothers.

     At that time, a chat message popped up on Sun Fen’s mobile phone interface. Zheng Xuan glanced at it and seemed to mention Li Yaolin. She immediately snatched the phone and saw the content clearly, but she was furious: 

     “Sanniang helped us so much when taking wedding photos before. It’s okay that you didn’t thank her, but you are still slandering her here? Sun Fen, do you have a conscience? Do you know shame?”

     In Sun Fen’s brother group, there is “A Zhan” who he mentioned last time to introduce to Li Yaolin as a boyfriend. It seems that Sun Fen is complaining, suspecting that Li Yaolin slandered him behind his back and alienated his relationship with Zheng Xuan, which led to Zheng Xuan divorcing him because of a small matter.

     He also said to “A Zhan”: “Fortunately, I didn’t introduce her to you. If you are with her, you will probably have the Hulunbuir grassland on your head. Let me tell you, the man she is with is a rich man, probably her godfather…”

    How can Zheng Xuan control her emotions after seeing such a chat conversation? !

     Sun Fen snatched back the locked screen of his phone, feeling guilty and angry, saying: “Am I wrong? Otherwise, why do you get so upset every time you meet her? We were fine at the beginning, weren’t we? If she wasn’t behind you, why would you suddenly ask for a divorce?”

     “That’s because I’ve seen the true colors of you and your family. I don’t want to live with you anymore. It has nothing to do with her. She has never said anything bad about you, let alone instigated me to divorce you!”

     How could Sun Fen listen?

     They started arguing.

     At this time, an accident happened suddenly. Zheng Xuan felt a little pain in her lower abdomen. She felt something was wrong and asked Sun Fen to take her to the hospital. As a result, Sun Fen, who was angry, ignored her.

     When he realized that something was wrong and sent Zheng Xuan to the hospital, Zheng Xuan had already miscarried.

 

…

 

     “When Brother Xuan asked for a divorce, Sun Fen refused. The child was gone, and the doctor said that even if Brother Xuan could get pregnant again in the future, it would be easy to have a miscarriage, so Sun Fen simply agreed to the divorce?”

     When Li Yaolin asked this, people who knew her knew that she was already trying hard to suppress her anger.

     Lin Qitong sneered and said, “Sun Fen said his family forced him to do so. He didn’t want to divorce Brother Xuan. He still looked affectionate after completing the divorce procedures. It’s disgusting.”

     “That’s a nice thing to say.” Li Yaolin pinched her eyebrows and said, “If Brother Xuan wants to fight for her rights, I can introduce her to a lawyer.”

     “They don’t have any disputes over money. Brother Xuan just wants to get rid of their family as soon as possible.” Lin Qitong paused,

     “Brother Xuan moved out of the Sun family after she was discharged from the hospital. Her parents originally planned to take her back to their hometown to recuperate, but Brother Xuan told me that she was going to Yóushì to find you. I decided to accompany her the day after tomorrow. But in order to avoid you worrying, she kept telling me not to tell you about this.”

     Lin Qitong and Zheng Xuan have a very good relationship, so after Zheng Xuan moved out of the Sun family, she also stayed at Lin Qitong’s place temporarily.

     Li Yaolin felt very uncomfortable after hearing this and said, “Then I’ll just pretend I don’t know!”

     After ending the call, Li Yaolin suppressed her anger and blacklisted Sun Fen, not only on her own social software, but also on Xingzhou Island.

     If she didn’t know the names of his parents, she would definitely give Sun Fen a big gift package to blacklist his whole family.

     After blacklisting Sun Fen, Li Yaolin went to find a senior who was in the same class as Sun Fen and had coached her in basketball. The other party and Sun Fen also had a common circle, so she asked the other party to help collect the rumors about her that Sun Fen had made on social media.

     Sun Fen’s personality is so arrogant, and he likes to slander and gossip about others. She doesn’t believe that he only slandered her in front of that “A Zhan”.

     The senior brother also heard some bad rumors about Li Yaolin. Based on his understanding of Li Yaolin, he felt that Li Yaolin was not that kind of girl, but sometimes people don’t care about the truth.

     Besides, Li Yaolin had been in college for four years, and for various reasons, she had little contact with boys. Boys didn’t know her, and even if they heard some rumors, they wouldn’t tell her.

     Now that Li Yaolin’s attitude was so tough, he thought there might be a reversal, so he readily agreed to help. Li Yaolin offered to pay him, but he didn’t take it.

     In just two days, Li Yaolin collected the chat records of Sun Fen mentioning her in different groups this year, as well as some negative information about her image caused by his rumors.

     Sometimes, when others mentioned her in a chat, he would casually comment on her personality or way of doing things as the husband of Li Yaolin’s good friend.

     In the past two months, he has mentioned Li Yaolin more often, and most of the time he was complaining about Li Yaolin to others, and he also suspected that Li Yaolin was kept by someone.

     After collecting the evidence, Li Yaolin asked Lawyer Wu to help sue Sun Fen.

     Lawyer Wu said in a very businesslike manner: “Excuse me, this is your private matter. Our agreement does not seem to include a clause about handling your private matter. If you are sure you want me to help sue him, then the price will be calculated separately.”

     Li Yaolin: “…”

     Lawyer Wu, you are really getting more and more unkind!

     She said: “But Lawyer Wu, this is about the reputation of the owner of Xingzhou Island. If it gets out, it will affect the brand image of Xingzhou Island. Isn’t this a business matter?”

     Lawyer Wu was speechless and said after a long silence: “This time is equivalent to twelve services. You still have twenty-three legal services left with me.”

     Li Yaolin said: “As long as he can get the punishment he deserves, it doesn’t matter if you deduct all the service times. And I don’t accept apologies or mediation. If possible, I want his company to know about this.”

     Lawyer Wu was a little surprised. Li Yaolin has recently learned to be a profiteer who squeezes her value in turn. This time she is so generous, which shows that this man named Sun Fen has really irritated the island owner who has no temper.

     Lawyer Wu said, “Okay, prepare the materials to sue him now.”

 

…

 

     When Li Yaolin went to the high-speed railway station to pick up Zheng Xuan and Lin Qitong, she sent the electronic version of the lawyer’s letter sent by Lawyer Wu to her Moments, and then she ignored the bombardment of messages in various chat groups and private chat windows and muted them directly.

     Lin Qitong saw Li Yaolin’s Moments before leaving the station. She pretended to be surprised and said to Zheng Xuan who was always wandering around: “Yaolin seems to have sued Sun Fen!”

     Zheng Xuan was also a little surprised: “Why?”

     “Well, it seems that a senior brother Yaolin met when she played basketball told her that Sun Fen spread rumors and slandered her in the group, so she collected evidence and sued him.”

     Zheng Xuan said “Oh”, not surprised at all that Sun Fen would have this day. After all, they are all adults, and they should be responsible for their own actions and bear the consequences if they do something wrong.

     Lin Qitong said: “I understand why you didn’t let me tell others that you came to see Yaolin. If Sun Fen heard about it, he would be more certain that your divorce from him was related to Yaolin. But why don’t you rest for a while before coming here?”

     “It’s too annoying to stay in Yangshi or go back to my hometown. I want to be quiet. I also want to start my new job as soon as possible, so I came here.”

     Lin Qitong was worried: “Have you decided to be a colleague of Yaolin? But I don’t know what her boss is like, will he exploit you!”

     Zheng Xuan, who hadn’t smiled for many days, laughed out loud when she heard it.

     “What are you laughing at?”

     “Nothing, some things, you will understand when the time comes.”

     Lin Qitong returned to Xingzhou Island with Li Yaolin and Zheng Xuan after three months of absence. When she met someone calling Li Yaolin “boss”, she understood what Zheng Xuan meant.

     “Good Li Yaolin, good Zheng Xuan, you hid it from me so hard!” Lin Qitong complained. Li Yaolin and Zheng Xuan looked at each other and both burst out laughing.

     Li Yaolin said: “I didn’t hide it from you. When I asked you to do promotion, didn’t you check it? And I also recruited you to be responsible for promotion work here.”

     Lin Qitong: “…”

     Don’t ask, if you ask, she will regret it!

     She figured it out: “So it was you who gave Brother Xuan the idea of opening a studio to make cultural and creative products?”

     Li Yaolin asked Zheng Xuan: “Brother Xuan is preparing to open a studio?”

     Zheng Xuan shook her head: “Where do I have the money and energy now? So, does Mr. Li need someone to help you work?”

     Li Yaolin smiled and said: “The position of the head of the cultural and creative group has always been reserved for you!”

     Lin Qitong was jealous.

     Li Yaolin asked her again: “The operation department lacks a person in charge of marketing and promotion. Do you want to come to Xingzhou Island to be an Internet celebrity?”

     Lin Qitong agreed very readily this time: “Yes.”

     Why not hug the thigh of a good classmate if you can hug it for free?

     “You agreed so quickly, aren’t you afraid that I will give you too low a salary?”

     “If it’s too low, I’ll change jobs!”

     “You are really straightforward.”

     “It’s strange to be too vague between us.”

     They laughed heartily.

     Li Yaolin was very happy to have two classmates to help at once. She bought vegetables and cooked for them herself.

     At night, Li Yaolin arranged for them to stay in a single-family holiday cabin and said, “Today, let’s all be hotel test sleepers.”

     Lin Qitong said exaggeratedly, “You’re urging us to go to work before the labor contract is signed?”

     “You should say that before you start working, I let you stay in a holiday home worth 1,980 yuan a night for free. Isn’t that very considerate?”

     Zheng Xuan also laughed and teased, “Sanniang, you really have the talent to be a profiteer!”

     These were all little jokes between them. Lin Qitong and Zheng Xuan were not dissatisfied with Li Yaolin’s arrangement. Rather, they liked the environment here very much.

     Zheng Xuan sat on the swing in the greenhouse and looked up to see the sky full of stars.

     She said: “When I came here before, I didn’t notice that there were so many stars in the night sky here! The last time I saw so many stars was when I was very young in my hometown. At that time, my hometown was still a remote place with little pollution. I lay on the threshing ground and counted the stars with my parents…”

     At that time, there were not only stars in the sky, but also fireflies all over the mountains. She was afraid of the dark and dared not leave home too far after dark. Sometimes she would be attracted by the light of fireflies, and then run to the fields to catch fireflies, and almost forgot the way home.

     Now that she is back in her hometown, she can occasionally see one or two fireflies in the dense forests overgrown with weeds.

     Li Yaolin and Lin Qitong followed her gaze and looked up at the night sky. The stars in the sky were indeed bright. Looking at them, the devastated hearts seemed to be filled and repaired by the stars.

     Li Yaolin said, “Go to bed early.”

     Then Li Yaolin completed the entry procedures for Zheng Xuan and Lin Qitong, but did not assign them any tasks.

     Zheng Xuan guessed Li Yaolin’s intention, – she was not surprised that Li Yaolin knew about her miscarriage. After all, since they met, Li Yaolin had never looked at her belly, obviously knowing that she had no child.

     Li Yaolin did this because she did not want to put pressure and burden on her. But she didn’t think she would be so fragile, so she found Li Yaolin: “Please arrange some work for me first. Even if it’s just to look at some information first, it’s better than doing nothing.”

     Li Yaolin thought about it, and then gave her some information about Xingzhou Island and the reserve, saying, “Then you look at it first.”

     Zheng Xuan said again: “National Day is coming soon, and we can’t miss such a good opportunity. Now there are very few manufacturers and merchants who will prepare a large amount of spot goods, and they are all pre-sold three months in advance. I can draw a design draft first, make a 3D model map, and release it for pre-sale, and then send it for processing according to the order quantity.”

     “These things can’t be rushed. You look at the information first, get familiar with the job business, and then officially start work in a month.”

     Zheng Xuan agreed on the surface, but actually started designing prototypes with a digital tablet in her spare time.

     She has come up with many cultural and creative products, including the sand table model of Xingzhou Island, the seagull she met on the boat when taking wedding photos before, and five turtles, turtle eggs, and baby turtles.

     By the way, the stars in the sky and the “sea fire” she saw that night must also be made.

     Now, no one can stop her from playing with “dripping glue” and “mud”.

     On the other hand, Lin Qitong did not get the treatment of delaying work, and she was pulled to work on the same day.

     Li Yaolin handed over all the external publicity accounts of Xingzhou Island to her: “National Day is coming soon, and there is a lot of publicity work to be carried out, so I’ll leave it to you!”

     Lin Qitong: “…”

     Before joining the company, I was your good classmate, and after joining the company, I was the peanuts and rapeseed flowers in the oil press? 

     Li Yaolin, you Zhou Ba Pi!^[1]Zhou the exploiter, archetypal character in short story ‘Cock crows in the middle of the night’ {半夜雞叫}