Chapter 41

Lin Yuxi prepared a dinner. With the experience of her previous failure, she was at least more composed this time, and the result turned out quite presentable. 

After getting everything ready, she sat at the dining table and glanced at the time. 

It had been an hour and a half since the call; Zhou Yanjing should be back soon. 

At that moment, Lin Yuxi felt more at peace than she had imagined. 

What she had once been obsessed with, she could now let go of. The things that had been hard to part with no longer mattered. 

The process had certainly been painful and difficult, but without going through it all, she might not have been able to so easily detach Zhou Yanjing from her heart. 

She had loved Zhou Yanjing and had also hated him. In the end, when it was time to finish things, she could finally let go with a calm heart. 

Although there had been a bit of deviation in their marriage and she had taken a long detour, briefly losing her way, they ultimately arrived at the predetermined conclusion. 

Lin Yuxi waited in the dining room for Zhou Yanjing to return. 

But as the sky gradually darkened, there was still no sound of a car outside. 

The bright and magnificent crystal chandelier above the dining table illuminated the spread of cold dishes. 

Lin Yuxi waited for nearly three hours without seeing him. 

Zhou Yanjing may have been flawed, but he wasn’t someone who would break a promise. She wasn’t sure what had happened, and after calling him several times with no answer, she felt a growing sense of unease. 

Just as the last call was about to automatically hang up, it was suddenly answered. 

Lin Yuxi asked, “Are you coming home?” 

“Hello? Is this Yuxi?” It was Jiang Nan’s voice on the other end. 

Lin Yuxi’s words got caught in her throat. 

So that was it. 

No wonder Zhou Yanjing hadn’t come home for so long. 

She had simply not expected that even today, the day they had agreed to discuss the divorce, such an important matter would be casually cast aside by him without so much as a word. 

Perhaps she had accumulated enough disappointment that, at that moment, she wasn’t overly surprised or resentful. 

“Where is Zhou Yanjing?” Lin Yuxi asked. 

“There’s been a sudden situation on my end; Yanjing can’t leave right now,” Jiang Nan replied. “Are you waiting for him to come home? You might have to wait a little longer.” 

“Okay, understood.” 

After hanging up, Lin Yuxi looked at the cold food spread across the table and suddenly felt enlightened. 

She had originally thought that they should sit face to face at the end, just as they had at the beginning, and that there should be a decent and formal sense of ceremony for the ending. 

Now, thinking back, since the deadline had come, the ending was only natural. The divorce was something they had already reached a consensus on, and there was no issue of property division between her and Zhou Yanjing. 

If that was the case, it seemed unnecessary to say anything face to face. 

She had already packed her luggage in the afternoon, so Lin Yuxi called a car. The driver helped her put her suitcase in the trunk. 

As Lin Yuxi got into the car, the driver started the engine, and all the scenery receded in the rearview mirror. 

The marriage house at Songyun Bay No. 9. 

The past three years. 

And her love that had no beginning or end. 

In the hospital emergency room, Jiang Nan held her phone, ready to delete the call history when she caught a glimpse of a figure entering the ward and hurriedly stopped her actions. 

“The brain CT results have come back, and there’s nothing wrong,” Zhou Yanjing said as he walked in with the report. “Your knee injury needs to rest; you should take it easy for a while.” 

Jiang Nan handed her phone to him, her expression clear and honest. “Xiao Fan just brought your phone over. Yuxi called you several times. I could tell she was anxious to find you, so I picked up and told her.” 

Zhou Yanjing took the phone, looked down, and saw that Lin Yuxi had called him multiple times. 

Jiang Nan’s right leg lay flat on the bed, a nasty wound on her fair knee, stitched up with three stitches. 

She suddenly let out a soft hiss, her face paling. “Yanjing, it hurts a bit” 

Zhou Yanjing was dialing back, holding the phone to his ear, seemingly not paying attention. 

Lin Yuxi’s calls went unanswered, and Zhou Yanjing’s two attempts yielded the same result. 

Jiang Nan bit her lip. “If you’re in a hurry, you can go back first; I’ll be fine here.” 

Her retreating maneuver was unexpected; Zhou Yanjing directly picked up his coat, ready to leave. 

“I’ve already settled the medical bills. Aunt Jiang is on her way, and she’ll be here soon. I’ll leave Xiao Fan with you; just call him if you need anything.” 

Xiao Fan, dressed in a black suit, stood nervously to the side. 

Jiang Nan forced a pale smile and joked, “Xiao Fan, I’m starting to get a little scared of him.” 

Xiao Fan grimaced and apologized again, “I’m really sorry, Miss Jiang. You came over so suddenly; I really didn’t see you.” 

Zhou Yanjing strode out of the ward. The moment he stepped out, Jiang Nan’s expression darkened. 

“Are you implying that I did it on purpose?” she asked. 

Xiao Fan quickly shook his hands, “That’s not what I meant!” 

He had just started working not long ago. His driving skills were excellent, but being young, he was a bit reckless. With Old Liu resting these days, it was his first time driving the second young master, and he was extremely nervous. When he was coming out of the Boyu garage, he didn’t notice Jiang Nan, who was coming over to greet Zhou Yanjing, and accidentally bumped into her. 

Fortunately, the car wasn’t going fast; otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable. 

Zhou Yanjing immediately carried Jiang Nan to the car and brought her to the hospital for a full check-up. Everything else was fine, but Jiang Nan’s knee wound required stitches. 

It was neither a big nor a small matter. After all, she was the eldest daughter of the Jiang family, and even the slightest injury was a big deal! 

Xiao Fan had been on edge all evening, feeling that he would definitely lose his job over this. 

Zhou Yanjing threw on his coat and walked briskly outside, dialing Lin Yuxi’s number. 

They had just spoken on the phone less than ten minutes ago, yet now he couldn’t get in touch with her. 

Zhou Yanjing quickened his pace, moving faster and more urgently. He rushed to the parking lot, yanked open the car door, started the engine, shifted gears, and pressed on the accelerator. The dashboard needle shot up rapidly. 

The night’s neon lights sped past the window, reflecting Zhou Yanjing’s tense face. 

Every intersection seemed to have a red light. 

Zhou Yanjing’s calls to Lin Yuxi went unanswered, and his frown deepened as he sped back to Songyun Bay. 

After getting out of the car, he slammed the door and hurried up the stairs, pushing open the front door. 

The villa was pitch dark, with not a single light on. 

The motion sensor lights in the hallway lit up one after another, brightening the living room, but the place remained eerily quiet. 

The food on the dining table was still laid out, and Zhou Yanjing felt a wave of relief wash over him. 

He didn’t know what he was afraid of; he just felt a sense of ease upon seeing the food. 

He had encountered this kind of emptiness before, ultimately realizing it was a false alarm. He thought to himself that it was late, and Lin Yuxi must have given up waiting and gone to sleep. 

She liked to turn on “Do Not Disturb” when she slept, so it made sense that he couldn’t reach her. 

But an invisible thread of tension hung in his mind as he went up to the second floor. The master bedroom was completely dark, not even the floor lamp was on. 

He switched on the light at the door. The bed was neatly made, not a single wrinkle in the comforter. 

Lin Yuxi wasn’t home. 

Zhou Yanjing opened the door to the closet to check. It was still full, much like the last time. 

The clothes were all there; she definitely hadn’t left. 

Yet the room felt inexplicably empty. 

He walked around, feeling that something was missing, but he couldn’t pinpoint what. 

This feeling made him inexplicably anxious. He went back downstairs to check the door for the cats. 

Lin Yuxi cared for those little furry creatures more than he did; she wouldn’t just abandon the cats she had given birth to. 

As long as the cats were still here… 

Zhou Yanjing pushed the door open, and the room was completely empty. All the cat supplies scratching posts, litter boxes, automatic feeders, toys were all gone. 

There weren’t even any lively cats; at this moment, not even a speck of dust was left. 

The quiet of the late night surged up like a tide, creating an unsettling silence. 

He had said those cats weren’t good creatures; they could have stolen away. 

Zhou Yanjing picked up his phone and dialed Lin Yuxi again.  

The mechanical beeping in the receiver was long and unpleasant, yet still no one answered. 

“Is she retaliating against me? Deliberately not answering the phone?” 

She had said she wanted to talk things over with him. They hadn’t even had that conversation yet; she wouldn’t just run away like this. 

Was she sulking and going out to drink again? 

She had been led astray by Yu Jiaxiao, that idiot, and had become wild, going to bars every few days. 

Zhou Yanjing scrolled through his contacts looking for Yu Jiaxiao’s number. He couldn’t remember if he had saved it. He swiped with one hand while using the other to pull off his tie and throw it onto the sofa. 

His aim was off, and the tie missed its target, falling to the ground. 

At the same time, he halted his search, his eyes fixated on the dining table. 

The food and two sets of chopsticks remained untouched, and Zhou Yanjing’s gaze lingered on Lin Yuxi’s usual spot. 

A platinum ring lay quietly on the solid wood tabletop.