Fang Tong closed her eyes. She had no strength left to dodge, nor did she care to.
Yet the slap never came. Puzzled, she opened her eyes.
Then she heard Xu Yizhi’s cold voice: "Are you that stupid? You didn't even know enough to duck?"
Fang Tong’s heart gave a slight thud, immediately followed by a helpless, bitter smile.
*Fang Tong, Oh Fang Tong,* she thought, *you really are hopeless. Do you seriously think Xu Yizhi is willing to protect you just because he still has feelings for you?*
*If he truly had feelings, would he blindly wrong you time and time again?*
*How laughable!*
"You're protecting her again! You're protecting this little bitch! Are you going to be happy only when she causes your sister to lose her life?" Li Jintang screamed, her wrist gripped by her son. Unable to match his strength, she lashed out at him in fury.
Xu Yizhi let go of his mother's hand, pulled Fang Tong behind him, and maintained his indifferent expression. "Mom, I'll handle this matter."
"You say that every time! When have you ever actually handled anything properly?" Li Jintang was shaking with rage.
Holding Fang Tong's hand, Xu Yizhi pulled her upstairs back to their bedroom before letting go. Clearly irritated as well, he loosened the collar of his shirt with one hand.
"Pack your things. Go stay at Xiyi for a while. Don't come back to the old mansion."
Xiyi Oasis was a well-known upscale residential area in the western part of Jingcheng, and Xu Yizhi owned a property there.
When they were first married, they had lived there most of the time. Later, after Fang Tong returned to the old mansion to recuperate, they visited that house much less frequently.
Fang Tong gave a low response: "Okay."
This time, Xu Yizhi was taken aback.
In the past, Fang Tong had always been unable to stand Sun Qing. He had told her many times that Sun Qing was his younger sister with a rather delicate temper, and asked Fang Tong to bear with it and stop targeting her.
Yet Fang Tong never listened, and whenever she caused trouble, she would still deny it.
Once or twice he could tolerate it, but how could he not grow annoyed when it happened over and over again?
Yet today, Fang Tong actually didn't argue or deny anything?
Fang Tong quickly packed her belongings.
In three years of marriage, the things that truly belonged to her amounted to only a few casual outfits and clothes for going out; her clothes and shoes were pitifully few. She had a few pieces of jewelry kept in the safe, but since she rarely wore them, she didn't take them with her now.
Instead, she dug out a spare mobile phone from the bedside table, along with a few hundred cash in change.
Preoccupied, Xu Yizhi paid no attention to what Fang Tong was doing. Seeing that she was packed, he helped her carry her suitcase downstairs, saying, "I'll have Song drive you to Xiyi. I have things to do..."
"No need, go ahead and be busy. I can just hail a cab myself," Fang Tong said.
At that moment, Xu Yizhi's phone rang.
Fang Tong glanced at it. His personal phone never had any contact names saved, but even without a name, she knew whose number it was. It was Sun Qing.
Glaringly obvious.
Fang Tong quickly took her suitcase and left the villa area. However, she did not go to Xiyi Oasis, but instead returned to the Fang family home.
She was too exhausted. This marriage, this relationship—it had been a tangled mess all along.
She used to think that as long as there was love, things would get better. Later, she felt that as long as she endured a little more and showed them more care, they would eventually understand her genuine heart.
Now she realized that perhaps her very existence was a mistake.
She stepped out and hailed a taxi. The driver was very attentive and had pasted a small mirror right in front of the backseat window.
Fang Tong looked into the mirror and saw that her lips were pale without a trace of color, and on her cheek was a scratch she had somehow gotten the day she fell into the water.
How disheveled she looked.
When they arrived at Xiangshui Mansion in the south of Jingcheng, before Fang Tong got out of the car, the driver turned around for a quick look and couldn't help saying:
"Young lady, you're really pretty, look like a movie star. Stop frowning, cheer up."
Fang Tong was momentarily stunned, then forced a smile.
Xiangshui Mansion was a villa compound within the city; taxis were not allowed inside. Fang Tong had to drag her suitcase a long way through the neighborhood before finally reaching her family's front door.
The door was locked from the inside, so she rang the bell and waited for a while before the housekeeper, Auntie Chen, came out to open it.
"Xiao Tong is back? Why didn't you say so earlier? I didn't cook any lunch for you."
Fang Tong said, "I'm not feeling very well, I won't eat."
Having no appetite was the truth. Fang Tong went upstairs to her own room. A layer of dust had settled over the empty room, and the bed was the same—the bedding hadn't been changed in ages.
She didn't even have the heart to open the windows for ventilation.
This house was bought for the Fang family by Xu Yizhi when she got married. On the surface, it was her maiden home, but in reality, it was nothing of the sort.
She wanted to escape, to find a place where no one was around and hide.
Auntie Chen must have told her mother, Qiao Shu, that she was back, because before Qiao Shu even walked over, her voice echoed in.
"Xiao Tong, let me ask you, did you make Xu Yizhi angry a couple of days ago? Oh, you really never listen. You have such a good husband—so generous with his money, giving you a million a month for living expenses. Instead of cozying up to him, why are you always stirring up trouble?"
Fang Tong didn't speak.
Qiao Shu rambled on: "You really don't know how blessed you are. Look at you, you've been like this since you were a child—your personality isn't pleasing at all, can't you even figure out how to coax someone? Sun Qing is your sister-in-law, how can you be so petty that you can't even tolerate her?"
Fang Tong raised her head to look at Qiao Shu and called out, "Mom..."
She wanted to say she wasn't feeling well, but the words wouldn't come out. She felt a bit dramatic, hoping her mother could see that she was sick, especially since it was so obvious.
Unfortunately, Qiao Shu paid no attention whatsoever and only continued her endless reprimands.
Her older sister, Fang Huahua, followed her up the stairs and chimed in with sneering sarcasm, "Oh Mom, you know what Fang Tong's personality is like—she's the pettiest person ever, so selfish and willful. Sun Qing is a delicate young lady raised in the lap of luxury; it's totally normal for her to have a bad temper. Fang Tong, why don't you ever know how to give a little ground?"
Qiao Shu nodded in agreement. "Exactly. If it were your sister, she'd definitely be best friends with Sun Qing by now."
Fang Tong remained silent, offering no response. The result was the same no matter where she was; she was long used to it.
Looking immensely pleased with herself, Fang Huahua reached out to stroke her own protruding belly and said, "Speaking of which, you're just useless. If you ask me, as long as you're pregnant with a child, would Sun Qing still refuse to yield to you? Honestly, Xu Yizhi isn't getting any younger, and he's an only child. If you don't bear him a son, how can you face the Xu family?"
"Alright, what's done is done. Saying any more is pointless."
The speaker was her father, Fang Xu. He paced up the stairs with a deep frown on his face.
"This is no time for you to be running back to your maiden home. Go apologize to Sun Qing and properly humble yourself to make peace with Xu Yizhi. Xu Yizhi treats you pretty well; if you soften up and sweet-talk him, he'll definitely forgive you."
They were all the same—they didn't care about her feelings, nor did they believe a single word she said.
Her maiden home had never been her backer, because they all wanted her to thoroughly cozy up to every single member of the Xu family so that it would bring more benefits to the family.
Money was the only thing that mattered to them, while she...
"Dad," Fang Tong finally spoke up, looking straight at Fang Xu with a serious expression. "Dad, I want a divorce."