Chapter 1 After the Divorce
Chapter 1 After the Divorce
In a small town outside the Northwestern Military District, there is a hotel called “Military Family Home.”
The double bed is a mess, and a man lies contentedly on the bed, his muscular back broad and firm, with skin tanned a deep brown, marked by various new and old scars. The most recent wound, a bullet hole near his shoulder blade, is nearly healed.
Anran sits on the toilet, wrapped in a large towel, her head lowered, her long, messy hair hanging down on either side of her face and draping over her fair chest. She is utterly frustrated, so much so that she wants to bang her head against the wall.
She no longer knows if she came all the way from Xiangcheng in Central China to this great Northwest to divorce Zhan Lian or to have sex with him!
Before coming, she made up her mind. She and Zhan Lian are from two completely different worlds. All she wanted is a cozy little home, a simple job without much future, waiting every day for her husband to return. They’d raise a child together, grow old while holding each other’s hands, mutually dependent as they age.
But Zhan Lian? He is all about serving his country and family, the type to walk the path of self-sacrifice and burning passion. From their arranged meeting to marriage, they have only seen each other three times. They have been married for a year, and Zhan Lian has only returned to Xiangcheng for one day during the Mid-Autumn Festival. He even misses the Spring Festival, claiming he was on some mission.
Not to mention letters, he often takes three or four days to reply to her text messages, and sometimes he doesn't respond for half a month.
This isn’t the kind of married life Anran wants. This marriage isn’t what she had envisioned at all.
So how did she get so foolish to agree to marry someone she had only met three times through an arranged meeting?
It's probably because she thought Zhan Lian looked very manly! Plus, they both approached the blind date with marriage in mind, which aligned perfectly with Anran’s intentions. So they skipped the dating phase and jumped straight to the wedding.
Facts prove that two people who haven't gone through a dating period to adjust to each other ultimately lack understanding and a solid emotional foundation!
With a face full of regret, Anran lowers her head, raising her hands to hug her shoulders. A burning pain shoots through her right shoulder, making her gasp. She tilts her head and sees a purplish-red handprint on her pale skin—Zhan Lian's grip has left its mark!
Before coming, she had informed Zhan Lian three months in advance. She called his phone, but it was turned off. Then, she called his unit, and some officer there answered, saying that Zhan Lian would call her back after he returned from his mission.
This wait lasted for three months. After three months, Zhan Lian finally calls her back—that was the day before yesterday. As soon as she hangs up, Anran grabs the divorce papers, takes a plane, a bus, and then transfers to a minibus to get to Shaxian in the northwest, all to quickly end this mistaken marriage.
As a result, Zhan Lian came last night, having successfully gotten a one-day leave from his unit. He thought Anran had missed him and came to see him, and he was as happy as could be. The moment he steps into the hotel, he drops a pile of Northwestern specialty goods on the floor. Before Anran can even explain why she came, he has already pinned her against the door and kissed her, as if he has been holding back for generations.
And then things develop into what they are now—she came for a divorce, but they end up in bed together!
Ten months later
"Mm~~ ah, uhh~~~ ow~~ oh, it hurts~~~ it hurts, hurts, hurts~~~"
In the early morning before dawn, a pained voice rings out, startling Anran awake from her dream. She snaps back to reality, realizing that ten months have already passed, and she has successfully divorced Zhan Lian!
She is now lying in a hospital bed, in the obstetrics ward on the fourth floor. It is a regular room, the cheapest three-person room the hospital has. Three maternity patients occupy the room: Anran in bed 16, a woman in bed 17 who has had a C-section and is now groaning, the very person whose voice has dragged Anran out of her dream.
In bed 18 is a woman who has had a natural birth. She looks quite pampered, and her family seems well-off, even hiring a postpartum nanny to take care of her. Her friends and relatives visit her in a steady stream. Her husband has been shouting at the doctors and nurses since yesterday evening, demanding they be moved to a VIP room.
The woman who had the C-section in bed 17 had her husband and mother-in-law by her side earlier, but a few hours ago, something strange happens. Both her husband and mother-in-law suddenly fall ill with severe vomiting and diarrhea. One of them faints, and the other, while vomiting, has to help the fainted one to see a doctor in the internal medicine department.
So now, the woman in bed 17 is left alone, groaning.
As for Anran, she lies in bed alone, naturally, after the divorce. Since the friends and family visiting the woman in bed 18 are too many and too disruptive, Anran has to pull the curtain around her bed for privacy.
She lies there, reaches under her pillow, and pulls out her phone. Thinking about the dream she just had, her fingers unconsciously dial a string of numbers. When she snaps out of it, she realizes it is Zhan Lian’s phone number.